Excel Warnings - Links to Other Workbooks

I have an Excel Workbook that I use for tracking expenditures and month-end bank balances, so I update it frequently. I create a new workbook for that purpose with each new year. I've tried doing this a number of different ways but I keep ending up with the same erroneous message when I open the workbook. At least I believe the message is false, but I cannot figure out how to get rid of it.

The message I get is this:

The workbook you opened contains automatic links to information in another workbook. Do you want to update this workbook with changes made to the other workbook?

• To update all linked information, click Yes.
• To keep the existing information, click No.

If I click Yes, it shows me the Documents folder with the previous year's workbook highlighted in the File Name box. If I choose "Ok" or "Cancel," the message goes away.

If I click No, the message goes away.

There is no difference to the content of the workbook regardless of what I choose because, as far as I know, the workbook isn't really linked to last year's workbook.

I have wondered if this problem has something to do with how I create each year's workbook. Here are the different ways I've tried to do it:

1. I've tried Save As..., and given the workbook a new name for the new year. After that, I've deleted all of the old data except the December expenditures, the sheet that lists the monthly bank balances, and the chart that is derived from the list of monthly bank balances.
2. I've copied and pasted the old workbook in the Documents folder, given the copy a new name, and proceeded to delete all but the three sheets listed in #1.
3. I've created a new workbook and copied those three sheets from the old workbook to the new workbook.
4. I've copied just the December worksheet to a new workbook.

No matter what I do, I still get the message that says the workbook is linked to another workbook (last year's workbook).

The reason I keep those three pages is to maintain the formatting for the monthly expenditures worksheet and to keep the running list of the monthly bank balances, going back to 2010, and the chart that shows how the balances have been trending.

Is there any way to break the so-called link?

Thanks in advance!

Ranger4 said:

Have you thought about using a Template for this. What you do is copy one of your yearly Spreadsheets & save it as a Template, giving it a name such as Yearly Expenditure Template or whatever. Just make sure you save a copy of the spreadsheet & save it as the Template & that you don't save your original as the Template as you will lose any info if you then change that one.

When you get to a new year you open that Template & delete all the info in it & start from fresh again. It will also have any formatting that you established in the original one. Then you can save this one with a new name & the Template will still be there for use the next year.

Set up a new Folder in your Documents directory & call if Excel Templates, so you can add others later if you wish.

Thank you for the suggestion. That sounds like a good idea!

Having a template should work well for the monthly expenditure pages but I'm trying to decide how best to maintain the list of the monthly account balances and the associated chart. It's convenient to have those in the same workbook that I use to track expenditures during the month, but it would be no good to have it as part of a template.

I will see what happens if I copy just those two pages from the current workbook to a new one. If that works, I could just do that when creating a new book for each new year.

Alternatively, I suppose, I could just keep those two pages (list & chart) as a separate workbook. Either way will reveal whether it's the monthly expenditure spreadsheets or the list of monthly account balances that is somehow linked to the previous year's workbook.

Thanks!