How to Do a Spread Sheet

Most commonly, spread sheets keep track of data. Spread sheets are particularly useful for accounting, which consists primarily of numbers. However, everyone can use a spread sheet for an address book or a household budget. Many computer technology companies offer spread sheet software. Download one from the Internet or use the program that comes with your computer; both of these options are free.

Difficulty:

Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. Open a spread sheet program. A spread sheet consists of rows and columns. The rows are numbers, the columns letters. Where each row and column intersects is a cell. Put your cursor in cell A1.

2. In a cell, you will type numbers, letters or formulas. A formula is addition, subtraction, multiplication or division that you perform in one cell to get the value of two or more other cells. For example, add cells B2 and D4, which is shown in the spreadsheet as "=B2+D4."

3. Use one or more sheets, depending on the purpose of your spread sheet. For a monthly budget, the spread sheet will have 12 sheets, or one for each month of the year. On sheet 1, type in "Budget for the Month of ..." and put in the month and year.

4. Add subtitles or headings to make columns across the top row. For this example, headings might include, bills, amount due, date due, paid and earnings.

5. Put in the information for your income and expenses for the month in the appropriate column. For example, for a utility bill, put in the name of the company, the amount due and the due date. Continue to fill in the information until you have all your expenses listed in the spread sheet.

6. Fill in the information for your income. If you receive pay every week, note that on the spread sheet, if you have another regular source of income, put that in the income column. Add a date for when you receive the income.

7. Sum your expense and income columns. You can do this by adding each individual cell by using the formula "=A5+A6+A7+A8" or you can use the sum function key which allows you to add a column or row of numbers.

Tips & Warnings

• You can change or add information very easily in a spread sheet. When working on a budget this is extremely helpful since many of the expenses aren't fixed. The sum function key looks like a capital "E".

References

• Spreadsheet Introduction Using Microsoft Works
• Spreadsheet Tutorial