How to dynamically calculate the overtime left and the overtime used without a circular reference in Excel? - excel

Question

The goal is to fix a circular reference in my logic in this "two weeks pay" input workbook.
It's a temporary sheet for when people are outside the office and can't access the system.
That said, that sheet still should give them accurate data.
There's 26 sheets that contains the times done by an employee for example, in a typical format, for 2 weeks in each (a year in total).
Stripped of all formatting and non-useful information for this enquiry, they would look somewhat like this (with proper dates) :
+-----------+----------+--------+----------+--------+-------+------+
| Date | AM start | AM end | PM start | PM end | total | over |
+-----------+----------+--------+----------+--------+-------+------+
| Monday | 8:00 | 12:00 | 13:00 | 16:00 | 7:00 | 0:00 |
+-----------+----------+--------+----------+--------+-------+------+
| Tuesday | 8:00 | 12:00 | 13:00 | 15:00 | 6:00 | 0:00 |
+-----------+----------+--------+----------+--------+-------+------+
| Wednesday | 8:00 | 12:00 | 13:00 | 17:00 | 8:00 | 1:00 |
+-----------+----------+--------+----------+--------+-------+------+
| ... | .... | .... | .... | .... | .... | .... |
+-----------+----------+--------+----------+--------+-------+------+
Then on another sheet, there's some calculation has to what is the paid amount (maximum 70 hours per 2 weeks), the overtime done that has to be paid, etc.
A B C D E F G
+-------+------------+----------+---------------+-----------------------+-------+---------------------+
1 | Pay # | Hours paid | Overtime | Used overtime | Total hours worked | | Total overtime left |
+-------+------------+----------+---------------+-----------------------+-------+---------------------+
2 | 1 | 70:00 | 5:00 | 0:00 | 75:00 | | 0:00 |
+-------+------------+----------+---------------+-----------------------+-------+---------------------+
3 | 2 | 70:00 | 0:00 | 5:00 | 65:00 | | |
+-------+------------+----------+---------------+-----------------------+-------+---------------------+
4 | ... | ... | ... | .... | | | |
+-------+------------+----------+---------------+-----------------------+-------+---------------------+
In the above table, the pay #2 got 70 hours paid, but the person would have done only 65 hours and used 5 hours of the overtime done the past two weeks.
A1:E4 is connected together, G1:G2 is data by itself, not linked to the pay numbers or other data in that sheet (in other words, there is only one cell that contains that total overtime left and F is used to separate both tables).
G2 currently have 0:00 because the 5:00 it would have had has been used to complete the second pay.
The Hours paid cell (B) contains this formula :
=IF($E$2>=2.91666666666667,2.91666666666667,IF((2.91666666666667- $E$2)<=$G$2;2.91666666666667,$E$2+$D$2))
Step 1 [condition] : If the total hours worked for that two weeks is greater than or equals to 70 hours (the 2.91666666666667 is used here instead of "70:00" to make the comparison works);
Step 1.1 [true] : Then put "70:00" in the cell because there's a 70 hours maximum per two weeks (this is fine since we have another cell that stores the overtime done (in this example, C));
Step 1.2 [false->condition] : Else, the total hours worked for that two weeks is lower than 70 hours so check if 70 hours minus the total hours worked for that two weeks is lower than the total overtime left to be used (used to check if there's overtime left that can be used this time to make the pay the highest it can be up to a maximum of 70 hours);
Step 1.2.1 [true] : If it is, put 70 hours because we'll use some of the overtime left to be paid to complete this two weeks;
Step 1.2.2 [false] : Otherwise, put the total hours worked for that two weeks added to the used overtime for that week (this cell is explained later with her formula and this step is for when there's overtime left, but not enough to make it go up to 70 hours so we put the amount of time it ends up being).
The important part here is to remember that B needs D, hence why I explained it's formula.
The Overtime (C) and "Total hours worked" (E) cells contains basic formulas that either gives the amount of time over 70 hours or the total hours worked; no need to explain it here, it works.
The Used overtime cell (D) is where it gets tricky. To explain it, we'll need to know what's up with G2.
The Total overtime left cell (G2) is the total of overtime hours minus the sum of all cells in D (used overtime).
It's purpose is to get an up to date value of how much overtime there is left to be paid.
Back to Used Overtime.
You probably start to see circular reference here; D needs G2 to work and G2 is the sum of all cells in D (in the table range, not all of them).
The formula requires the notion of how much overtime there is left so it can check if we can use some.
Here's the formula :
=IF($E$2>=2.91666666666667,"00:00",IF((2.91666666666667-$E$2)<=$G$2,(2.91666666666667-$E$2),IF(($G$2+$E$2)<=2.91666666666667,$G$2,"00:00")))
Step 1 [condition] : If the total hours worked for that two weeks is greater than or equals to 70 hours;
Step 1.1 [true] : Then put 0 hours since that pay is already at the 70 hours maximum;
Step 1.2 [false->condition] : Else, the total hours worked for that two weeks is lower than 70 hours and could grow higher if we still have overtime to be paid so check if 70 hours minus the total hours worked for that two weeks (the amount of time we could add from the overtime left) is lower than or equals to the total overtime left to be paid;
Step 1.2.1 [true] : Then put 70 hours minus the total of hours worked for that two weeks (the amount of time we will add from the overtime left to make this pay grows to the maximum of 70 hours);
Step 1.2.2 [false->condition] : Otherwise, check if the total overtime left added to the total of hours worked for that two weeks is lower than or equals to 70 hours (if so, then it means that we can add all the overtime left here without getting over 70 hours);
Step 1.2.2.1 [true] : If it is then the value is the total overtime left since it will make the total hours worked for that two weeks still be under the maximum yet pay for the overtime that was left to be paid;
Step 1.2.2.2 [false] : Otherwise, put 0 hours since we will not be adding overtime to this pay because there is no overtime left to be added.
How could I both have the accurate overtime left and yet have the used overtime both dynamically calculating themselves without a circular reference ?

Answer 1

What if every row had an up to date value for Total Overtime Left after that pay period?
Formula for G2: =C2-D2
Then every G cell after that only needs to add the Overtime Left from the previous pay period + overtime - used overtime:
G3: =G2+C3-D3
And it just goes on from there.