Using Excel to identify changes in data

[nancy67]

I have an Excel spreadsheet that I dump my accounting balances into (ie all assets, liabilities and revenue and expense accounts for my company) I then link these to various documents to produce the financial statements. I am always adding new accounts and I want a way to have Excel compare a new dump of my account balances with the existing dump and identify any new accounts (looking at the unique account code which is in both lists). How can I do this?

 

[Joe4]

Take a look at the VLOOKUP function in Excel's built-in help files. This will show you how you can look up a code, and return a corresponding value for that code. So you can compare your new and old values.

 

[nancy67]

Thanks. I tried that and I keep getting a REF response... why would this be? Formula I put in was =Vlookup(reference to cell to compare, range of cells to compare to, 4, False). 4 is just the location of the account name.

 

[Joe4]

Can you post your actual formula and a small sample of your data so we can try to analyze your situation?

There are tools to attach screen images found here: http://www.mrexcel.com/forum/showthread.php?t=508133

 

[nancy67]

Thanks... I just solved my problem... I put in a wrong reference and when fixed worked perfect. Thanks so much for your help. Nancy