Like many young auditors in their first public accounting roles, I was exposed to rollfowards when reviewing fixed assets and notes payable. Rollforward workpapers included a beginning balance, columns for additions, reductions, adjustments, and an ending balance.
I did not know this at the time, but the rollforward concept would play a prominent role in my education in building driver-based financial models and actionable scorecards for CEOs and their management teams.
Today, if you look at every Quantrix model I’ve built, you’ll find at least one rollward and sometimes several. The concept is that foundational.
Yet, when I built my first couple of rollforwards in Quantrix, I kept making a silly mistake, and I don’t want you to make it. Let me show you.
Modeler’s Notes: Remember, recursive keywords must be applied to categories or item groups; otherwise, you’ll get an error. My favorite tip is to build your own swipe file in Evernote, Notion, or Google Drive to store cheat codes for the occasional errors you make. As you reference these materials, your mastery level will increase.
Don’t forget to log in to access the file if you want to play around with it.
