Calculating complex scenarios in your Business Plan
August 28th, 2006Q: I am using Rosetta Business Planner and I can’t find the way to input the raw material cost based on production in units and not in sales value. I have production in Kg. linked to raw material in Kg. In my case I have several unit price discount based in volume and region. The structure of discounts is complex and I don’t see the way to create this in the software.
—
A: Sometimes calculation parameters for a specific type of business are so complex that it is impossible to accurately define them in the Business Plan.
Once such example could be variable discount levels combined with a different product/market pricing and volume. In this type of situation “Dynamic link to Excel” enables user to address the situation by linking Rosetta Business Planner to external spreadsheet.
In your example the easiest way to address specific discounts for different markets/sales volume would be done by linking Rosetta Business Planner PLUS to the spreadsheet containing all the relevant calculations. This approach offers you a great deal of flexibility in the way you calculate results.
If you wish to try this approach, please follow the steps as outlined below:
Step 1 :In “General Data” please change “Sales Forecast by” to Cash instead of Units.
Step 2 :Update “Sales For Planner.xls” spreadsheet as appropriate for your business. You can create any number of similar spreadsheets for different scenarios.
Step 3 :Use “Connect Cells to MS Excel file” function to link Business Planner PLUS to XLS file.
This will enable to link your Business Plan to an appropriate cell in XLS.
Step 4 :You will be able to see that the results from XSL file will be displayed in Business Planner.
As you can see this method will enable you to calculate different results for different products, markets and sales volumes.
Once the spreadsheet is linked to Business Planner via “Dynamic link to Excel” Business Plan will be updated automatically should you choose to update the spreadsheet. This approach offers you a great deal of flexibility in the way you calculate results.
