06.01 Background to Advanced Calculations

Overview

FastClose includes a powerful calculation engine that allows you to create new values directly within your report — not just simple formulas like A = B + C, but multi‑dimensional logic that respects the shape and structure of the report.

In this section, we’ll build on the earlier Simple Calculations session and introduce more advanced concepts, including:

• Conditional Calculations

• Cross Dimensional Expressions

• Simple calcs based on attributes

• Variable‑based calculations

• Bucket‑based calculations

• Two‑pass calculations

• Calculation priority

Before diving into these topics, it helps to understand how FastClose thinks about data and how calculations are applied across the grid.

Here is a video, or read below.

How FastClose Views the Report Grid

Every number in a FastClose grid represents the intersection of one item from every dimension in the report.

For example, consider the following report built from GL Balances:

The first three columns (Department, Division, Account) are placed on the down axis, and the next columns (Year, Period, Measures) are placed on the across axis.

This means each numeric cell corresponds to a specific combination of:
Department × Division × Account × Year × Period × Measure

So the value 7,214.56 in the top row represents:

• Department: Chicago

• Division: Corporate

• Account: Default Purchase Expenses

• Year: 2011

• Period: 8

• Measure: Actual consolidated amount

Each other number represents a different intersection of these same six dimensions.

Why This Matters for Calculations

When you reference a dimension item — e.g., Period 8 — you’re not referring to one cell.
You are referencing all cells belonging to Period 8 across all other dimensions.

In this example, Period 8 appears twice (Actual and Budget), both in 2011.
So a calculation referring to “Period 8” implicitly applies to all those cells.

One FastClose Calculation = Many Excel Formulas

A key idea:

Imagine you want some new columns for Quarter 3 (shown in yellow) below:

Excel Approach

You would manually create formulas for each yellow cell, e.g.:

• For Q3 Actual:
  J4 = D4 + F4 + H4

• For Q3 Budget:
  K5 = E5 + G5 + I5

You’d repeat this across the entire sheet — lots of formulas, positioned correctly, and prone to copy‑paste errors over time.

FastClose Approach

You write one expression:

Quarter 3 = Period 7 + Period 8 + Period 9

FastClose automatically:

• Creates a new member (“Quarter 3”) in the Period dimension

• Places it correctly in the across axis

• Generates both the Actual and Budget Q3 columns

• Applies the expression to all intersections of the other dimensions

• Handles maintenance and positional alignment for you

This is the core advantage:
A single calculation expression drives all the individual cell‑level results.

Where We Go Next

With that foundation, we can now move into more advanced concepts:

• Conditional calculations — where the default cell‑level expression is replaced or suppressed for specific intersections

• Cross‑dimensional expressions — where the terms for specific cells are pulled from different dimensional intersections

• And later, attributes, variables, buckets, and two‑pass logic

These advanced features build on the same idea:
FastClose generates a large number of cell‑level expressions, but you control how those expressions behave.

Summary

The key takeaway:

Understanding this mental model makes the advanced calculation concepts that follow, easier to grasp.