FAQ – Troubleshooting Formulas and Macros

Added Value for Your Day-to-Day Work

Formulas and macros save valuable time in a real estate agent’s day-to-day work—for example, when automatically calculating the rent including utilities, determining the sales tax on the brokerage commission, or generating dynamic text in property listings and emails. However, if a formula does not produce the desired result but remains as illegible code, this hinders work processes.

This FAQ provides you with a practical reference that will help you fix syntax and notation errors in just a few minutes, even without any programming knowledge.

Requirements

• User rights: To edit calculation formulas in fields (field formulas), you need administrator rights or access to the administration area.
• To customize macros in templates, you need write permissions for the Template Manager (Edit → Templates / Files).

The 3 Golden Rules

1. Field names ALWAYS go in square brackets:
   Always use [kaufpreis], never kaufpreis or _kaufpreis.
2. Always separate decimal numbers with a period:
   The system only recognizes the period as a decimal separator for mathematical operations: 3.5 instead of 3,5.
3. Formulas begin with an equals sign:
   In calculation fields, every mathematical expression must begin with = (e.g., =[kaltmiete]+[nebenkosten]).

Common Problems & Solutions

Problem 1: Formula remains as text (e.g., _calculate(…))

• Symptom:
  In the generated email, document, or field value, you see the formula in plain text, for example: _calculate(FIXED([kaufpreis], 2)) or _if([status] == “active”; “yes”; “no”).
• Important:
  A formula that has stopped working never means that the macro is missing or that the system is defective. There is always a formula or syntax error within the macro.

Possible Causes & Immediate Help:

• Missing square brackets: Was _calculate(FIXED(kaufpreis, 2)) written? Enclose the field name in square brackets: [kaufpreis].
• Invalid field identifier: The field does not exist or contains a typo. Check the exact system name under Settings → Administration → Input Fields.
• Comma instead of period: 19,0 causes the calculation to be terminated. Use 19.0.

Problem 2: Formula doesn’t calculate correctly even though the numbers are correct

• Symptom:
  The field remains blank or returns 0 or #VALUE!.
• Cause:
  • For custom fields, the visible label text was used instead of the internal field name.
  • The formula does not begin with an =.
• Solution:
  Use the technical field identifier. For additional fields created administratively, this would be, for example, [ind_2728_Feld_ObjIndividualCategoryFields83].

Problem 3: Combination of formula and macro fails

• Symptom:
  A formula such as _calculate(FIXED([kaufpreis]*(100+_Mehrwertsteuer)/100; 2)) terminates prematurely or returns no result.
• Why this happens:
  Macros such as _Mehrwertsteuer often output preformatted text (e.g., “19%” or “19,00” with a comma). A mathematical system cannot perform calculations using percentage signs or commas.
• Recommended Solutions:
  • Solution A (Recommended): Use only numeric fields for calculations:
    =FIXED([kaufpreis]*(100+[mehrwertsteuer_prozent])/100; 2)
  • Solution B: First perform the calculation and then apply the formatting separately:
    _calculate([kaufpreis]*(100+[mehrwertsteuer_prozent])/100)