I'm not sure what internal and external subtotals are, but maybe...

Multilevel subtotals are in the wrong position in Excel 2002 and in Excel 2003
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;831824

rick@bcbsne wrote:

When nested subtotals are created for sorted groups, the inside subtotal
appears before the external subtotal as expected until the inside group only
has one value. At this point the external subtotal displays before the
internal for the remainder of the spreadsheet. An example can be supplied if
necessary.

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Dave Peterson