Comments on: Change Named Constants in VBA

By: Kirk

Kirk — Sat, 12 Nov 2005 17:07:00 +0000

Dick,

You may need to set up a "finalize" or "close out" procedure to activate after the invoice has been completed. I assume the invoices are saved as separate files. If so, a procedure that converts the formulas to hard numbers would prevent you unwanted updating problem. Be sure to include a safe stop that prevents the original master file from being "finalized.

By: Doug Glancy

Doug Glancy — Sat, 12 Nov 2005 03:52:00 +0000

On second thought, I guess the second one won’t work with what you describe, because of the issue of regenerating the invoice at a later date, after a possible rate change.

By: Doug Glancy

Doug Glancy — Sat, 12 Nov 2005 01:04:00 +0000

Dick,

It sounds like you only use each constant once in a sheet. If that's true, I think it would be more direct to just put the values from your external file into named ranges in the sheet like
Me.Range("StateTaxRate").Value = udtTxGrp.dStateRate/100*StateFactor(sTaxIdFromJob, udtTxGrp)

Or you could do a lookup and then hard-code the cell value like
Me.Range("StateTaxRate").Value = Me.Range("StateTaxRate").Value

Is that any better?

By: Dick Kusleika

Dick Kusleika — Fri, 11 Nov 2005 14:51:00 +0000

Are you guys saying that I should manually key in the tax rates in a separate table? I already have the tax rates in an external table (accounting system). If I have them separately in Excel, then I’ll have to change them in two places, and that ain’t happening.
I could create external data tables (2) on other sheets and use lookups, but I don’t know if that’s better than what I have. When do I refresh the external data tables? On Open? If I open an invoice from a year ago, and the rates have changed, then the invoice won’t be right. Now, the rate will only change if I change the job id. How many jobs should I include in the external data table? All of them? Even the ones that have been closed for five years?

By: Toad

Toad — Fri, 11 Nov 2005 04:50:00 +0000

I’m no Excel guru. I’m just a tax lawyer. I always put my tax rates in lookup tables because the rates change all the time. (I was going to say that the rates change “constantly”, but that seemed oxymoronic. Or something.)

By: Tom

Tom — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 14:20:00 +0000

I would use a lookup table as well, with one column for StateRate and another for CityRate. The formula could sum the two rates to calculate the applicable rate.

By: Alan

Alan — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 01:30:00 +0000

I would suggest having a table in the workbook and use lookups which would be based on the province / country if that is required.

More common situation for me at least is with respect to currencies and cross rates to NZD against AUD, GBP, EUR, USD, JPY, RMB etc. Sometimes a client will come back and say that, for example, transactions with China will use USD rather than RMB which means I just change the rates for that country.

HTH,

Alan.

By: Doug Glancy

Doug Glancy — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 00:48:00 +0000

I think I’d just show the state tax rate on the invoice in a celll with a lookup to another sheet with the various rates.