Useful Excel Tips
- Dates can now be IMPORTED from Excel OR TYPED BY HAND into 1099 Express in the format 1/2/9 or 12/1/2010. This new format is m-d-y or m/d/y, or mm/dd/yy or mm/dd/yyyy. It is not necessary to have leading zeros. You can use either dashes or slashes. When the IRS file is created 1099Express automatically converts the dates to the IRS Pub 1220 format of YYYYMMDD, so you don't have to do this extra work.
- To get the total for a column, just click on he column heading. The column total is shown at the bottom on the status line.
- To combine 2 columns in Excel, for example Column E and F, insert a blank column nearby, say Column G. In cell G1 type a formula. A formula begins with an equal. Type: =Concatenate(E1," ",F1) This puts cell E1, a blank, and cell F1 all into cell G1. Next drag cell G1 down to the bottom by placing your mouse over the bottom right corner of cell G1 and dragging downward.
- I know you can paste data from Excel to 1099Express. But can go the you go the other way?
Paste date to Excel? Yes, just click the File Menu, then "Export Grid to Excel".
This feature preserves leading zeros in SSNs and Zip codes. You could also do
Edit/Select All, then paste into Excel, but this may loose leading zeros in SSNs
and zip codes.
- To import text files with Excel, choose Open as Text. Next choose either "Fixed Length" or
"Delimited". Once the file is open in Excel you can Copy and Paste by Header Name
into 1099 Express.
- Zip codes must be 5 or 9 digits. Excel may drop leading zeros from the zip codes of eastern states such as Maine, making the zip code 4 digits. To avoid this format the Zip column in Excel as "Text".
- Social Security, EIN and TIN numbers must have exactly 9 digits, not counting dashes. Excel may drop leading zeros on these numbers. To avoid this format the SSN column as either "SSN" or "Text".
- Money amounts may be formatted as "Currency" or "General" in Excel when using "Copy and Paste from Excel by Name". Other formats may not import money amounts correctly. See checking data after an import.
Related Topics
Copy and Paste from Excel by Name