a little excel help required

englishpremier · 24 Feb 2006 at 12:04

I'm currently working on a speadsheet that lists some costs. Estimated in one colomn and actual in another. I can't for life of me figure out the forumla to show the differnce/ variance between the estimated and actual cost.

Can anyone who knows about excel help me?

Chief Wiggum · 24 Feb 2006 at 12:17

not 100% sure, but you could use a simple foruma to do the job:

Ie:
A= estimated B=Actual C=Result
In C enter =(a2-b2)

Kev

Borris · 24 Feb 2006 at 12:27

Do you want the sum of the squares of the difference between the observed and expected values?

Try the VAR function.

englishpremier · 24 Feb 2006 at 12:28

thanks, but i can't use A2-B2 since in some instances a is larger than b, and in others B is larger than A. I want to show if the variance is favourable or adverse.

there must be some excel whiz on here.

Borris · 24 Feb 2006 at 12:29

Square the difference.

Is this maths homework?

This is not an excel question.

englishpremier · 24 Feb 2006 at 12:40

duh, i was making it more complicated than it was got temporary brain freeze at work... sorry guys, all done now.

thefranklin · 24 Feb 2006 at 16:37

Yeah, an if function would do the trick.