Forum Discussion
Creating an automatically changing spreadsheet copy
Thanks for a reply.
Only the two spreadsheets have to be identical and not the third one as it will have different structure.
I really need to have the data in different spreadsheets (both still in the same workbook) as the there will be lots of categories (as rows) and months (as columns). If I make everything in one spreadsheet it would be a mess. Actually there will be around 6 different spreadsheets in total for different purposes (monthly budget, monthly actual, savings, monthly summary, yearly summary etc) So the need for different spreadsheets is real.
The actual expenses I will just fill in afterwards by going through the receipts and bank statements.
Perhaps I have to make it really well once so there's no need to modify it later. But I know I will have to make changes as my life situation changes for instance.
Kondho
Kondho Yeah. Have looked at the screenshot. not very useful, though and it confirms my suspicion. The way you have set up file is just not optimal and makes analysis difficult.
- Well, to me this looks good and quite easy to understand. There's a lot of information which is the reason I need many spreadsheets. Just can't share everything here since it would require too many screenshots and wouldn't actually provide much valuable information here.
I could just make two different but identical spreadsheets but changing both each time would make it a bit annoying. And there would be an increased risk for making a mistake when trying to modify both the exact same way.I looked at your screenshot, and Mr Van Ekelen is correct, you should maintain only one transaction table, and maybe several dim tables.
then you will create a data model so everything is dynamic (automatic) and easy to maintain.
The tables in the screenshot you provided would represent your future analysis pivot tables, you can create an income pivot table, an expense pivot table, a pivot table for taxes, a pivot table for your actuals budgeting, and a pivot table for your forecast budgeting.. etc.
When you update items or add items in your category dim tables for example, you only have to add, or update in one place and it will propagate in your transaction table as well as all your analysis pivot tables.
cheers
