multiplication formula not working

Copper Contributor

Morning,

I am calculating a portion of funds to be distributed using a dollar amount and a percent. My formula in the cell is: =B12*J10
B12 = $996,563.00
J10 = 10.04%

The correct answer using a calculator is $100,054.92 but excel is returning $100,052.40. I have gone through it numerous times and have tried it on different versions of excel.

Please let me know if you need any additional info.

Thank you for your help.

Joe

7 Replies

@JoeCanz2 Do you get a different result than in the attached?

@Jan Karel Pieterse 

Yes, I am getting $100,052.40

 

Thanks

The value in J10 probably has more than 2 decimals.
Something like 10.0397467%.

@Detlef LewinThank you for that, it seems like that is the issue.  The 10.04 is being calculated from another formula in the sheet and I set the format to show 2 places.  How do I get it to use the 10.04 and not the 10.039747?

 

Thanks

Use ROUND() or any other rounding function.

@JoeCanz2 

 

it seems like that is the issue.  The 10.04 is being calculated from another formula in the sheet and I set the format to show 2 places.  How do I get it to use the 10.04 and not the 10.039747?

 

Just a quick postscript to this thread. Your title is "multiplication formula not working," which, if true, would mean that Excel is miscalculating all kinds of things for its millions of users around the world. It would also mean that somehow you have discovered this major bug in the program  that those millions rely on.

 

So as a gentle nudge: whenever you find yourself thinking that Excel (or a formula in Excel) is "not working", remind yourself that Excel (99.99999% probability) IS working as intended, and that the "not working" really applies to an assumption you're making--about the precision of the numbers in this case, but it could be about some other aspect of your data, how that data is arrayed, etc.  

 

Are there ever real bugs in Excel? Yes, but rarely, and we (I say as a fellow user) shouldn't expect to find them this easily.

That worked, thanks for your help.