Brackets not minus signs for negative quantities - how?

[c.cullen]

I run a small research institute where we use Excel for the accounts
we present to our Board of Trustees. BUT - Excel shows negative
quantities with a minus sign, and apart from the fact that this sign
is usually too small to show up well, accounting practice in my
country is to put negative amounts in brackets, as (£23,000).

I have tried to find a way to make this happen automatically from the
Format menu, but I just can't do it. I cannot be the only one in this
situation - so apart from making the changes manually in the final
version of the accounts, how can I do this?

 

[JE McGimpsey]

I run a small research institute where we use Excel for the accounts
we present to our Board of Trustees. BUT - Excel shows negative
quantities with a minus sign, and apart from the fact that this sign
is usually too small to show up well, accounting practice in my
country is to put negative amounts in brackets, as (£23,000).

I have tried to find a way to make this happen automatically from the
Format menu, but I just can't do it. I cannot be the only one in this
situation - so apart from making the changes manually in the final
version of the accounts, how can I do this?

Format/Cells/Number/Custom £#,##0_);(£#,##0)

If you use this regularly, define a Style with that number format
(Format/Style) and apply the style.

 

[c.cullen]

Format/Cells/Number/Custom £#,##0_);(£#,##0)

If you use this regularly, define a Style with that number format
(Format/Style) and apply the style.

Many thanks! This works excellently.

 

[PhilD]

Format/Cells/Number/Custom £#,##0_);(£#,##0)

For my own understanding, what does the underscore and close
parentheses denote, please? I understand the rest: stick a pound sign
in front, use whatever number of digits are necessary, put a comma in
when there's four digits, positive to left of semi-colon, negative to
right. That _) doesn't mean anything to me!

Thanks,

PhilD

 

[JE McGimpsey]

For my own understanding, what does the underscore and close
parentheses denote, please? I understand the rest: stick a pound sign
in front, use whatever number of digits are necessary, put a comma in
when there's four digits, positive to left of semi-colon, negative to
right. That _) doesn't mean anything to me!

Take a look at XL Help ("About Custom Formats", the "Text and Spacing"
subtopic).