You mean like a running balance?

A backwards one, if that's possible or makes sense.
Let's say you have a Benefit Amount of $1000.00 and that's the maximum amount you have for one year. You get a Payment Amount of $100.00 that needs to be Deducted from the $1000.00 Amount, leaving you with $900.00
Then you get another Payment of $200.00, now you have an Amount of $700.00 and so on. So I guess it's a Running Balance.
I hope that doesn't sound like I have gone off the deep end!

I think there is way to do this in Excel, but would rather do it with Access, just not sure how to.
With you being such a Great Instructor, I thought I would ask.
Thank you!

I guess another way you could think of it is as if it were a reloadable debit card. You have a starting set amount and each month you take away from that amount until you get to zero. I would rather see what's left in the amount than to keep a running total that gets added to an amount until you reach a Maximum Set Amount.

I know that sounds as clear as mud, and I'm sorry I can't explain what I am trying to do better.

If I could email you Richard, I could explain this a little better. The details of what I am trying to do I would rather not have in an open forum format.

Would it work for you to just create a continuous form that has a starting balance field in the header.

The detail would be the continuous rows of the form with the Amount field.

In the footer would be your "Balance" field with a record source something like "=[BeginningBalance] - Sum([Amount])"

Is that going in the right direction?

I will try that. Thank you!

Yeah, it would literally be just a backwards running balance. You just put your starting amount in as like $10,000, and then every transaction after that, subtract it or add it as a negative transaction, whichever way you want to do it. It's the same concept, same exact concept. I am probably going to do another video on running balance soon because I just Google searched it and I do have a video that shows up, but it's not a very good one. I'll definitely bump this up the list a little bit.

Sounds great.
I want to do this for retirement purposes. Maximum earnings amount, then go backwards to zero amount. I thought it would be easier to track it this way (in reverse) than to do a sum total. More lead time as to when you max out, I think.
Thank you!

Richard, I know how to do this in Excel, but you have spoiled me with Access. I would MUCH rather do this in Access.

I guess your GREAT teaching skills really must have gotten to me!

Thank you!

Richard,
I had to cheat on this one, I asked ChapGPT how to do this, and this is what it gave me:

=Nz(Sum([Amount]),0)

txtTotalUsed

=Nz([MaxTotal],0) - Nz(Sum([CheckAmount]),0)

It works.
Just wondering how you would have done it.

Thank you!

Yeah, that's pretty much how I do it. I think I use DSUM, so it's independent of the current form, but same principle.

Thank you!

David no problemo. Thanks to Donald for the assist.