Forum Discussion
cut and paste in excel
Thanks for your input about Pivot Tables.
Before I retired I spent 30 years in the office equipment industry serving many major accounts where Pivot Tables were very useful so I do have a background with them.
Now I'm retired and my financial life has changed quite a bit so I'm not really keeping track of my expenses for write-offs as I did in the past when my income would fluctuate a lot. Due to this, I have tried to simplify my ways into something that my wife would understand.
When I open my checkbook it only takes a few minutes (if that) to enter my entries for the day and the nice thing about this is that I balance with the bank every time eliminating the need to justify with my bank of a monthly basis. My checkbook balances with every entry so at this time I don't feel the need for Pivot tables.
My concern is that when I copy and paste I have the ability to Paste Special. When I cut and paste I don't have that option to Paste Special. I think that I have found the resolution to my problem however I really do appreciate your input and response time to my inquiry.
Thanks so much!
Have a Great Day!
Lee
Hi, Lee. I too am in my retired years (since 2002), and my wife just finally persuaded me to create a budget sheet so we can manage our finances a bit more carefully.
It's in that connection that I've again used the Pivot Table (which I also used during my working years), for its ability to summarize expenses by category and month.
If all you're doing is tracking check register activity and tracking your current balance (to make sure the bank has it right, of course)...then the Pivot Table would be less relevant. I'd still encourage you to accomplish even the check register by creating it as a single (legitimate) Excel table, and use Data....Filter (or Slicing, whichever is more suited to your situation) to differentiate between paid and written/planned-but-unpaid. A single column could note that difference, and this would eliminate the need to cut and paste from one list to another. Adding an IF clause to the formula that tracks current balance would eliminate from consideration those still in the "unpaid" category. And you wouldn't need to worry about whether or not the format was carrying over.
I do realize I'm writing as something of a nit-picking-database-purist, though. It just pains me to see people like you do something manually (cut & paste) even though it only takes a minute at most, to move a transaction from the unpaid to the paid list. And I do believe it would be clear to your wife! She might even appreciate more fully how brilliant you are. 😉
Happy New Year! Enjoy your retirement.
John