What-if in Delphi

I want to present the user with a Profit & Loss statement( sales - expenses = profit) and give the user the ability to change the sales revenue and/or expenses to see the impact on profit. Instead of porting this data to an Excel spreadsheet, I would like to know the best way to do this within a Delphi application. What configuration would be best here? A custom grid? If not, what do you recommend? Thank you.

Have you thought about using Excel instead of a specialized program?

I'm looking into using Excel. The About site has a good article on accessing an Excel spreadsheet with delphi, for the purpose of doing analysis in the spreadsheet.
It would be more convenient for Users if they didn't need to have Excel and have it running.
Thanks for your feedback.

If you do not want to use the Excel ActiveX server in a Delphi form,
take a look at the grids available at
TMS Software

Clive

Well, that depends. Where are the data stored? Will the user add sales and/expenses in order to get a desired "profit" figure? Will this data be intered into the database or whatever you're using? So far, the only three things you've told us about are Sales , Expenses, and Profit. Perhaps a more complete statement about the over all task you are trying to implement would help.

I plan to store the data in an Access database and want to do the analysis in Delphi. The About Delphi Programming site has a good article on Accessing and Managing Data in Excel and I may have to go that way. Before that, I'd like to see if there is a way to do it without Excel, which Users would need to have running.

Is there any particular reason you want to do the programming in Delphi? As a learning experience perhaps?

I believe the whole task could be accomplished in Access itself, perhaps with some VBA code.

Or do you want to train people on how to "cook the books"?

[FONT=Comic Sans MS] Yes and No!
Yes: I'm trying to learn Delphi and it's a good exercize.

No: There are too many people right now, who already know how to cook the books.
Thanks.[/FONT]

Let's see. Assume we have the following:

Sales: $100.00
Expenses: $200.00
=====
Loss: ($100.00)

I can look at this and say to myself: "Self, I need $100 more in sales to break even. If I get $200 more in sales, I will make $100 profit."

I don't need a computer program to tell me this.

Very true Russ, but this elementary example doesn't give any information about what is causing the loss. The analysis will be a lot more complex.