=EDATE(A1,-3)

requires the Analysis Toolpak (ATP) add-in.

Or...

=DATE(YEAR(A1),MONTH(A1)-3,DAY(A1))

without ATP.

"mike h" wrote in message
...
Hello, I need a reasonably simple function that will look at a date (which
will always be the 1st of a month) and return the equivalent date a
specified number of months earlier. e.g we give it the 1st of Feb 03, and
it
returns the 1st of November 02.

Ideally I wouldn't have to use a user-defined VBA function, but find a way
to do it using the existing date functions. VBA is a last resort for this
spreadsheet.

Thanks