How to make Running Totals in Excel?

This short tutorial shows how a usual Excel Sum function with a clever use of absolute and relative cell references can quickly calculate a running total in your worksheet. A running total, or cumulative sum, is the summation of numbers that is updated every time a new number is added to the sequence.

[googoo]

Brilliant, so well explained and so useful, im so happy! Thank you

[vikichhaya]

Concise and to the point explanation. Didn't know what running total was. but now I do. thanks to you. :)

[marlen]

how can i get the running total for two columns on a third column? One has positive numbers and the other has negative numbers. Im working on vacation and sick audits i would like to keep them in separate columns... this is what I've done
=SUM(D2)+SUM(E2) on the first cell
=SUM(D2:D3)+SUM(E2:E3) on the second cell
=SUM(D2:D4)+SUM(E2:E4) on the third cell and so on. But is there an easier way? When i drag the formula down it starts with the next cell and not the first one.

[roebuddy]

How would you reset the cumulative sum for each new year?