Balances and corkscrews

Most balances in financial models are so-called corkscrews. They have an opening value, flows in and out, and a closing balance which is the total of the opening and the flows.

But there are other types of balance too. Openbox allows three types.

First, the standard corkscrew as above.

You can also specify that any other calculation is actually a balance. Suppose you have accounts receivable, which is calculated based on creditor days and revenue. It isn’t a corkscrew, but should be treated as a balance when aggregating on the balance sheet.

Just right click on any calculation block to specify that it is actually a balance.

Finally, Openbox assumes that anything that is the sum of other balances is itself a balance. You don’t need to tell it this.