Use sum and working lines
Add extra details to your worksheets to help you complete your budget data entry.
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Add extra details to your worksheets to help you complete your budget data entry.
Last updated
Was this helpful?
Sometimes, your budget values are made up of details not shown in the Profit and Loss statement. You can use sum or working lines to include this detail in the Main tab. Then, you and your team can see the breakdown of where money is coming from or going to and get answers to your questions straight away.
Sum and working lines are great for starting your budget and adding basic details and calculations. However, if you don’t want your Main budget tab to have such detail or if one working line drives multiple budget rows, use a instead.
Sum lines automatically calculate budget values. The values in the sum lines sum up to the main (parent) row. Sum lines are handy for expense accounts, such as office supplies and maintenance, that typically have supporting schedules managed elsewhere (external spreadsheet). Rather than viewing only the total value in the budget and looking elsewhere for the details, you can use sum lines to view the breakdown of the total right underneath the main budget row. For example, you might have a row for the Maintenance expense with multiple sum lines underneath for the cost of painting, roof replacement, and so on.
Working lines are more versatile than sum lines, and you can use them in two ways: add the data for information purposes or reference the data in formulas in the main budget row. Working lines are particularly handy for managing budget items based on a percentage of another item. For example, you might budget 2% of sales for your Advertising expense. You can enter the percentage into the working line and use a formula to calculate the expense, referencing the percentage and the Sales value. Then, if the sales value increases, the Advertising expense increases automatically.
Find the row for which you want to add the line. Hover over the first column of that row, click the blue Add button that displays, then select Working line or Sum line.
Then select either Working line or Sum line as required.
Use the search box to quickly find the rows for which you want to add lines.
Select the applicable rows, then use either of these methods:
Click the Row menu, then select Working line or Sum line.
Hover over the first column of any selected rows, click the blue Add button that displays, then select Working line or Sum line.
In the Add [sum or working] lines window, enter a name for the sum line and click Apply. If you want to add a working line instead, click the toggle button to switch the sum line to a working line, then click Apply.
You don't have the option to apply a custom format to sum lines because it sums up to its parent row.
Expand the sum/working line, then hover over the first column of that row to display the Delete button. Click the Delete button, then click Delete to confirm.
Suppose your Insurance budget item is made up of three types of insurance items that aren’t individually accounted for in the Profit and Loss but you want to budget for each type of insurance, as these costs are expected to be incurred.
Add a sum row for each type of insurance, then enter the values in the applicable cells. The values in the Insurance account row automatically update to reflect your additions. You can no longer edit the main budget row, as it is effectively “driven” off the new sum rows.
Suppose your Interest Expense budget item is a function of the current loan balance and a variable interest rate.
As the loan balance will change each month (increasing by the interest change and reducing by any repayments), use a formula in the second Loan Balance cell to calculate the loan balance value (= Loan Balance + Repayments + Interest Expense), then copy all rows forward to populate the remaining cells.
Now if you change the interest rate or repayments amount, the system will automatically update the Interest Expense values.
Click the menu button (three dots) at the start of the working line and define your custom format. See for more information.
Add three working rows, one each for the loan balance, repayments and interest rate. Next, use a formula in the first Interest Expense cell to calculate the loan balance across the 12-month period (= Interest Rate * Loan Balance / 12), then .
The following videos are segments of the PUG Training session: Budgets & Forecasts 101 – expenses. Watch the full session and others in the Budgets & Forecasts series .
: This video shows how to add two working lines and refer to them in a formula to calculate the value of the Digital Marketing expense.
: This video shows how to add two working lines to multiple like rows in the budget simultaneously, then refer to the lines in a formula to calculate the value of the Digital Marketing expense. It also shows how to use the copy forward and copy down features to quickly populate the Digital Marketing expense rows, and change the measure format of the working lines to view decimal points.
: This video shows how to add sum lines for three events under the Trade Show expense to automatically calculate the total expense value.
