🔍 FormulaLens
📣 What this app will do for you
This app will take a pasted sheet where a cell's SUM formula totals $1,240 and turn it into a plain-language explanation of how $1,240 was calculated. It's your Explain how a spreadsheet result is calculated — built for exactly that job.
You inherited a spreadsheet and one number matters. Paste it, pick the result cell, and FormulaLens traces the formula back to its inputs — so you can check the number instead of trusting it.
$149 one-time.
Buy FormulaLens — $149 one-time
Sign in with an account that owns FormulaLens to open the tool.
Fictional examples — a supported trace, and an unsupported case
⚠️ Fictional examples, not customer results. Both traces below are the real output of FormulaLens's own evaluator on made-up sheets, so you can see what an explanation looks like before you buy.
Supported formula trace
Made-up sheet (headers = row 1): Item | Unit price | Quantity | Line total — Widget | 10 | 3 | =B2*C2 — Gadget | 25 | 2 | =B3*C3 — Total | | | =SUM(D2:D3)
Explaining D4: formula =SUM(D2:D3) → result 80.
How it was calculated: D2 =B2*C2 → 30 (from B2 = 10, C2 = 3); D3 =B3*C3 → 50 (from B3 = 25, C3 = 2); SUM(D2:D3 (D2=30, D3=50)) → 80; D4 =SUM(D2:D3) → 80. No hardcoded numbers inside these formulas.
Unsupported case — reported, never guessed
Made-up sheet: Item | Price — Widget | 10 — Lookup | =VLOOKUP(A2). Explaining B3: could not be evaluated — "function VLOOKUP is not in v1's defined set (SUM, AVERAGE, MIN, MAX, COUNT, IF) — it is reported here, not guessed". FormulaLens does not invent a value for a function outside its defined set.
What FormulaLens is — and is not
- It is a reviewer for one result cell: paste one sheet as CSV, pick the cell, and read its dependency trace, its contributing inputs, and any hardcoded numbers inside its formulas.
- Its formula set in v1 is defined, not open-ended: SUM, AVERAGE, MIN, MAX, COUNT, IF, and + - * / arithmetic with cell references and ranges, plus parentheses and comparisons as IF conditions. Anything outside that set is reported as unevaluatable — never guessed.
- It is not Excel. Results are computed by FormulaLens's own evaluator from your pasted data. Multi-sheet workbooks, .xls files, macros, external links, charts, and functions outside the v1 set are not supported. For .xlsx uploads only the first sheet is read.
- It does not store your workbook. Each explanation is computed in memory from your paste or upload and then discarded. Nothing is saved to your account and nothing is shared with another account.
- Hardcoded numbers are flagged, not fixed. A number typed inside a formula (like the 1.1 in =A1*1.1) will not change when you change an input cell. FormulaLens points at it; deciding whether it belongs there is the reviewer's job.