I want to try a different rate in one option without touching the others

The agency asks what the budget looks like if a key rate changes, and Main has to stay exactly as agreed. Each scenario keeps its own Variables, so you change the rate in one scenario and Main and the other options stay as they are. Scenarios are independent by design, which gives you full creative control over every option.

Try the rate in one scenario

1. Create the scenario if the option does not exist yet, as described in The client wants a four-day and a five-day version. Can I avoid five spreadsheets?. Every scenario starts with a copy of the Variables as they stand when you create it.

2. Click anywhere inside that scenario's column to make it the active one.

3. Open the Variables tab. The Variables listed are this scenario's own.

4. Type the new value into the Variable's value box and click away. Every field in this scenario that points at the Variable recalculates, and the sidebar Total shows the new number for this option.

5. Read the scenario column's difference against Main to see what the rate is worth.

Main and the other scenarios keep the values they had. You can run a high-rate option and a low-rate option side by side and compare them without either one disturbing the budget that is agreed.

When the new rate wins

Open Main, go to the Variables tab and type the winning rate into the Variable there. The agreed budget then carries the new rate, and every field pointing at that Variable follows. Whether the other scenarios follow is your call, so you decide column by column.

Good to know

• Editing a Variable while a scenario is active changes that scenario only. Creating a Variable while a scenario is active creates it in that scenario.

• Use the picker under Variables in this Budget to read another scenario's values. It shows Main and a number for each scenario. Make a scenario the active column when you want to edit its values.

• References inside a scenario point at that scenario's own Variables, so the arithmetic in each column agrees with itself.

• A rate that is fixed for the whole job is best set before you create scenarios, because each new scenario starts with the right value.

• Duplicating a whole budget copies its Variables too, and the copy keeps its own from then on.

Related

• The client cut a shoot day. How do I update everything that depends on it?

• Can I reuse my Variables on next year's budget?

• The client wants a four-day and a five-day version. Can I avoid five spreadsheets?

• The version we went with is the variant. Can I make it the main budget?