Forum Discussion
Reference Cell with notes
Here's an example of why one would want/need to see the notes for a cell on a cell reference.
I have my budget in Excel. I have detailed notes (comments) attached to each transaction. Each month has its own sheet.
I also have a summary sheet layed out differently, where I reference the 'total' cell of each column. We just had a very hot, dry month so my water bill spiked. In the Aug-08 sheet I commented about the reason for the spike. But when I reference that cell (='Monthly Spend (08-22)'!J$6), it does not carry that comment with it to the summary sheet. Therefore my son (who reviews my spending) cannot see the explanation as he reviews the summary sheet.
Make sense why including the comments on the referenced cell would be advantageous?
It appears that Jagodragon has given you the specific method to do what you were wanting to do. So I've learned something too in the process.
It still is the case that I'd approach the whole process of budget management differently than you do. For example, I would not have separate sheets for each month's transactions. Excel can easily take a consolidated ongoing database of transactions and break apart (analyze, in various ways) that consolidated DB into monthly or quarterly summaries, by budget category, etc. Breaking it apart "manually," as you've done, makes it easier perhaps for human review, but in some ways it interferes with Excel's many marvelous functions. If it's working for you--as it appears to be--no reason to change. Just know that there are other ways to accomplish the desired results.
- I agree with you. But, I have had the misfortune of having to work with people who are resistant to even a minor change in how they input data in excel. So, I've had to try and learn how to help them in spite of their best efforts to not be helped.
I assume this is a similar problem. The method you propose is BY FAR the better option.- Yes. I will do both, but whenever possible, I do my best (and often successfully--especially if the existing practice is still in the early stages) to point to more effective use of Excel's marvelous abilities to manipulate, extract, summarize...
What I find, as a general observation, is that people who are relatively new to Excel will often essentially transfer over what I'll call a paper-ledger-spreadsheet mentality. That's what often leads to monthly sheets, or business inventory tracking with separate sheets for different categories of products, etc. In all such cases, that "separate sheet" could readily be handled simply by a distinct column--or by dates alone, in the case of the monthly sheet mentality (Pivot Tables, as you no doubt know, will take a set of dates and consolidate them into monthly summaries).
