I am currently managing invoice payments in Excel and was wondering if there is any way to create multiple editable tables that display the exact same (synchronized) data.
Essentially, I want multiple filters active on the same table at once so I can (for example) open up all transfers from a single creditor to the right one side of my screen, while looking through all bank statements on the other (while being able to edit the data in both tables).
I have looked into excel Data Models but I am not sure if what I am asking for is possible.
Excel allows you to view two windows of the same sheet. Give this a try. https://www.excelcampus.com/tips/new-window/
Related
I have a fairly large excel Table (30x5000) that houses entries for all different types of equipment. I would like to be able to create custom views that only show the specific data for a given equipment type.
For example, if I were to select "Pumps" for custom views it would show meaningful description columns like Flow Rate, Capacity, etc. and hide those columns that apply to other equipment. Ideally this could be done on the table and not a separate tab as this would also make entry of these equipment items vastly simpler as right now I am scrolling through non-related columns when entering in new equipment.
My problem is that Custom Views don't work with excel tables. Any workaround I have found requires formulas that would separate the data for viewing purposes - I need to be able to edit in new views.
Any solutions to this would be GREATLY appreciated as I am truthfully stumped.
I have a dozen spreadsheets with identical structure and formulas, essentially tables, only the data differ, say one spreadsheet per country.
For example there is a spreadsheet to manage the US employees, another for the UK employees, and another for the Canada employees.
They are exactly the same except that each will store a different set of employees.
The spreadsheets act both as a database to store data and a user-interface to interact with data.
Each change (updating or adding a formula, updating some drop-downs values, changing style...) has to be replicated in all the spreadsheets which is time consuming and error-prone.
As an example I could change the formula to compute the seniority of each employee by editing the 3 spreadsheets.
I was wondering if there was a reasonably simple way to avoid duplicating the common parts, only having different data.
I'd like to avoid a full-blown development with plenty of VBA code, a complete database, some user input forms... but if really necessary I can write some VBA and build some database to fill in the blanks if there is no out-of-the-box solution.
With a full-blown development I would do something like:
store all the employees in a single SQL database table
develop a single spreadsheet
when opening the spreadsheet ask the user to choose a country to only load the this country's employees
save the data changes to the database
If you're effectively talking about an efficient way to handle version control so that input sheets that have previously been distributed to users match a master template, then I'm afraid there is no out-of-the-box solution.
I use something along the lines of http://datapigtechnologies.com/blog/index.php/building-version-control-in-excel/ to force users to download the latest template should they be using an older one.
In addition, I also place a big note at the top to prompt users to download a new template each time, rather than recycle an old one, because if a user didn't enable macros the automatic download of the latest template won't kick in.
Note that the above screenshot shows a form that I've built in Excel's grid itself, using shudder merged cells. (i.e. It is not a userform)
If the templates need to preserve user-submitted data that isn't held centrally, then you're probably going to need to develop an add-in along the lines of what the authors do in the book Professional Excel Development.
I am not looking for help with any specific vba coding, just peoples ideas on the best approach to handle a couple of scenarios. The solution has to work with Excel 2007 onwards (can not use Get & Transform / Power Query). In both cases the idea is to have a Master document in to which raw data is updated each week. It should not be necessary to manually redefine any of the formulas or references in the Master document after the update process in order to summarise / analyse the data.
Scenario 1 : Weekly sales figures for various products received from six different retail outlets in the form of an .xlsx file. The data is contained on one sheet in each file. Although the product lists are the same the layout of the data from each outlet is different and a 'standard' template will not be introduced. The user needs the ability to manually select each file to include in the update. The data from each outlet needs to be combined in the 'Master' document for additional processing etc.
What would be the best way to automate the Master document update process?
Possible idea : in the Master spreadhseet create an MS Query for each outlet to import the data from each outlet in to separate sheets in the Master spreadsheet. For each outlet the user would be prompted to identify the file and its location using Application.FileDialog(msoFileDialogOpen) and the response used to modify the connection string prior to running the Query to retrieve the latest information.
Scenario 2 : Multiple workbooks received each week (80+) containing employee time and attendance data. The workbooks are saved in a single folder. The layout and format of the workbooks is the same with the data presented on one sheet in each. The data needs to be combined in the Master document for analysis.
What would be the best approach to allow the user to identify the workbooks and the transfer the data from these in to the Master spreadsheet for processing. Can not use the 'From Folder' in Get & Transform as it must work in Excel 2007 upwards.
