🥇Best Practices

How to best work in the SmartModel™ (without breaking anything!)

Excel is a magical tool in part because of its immense flexibility. But to preserve your sanity and allow a machine (the Drivepoint Add-In) to work properly, there are a few restrictions that have to been enforced:

1. Don't Delete Rows, Columns or Tabs. In general, don't delete rows or columns in your model. If you really don't want to see something, use the native Excel options to Group or Hide rows or columns instead. Avoid deleting tabs unless you created them and know for certain they're not "wired" into the model in some way (e.g. if you created a quick scratch tab).

2. Don't Insert New Columns. Adding columns is a no-no, since the model and Add-In expect certain data to appear in certain specific columns. Column structure is protected by default to help make sure this doesn't happen by accident. If you need to insert columns for a specific reason, please contact us for support and we're happy to help find a solution.

3. Column B is for Drivepoint. Our add-in uses Column B to read your model and move the right data in and out of your sheets. Don't manipulate the data in this column unless you know exactly what you're doing.

And so you don't think it's all doom and gloom, the following operations are totally safe:

1. Add (Whole) Rows Wherever You Want. You can add whole rows to create calculations and notes without fear. Adding rows is almost guaranteed to be a safe operation. Go for it!

2. Add Any Tabs Any Time. Add tabs to your heart's content for scratch calculations or quick schedules. If you're building a more permanent schedule or something you'd like to integrate with the Drivepoint system, your sheet will need to adhere to the Drivepoint schedule spec and be registered with the model - just give us a shout and we're happy to help with this.

Hit us up! When in doubt about any operation in the model, just ask! Slack your account rep or email us via [e-mail].