Spreadsheet Input Trail for Fixed Value Tracking
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing business planning systems are inefficient in managing large plans and remote user interfaces, as they require frequent recalculations and lack features to track changed values, leading to resource consumption and user interface challenges, especially when cell fixation is desired.
Innovation Solution
A system that allows users to selectively refresh plans by visually indicating fixed values, enabling users to identify and transmit only changed values for recalculation, thereby reducing unnecessary recalculations and facilitating cell fixation across multiple levels of aggregation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If the planning system recalculates all plan values after each value change, then the plan accuracy is maintained, but the system consumes excessive time and resources especially for large plans
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the plan into fixed values and changed values, allowing the system to process only the changed portions rather than recalculating the entire plan. This segmentation enables selective refresh where only modified values and their dependent calculations are updated, significantly reducing recalculation time while maintaining accuracy for affected areas.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs partial recalculation by identifying and processing only the changed values and their direct dependencies, rather than performing a complete plan recalculation. This partial action approach maintains necessary plan accuracy while avoiding the excessive time consumption of full recalculations.
2Loss of time
If the system allows selective refresh of plan values, then recalculation time is reduced, but the user may lose track of which values have been changed
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs visual indicators (such as color coding or highlighting) to mark fixed values and changed values within the plan. This visual differentiation helps users easily track which values have been modified and which remain fixed, preventing information loss about the plan's modification state while enabling selective refresh functionality.
3Adaptability or versatility
If the user interface is located remotely from the planning system, then system architecture flexibility is improved, but the round-trip transmission of plan values hampers plan creation efficiency
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the changed values from the complete plan and transmits them to the remote planning system for processing. This extraction approach reduces the amount of data transmitted during round-trip communication, thereby improving plan creation efficiency while maintaining the architectural flexibility of remote user interface deployment.
4Productivity
If the system pre-populates the plan with values based on stored business data, then plan creation is accelerated, but the system complexity increases due to multiple data sources
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by pre-populating the plan with values from stored business data before the user begins editing. This preliminary population accelerates plan creation by providing a head start with pre-calculated values, while the fixation mechanism simplifies subsequent user interactions by clearly distinguishing between pre-populated and user-modified values.
Data Source
AI summary
A system may include reception, from a planning application, of a spreadsheet including a plurality of values, presentation of the plurality of values, reception of a first instruction to change a first value of the plurality of values to a second value, presentation, in response to the instruction, of a visual indication in association with the second value, the visual indication indicating that the second value is a fixed value, reception of a second instruction to refresh the spreadsheet, and in response to the second instruction, determination of one or more of the plurality of values of the spreadsheet, each of the determined one or more of the plurality of values presented in association with a visual indication indicating that the value is a fixed value, and transmission of the determined one or more of the plurality of values and a request to refresh the spreadsheet to the planning application.