We don’t like that option because we LOVE our SUBTOTAL function and don’t want to replace the fixed assets subtotal formula with one that adds and subtracts individual cell references. This means that we can use our friend the SUBTOTAL function to compute the current assets subtotal, the fixed assets subtotal, and total assets.īut, what if we wanted to display accumulated depreciation as a positive value instead of a negative value? Well, if we simply change the stored value to a positive number then our formulas will break, specifically, the SUBTOTAL function that computes the fixed assets subtotal will add depreciation instead of subtract it. That is, the stored value is a negative number. We have a worksheet, in this case a little balance sheet, as shown below.Īs you can see, the accumulated depreciation is a negative value. Objectiveīefore we get to the mechanics, let’s confirm our goal. With a simple custom format code, we can display negative numbers as positive…but…why would we want to? So that we can simplify our formulas and make our workbooks more reliable of course.
