How to subtract in different cells If you have numbers located in different cells in your spreadsheet that you want to subtract, you can do so by using cell references and a formula.

With the date written in and formatted, you can now enter the formula to subtract the date. You would enter that in the appropriate cell for your Excel document.

Subtracting isn’t as straightforward in Excel as it seems, simply because there’s no actual command to subtract numbers. Instead, you have to use a formula with the subtraction operator.