As we were all told in school math classes, there is no use in just showing the answer, you need to show how you got to the answer!
The same principle applies to financial reports. Readers of your reports will often want to know how you arrived at that result. If they are not interested in the workings and just want the bottom line, that is okay too – they can just read the report without getting involved in the details.
Sage Intelligence has an amazing feature that allows you to distribute your reports. This provides an easy way to share your reports. To keep your privacy and security in mind, when distributing a report your formulas have been converted into hard values (numbers).
For example:
Original Report:
Distributed Report:
If you format the cells containing formulas as Locked (protected), then turn the Protection for the worksheet on, the formulas will be preserved when you distribute the file. Don’t worry about other users interfering in your workings, Excel will request a password to be set.
- Right-click on the cell containing your formula (you can also select multiple cells at once, then right-click).
- Select Format Cells.
- Select the Protection tab and then lock the cell/s, by ticking the Locked box.
- Now click OK.
- You can now decide whether you’d like to protect the whole workbook, or just the worksheet you’re working with.
- From the Review tab, select either Protect Sheet or Protect Workbook.
7. The final step is to set a password for the workbook. This password can be distributed to any users who you would like to be able to edit your workbook formulas.
- Ensure that the Structure checkbox is selected, then type a password in the field provided.
- Now click OK and save your workbook.
And there you have it. Your workbook with its password protected worksheets is now ready for distribution.
Readers of your workbook can see how you arrived at your final figures and you still have control to ensure there are no alterations.
