Thanks for your response David. I'm not sure what you mean by "calculating
the exact binary representation of .40". This formula has produced a
"balanced" flag every day for over 7 months and now found the inequality.
Actually, the numbers that are being summed a -8.55, .16, 161.00,
-150.00. The actual sum of these numbers is 2.61. When the user entered 2.61
in the check total field the formula matching the two numbers showed an
inequality because the sum function produced a value of 2.61000000001 which
was not apparent because it was formatted as 2 decimal places.

I have seen this happen on rare occasions before. There seems to be no
apparent cause. It doesn't seem reasonable that I should have to use the
Round function every time I want to compare the sum of components to their
total.

"David Biddulph" wrote:

If your number of 25.00 is formed by adding 12.40 to 12.60, you can find the
source of the problem by calculating the *exact* binary representation of
0.40, for example.
Come back to us when you've done it. :-)
--
David Biddulph


"Sam" wrote in message
...
I have an error-checking formula in a spreadsheet:
"If(Sum(A1:A30)<D1,"ERROR","Balanced"), where A1:A30 are values that are
entered from a source document, while D1 is the Total listed on the same
source document. The purpose is to ensure that all component parts are
correctly entered. All values are formatted as #,##0.00.

There are random times whereby the sum of A1:A30 results in a number such
as
25.0000000001 which does not equal the Total of 25 that had been entered
into D1. Since the above formatting displays 25 for both values, the only
way
of combatting the issue is to use a Round function for the Sum.

How can this happen when there is no division involved and all components
are entered as dollars and cents?

Excel version 2003.

Your help is greatly appreciated,

Sam