Try this:

=DATE(YEAR(A2),MONTH(A2)-1,1)

--
Biff
Microsoft Excel MVP


"Patrick C. Simonds" wrote in message
...
I need to construct a formula which will subtract 1 month from the previous
month and return the first day of the preceding month.

Example:
A1 value is 24 April, I want A2's value to be 1 March