Note: If you are new to using the Report Builder, read this article first. It's part of the Certificate Course and includes an introduction and hands-on practice exercises.

You can use the Report Builder to add calculated columns and rows to your report. While you could achieve the same result by adding columns or rows with Excel formulas directly in the spreadsheet, there are advantages of doing it with the Report Builder. 

Report Builder Calculated Rows and Columns advantages:

• When you refresh or change your report, rows get added and removed automatically as needed.
• It eliminates the risk of introducing typos from manual Excel formulas.
• Datarails applies financial modeling best practices by using IFERROR() formulas and conditional formatting.
• You can save the entire report as a template in Datarails, including the added calculations. This allows you to easily edit and replicate it in the future. 

How to add calculated rows and columns

Open the Report Builder, and click on the calculator icon (circled below):

In this example, we want to add a column that calculates the difference between the accounts in 2022 and 2021. 

The box below "Name" is used to enter the formula for the calculation.

Start by typing the name of a column that already exists in the report. In this case, we type "20" and Datarails shows the available columns [2022] and [2021].

Complete the formula ([2022]-[2021]), select the position of the column and click Save.

The resulting report looks like this:

Finally, click Save & Publish to Excel. Note how Datarails created dynamic formulas with IFERROR() added to ensure proper formatting.

Here is a video that shows the process of adding a calculated column from start to finish:

If you have any questions that weren’t addressed by this article, please reach out to the Support Team via support@datarails.com. We are happy to help.