Do you have an Excel report or graphs that need to be emailed to various people every month? We can use Excel automation features to do this task quite easily.
The inspiration – A client request for Excel Email Solution
The idea for this came from a recent project I did for a client. They wanted me to build an Excel workbook which shows latest sales summary and then allows them to email the snapshot to the relevant people in one click.
Here is a snapshot of the solution I created for them (with dummy data):
- You select a product and see the dynamic report
- Pick the person who will receive the report (from drop-down list)
- Click on the “Send email” button to send the email
The ingredients – What we need
Here, I am using 3 main ingredients.
- A report created in Excel 365
- Office Scripts to generate the email contents and trigger the mail process
- Power Automate flow to send the email
Below is a schematic of the whole process.
The Recipe – How to send emails from Excel
The actual recipe is a bit detailed and harder to explain in text only format. So I made a video with the whole thing. Watch it here or on my YouTube channel. I have included the key steps as text below too.
Scripts & Instructions:
We can send either text or images as the email. In our case, I have both text content and images. The images come from a grouped object named Group 5.
GenerateReport Script:
Go to your “Automate” ribbon in Excel and click on “New Script” button.
In the script window, paste below script and customize the names as needed (refer to the video for explanation on the script).
function main(workbook: ExcelScript.Workbook):myOutput {
// Your code here
let ws = workbook.getWorksheet("Report");
let repGroup = ws.getShape("Group 5");
const repImage = repGroup.getImageAsBase64(ExcelScript.PictureFormat.png);
const emailSubject = ws.getRange("c2").getText();
const sendTo = ws.getRange("I22").getText();
console.log(emailSubject);
console.log(sendTo);
return {repImage,emailSubject,sendTo};
}
interface myOutput {
repImage: string;
emailSubject: string;
sendTo: string;
}
Set up the Power Automate Flow
- Go to Power Automate website and login with your credentials
- Create a new instant cloud flow
- Set the trigger as “When HTTP request is received”
- Add “Run Script” step in Excel
- Add Send an email (v2) step
- Set up the flow as depicted below.
Obtain the Trigger URL
- Save your flow
- Now go back the “trigger” step (step 1 of your flow)
- Make sure you set the method to GET
- Expand and copy the URL.
Back to Excel to make one more Script
We are nearly done. We just need to add one more script & a button in our sales report so that we can initiate the flow from Excel.
Add one more script in Excel and use the below code.
function main(workbook: ExcelScript.Workbook) {
// Your code here
const triggerURL = "___YOUR TRIGGER URL___";
let request = new XMLHttpRequest();
request.open("GET", triggerURL, false);
request.send(null);
}
- Save your script.
- From “Code Editor” click on the options menu for your script and use the “Add Button” to add a button on Excel worksheet.
- Whenever you click on this button, your flow will start.
Other ways to Automate this:
We can also use VBA to create & send emails automatically. I have previously written about that approach too. Read this article for VBA Excel Email Sender.
VBA vs. Office Script approach – which is better?
Both technologies offer automation. I have summarized the pros & cons of each technology below.
As of 2023 March, my preference is to use VBA for things like Email automation as it is easy to control and deploy.
VBA
VBA Pros:
- Works in any version of Excel
- Easy to learn, easy to code
- Lots of help & resources
- Very old and stable language base
- Works with Excel, Office & Windows Objects & API
VBA Cons:
- Can't use with Web / Mobile version of Excel
- Not easy to integrate with Cloud platforms (Power Automate, Sharepoint etc.)
- Security problems
Office Script
Office Script Pros:
- Works on Web / Mobile versions too
- Integrates with cloud platforms (Power Automate etc.)
- Future ready technology
Office Script Cons:
- No easy help or resources
- Hard language to learn and master
- Doesn't work in older versions of Excel
- Can't use all objects of Excel. Will not work with Windows API etc. too
- Needs costly subscription plans to use
- Runs on server, thus no control and susceptible to downtimes etc.
Thanks to Mark Proctor
I got the idea for URL trigger from Mark Proctor. Thanks Mark for the fantastic work 🙂
Got questions?
Do you have any questions reg. this implementation. Post a comment so that our community can help you.
15 Responses to “Modeling Interest During Construction (IDC) – Excel Project Finance”
Thanks again for a very helpful post.
