Big problem with excel recalculating spreadsheet

[Prometheus]

Background:
I work at a small water utility and I created a spreadsheet to trac
P&L. Basic stuff, compare water pumped to water sold to find loss
stuff like that. There are 2 times that the meter reading on a pum
would be less than the previous reading. Either the meter rolled ove
or it was changed. To handle this, if the current reading is less tha
the previous I have a form open asking which situation it is an
depending on user input it does one of 2 things. They recently adde
some new wells and I'm adding them to the spreadsheet.

Here is the problem:
When I add a new page excel recalculates the spreadsheet. What thi
means is, for every time that a meter rolled over or was replaced, th
dialogue pops up again, so right now I'll get about 30 instances of th
dialogue appearing. There is no indication of which meter the dialogu
is for, so there's no way to answer correctly. I have set calculatio
to manual so that I could add the pages, but now when I set it back t
automatic it still recalculates the entire spreadsheet. Leavin
calculation on manual isn't an option because when I enter new data an
force it to calculate the page it recalculates the whole page, and I ge
the dialogues again, with no indication as to which is being referre
to. My question is, is there a way to force Excel to not recalculat
the spreadsheet when I turn automatic calculation back on. Sorry i
this is too much information, I wanted to be as specific as possible

 

[robert111]

when you collect your meter readings, ask the inputter to enter reading
AND a code
N = normal reading
R = rolled over
M = meter changed

then your spreadsheet could figure out for itself what reading to take

ie if code = R, reading = submitted reading + (10000000 - previous
reading)
N submitted reading - prev reading
M you define the rules.......

 

[Prometheus]

That's actually a good idea and something that would have been awesom
to implement when I made this thing (I had no idea what a pita it woul
turn out to be). Unfortunately this thing is huge now and there's n
way I'd have time to make modifications like that. I've taken
semester of VB and had never touched excel before this so I'v
basically built the whole thing using trial and error with help I foun
on the net and these forums. Making substantial changes to the way i
works would take me way more time than I have these days, it took me
good month of spare time at work to make it :