I cant work out how to create a running column total

Kaelkitty1 · April 18, 2023, 7:53am

If my data is like this:

-$62.41
-$44.21
$27.00
$35.00
$5.41
$170.00

I want to create another column alongside it like this:

-$62.41 -$62.41
-$44.21 -$106.62
$27.00 -$79.62
$35.00 -$44.62
$5.41 -$39.21
$170.00 $130.79

I need a formula to do this because the spreadsheet is over a thousand rows long and I don’t want to have to do it all by hand. I have tried searching for “running total in column” in Calc Help but I am not getting anywhere.

I dont understand WHAT to do, I would appreciate any assistance,

Yours Sincerely,
Kaelkitty.

Villeroy · April 18, 2023, 1:34pm

t90617.ods (16.4 KB)

Wanderer · April 18, 2023, 8:06am

I assume your figures are starting in cell A1.
.
Then put a formula =A1 in Cell B1.
.
Next you put =B1+A2 in cell B2.
B2 should now show your 106.62.
.
Now you drag the formula down (use the tiny handle at the lower right corner of B2) to the last row of your figures. As an alternatve you cold copy B2 and paste to B3:B6 (or whatever number of rows you need.) For bigger numbers copy/paste is usually quicker than dragging down.

karolus · April 18, 2023, 8:20am

Alternativly you may start with Formula:

=SUM(A$1:A1)

and pull down

Kaelkitty1 · April 18, 2023, 8:47am

Thankyou! so very much! The formula worked perfectly! There is a bug in this thing somewhere It keeps giving me a result that is $108 out of sync on the bottom of the sheet. At the moment It shows -$675.77 and it should show -$567.77 according to my statement this month. Now that I have my running total I wil be able to check my old statements against it and see where I went wrong and fix it up.

Ciao, Kaelkitty.

erAck · April 18, 2023, 11:49am

You probably have some data that is text instead of numeric, which is ignored by SUM() and other functions that take a number sequence from an argument.
See also this FAQ.

LeroyG · April 18, 2023, 1:43pm

If the numbers were typed, it could be an inversion.

Kaelkitty1 · April 18, 2023, 9:27pm

I foud the error last night, My Eyesight is not so good, and sometimes my typing is worse! Because of that I usually copy the lines from a previous transaction of the same type into the next month and then just cange the date etc… Back about 3 years ago I missed that the amount had changed for that on one payment from the normal $27.00 to $135.00. It was back when I was in the middle of moving house and I just couldn,t see it.

Thanks to your quick response that will never happen again. Kudos to everyone!

Ciao, KK.

Villeroy · April 19, 2023, 11:48am

You don’t have to work like this. It can be done by far easier without copying around data from month to month.

Villeroy · April 19, 2023, 11:57am

https://ask.libreoffice.org/uploads/short-url/omMlzc26euKXULnKggksJ7XNh4U.ods is a spreadsheet with a long list on the left. The entries are in random order on purpose.
The table on the right is a pivot table derived from the data storage on the left. It shows the monthly results for each category and person. For a new entry, select any row below row #2, e.g. cells A3 through D3, insert new cells and enter a record with 4 new values. After adding new records, do a right-click>Refresh anywhere in the pivot table. The pivot follows the source table and the chart follows the pivot table.