I had a similar problem when trying to model a balance sheet and profit and loss projection. The problem was that interest expense (in P&L) was dependent on a cash shortfall (in BS) which had to be funded. The cash shortfall depended on how much interest was paid, so the mutual dependency made a circular reference.
I addressed it with a macro that calculated interest outside of the P&L, then pasted the calculated amount into the P&L as a value. The model was out of balance, but by repeating the pasting and calculating loop the imbalance reduced to zero. It was a bit messy, and had to be repeated every time a line changed - but it worked.
If I have to do it again I'll read this article again first and see if it can be done more elegantly.
Hi,
The use of a circular reference can be avoided in this case. Just make use of the geometric sum to calculate the interest required. I’ll walk through the example from the spreadsheet.
First calculate the cash needed each year without the interest expense. So you year 1 you need 55 Mn, year 2 105 Mn, and 190 Mn for year 3. The total amount to borrow for year 1 is then (50 Mn)/(1-interest_rate) = (50)/(1-0.1). For years 2 and subsequent the amount borrowed is the cash needed in that year plus the interest_rate times the amount already borrowed. For year 2 (105 + interest_rate * sum(previous debt raised))/(1-interest_rate)=(105+0.1*61.1)/(1-0.1).
This process avoids the need for a circular reference, and makes the calculation more stable.
Thanks,
Tristan
The question is for the year 1 in your case, the amount works out to 45 mn. However in the year 2 you have applied the loan amount as 61.1 mn.
Am I missing something ! Please help !
very helpful information!!!
using circular references and to make model more stable we can use combination of "IF" and "ISERROR" functions. i.e
=if(iserror(formula1),"",(formula1))
this formula will return blank value if there is any error otherwise give the result required.
I usually use this in my models and it makes them very stable......
🙂 🙂 🙂
@Terry: Thats right. Exactly same problem is seen in Interest - Cash cycle in P&L and Cash Flow statement as well. In our trainings on financial modeling in excel, we demonstrate using both the circular loops as well as the macros to take care of this problem. Circular loops have their own pitfalls. If the model enters into a state of error, the error percolates!
@Tristan: Thanks for pointing out. I agree with you that if circular loops can be avoided, they should be avoided.
@Yogesh: This is one way of avoiding the problem. Although circular loops have another problem that they make your sheet slower. Each time, there is a change in the sheet, all the calculations are redone. So if they can be avoided, they should be avoided.
Please note that this was an example (a large one indeed) and I didn't have space to speak about the pitfalls of this approach! I just wanted to illustrate an approach and am glad that some of you found it useful!
I think while posting, there is an error in the images! The last image should be flipped with the one that is posted in step VII!
I think you can try the following simple solution given by Microsoft itself to make the circular works:
Windows: Excel Options -> Formulas -> Put a tick on "Enable iterative calculation"
Mac: Excel -> Preference -> Calculation ->Put a tick on "Limit iteration"
You can change the maximum number of calculation iterations as well as the maximum changes which iteration stops for goal seeking or for resolving circular references based on the number you type in the maximum change box.
Thank you.
Hey All
I heard that we can take care of the circularity with the help of macro for IDC. Can anybody help on the steps to construct the macro for the same.
Regards
Vinay
Hi Vinay,
If you look closely, you are essentially copying the values from the interest calculation to the IDC in project cost.
Basically you can record a macro, that takes the values from interest and pastes special the values in IDC row in project cost.
Then you can run that recorded code in a for loop.
Hope this helps.
Thanks Param for reply.
But before calculating interest, i need to provide for Upfront Equity and Equity, which are essentially part of total project cost. Hence, i need to put in Upfront Equity and Equity to calculate the IDC which is again hitting the total project cost.
Bit of confused on how to remove this circular reference.
Regards
Vinay
Wow, this was a brilliantly simple post. I was looking online for a while before I found this page. Never seen this been explained so beautifully yet so crisply before. Thanks for saving my ass at work! (i'm relatively new to finance + modeling)
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[…] Project Finance Modeling using Excel – Part 1 & Part 2 […]
I have been reading your blog since my college days. Today, I'm writing just to say thanks.
We have calculated Financial Rate of return of a hydropower projects, and the observer has raised an observation regarding Total Project cost with IDC Rs. 8616.01 million (PKR) and with-out IDC 8352.46 million (PKR). How does the Financial nalysis be calculated on the basis of with-out IDC Or With IDC?????
Please helpf. if possible to spare some time.