Review Issues & Flag Cell — ModelxcelPro docs

The scenario

You’ve been handed a model to review. As you read the Assumptions sheet you spot a hardcoded growth rate, a formula that looks off on the P&L, and a label that doesn’t match its column. You don’t want to edit the model — you want to record what you found, tied to the exact cells, and track each item until it’s resolved. That is what Review Issues is for: a per-workbook list of findings that never touches the cells it points at.

Where to find it

ModelXcel Pro tab → Audit group. Two buttons drive the same tracker and the same .mxreview file:

Review Issues (keytip RI) — opens the full tracker window for this workbook.
Flag Cell (keytip FC) — a one-click wrapper: it opens the issue editor prefilled with your current selection so you can log a finding without opening the tracker first.

What an issue records

Each issue pins a cell (or range) and carries:

Field	Values / behavior
Worksheet + Range	Captured from the selection (the `$` signs are stripped). Read-only in the editor — an issue’s location is set when you create it.
Severity	`Info`, `Low`, `Medium`, `High`, `Critical`. Defaults to Medium.
Status	A display name (e.g. `Open`, `In Progress`, `Awaiting Response`, `Resolved`, `Closed`) that maps to one of four canonical states: `Open`, `InProgress`, `Resolved`, `Closed`.
Tag	A free-text label (e.g. “Hardcode”). Optionally auto-filled from the sheet name.
Initials	Reviewer initials (up to 5), defaulted from your Windows user name.
Description + Comment	The finding and any follow-up notes.
Id, Sequence #, Created / Updated	Assigned automatically; timestamps update on every edit.

There is no per-issue “assignee” in the live UI — Initials is how authorship is captured. (A SourceType/SourceKey pair is set automatically when an issue is created from an audit mark or a comparison; you don’t edit those.)

Step by step: logging and working issues

Flag as you go. Select the cell or range, click Flag Cell (FC). The editor opens with the worksheet and range prefilled; set severity, status, tag, and a comment, then click Add Issue. It is recorded only when you click Add Issue — Cancel discards it.
Open the tracker. Click Review Issues (RI) to see every issue for this workbook. Add, edit (double-click or Enter), or delete from here too.
Sort, filter, and search. Issues are grouped by status (Open first), then highest severity, then oldest. Filter by Severity, Status (including “All Open”), or Sheet; or type in the search box.
Jump to the cell. Select an issue and click Go To Cell (or double-click, or Ctrl+G). Excel switches to the sheet, expands any collapsed outline groups around the cell, selects the range, and tints it green so you can see it.
Resolve. Change an issue’s status as you work it. There is no separate “resolve” button — you set the status to a Resolved- or Closed-mapped value (and can filter to “All Open” to hide them).

The grid

The tracker is a read-only grid with columns Id, Worksheet, Range, Severity, Status, Initials, Tag, Description, Created, and a Visible checkbox (hiding an issue is not the same as deleting it). The search box matches substring on Id, Tag, Description, Comment, and Initials — but the cell address is matched exactly (searching B5 finds B5, not B50 or B500). Use the Sheet filter to narrow by worksheet.

Go To Cell — what actually happens

Navigation does three reviewer-friendly things beyond a plain jump: it activates the target sheet, expands collapsed outline groups (up to several nested levels) so a hidden cell becomes visible, and tints the target with a light green fill (#7DC57E) so you can spot it. That green is a navigation aid held in memory: the cell’s original fill is snapshotted and restored when you jump to the next issue or close the tracker.

The Go To green is restored on close — not part of the save-strip

Unlike the Highlight Issues lens, the Go-To green is not wired into the before-save neutralization. In normal use it is cleared the moment you navigate away or close the form, so it never reaches disk. But if the tracker is killed abnormally while a cell is still green, that one fill can remain — re-open the tracker and navigate (or clear the cell’s fill) to restore it.

What changes in Excel — and what does not

Your cells do not change. Logging, editing, or deleting an issue records data in the workbook’s issue set only; it never alters a cell’s value, formula, or formatting. The only things that ever touch the grid are the transient Go-To green (above) and, if you turn it on, the Highlight Issues lens — both temporary.

Where it is saved: the .mxreview sidecar

The issue set is stored in a companion file named like the workbook with a .mxreview extension (e.g. Model.xlsx → Model.mxreview), sitting in the same folder. It is auto-saved on every change — add, edit, delete, re-tag — so you never lose work to a forgotten save, and it’s also written when you save the workbook. When you reopen the model, the add-in auto-loads the sidecar; you don’t press a Load button.

Format: indented JSON — a Version, a SavedAt timestamp, the WorkbookName, the Issues array, and your tracker Settings (the custom status names and defaults).
Save As: saving the workbook under a new name creates an independent .mxreview for the new file and re-points the live issues at it; the original’s sidecar is left intact.
Unsaved (new) workbook: a never-saved Book1 has no path, so there’s nowhere to write — issues live in memory only until you save the workbook. The tracker prompts to save on close in that case.
Corruption: if the sidecar is unreadable, the add-in degrades to an empty set rather than crashing, and leaves the file in place for inspection.

Sharing a review: import & export

Import reads another .mxreview file (merge or replace) — e.g. to pull a colleague’s issues into your copy. Before a destructive import the add-in auto-backs-up your current set to a timestamped …_backup_….mxreview.
Export to CSV writes one row per issue (columns ID, Worksheet, Cell, Severity, Status, CustomStatus, Tag, Initials, Description, Comment, Visible, Created, Updated). Note CSV is export-only — there is no CSV import.
Export to Worksheet adds a formatted “MXP Review Issues” sheet (with hyperlinks to each cell) into the current workbook; Export to Workbook builds a standalone dashboard .xlsx. Both are one-way snapshots you trigger.

Undo & recovery

No Ctrl+Z inside the tracker. Deletes and edits auto-save immediately. Because issues never alter your cells, there is nothing in the model to undo.
To remove a flag, delete that issue in the tracker (the sidecar updates automatically).
To recover a deleted set, re-import a saved .mxreview — either the import auto-backup, or a copy you exported. Save As also leaves the original sidecar as a de-facto recovery copy.

Caveats & limitations

Issue locations are fixed addresses. An issue stores B5; if you later insert rows that shift the real cell to B9, Go To Cell still navigates to B5. Re-flag if the structure moved.
Range and entire-row/column issues are supported (the range is stored as written), but a huge range will tint many cells on Go To — expected, just slower.
The search box does not search the worksheet name (use the Sheet filter), and the cell address is exact-match only.
The companion file must travel with the workbook for issues to follow it; moving only the .xlsx leaves the issues behind.

Highlight Issues — color the flagged cells by severity, in the grid.
Audit Trail & Mark Cell — the companion tick-and-tie layer; a Questionable/Erroneous mark can spawn a linked review issue.
Create issues & marks from Compare — turn a moved output into a review issue automatically.
Cell Search — find the cells worth flagging (hardcodes, errors, volatiles).