Integrate existing calculation worksheets
A new feature in v3.90, pbCALC, allows users to integrate their existing calculation based worksheets in minutes, with just a few keystrokes. The idea for this came from a new customer deciding to move their existing budgeting solution into PerpetualBudget to gain greater automation and data control. The challenge they were facing was how to replicate in PerpetualBudget their complex method of calculating revenues from sales and expenses directly derived from these calculations.
Our first thought was a new template. This turns out to be impractical given the complexity of most calculation worksheets and the thousands (millions!) of developed worksheets that already exist.
The solution came to us when we examined our method of drilling down from a detailed P & L worksheet to lower levels. The program allows you to "point" a line item row to a separate worksheet containing detailed data and bring the summarized totals to the P & L. Bingo, the light bulb went on.
Our solution to integrating complex calculation worksheets into PerpetualBudget is to annotate lines of interest with IDs and assign these rows to accounts in the detailed P & L (of any profit or cost center). When the P & L is rebuilt (...PB builds everything on-the-fly using the pbNOW engine), these lines get populated with formulas that indirectly "point" to the lines in the calculation worksheet and the data is rolled up to the P & L sheet. Simple, but totally automatic, seamless and updateable. This technique is memory intensive but memory is cheap.
If your existing budgeting solution depends heavily on unique calculations to project revenues or expenses, you can move to PerpetualBudget with a few keystrokes.
Read more about the features of PerpetualBudget.
