calculations in smartdoc table
Canny AI
Merged in a post:
Spreadsheet Widget for SmartDoc
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Gary Ford
A spreadsheet widget for smartdoc that has the ability to pull data out of other fields and is addressable by a formula in fields would be sooooo amazing. I really need to do basic math inside of a smartdoc! Estimating costs requires lots of little calculations and others need to be able to see the history of this. It makes no senses to type this as dumb date into a smart doc to capture this history when we should be able to do the calculation there. .... please!
Carla Williams
Yes, Gary. I have a lot of things I would like to track history on, and we have a manual work around now using subfields and call it "pricing history". We manually enter the old data, the date of the change and the reason for the change. I like it except that it is tedious, and retyping info allows for human error. Our estimator is still using Excel/ Madera. I would like to move estimating to smartsuite. Sometimes we have a price change that affects some houses and not others and we need to know which price which house it tied to. Any chance you are a homebuilder? We have built out a ton in smartsuite, and estimating and purchasing are my next SS projects.
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Gary Ford
Carla Williams - I use to build and remodel homes. Since then I went back to school and got a master of architecture and worked in commercial design for fourteen years after which i worked in commercial construction management for a few years until i could no longer face the dysfunction of our design, bid, build system. There is an epic dysfunction in all phases of design through construction in tracking how/why decisions are made. I am up to my neck in working up a smartsuite estimating package. There are a lot of considerations in building an estimating system. I am on my third total start from scratch redo. I have a working example of my new approach set up for event cost estimation for a non-profit arts center I am involved with. I would be more than happy to demo and chat with you about this. ... but just to be clear, the folks using excel will not "like anything" that changes the way they are currently estimating. If your company management is not on your side forcing the movement away from excel, then your project is doomed before it starts. There is a lot I can say about this!
Gary Ford
gdf.ford@gmail.com
Jon Darbyshire
Hey Gary Ford, thanks for your feedback! I have a few more questions for you:
- What specific types of data or fields would you like the spreadsheet widget to pull from within SmartDoc?
- Can you provide examples of the types of calculations you frequently perform that would benefit from this feature?
- How important is it for you to have a history of calculations visible to others, and how do you envision this feature working?
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Gary Ford
Actually there could just be a spreadsheet field that has access to other fields in the record for calculations. We could use the functions from formulas in any cell of the spreadsheet field. Then there could be a way to define the value that is displayed in the field. SmartDos would be able to reference this.
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Gary Ford
Jon Darbyshire - I am still pondering on having the ability to do calculations inside of a smartdoc and then be able to push or pull the result into a field. When doing project estimating there are so many ways to approach the work result being estimated that it is crazy handy to have a paper trail so to remember what you did, or to check what someone else set up. For example take a concrete foundation pier. To keep all of the bits out of the main project estimate we do the calculations elsewhere and calculate the turnkey cost cost of a 14" bell bottom pier 25' deep which includes all materials and labor. Keeping track of this level of detail is difficult. If I could do all of this from inside a smartdoc in the record for the total cost of that pier, is would be very handy. It would be best to be able to link the calculations to other tables that have individual materials cost that would be used in the calculation. So I would need to bring data into the smartdoc from other tables, do a set of calculations and then push the result out of smartdoc and into a field in the record. It is not unusual to have 20-30 sub-calculations that would be needed to provide an estimate for a item of placed work. This world revolves around spread sheets because the calcs are so easy to do in a spread sheet, but keeping track of hundreds of these sets of calculation is a nightmare. If all of those sets of calculations could be inside of the record that holds the result, then there is simply nothing to keep track of. I would really love to work with you on this.