Thanks
What would be the best approach to allow the user to identify the workbooks and the transfer the data from these in to the Master spreadsheet for processing? I think you need to hook into this AddIn, as described below, and all your questions will be answered.
https://www.rondebruin.nl/win/addins/rdbmerge.htm
Coming from the corporate data warehousing solutions world I found Power Pivot to be surprisingly functional tool that could help to bring BI into small bussiness. In order to educate myself in this area I'm doing a small project for a friend who is a building contractor and asked me to help analyse his costs against different projects. The issue is that some data needs to be provided by user and here is where my narrow knowledge of Power Pivot is starting to show up.
My base data is coming from accounting system. I have access to company books via SQL Server connection, I can import Invoices, Clients, Suppliers, Accounts and all other entries. I made all
the connections and can present data in an easy way in a Pivot table which alone impressed my friend a lot. I was impressed myself how easy and straightforward it was compared to some reporting tools like Microstrategy or Business Objects which I use every day.
What is missing in the accounting system is Project information, say Client has 3 houses which my friend is working on, each of them should be treated as a separate project that we want to calculate profit on. Do do that I need some manual input such as assigning Project to Cost invoice add a category (Materials, Services) etc.
Initially I wanted to create a two lookup spreadsheets:
Projects where project name, valid from/to, etc. would be entered manually (or imported from CRM application in the future) and Client which would be selected from a dropdown list (ideally sourced directly from the power pivot Client table)
QUESTION 1: how to add a dropdown list of Clients coming from Power Pivot table?
Invoice relation table which would hold some data from power pivot Cost Invoice table (invoice number, supplier, date etc.) and then a dropdown list with projects (from the first spreadsheet) and cost type. Tricky part is that I would like invoice list to be refreshed automatically when new invoices are registered but I don't want to loose any data added manually against them!
QUESTION 2: how to design such spreadsheet to be populating new invoices automatically but maintaining data linked with it? I was thinking PivotTable with some data next to it but it seems like a very volatile solution, say invoices are sorted by invoice number (which is different system or each supplier) and a new one can show up in the middle of the table, then all projects that were manually added after would start pointing to the wrong invoices.
Last resort for me is to create an MS Access database for storing/updating lookups but then all the mess with creating ODBC connections etc. comes into play and in my opinion it's defeating the idea of neat PowerPivot Excel spreadsheet...
Any ideas are welcome!
in general you can design an excel table that holds manual input data and feed that table into PowerPivot (via linked table).
as for the drop down info based on database data i suggest using power query. this tool lets you connect to various sources, do some data wrangling and then output that data into excel. these outputs can then serve as data range for excel based drop downs.
take a look at Power Query e.g.here: https://support.office.com/en-in/article/Introduction-to-Microsoft-Power-Query-for-Excel-6e92e2f4-2079-4e1f-bad5-89f6269cd605 or here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LACjRvxl_2w.
I am creating a tracking document for artists' accommodation as part of an arts festival and would like to automate part of my work flow. Whilst we use event management/scheduling software for confirmed bookings, it's nice to do all my working in Excel.
I would like to have a master sheet (sheet 1), with a full list of artists and their respective accommodation - that can then be sorted into individual sheets (sheet 2, 3 etc) based on the name of the accommodation. The automatic sorting would also capture the other pieces of information in the row.
This would allow for each different sheet to show a report on who is staying in each type of accommodation and would be rather handy!
I would recommend one or more PivotTables as a simpler solution. Here a PT and two clones are shown on your Master Sheet, but they could each be on their own sheet:
Accom is in Report Filter, Company is in Row Labels and PAX (as Sum) is in Σ Values. Once having clicked on PivotTable in Insert > Tables - PivotTable and having chosen you range ('Master Sheet'!$A$2:$C$7A2:C7) and Location just drag the fields from the big box to the little ones.
This is feasible using Excel, but I don't recommend it; it is creating a maintenance nightmare in the long run.
From the question I can't gather whether the data is available in some kind of event management software package; if so you can use that one as a data source. Or create an Access or SQL database with a few tables. After that, you can use one of the following options to make the necessary overviews and as many more as you think up during the project:
Use Excel with ODBC or web query to retrieve data aggregated and
sorted as you like. Make changes in the event management package
allowing others to see the same facts. Or do it in Access. When you
change one thing, it automatically propogates also into the Excel.
Similarly, you can use an Excel add-in such as Invantive
Control (caution I work at a supplier) to retrieve the data from
the database using SQL or a webservice, change it from within Excel and
then synchronize the changes back assuming you have write access.
A similar solution is available as SQL*XL. Probably there are others too.
If the solution must be Excel only, I would recommend using vertical/horizontal lookups with the Excel function vlookup / hlookup (Dutch: vert.zoeken, horiz.zoeken). These function perform reasonable with a small amount of data and performance can be improved by sorting. And they resemble SQL joins, so the database you get within Excel more easily conforms to the relational model.
I hope the event is successfull and the people enjoy it.