All the values of that particular line item, in all periods – the ‘whole row’.
You need to apply another function to turn those values into a single number. Most commonly, you’d use SUM or SUMPRODUCT.
EXAMPLES
SUM(ALLVALUES([Cash flow])) is total cashflow over the lifetime of the model – i.e. what would be in the row total.
SUMPRODUCT(ALLVALUES([Operational period flag]), ALLVALUES([Cashflow])) is the total cashflow in the operational period
In the “Openbox” ribbon in Excel, there is a “Check for new version” button. If you click it, Openbox will either tell you that you have the latest version, or tell you that there is an update and offer to install it.
Note that you need to be connected to the Internet to receive updates. If you have issues with receiving them, please check your connection and try again.
The short answer is that you don’t have to. Openbox will automatically convert inputs on calculations that are on (say) a monthly basis to (say) a quarterly basis. It will also convert calculations into the basis required by the reports.
Suppose you have a model that has monthly construction, quarterly operations and financial statements that are annual. You don’t need to do any time conversion yourself – Openbox will handle it for you.
It also respects whether it is working with balances or not. If you take a monthly balance and convert to quarterly, the quarterly figure is the last monthly figure in each quarter. If it’s not a balance, the quarterly figure is the sum of the monthly figures. Openbox takes this into account when consolidating.
Normally, each worksheet has a timeline across the top, and each column represents the same amount of time – a month or a quarter for example. But you can have two timelines on one sheet, where (for example) the first few columns represent months and the rest represent quarters. Openbox calls this a “hybrid” timeline.
To get it, click “Time” then “Settings” and check the “Hybrid timeline” box, as shown below.
This page shows the changes, including new features and bug fixes, in each version of Openbox, starting at v1.9.0. Changes are shown newest first (i.e. the newest version is always at the top).
(versions 1.9.81-1.9.83 used for internal purposes)
(version 1.9.79 was only used for internal testing purposes)
(version 1.9.74 not used)
(version 1.9.68-1.9.70 were not used)
(version 1.9.65 not published)
(Versions 1.9.56-59 unused)
(version 1.9.52 not used)
(version 1.9.48 and 1.9.49 not used)
(version 1.9.44 was not released)
(version 1.9.42 not released)
(versions 1.9.38 and 1.9.39 had issues and were not published)
(Versions 1.9.32-34 were used for internal testing and not published)
We recommend using Openbox on 64-bit Excel, as some users have experienced installation issues with 32-bit Excel on 64-bit Windows 10 or 11.
Here is how to tell what version of Excel you are running:
You should see a title ending with “64-bit”, as shown in the image below.
If you see “32-bit”, and are having issues installing Openbox, you may want to consider upgrading to 64-bit. Click here for advice from Microsoft on how to do this (it is free).
When you create the preview window (e.g. by pressing F9) Openbox reads in the sheets and contents of the Excel formatting template file you chose.
In most cases, this is brought in exactly as in Excel. However, in some cases you may not see everything you expect in the preview.
In particular, shapes (triangles, arrows and so on) are not shown in the preview. In most cases, they will be shown in the built model. However, in some cases, complex shapes (with “custom geometry”) will not appear in the built model.
We are working on a fix for this issue.
After installation, the Openbox menu should appear in the Excel ribbon, as shown above.
If it does not appear, there are a number of possible explanations including: failure to install properly, anti-virus tools blocking install or operation, Excel security settings and out of date Windows files.
First of all, please check that you are running 64-bit Excel (click here for how).
We recommend the following steps:
If this does not work, you can try temporarily disabling your anti-virus software at step 5, and re-enabling after step 6. We scan all Openbox downloads with all major anti-virus tools, before publishing, but there can be issues remaining.
You may also want to check your Excel security settings. In Excel 365, click “File” then “Options”. Then click “Trust Center” and “Trust Center settings”. Click “Add-ins”, and uncheck “Require Application Addins to be signed by a Trusted Publisher” then click OK as many times as needed to get back to Excel.
You may also want to check that your Windows installation is up to date. Please ensure that you have installed the following files from Microsoft:
Download Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1 from Official Microsoft Download Center
Latest supported Visual C++ Redistributable downloads | Microsoft Learn (choose the link in the table row labelled x64).
If you still have issues, please contact us.
Often when creating a model we build sections or calculation blocks and then decide that they aren’t what we need. They should be deleted, but it is easy to forget to do this.
There’s a risk in leaving items in the model that aren’t used. They will quickly become out of date, relative to the rest of the model. If they are used again in future, they may no longer be appropriate for the model’s purpose.
Openbox warns you about any unused items and offers several choices:
When adding two things together, it usually makes more sense if they are the same type. For example, you wouldn’t usually add cashflow to a cash balance, except as part of the cash balance calculation itself.
There are circumstances where this does make sense – such as working out a mid period balance to calculate interest without introducing circularity. But they are relatively rare, and so Openbox warns you if it finds them.
Like most of the warning messages in Openbox, this can be turned off by clicking the “Never” or “Never for this model” button.
