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Link Contributor Data to the Excel Zone

You can use formulas to link data from your plan within the Contributor zone to cells in the Excel zone. As the Contributor data changes, the data in the linked Excel cells changes either manually or automatically, according to your Excel calculation option. For information about Excel calculation options, see Microsoft Excel documentation.

Contributor keeps your underlying plan data in its calculation engine. At any time, unless your data is only two-dimensional, only a part of your underlying data is shown on the screen in each Excel worksheet. As you reorient your views of cubes presented on Excel worksheets, Contributor changes the data that is currently visible on that worksheet. When you build formulas, you can choose to link them either to the Excel cells of the Contributor zone presenting the latest view of your data or link them to the underlying values in Contributor’s calculation engine. Linking to Excel cells uses standard Microsoft Excel formulas and is desirable when you want your calculations to change as data changes when you reorient your view. Linking to underlying Contributor data uses custom formulas and is desirable when you want your calculations to remain dynamically linked to particular planning data, regardless of whether it is visible on-screen in an Excel cell or not.

When you build formulas, you can either link them to the Excel presentation or link them to the underlying values in Contributor.

When building formulas from Contributor data in the Excel zone, we suggest that you copy the formula to a separate worksheet that does not contain Contributor zone cells.

How you copy data depends on how you want the data to behave in Excel.

Goal

Action

Example

Copied value stays the same in the Excel cell when the Contributor value changes.

Use standard Excel Copy and Paste.

5,000

Value changes in the Excel cell as you reorient the view of your Contributor plan data.

Use standard Excel functionality to build a formula.

=B2

=+‘Income Statement’!B2

Value changes in the Excel cell only when the underlying Contributor value changes and not if you reorient the view of your Contributor plan data.

Do the following:

  1. Right-click the Contributor cell.

  2. Click Contributor, Copy Location.

  3. Paste copied data into a cell in the Excel zone.

=CCell("Income Statement", "B2 Profit-center", "Months", "Mar-03", "Versions", "Budget Version 1", "Income Statement", "Interest Expense")

Value changes in the Excel cell as you reorient the e.List item shown in a multi-e.List item view.

Note: This option is available only if multi-e.List item views are available for your application. Contact your administrator for more information.

Do the following:

  1. Open the data in a multi-e.List item view.

    Tip: You have a multi-e.List item view if an item named (All) exists in the table on your Workflow screen.

  2. Right-click the Contributor cell.

  3. Click Contributor, Copy Relative Location.

  4. Paste copied data into a cell in the Excel zone.

=CCell("Income Statement", "", "Months", "Mar-03", "Versions", "Budget Version 1", "Income Statement", "Interest Expense")