simple formula formatting question

[Cinci_Shawn]

Hello,

My boss puts plus signs (+) in front of her cell references on
financial reporting. For example: a summing formula would look like

=+SUM(E10:E40)

or when she adds two cells she'll precede the references with a plus
sign

=+J687/$Q$687

I cannot find a technical reason why this is necessary in Excel.
Can anyone explain this or confirm that it is unnecessary?

Thanks for reading,
-Shawn

 

[Bob I]

Carry over from having used Lotus 123, completely redundant.

 

[AdamV]

Exactly.
What you will probably find is that she is only typing the + without an
= (which as Bob said is the indicator for a formula in Lotus 123). Excel
puts in the = in front of it, leaving the redundant + sign.

For negation I've even seen =+-A1 style of formulas - utter madness!

The + makes no difference at all and can be removed if you feel it
tidies things up.