• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Technipages

Smart phone, gadget and computer tutorials

  • Topics
    • Android
    • Gaming
    • Hardware
    • Internet
    • iOS
    • MacOS
    • Office
    • Software
    • Windows
    • Definitions
  • Product Reviews
  • Downloads
  • About

Excel Calculations Are Wrong

By Mitch Bartlett 7 Comments

Are you staring at your Microsoft Excel spreadsheet wondering why the calculations are not adding up properly? A row or column may clearly add up in your head, but it’s just not accurate in your spreadsheet. Here are a few things to check if your Excel spreadsheet is calculating wrong.

Fix 1 – Ensure Workbook Calculation is Enabled.

  1. Go to “File” > “Options” > “Formulas“.
  2. In the “Calculation options” area, ensure “Automatic” is selected.

Fix 2 – Hidden Rows or Columns

If columns or rows are hidden, they still will calculate in the sheet. You will need to find and unhide these rows if they are causing your spreadsheet to calculate unexpected totals.

You can find hidden rows or columns by locating the small boxes between columns or rows on the left or top panes.

excel-hidden-row
An example of a hidden row causing confusion with math. At first it looks like the sum should be shown as 1050. A hidden row bumps it to 1100.

You can reveal hidden by highlighting the rows or columns the hidden values are in between, right-click, then choose “Unhide“.

excel-unhide

Fix 3 – Hidden Decimals

If values that were entered with decimals were entered, Excel may round those values up in a single cell, but not for the overall total.

excel-decimals-hidden

Check to see if decimals are hidden by highlighting all cells with numbers, then selecting “Format Cells“. From there, you can look under the “Number” category, to see how many decimal places are shown. Increase the Decimal places to 30 to see everything.

excel-decimal-places

excel-decimal-places-revealed

You Might Also Like

  • Fix WhatsApp Error Something Went Wrong
    Fix WhatsApp Error Something Went Wrong
  • How to Fix Wrong Time On Android
    How to Fix Wrong Time On Android
  • Fix "Something Went Wrong. Try restarting GeoForce Experience"
    Fix "Something Went Wrong. Try restarting GeoForce…
  • Fix Office 2013 "Something went wrong" Error 1058-13
    Fix Office 2013 "Something went wrong" Error 1058-13
  • iPhone, iPad, & iPod Touch: Current Location is Wrong
    iPhone, iPad, & iPod Touch: Current Location is Wrong
  • How to Add a PDF to Excel
    How to Add a PDF to Excel
  • Excel: Shade Every Other Row
    Excel: Shade Every Other Row
  • Excel: Add Watermark
    Excel: Add Watermark
  • Fix Excel Freezing or Slow
    Fix Excel Freezing or Slow

Filed Under: Office Tagged With: Excel 2016

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Diane Trelenberg says

    January 4, 2021 at 12:23 pm

    I am trying to subtract 17.63, 17.46, 50.44, 16.95 from 2285.61
    The answer should be 2182.3 but it is giving me 9039.96

    ???????

  2. Jeff says

    November 11, 2020 at 3:50 pm

    Thanks for the tip. I was trying to figure this out for 2 hours until you pointed out there were actually hidden columns.

  3. hope says

    September 30, 2020 at 2:57 am

    Hi i’am having problems with getting the correct sums,

    i have to add four 8 hours which would give me a total of 32 hours but it is giving me a togtal of 8, even by using auto sum . please help

  4. Polly says

    May 2, 2020 at 11:12 pm

    Brilliant – THANK YOU!

  5. Val says

    April 30, 2020 at 1:47 am

    I understand if its some kind of big numbers or difficult calculations, but in my case, I’m trying to subtract 96,00-95,04 and it gives me 0,959999999999994

    instead of 0,96. anyone can calculate it in their mind, 1,00 – 0,04 equals 0,96. right? But in excel it says 0,959999999999994

  6. David says

    April 29, 2020 at 5:08 pm

    I found this page looking for problems with MS Excel FV (future value) function failing to give results from their own examples. I put in all the numbers they tell me to put into the FV function and it gives a different FV than what their example said. That is true for all of their examples for FV. It is stunning that Excel doesn’t give me confidence in their results.

  7. Teya L Watson says

    February 19, 2020 at 3:32 pm

    Thank you. The last fix helped me. It was the decimals. Even though it was already at 2, increasing it and then decreasing it back down to 2 fixed it.

Did this help? Let us know! Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Recent Posts

  • Fix Skype Error: Exchange Needs Your Credentials
  • Fix Skype Notifications Not Working on Windows 10
  • Teams in Outlook: We Couldn’t Schedule the Meeting
  • VR Oculus Quest 2: How to Configure a New Room-Scale Boundary
  • VR Oculus Quest 2: How to Adjust Boundary Sensitivity
  • Dropbox: How To Change the Date Format
  • Microsoft Teams: There Was a Problem Saving the Photo
  • VR Oculus Quest 2: How to Set up Oculus Link

Who’s Behind Technipages?

Baby and Daddy My name is Mitch Bartlett. I've been working in technology for over 20 years in a wide range of tech jobs from Tech Support to Software Testing. I started this site as a technical guide for myself and it has grown into what I hope is a useful reference for all.

Follow me on Twitter, or visit my personal blog.

You May Also Like

© Copyright 2021 Technipages · All Rights Reserved · Privacy