Hi,

I have Excel 2003. I am using the PMT function. I entered the following:

Rate 7.25%/12
Nper 15*12
PV -B21

The formula in the formula bar is: =PMT(D19/12,C20*12,-B21)

In my selected cell I got the correct answer of $ 2,587.22. However, when I
attempted to copy the formula to adjacent cells (vertically downward), I got
#NUM! in each of the those cells. Can someone explain to me what I am doing
wrong and why the above entries are not correct?

Thank you very much.

On Aug 15, 5:58 pm, jfg wrote:
I have Excel 2003. I am using the PMT function. I entered the following:
Rate 7.25%/12
Nper 15*12
PV -B21

The formula in the formula bar is: =PMT(D19/12,C20*12,-B21)
In my selected cell I got the correct answer of $ 2,587.22. However, when I
attempted to copy the formula to adjacent cells (vertically downward), I got
#NUM! in each of the those cells. Can someone explain to me what I am
doing wrong and why the above entries are not correct?

I can only guess that one or more your relative cell references should
be absolute references. My guess is PMT(...,-B21) should be PMT(,...-
$B$21).

I can only guess because you did not give sufficient information about
the design of your spreadsheet. For example, it appears that the
"rate", "nper" and "pv" above are in D19, C20 and B21. (Odd that you
filled cells on a diagonal.) But it is not clear where you are
putting the =PMT(...) formula and the cells in the column below it are
related to the cells with "rate", "nper" and "pv".

If my initial guess does not solve your problem, if you post the
missing details, I'm sure we can find a solution for you.

Thank you, joeu2004. You were correct. When I changed D19 and C20 to
absolute, everything worked out fine. Why must we use absolute cell
references with PMT?

jfg

"joeu2004" wrote:

On Aug 15, 5:58 pm, jfg wrote:
I have Excel 2003. I am using the PMT function. I entered the following:
Rate 7.25%/12
Nper 15*12
PV -B21

The formula in the formula bar is: =PMT(D19/12,C20*12,-B21)
In my selected cell I got the correct answer of $ 2,587.22. However, when I
attempted to copy the formula to adjacent cells (vertically downward), I got
#NUM! in each of the those cells. Can someone explain to me what I am
doing wrong and why the above entries are not correct?

I can only guess that one or more your relative cell references should
be absolute references. My guess is PMT(...,-B21) should be PMT(,...-
$B$21).

I can only guess because you did not give sufficient information about
the design of your spreadsheet. For example, it appears that the
"rate", "nper" and "pv" above are in D19, C20 and B21. (Odd that you
filled cells on a diagonal.) But it is not clear where you are
putting the =PMT(...) formula and the cells in the column below it are
related to the cells with "rate", "nper" and "pv".

If my initial guess does not solve your problem, if you post the
missing details, I'm sure we can find a solution for you.