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Alternative to Indirect when linking to worksheets which change names

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    Question Alternative to Indirect when linking to worksheets which change names

    Hi Excel gurus

    I am trying to find a non-volatile solution to the use of the Indirect function when linking to a worksheets. I have attached a workbook to show you what I am doing

    - The work book is a Consolidated budget for a division that has 3 departments, department A, department B and department C. The division is preparing the annual budget for the year so project managers are meeting with clients and understanding their requirements for the coming year. for example a client may be planning to do 5 projects next year.
    - The Project manager then enters the project name "Example 1" in the "Total Cost" worksheet in column D, selects the cell with the name in it and clicks on the macro "Create budget sheet" which copies the "budget template" and creates it for the project "Example 1"
    - The project manager then completes the budget template for "Example 1" which holds all of the costs from each of the departments A, B and C for each project.
    - These costs are then pulled into the department tabs "A", "B", "C" by using the formula Indirect and summarised in the "Total Cost" tab.

    There are several project managers all feeding into this sheets and 50+ clients resulting in 250+ project names (and therefore that many project sheets being created over the course of several weeks). I have only shown 3 rows in the attached.

    I have therefore used the Indirect formula to link to the new worksheets as and when they are created i.e. the formula is already set up in the sheet for 200+ rows and when a sheet is created, the links are already there to the budget sheet.

    This is causing performance issues because of the use of Indirect formulas in the A B and C tabs. I want this to be a self-serve process so the managers can dip in and out and not have to worry about things like turning auto-calc on and off as it is a shared work book

    Is there an alternative to the Indirect formula that can link into worksheets where the worksheet name is not yet know but will be created by a user in the above way?

    Thanks
    Attached Files Attached Files

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    Re: Alternative to Indirect when linking to worksheets which change names

    You can use an IF statement instead of indirect, but you have to have an IF to cover ALL possible sheets or ranges. That is NOT volatile but kinda messy.
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    Re: Alternative to Indirect when linking to worksheets which change names

    Actually, that is sloppy too. What I do is create a process in which all the data from all the tabs gets aggregated to one DATA tab then you can have a simple vlookup on the aggregated data.

    It makes for a MUCH more simple process. Auditing is easy. Calculations are super simple, but the size of the workbook can get a bit bigger.

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    Re: Alternative to Indirect when linking to worksheets which change names

    Given that you already have macros to create the projects from a template, I'd be inclined to have another macro/macros to consolidate the relevant data into an "all-embracing" worksheet. That would have a one or more rows for each project, each identified by the project number/name and any other "breakdown" details. Make the consolidated data into a Structured Table and you can sort it, filter it, create Pivot Tables and Charts.

    That should make analysis and presentation much more straightforward.

    When you create new project sheets from the template, you could put a flag on a control sheet to indicate that the workbook is "dirty" and the consolidated sheet is not up to date. And the consolidation macro would reset the flag. That could maybe run (automatically) when the workbook is saved or closed.


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    Re: Alternative to Indirect when linking to worksheets which change names

    Thank you for the suggestions folks. I'm not sure how to go about the If method and I'm not very good with creating Macros from scratch (the one in the workbook took hours and a lot of Google time)

    The problem with having a data tab is that the document is dynamic i.e. project details will be reviewed on a regular basis and re-forecast, with projects coming on and dropping off (it would help if the company would invest in a system that was capable of doing all of this!).

    But also, the budget template may represent the cost of one day. Then in the Total Cost tab, the number of days is phased in columns J to U. So the data tab would have to consolidate the details from the budget template several times (i.e. once for each day).

    I wouldn't know where to begin with a Macro like that

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