I have a spreadsheet that shows a date, because of shipping I need to enter a
date and then calculate three months back and enter that date, For example
Cell A1 March, 2004 and I have to enter into cell B1 January 2004, how do I
get Excel to do this automatically.

Use the EDATE function.

EDATE returns the serial number that represents the date that is the
indicated number of months before or after a specified date (the start_date).
If this function is not available, and returns the #NAME? error, you will
need to install and load the Analysis ToolPak add-in.

On the Tools menu, click Add-Ins. In the Add-Ins available list, select the
Analysis ToolPak box, and then click OK. If necessary, follow the
instructions in the setup program.

EDATE syntax is EDATE(start_date,months)

where 'Start_date' is a date that represents the start date. Dates should be
entered by using the DATE function, or as results of other formulas or
functions. For example, use DATE(2008,5,23) for the 23rd day of May, 2008.
Problems can occur if dates are entered as text.

and where 'Months' is the number of months before or after start_date. A
positive value for months yields a future date; a negative value yields a
past date.

So in your example, you'd enter in cell A1, =DATE(2004,1,1) and in cell A2
for instance =EDATE(A1,-3) this would return the date 3 months prior to
January 1, 2004.

Brett

"gallegos1580" wrote:

I have a spreadsheet that shows a date, because of shipping I need to enter a
date and then calculate three months back and enter that date, For example
Cell A1 March, 2004 and I have to enter into cell B1 January 2004, how do I
get Excel to do this automatically.

One way:

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

In article ,
gallegos1580 wrote:

I have a spreadsheet that shows a date, because of shipping I need to enter a
date and then calculate three months back and enter that date, For example
Cell A1 March, 2004 and I have to enter into cell B1 January 2004, how do I
get Excel to do this automatically.