Excel spreadsheets are used for several applications, but their most common application is in areas of business and accounting. It only makes sense then for Excel to have an option that quickly formats numbers to make them suitable for accounting.
Excel offers various options for formatting numbers in a spreadsheet. Numbers can be shown as a date, currency, percentage, or even as fractions. When handling monetary values, Excel offers the Accounting number format, a quick way to make your spreadsheet look cleaner and easier to browse.
If you are working with a spreadsheet with columns full of transactions or financial data, it might be challenging to make sense of it. Stating the currency is essential, but it often crowds the cell and makes it difficult to read numbers.
Values for financial data should also have commas between digits to make it easier to compare data in the millions and billions range. The Accounting Number format is a quick way to convert your financial data into an easy-to-read format. This number format is common in all spreadsheets, including transaction data, cash flow statements, and inventory trackers.
In this risewindows article, we will show you how to use the accounting number format in Excel and apply it.
What is Accounting Number Format?
The accounting number format in Excel consists of numbers with the involvement of currency. For example, if you manually enter the currency name with any number, the cell value becomes General or Text. And the number of currencies cannot be used anywhere. To make that number accountable, click right, select Format Cells, and the Accounting section, and select the needed currency.
Zero values display as ‘–’ (dash) in Accounting Number Format, but Currency Format displays it as 0. Negative numbers display in parentheses () in Accounting Number Format. However, Currency Format displays negative numbers with a ‘–’ (minus) symbol.
Quick Note: The Excel program does not display negative numbers in parenthesis by default. It is an optional setting that accountants can set.
I am using the Accounting Number Format icon; how to I Apply the Accounting Number Format in Excel?
To use the accounting number format in Excel through the Accounting Number Format icon, follow these steps:-
Step 1. First, open your existing Microsoft Excel Worksheet or create a new one and fill in the data.
Step 2. Then, select the cells you want to change the format.
Step 3. Now, select the
Step 4. After that, in the “Number” section, click the small down arrow icon beside the
Step 5. Lastly, select a currency type in the drop-down list.
If your country’s currency is not listed here, click on the
For instance, we have selected “$ English (United States),” and below is a screenshot of our sheet.
How to Use the Accounting Number Format through the Format Cells Dialog Box?
To use the Accounting Number Format through the Format Cells Dialog Box, perform these steps:-
Step 1. First, open your existing Microsoft Excel Worksheet or create a new one and fill in the data.
Step 2. Then, select the cells you want to change the format.
Step 3. Right-click on the chosen cells and select
Step 4. After that, in the Format Cells dialog, switch to the
Step 5. The “Decimal places” box lets you select the number of decimals to display. Excel applies two decimals by default.
Step 6. Then, select your desired symbol to display in selected cells in the Symbol box.
Step 7. Finally, click
Now selected cells will display their values as accounting numbers.
That’s it for the article.
I hope this post will be informative to you.
Good luck, guys.
