Recently a simple error in a report by some economists contained a simple spreadsheet error that had the impact of claiming a negative average growth as apposed to the correct positive growth (see reports on MoneyWeb )

The error itself was very simple. In an AVERAGE calculation a number of cells were accidentally excluded. Although most reports seem to say that the formula was typed in incorrectly, we believe it is more likely that changes were made after the formula was setup.

If you watch the video clip below you will see how easy it is to accidentally insert rows into a spreadsheet that don’t get included in the formula because the insertion happens on the border of the range of cells. This is a particular problem when you insert the rows below the range because depending on your settings, the formula may or may not be updated.

Watch the video to see how to avoid this

Other ‘simple’ errors that often occur are shown in the video clips below:

• Insert a cell error
• Delete a cell
• Links between workbooks error
• VLOOKUP error types
• Spaces in IF, SUMIF, COUNTIF, VLOOKUP etc
• Absolute and Relative References errors
• Hidden Rows or Columns
• Excel sees blank and Human assumes zero