Complex Calculations

You know how to do more complex calculations in Microsoft Excel, like multi-level rollups, present value calculations, net present value projections for investments and many others.
You wish to use the results created in these calculations in Insight Tree. So this may be your favorite help page.

The solution Resell 3rd party product seems to create a fairly attractive income. But the decision will not only include the investment, but also running costs to purchase the goods before we can sell them. To calculate this you can right mouse click the payoff value and select "Edit payoff (advanced)"

Insight Tree: Advanced options to calculate a payoff

Please note for payoffs:

Allways use...
Positive numbers			Negative numbers
...for cash inflows, including:			...for cash outflows, including:
	-	Revenues, profits, return on investment		-	Investments, project costs
	-	Cost savings		-	Running costs, cost increases, losses
	-	Increases in private or organizational assets		-	Decreases in private or organizational assets
	-	Other benefits which you can describe in monetary values		-	Other disadvantages which you can describe in monetary values

The payoff can now be calculated easily as the income from the sales minus any costs, e.g. for buying the product from a supplier.

Insight Tree: Simple payoff calculation via benefit - cost

This simple calculation might not be sufficient for more complex costing scenarios. If you are using Microsoft Excel as your spread sheet software this should be no problem to you. You simply import the payoff value from an Excel spreadsheet ...

Insight Tree: Calculating advanced payoffs through links with spreadsheet software

...by clicking :

Select Microsoft Excel Workbook as the Datasource and then click to select your file.

The best is if the cell containing the value has a name (you can assign names in Microsoft Excel by using the menu Insert - Name - Define...). In this case you choose the name from the list of named cells in the Excel workbook.

Insight Tree: Link to a cell in a spreadsheet file

Using named cells allows you to later edit the spreadsheet by inserting or deleting or moving cells, rows and columns, and Decision Tree will still find the right cell - as long as you did not change the name.

You can also link to cells using their address (Row and Col). In this case you have to choose the worksheet first and then the cell.

Insight Tree: Links to spreadsheets may also be done using cell row/column addresses, but take care when you change the spreadsheet

You might find it helpful that you can change the size of the import window by dragging its frame.

To view or update your links select menu File - External data..., select the link and click "Refresh"...

Insight Tree: Links to spreadsheet files can be monitored and updated

Insight Tree will also ask you if external data should be updated whenever you re-open the file.

This function allows you to do the most complex calculations in Excel including Net Present Value projections over several years and using their results in your decision trees.

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