Budget scenario comparison

How it works

1. Lay out the assumptions

   Write volume, unit price, and fixed cost as numeric cells. Use number formats to control display without turning numbers into strings.

2. Calculate contribution

   Calculate revenue from volume and price, then contribution from revenue and fixed cost. Call Calculate before rendering so both steps have cached values.

3. Make the inputs visible

   Use blue fills for assumptions and green for results. Export the range before Save closes the workbook package.

This is the complete example file used to generate the download. The walkthrough runner creates the output directory and produces the additional previews.

using System.IO;
using OfficeIMO.Drawing;
using OfficeIMO.Excel;

namespace OfficeIMO.Examples.Showcase.Workflows;

/// <summary>Compares three budget scenarios using calculated cells and editable assumptions.</summary>
internal static class BudgetScenarios {
    internal static void Create(string folder) {
        using ExcelDocument document = ExcelDocument.Create(Path.Combine(folder, "example.xlsx"));
        ExcelSheet sheet = document.AddWorksheet("Scenarios");
        sheet.MergeRange("A1:F1");
        sheet.Cell(1, 1, "Budget scenarios / next quarter");
        sheet.CellFontSize(1, 1, 20);
        sheet.CellBold(1, 1, true);
        sheet.CellFontColor(1, 1, "17365D");
        sheet.MergeRange("A2:F2");
        sheet.Cell(2, 1, "Blue cells are assumptions. Green cells are calculated.");

        string[] headings = { "Scenario", "Units", "Unit price", "Revenue", "Fixed cost", "Contribution" };
        for (int column = 0; column < headings.Length; column++) {
            sheet.Cell(4, column + 1, headings[column]);
            sheet.CellBackground(4, column + 1, "17365D");
            sheet.CellFontColor(4, column + 1, "FFFFFF");
            sheet.CellBold(4, column + 1, true);
            sheet.SetColumnWidth(column + 1, column == 0 ? 25 : 20);
        }
        string[] labels = { "Conservative", "Expected", "Growth" };
        for (int index = 0; index < labels.Length; index++) {
            int row = index + 5;
            sheet.Cell(row, 1, labels[index]);
            sheet.Cell(row, 2, new[] { 800, 1100, 1500 }[index], numberFormat: "#,##0");
            sheet.Cell(row, 3, 85, numberFormat: "#,##0.00");
            sheet.CellFormula(row, 4, $"B{row}*C{row}");
            sheet.Cell(row, 5, 42000, numberFormat: "#,##0");
            sheet.CellFormula(row, 6, $"D{row}-E{row}");
            sheet.FormatCell(row, 4, "#,##0");
            sheet.FormatCell(row, 6, "#,##0");
            foreach (int column in new[] { 2, 3, 5 }) sheet.CellBackground(row, column, "EAF1FB");
            foreach (int column in new[] { 4, 6 }) sheet.CellBackground(row, column, "E7F6ED");
        }
        sheet.MergeRange("A10:F10");
        sheet.Cell(10, 1, "Change volume, price, or fixed cost to compare a different plan.");
        document.Calculate();
        sheet.Range("A1:F12").ExportImage(OfficeImageExportFormat.Png)
            .Save(Path.Combine(folder, "preview.png"), OfficeImageExportFileConflictPolicy.Replace);
        document.Save();
    }
}

Run it from the source checkout

Clone the OfficeIMO repository and run this command from its root with the .NET 10 SDK. The first run restores the example project's dependencies.

dotnet run --project OfficeIMO.Examples -f net10.0 -- --showcase-workflows --showcase-example excel-budget-scenarios

The files are written to OfficeIMO.Examples/bin/Debug/net10.0/Documents/Workflows/excel-budget-scenarios/. To use the example in your application, start with the Excel guide and its package setup.

Continue with another example

• ExcelPricing with named ranges
• ExcelCalculate a six-month forecast
• ExcelA project workbook with a summary