Creating Worksheets

About creating worksheets

When you create a worksheet, current financial data from your personal database is automatically included in the worksheet. You can base a worksheet on the default worksheet template or on an open worksheet.

Process for creating worksheets

Follow these general steps to create a new worksheet:

1. Choose New from the File menu and then choose Worksheet.

2. Select the data that you want to include in the worksheet. For more information, see "Selecting data to include in a worksheet".

3. You can adjust the layout of the worksheet. For more information, see "Changing the layout of a worksheet".

4. You can perform calculations such as growing data, increasing data, and spreading data. For more information, see "Calculating Data in Worksheets".

5. You can apply formatting to the worksheet. For more information, see "Formatting Worksheets".

Selecting data to include in a worksheet

You specify the slices of data that you want to include in the worksheet. A data slice is defined by a financial data item and a set of dimension values.

For more information on the tools and techniques that are available for selecting data, see Chapter 7.

Requirements for worksheet data

Unlike reports and graphs, which allow you to include multiple financial data items in the same document, worksheets allow you to work with only one financial data item at a time.

Worksheets permit you to work with stored financial data items only. You cannot include formula financial data items in worksheets.

Example: Selecting data for a worksheet

Suppose you want to work with Actuals data. Using the Selector, you would:

• Select the Actuals financial data item

• Select a set of dimension values for that item

For example, if Actuals is dimensioned by Time, Line Item, and Organization, you would select a set of time periods, line items, and organizations.

Changing the layout of a worksheet

Once you have created a worksheet and selected the data that you want to work with, you can arrange the dimensions according to how you want to view the data. You rearrange dimensions in a worksheet by changing the positions of the dimension tiles in the worksheet window.

Example: Changing the layout of a worksheet

In the sample worksheet shown following:

• The Commercial Sales and Parent Total: Product dimensions occupy the page position.

• The Financial Data and Time dimensions occupy the across position.

• The Line dimension occupies the down position.

Each page of the worksheet displays data associated with multiple line items and time periods for a single organization and product line.

To view data for multiple product lines on the same page, you could drag the Product tile and drop it on the Time tile to have the corresponding dimensions swap positions, as shown in the following illustration.

If you wanted to change your view of the data to reflect a single line item and time period and multiple products and sales organizations, you could swap the Organization and Line tiles. The following illustration shows the results.

You could continue to rearrange tiles to yield as many different views of the data as you needed.

Tip: Paging through a worksheet

To quickly page through an open worksheet, select the paging dimension by clicking on it and press Alt+Page Up or Alt+Page Down.

Related information

For more information about creating worksheets, search for the following topics in the Financial Analyzer Help system:

"Creating Worksheets"

"Selecting Data"