Copying Cells

You can quickly fill out your plan by copying cells with values and pasting them over other cells. You can do this using the standard copy and paste keyboard shortcuts or by dragging the cells.

When you copy a cell, only its value, including any calculations, and the Planning unit are copied. No other information about the cell is copied. This includes adjustments, comments, and history.

Calculations

If a cell contains a calculation with an aggregate function, such as SUM, the aggregate function is updated when you copy the cell into another cell. This is achieved by checking the dimension values and the measure of the source and target cells and then cross-referencing those against the dimension and measure filters from the aggregate function. Any dimension values or measures that are different between the two cells and are also explicitly defined in the aggregate function are automatically updated. This only applies to aggregate function filters that are not marked as absolute references. For more information about calculations, see Calculations in Plan Cells.

For example, your plan might look like Example Plan. In this case, you want to calculate the variance between the actual and budget values for each GLA in each period.

Example Plan
Period 001 002
Balance Type Actual Budget Variance Actual Budget Variance
Trial Balance 1 Trial Balance 2 GLA Home Home Home Home Home Home
Assets Current Assets 1020 - Cash in bank 795,152.40 800,000.00 Contains Calculation -4,847.60 2,657,729.54 1,000,000.00  
Assets Current Assets 1200 - Accounts Receivable 74,469.87 70,000.00   -392,320.79 -350,000.00  
Assets Current Assets 1205 - Unbilled AR 0.00 0.00   0.00 0.00  
Assets Current Assets 1470 - Deferred professional services costs 0.00 0.00   0.00 0.00  

You start by creating a variance calculation in period 001 for the 1020 - Cash in bank GLA. You can calculate the variance by subtracting the Budget value from the Actual value. This results in the following formula:

Copy 
SUM(true, "Trial Balance 1" = "Assets", "Trial Balance 2" = "Current Assets", "GLA" = "1020 - Cash in bank", "Period" = "001", "Balance Type" = "Actual", "Measure" = "Home") 
-
SUM(true, "Trial Balance 1" = "Assets", "Trial Balance 2" = "Current Assets", "GLA" = "1020 - Cash in bank", "Period" = "001", "Balance Type" = "Budget", "Measure" = "Home")

When you copy the cell into the Variance cell for GLA 1200 - Accounts Receivable for period 001, this results in the following formula:

Copy 
SUM(true, "Trial Balance 1" = "Assets", "Trial Balance 2" = "Current Assets", "GLA" = "1200 - Accounts Receivable", "Period" = "001", "Balance Type" = "Actual", "Measure" = "Home") 
-
SUM(true, "Trial Balance 1" = "Assets", "Trial Balance 2" = "Current Assets", "GLA" = "1200 - Accounts Receivable", "Period" = "001", "Balance Type" = "Budget", "Measure" = "Home")

This happens because the value of the GLA dimension is different between the source and target cells and the GLA dimension filter is present in the aggregate functions.

When you copy the same cell into the Variance cell for GLA 1020 - Cash in bank for period 002, this results in the following formula:

Copy 
SUM(true, "Trial Balance 1" = "Assets", "Trial Balance 2" = "Current Assets", "GLA" = "1020 - Cash in bank", "Period" = "002", "Balance Type" = "Actual", "Measure" = "Home") 
-
SUM(true, "Trial Balance 1" = "Assets", "Trial Balance 2" = "Current Assets", "GLA" = "1020 - Cash in bank", "Period" = "002", "Balance Type" = "Budget", "Measure" = "Home")

This happens because the value of the Period dimension is different between the source and target cells and the Period dimension filter is present in the aggregate functions.

When you copy the same cell into the Variance cell for GLA 1470 - Deferred professional services costs for period 002, this results in the following formula:

Copy 
SUM(true, "Trial Balance 1" = "Assets", "Trial Balance 2" = "Current Assets", "GLA" = "1470 - Deferred professional services costs", "Period" = "002", "Balance Type" = "Actual", "Measure" = "Home") 
-
SUM(true, "Trial Balance 1" = "Assets", "Trial Balance 2" = "Current Assets", "GLA" = "1470 - Deferred professional services costs", "Period" = "002", "Balance Type" = "Budget", "Measure" = "Home")

This happens because the values of the Period and GLA dimensions are different between source and target cells and both the Period and GLA dimension filters are present in the aggregate functions.

Planning Units

When you copy a cell that contains a Planning unit, the unit is also copied. If the cell doesn't contain a unit and you copy it into a cell that does contain a unit, the target cell's unit is removed.

When unit standardization is enabled for the plan, the values are copied in the standardized unit. In addition, the following rules apply:

  • If the source cell contains a unit and the target cell contains a unit of the same type, the unit of the target is retained.
  • If the source cell contains a unit but the target cell doesn't contain a unit, the unit of the source cell is applied to the target cell.
  • If the source cell doesn't contain a unit but the target cell does contain a unit, the unit is removed from the target cell and no conversion is applied.
  • If the source cell contains a unit but the target cell is empty, the unit of the source cell is applied to the target cell.

For more information about unit standardization, see Standardizing Planning Units in a Plan.