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Basic concepts

Understand the engine behind Cord. Learn about time series, the Combo formula, time offsets, and the Budget vs. Actual connection.

The anatomy of a Master Budget

In Cord, a “Schedule” is not a unit quote, but a financial matrix. The columns represent periods in time (e.g., Jan 2026, Feb 2026), and the rows represent income or expense line items.

There are two fundamental types of rows in any schedule:

  1. Input Rows (Assumptions): These are the cells where you manually “type” the information. They are used to establish future facts. For example: the units you expect to sell in March, or your starting inventory in January. They are not calculated, they are assumed.
  2. Formula Rows: These are the cells where the engine does its magic. The value of each month in this row is calculated automatically by referencing other rows in the project.

The “Combo” formula engine

To avoid the fragility of Excel spreadsheets (where someone deletes a cell and breaks the entire formula), Cord uses a single, extremely robust mathematical primitive called Combo.

A Combo formula is a sequential weighted sum. It allows you to add, subtract, multiply by percentages, or scale values in a single mathematical rule without needing to write code. Each term of the formula has a coefficient and an operation type:

  • Sum/Subtract: (Row X value * 1) + (Row Y value * -1)
  • Percentage (pct): Multiplies the running total by a percentage defined in another row.
  • Product: Multiplies the running total by the absolute value of another row.

Time Offsets

Cash flow rarely occurs in the same month as the sale. If you close a $100,000 project in January with Net-30 terms, the money will hit the bank in February.

To model this, Cord’s engine includes Offsets. You can tell a formula row: “Take the value from the Sales row, but shift it 1 period forward (Offset: 1)”. This allows you to automatically create real-world collection policies without moving columns by hand.

Cross-references

Companies do not operate in silos, and their budgets shouldn’t either. Cord allows you to link schedules together through cross-references.

  • You can have a Sales Schedule that the commercial team updates.
  • You can have a Collections Schedule that cross-references the final sales row to calculate projected revenue.
  • You can have a Cash Flow Schedule that cross-references the projected revenue and subtracts expenses.

If Sales changes its projection today, the Cash Flow Schedule will instantly update, giving you total corporate visibility.

Budget vs. Actual

Projecting the future is useless if you don’t measure reality. Cord’s engine allows you to connect any row in your budget to the company’s actual transactions.

By detecting the month columns (“Jan 2026”), Cord will automatically cross-reference your expectations with the successful charges processed in Stripe or collected invoices. This way, you will know if your deviation was 5% or 20%, allowing you to steer the ship before it’s too late.