Forum Discussion
Linking to the last item in a column in the previous sheet
Let me guess: we're coming near the end of the year 2023 and you're starting a new sheet with something like a ledger of financial transactions for 2024 and will want this first cell in column E of 2024! to be populated with the closing balance from that last row in 2023!
If that's accurate--or even just "close"--may I suggest an alternative? Keep the same database running.
Assuming you already have a date in, say, column A, and then various data elements in B-D (e.g., description, budget category, sub-category, certainly amount), you can just keep a running single database. If needed, go back and make all of the prior years part of a single database.
Excel is REALLY good at extracting any kind of summary (annualized or monthly or quarterly or other) you might desire from single running transactional databases. Using the PivotTable, it's almost automatic, can even show monthly expenses per year per budget category (assuming that's one of the data elements). I've attached a rudimentary example. The example only uses data for one year, but you can expand that to test my claim. I have a personal income expense tracker that uses a single transactional database to include income from various sources, expenses through checking accounts as well as credit card accounts. The pivot table is the only report needed to look at income and expenses per year per category.
