Entering Data

James Okonkwo builds the Northgate Academy department budget grid each year. Accurate typing now saves hours of formula debugging later.

The finance team opens NorthgateBudget.xlsx every September. Row 1 names the columns; rows 2–6 hold 5 departments × four quarters of pound amounts — no formulas yet, just clean data. Small example figures for learning. A real school budget workbook may have many more rows and sheets. Your figures match the table below so later lessons (=SUM, charts, PivotTables) all line up.

Open NorthgateBudget.xlsx. Click the Budgets sheet tab at the bottom. Click cell A1 to select it.

Glance at the grid: columns A–E will hold department names and quarterly amounts. A cell is one box in the grid; a worksheet is the whole tab.

Row 1 is the header row — labels that describe each column, not budget amounts.

In A1, type Department and press Tab. In B1, type Q1 (£). In C1, type Q2 (£). In D1, type Q3 (£). In E1, type Q4 (£). Press Enter to move to row 2.

When Dr. Helen Marsh filters or charts this sheet later, Excel uses Q1 (£) in column B — not a mystery column called Column B. Headers are how humans and Excel features read the grid.

Column A holds text labels — department names. They stay left-aligned by default.

In A2, type English. Press Enter. In A3 through A6, type Mathematics, Science, Humanities, and Arts — one per row.

Check spelling — Science not Sci — so later lookups and filters match the Expenses log.

Type numbers without the £ sign — you will format currency later. Excel stores them as numbers for SUM.

Click B2. Type 12500 and press Tab. In B3, type 15000. In B4, type 18000. In B5, type 11000. In B6, type 9500.

Continue with Q2–Q4 in columns C, D, and E using the figures in the table below. After each quarter column, glance down the column — amounts should be right-aligned. Left-aligned figures may be text; fix them before you SUM.

To fix a cell, click it, retype, and press Enter. To undo, press Ctrl+Z (Windows) or Cmd+Z (Mac). To delete contents, select the cell and press Delete.

Expected result: Rows 2–6 show five departments and four quarterly amounts each. Science Q4 in E4 (19000) is the largest single quarter — useful when you sanity-check later.

Tab moves right between cells; Enter moves down.