Sale Price After a Percentage Discount
Your task: In D2:D5, find each sale price, and in D7 the total saved across all four products.
Full instructions, scenario and goal
Scenario
An outdoor shop is running a seasonal sale. Each product has its own discount, and one product is not discounted at all. The shop owner wants the sale price of each product and the total amount customers save if they bought one of each.
Your task
- In D2:D5, calculate the sale price of each product: the list price minus its discount.
- In D7, calculate how much money customers save in total if they buy one of each product.
- Use the price and discount cells in your formulas, then select Check Answer.
You are done when
- Each sale price is a formula using that row's price and discount.
- The product with no discount keeps its list price.
- The total saved is a formula that follows the table.
What you will practise
Use a percentage stored in a cell inside a formula, to calculate a discounted price and the amount saved.
The idea in 30 seconds
In Excel a percentage is just a number. 15% is stored as 0.15, and the cell is only formatted to show the percent sign. That is why you can multiply by it directly: a price times 0.15 is 15% of that price. To take a discount off a price you can subtract that amount from the price, or keep 85% of it by multiplying by (1 - 0.15). Both ways give the same sale price.
Spreadsheet
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Keyboard shortcuts
- Arrow keys
- Move between cells
- Shift + Arrow keys, or drag with the mouse
- Select a range
- Ctrl + Arrow keys
- Jump to the edge of a block of data
- Type, or F2, or double-click
- Edit a cell (F2 switches arrow keys between moving and editing)
- Click or arrow keys inside a formula
- Insert a cell reference after =, +, (, comma and similar
- F4
- Cycle a reference through A1, $A$1, A$1, $A1
- Enter / Tab while editing
- Confirm and move down / right (Shift reverses)
- Esc
- Cancel the edit
- Ctrl + C / X / V
- Copy, cut and paste (formulas adjust like in Excel)
- Delete
- Clear the selected cells
- Ctrl + Z / Ctrl + Y
- Undo and redo
- Ctrl + Enter
- Check your answer
- Tab when not editing
- Leave the spreadsheet
Type your answer in cell D2. Click a cell and type. Enter confirms, Esc cancels, Ctrl+Enter checks your answer.Tap a highlighted cell to type in it, then tap the green tick to confirm. Scroll the sheet sideways if it is wider than your screen.
New here? How an exercise works
- Read the task. Highlighted cells are yours to fill in; the rest are locked.
- Select (or tap) a highlighted cell and type a formula. It starts with =, like =A1+B1.
- Press Check answer. Stuck? Reveal hints one at a time.
The full explanation: the idea behind this exercise
In Excel a percentage is just a number. 15% is stored as 0.15, and the cell is only formatted to show the percent sign. That is why you can multiply by it directly: a price times 0.15 is 15% of that price. To take a discount off a price you can subtract that amount from the price, or keep 85% of it by multiplying by (1 - 0.15). Both ways give the same sale price.
Because the percentage is a number, subtracting it from a price directly does not work. Subtracting 0.15 from 59.90 removes 15 cents, not 15 percent. Always turn the percentage into an amount first, or multiply by what remains. And keep the discount in its own cell: when the rate changes, every price updates.
Skills you will practise
- Percentages
- Discounts
- Arithmetic
Complete first: Invoice Total with Cell References
Common mistakes to avoid
- Subtracting the percentage itself
- Taking the discount cell straight off the price removes 0.15 from it, not 15%. Convert the percentage into an amount first.
- Returning the discount instead of the price
- Multiplying the price by the discount gives how much is taken off. The sale price is what is left.