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New Excel add-in

Understand any Excel model
you didn't build.

FormulaMapper is a Microsoft Excel ribbon add-in that reads any workbook you open and answers the questions that take an analyst hours: what does this formula do, what's broken, where are the hidden hardcodes, how clean is this model? - every answer ties back to a cell, so it's auditable, not a black box.

Try it free for 15 days

Pop in your email and we'll send the download link + the 3-step install. Full features for 15 days, then $9.99/mo. Cancel anytime. Windows & Mac.

~460 KBExcel 2016+Mac Excel 16+ No spam · unsubscribe anytime.
Explain
Review Formula
Plain English
Trace
Understand
Onboard
Sheet Map
Contents
Check
Risks
Hardcodes
Score
The Formula Mapper ribbon tab in Excel
Built for the people handed a model they didn't build - FP&A inheritors, deal & audit reviewers, anyone who has to understand and sign off on someone else's spreadsheet. You don't need an enterprise license or a sales call.
See it work

Two features do the heavy lifting.

The Formula Tree makes any single formula readable. The Color Map makes a whole sheet's logic visible. Everything else builds on these two.

Explain · press Ctrl+Q

See the logic, not just the result.

Press Ctrl+Q on any cell and FormulaMapper draws its precedent tree - every operand, function and cross-sheet reference as a node you read top-to-bottom. Understand and visualise a formula's logic in seconds, instead of squinting at five nested levels by hand.

  • Each node shows its live value and role
  • Click a node to highlight the fragment and jump to its cell
  • Drill into any reference to see its formula too
the whole formula, top-down
click a node → jump to its cell
Check · Map Sheet

See the whole sheet at a glance.

Map Sheet colours every cell by what it is - inputs, unique formulas, copied-down, copied-across, text - so the model's structure and formula flow jump off the screen. The odd one out is the cell that's the wrong colour: a broken pattern or a hardcoded number you'd never catch by eye.

  • Visualise how calculations flow across the sheet
  • Inconsistencies and hardcoded cells stand out instantly
  • Map several sheets at once - each keeps its own colour key
every cell coloured by its role
the floating colour key
Group 1 · Explain Read any formula and trace where its numbers come from.
Ctrl+Q

Review Formula

Pops up the active cell's formula and an expandable precedent tree. Each node shows its live value and role; click to highlight that fragment and jump to the source cell, and the formula bar follows you as you go deeper. Drill into a reference to see its formula - and when a range mixes formulas, every distinct one is surfaced so nothing hides.

Why it matters: stop scrolling a 5-level-deep formula by hand.

Group 2 · Understand Get the shape of a whole workbook fast.
The hero feature

Onboarding Brief

For a workbook you didn't build: one click produces a plain-English brief covering what the model does, its key outputs, the calculation drivers, a suggested sheet read-order, and the riskiest cells. It turns "where do I even start?" into a guided tour.

Why it matters: no incumbent does this - it owns the inheritance job.

Structure

Sheet Map + Contents

Renders how the workbook's sheets reference each other as a colour-coded node diagram - hover or click a sheet to light up its relationships. And generates a hyperlinked index of every sheet, named range, and table.

Why it matters: see the architecture before you trust the numbers.

Group 3 · Check Catch the errors before they reach a client or lender.
One panel

Risk Dashboard

Scans the active sheet and lists every quality issue in one panel - circular refs, errors traced to their origin, inconsistencies, hardcodes, broken external links, volatiles, SUM-gaps and sign checks - sorted worst-first. Click any issue to jump to the cell and highlight it.

Why it matters: findings live in the workbook and drive action - not a detached PDF.

Behaviour + hygiene

Stress Test + Compliance Score

Perturbs each input (0, negative, blank, ×10, sign-swap) and reports which outputs break, error, or go negative - automating "save a copy and see what moves." And scores the sheet 0–100 against FAST/SMART-style modelling standards with a grade and concrete recommendations.

Why it matters: checks behaviour, not just structure - the costliest error class.

Share

Export HTML Report

Writes a self-contained HTML quality report next to the workbook and opens it. Shareable with reviewers, auditors, or your team without sending the original file - handy when the model itself is confidential.

Why it matters: a tidy, sendable artifact for sign-off and review.

Group 4 · Review & sign-off Note it, navigate it, sign it off - the collaboration layer an audit actually needs.
Sign-off

Review Panel + Notes

Drop a structured review note on any cell (Ctrl+Shift+N) - category, status and comment. The Review Panel gathers them all with a coverage map, Sign as Preparer / Reviewer, and one-click export - and writes an auditable FM_Review_Notes sheet you can hand to a reviewer.

Why it matters: turn ad-hoc checking into a defensible, signed-off audit trail.

Navigate

Workbook Map + Contents

One menu - Contents, Calc Timing, Object Links. Contents builds a hyperlinked index of every sheet, named range and table, surfacing broken #REF! names so the rot can't hide in a 36-sheet model.

Why it matters: jump anywhere in a huge workbook in one click.

Select

Select by Type

Highlight every Input, Formula, Hardcode or Cross-sheet reference on the sheet in one click - the cells light up so the model's skeleton is visible at a glance.

Why it matters: see inputs vs formulas vs hardcodes instantly.

Also included Smaller tools that round out the kit - all on the same Formula Mapper ribbon.
Explain

Plain-English Explain

Turns the active cell's formula into a plain-English sentence - rule-based and fully offline, so nothing leaves your machine.

Dependents

Trace Dependents + Ask AI

See every cell that depends on the active one - across all sheets - as a tree, so you know the blast radius before you change a number.

Performance

Calc Timing + Object Links

Rank sheets by recalculation time, and reveal which cells feed charts, pivots, data validation and conditional formatting.

Hidden risk

Find Hardcodes + Inconsistencies

Flag numeric literals buried inside formulas, and cells whose formula breaks the pattern of their row or column neighbours.

Find

Power Find

Search the whole workbook by value, formula fragment or pattern - and jump straight to every matching cell across every sheet.

Simple, fair pricing

Prices shown for

Free Trial

15 days
Every feature unlocked · no card needed
  • The full Pro feature set
  • Precedent tree (Ctrl+Q) & trace dependents
  • Onboarding Brief & Risk Dashboard
  • Starts the first time you use it
Download & start trial
Most popular

Pro

- /mo
Billed monthly · cancel anytime · always up to date
  • Everything in the trial, every month
  • Onboarding Brief · Stress Test · Snapshot
  • Risk Dashboard & Compliance Score
  • Compare Versions · hardcode/inconsistency scans
  • Review notes & HTML reports
Start 15-day free trial

Team / Audit

Volume 5+ machines
Same $10 licence · bulk pricing on request
  • Everything in Pro
  • Sign-off coverage export
  • Bulk key issuance
  • Priority support
Talk to us
One fair monthly price - US$9.99/mo, shown in your local currency (pick another above if you like). Licensed per machine; move it to a new computer any time. Cancel anytime. 50% off for students & non-profits.

Install in 3 steps

  1. Download FormulaMapper.xlam (~460 KB) above.
  2. Move the file to your Excel add-ins folder: Windows is typically %AppData%\Microsoft\AddIns\, Mac is ~/Library/Group Containers/UBF8T346G9.Office/User Content/Add-Ins/.
  3. Enable in Excel: File → Options → Add-Ins → Manage: Excel Add-ins → Go… → tick FormulaMapper → OK. The Formula Mapper ribbon tab appears.

Blocked? If Excel says the file is blocked, right-click the .xlam → Properties → tick Unblock → re-enable. Standard for add-ins downloaded from the internet. (We're code-signing the installer to remove this step.)