Balance Help

[Sheets5]

I'm trying to keep the balance from reverting back to the total cost when I delete a payment and add a new payment amount. I need this is all on the same row, Ex:

B3= starting amount or total cost

E3= payment amount

F3= the balance after payment.

I would like F3 to keep a running balance as I delete the previous amount in E3

B3 = $100 - E3 (payment) = $50 -  F3= Balance $50.

Now when I delete E3 ($50) and replace it with $25,

F3 should read $25

The way I have it now the balance reverts back to B3 $100. In cell F3 =SUM(B3-E3)

Thanks in advance for your help....

[#2]

@Sheets5 

But the formula in F3 says (i.e., it defines itself as) =B3-E3  (the SUM in your formula is redundant). You're asking that the formula return an untruth. It doesn't work that way.

It also is a mistake in that, even if it could work that way, you'd be destroying history; which isn't a good idea when it comes to financial records. 

So come up with a way to both keep your history AND show a current balance accurately.

And how we might do that depends in great measure on what you're tracking here. Is it one account? One debt that you're paying back? If so something like the attached will work. If it's something else, let us know.

[#3]

I'm Hopping you can see this OK

@mathetes 

[#4]

@Sheets5 

I can see it just fine. And the image makes it look to be a homework assignment of some kind, perhaps for a class you're taking on Excel. Is that the case?

If so, those of us who frequent this forum in order to help people out with Excel questions have also agreed we're not here to help people with their homework. For that you can talk with fellow students, your professors.... or, at the very least, come here having made some efforts yourself at solving the problem, telling us what you've done, where you've encountered a roadblock, not just that so far you've not succeeded. 

[#5]

It's not a class. It's an expense sheet I'm trying to complete.

[#6]

The picture is a CAD drawing I made not homework.

[#7]

@Sheets5 

It's not a class. It's an expense sheet I'm trying to complete.

The picture is a CAD drawing I made not homework.

So let me ask you this: when you say you're trying "to complete" this sheet, does that mean

• "complete" in the sense that you're trying to fill it out?
• or "complete" in the sense that you're creating the spreadsheet itself and trying to complete that task of creating?

There's a big difference between those two ways of "trying to complete"

I am going to assume you mean the latter, that you're working to create a spreadsheet to track expenses or payments. And with that assumption in place, I will go back to my first post and the sample spreadsheet I attached there that gives a way--a different way--to track expenses, payments, incomes, balances. And I'll ask you to respond to what I said there. Because, for the reasons given, I do not think that what I've seen--in either your description or your image-- is a sound way to complete the design of a good spreadsheet for tracking expenses.

[#8]

Thanks for your help