# Weekly Dynamic: Excel Financial Statement Formatting Updated

- URL: https://dynamicaccounting.net/weekly-dynamic-excel-financial-statement-formatting-updated/
- Date: 2012-12-10
- Topics: Tips & Hidden Features, Reporting & BI, Excel & Office
- Type: original article

I realized that last week’s post probably wasn’t clear enough so I’m adding more detail this week.

[![](/img/blogger/b8a70629d0e8cb6a.png)](/img/blogger/e0b832b650956e1d.png)

Above we have a raw pivot table financial statement. Assets positive, Liabilities/Equity negative. The Balance Sheet Balances but it’s ugly. To fix this I:

- Selected the Total Liabilities and Equity line
- Right Click | Value Field Settings | Number Format
- Pick my custom format \_(\* (#,##0);\_(\* #,##0\_);\_(\* “-“??\_);\_(@\_) Notice that the parentheses are switched. Positive numbers have parentheses.

Now the values switch and the Liabilities and Equity are positive, Assets are negative.

[![](/img/blogger/cf6388037f528326.png)](/img/blogger/f9db669706f5d52f.png)

We’re halfway there. Next I:

- Highlighed the Asset amounts
- I clicked the Comma icon to format the assets as Accounting, no currency symbol.
- Clicked the Decrease Decimal icon twice to remove the pennies.

With that, the assets are positive, the liabilities are positive so this looks like a real Balance Sheet.

[![](/img/blogger/eed72c992308783d.png)](/img/blogger/8b7173d02774f247.png)

The key is that we are manipulating how the items look, not how the calculations are done.