Variables
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Ethan Gorman
I love using the custom formula feature! It would be great if right in the same interface there was an option to save the output as a global or maybe page scoped variable. For a simple example lets say I calculate the total manufacturing costs of an item I had made just by using transaction categories. It cost $10,000 total and I made 1000 things. I calculate the cost per item as $10. It would be great in more complex scenarios to now take the result of my calculation and use it elsewhere.
Shawn Cao
Hey Ethan! Thanks for chiming in, this is exactly what Xiao Hu and I discussed yesterday, please expect some page level reusable variable management on Fina soon.
I just want to take a chance to do a quick survey here: I thought it's difficult to discover and learn formula feature, and we don't have good tutorial yet.
So could you help me understand:
- how you discover the feature, learned it, and mastered it?
- How difficult is the process?
- Do you see any specific obstacle during the learning process?
Answers can be short, I just want to see a fresh perspective on this!
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Ethan Gorman
Hey Shawn!
I think I just found it clicking around a bit, it's right where all the important actions and settings are for blocks I couldn't miss it.
The process was straight forward, I don't remember spending any time figuring it out although I haven't done any formulas beyond basic +-/*, if additional operations are available I haven't tried them. I think I didn't notice the view variable option for a little, but once I did, that feature is awesome to quickly change manual variables. You guys made everything very intuitive, nicely done! I think it'd be awesome to keep extending the capabilities here, bringing in more excel sort of functionality but with the simple data connections, automatic syncing, and way better looking UI.
No obstacles that I can remember except for reusing the variables! Again just hoping to eventually calculate something in one block and use it in another.
Thanks for the hard work, this app really is the only way my scattered brain has gotten business finances together finally, it's been a huge help.
Shawn Cao
Ethan Gorman this is awesome - thanks a lot for sharing all these valuable insights!