EXCEL TIP: Formatting Negative Numbers

Type in the two numbers for Revenue and Cost of Sales, and you'll get this:

Can you spot the negative sign before the Cost of Sales figure? Not always easy.

So let's format all the numbers to be in brackets if they are negative (using Format Cells, Number, Custom, typing in the formatting as shown):

The problem now is the figures don't line up. Just adding a space before the semi-colon, and the numbers look a lot better:

The formatting is set up as follows: