Self-Devpt. Nuggets™

On the 31st day of this month (December 2016), it will be exactly 14 years since I quit my high paying job as Technical Training and Development Manager with Guinness Nigeria, to (among other goals), pursue my dream of developing custom automated spreadsheet software for a living.

I’ve since made MAJOR progress, establishing my own unique range of custom spreadsheet apps used by high profile clients within and outside Africa. So much so that today I earn passive income selling my apps remotely via the web, without needing to meet face to face with clients.

Each time a New Year approaches, I always work hard to hit the ground running with a new and different concept, product or soliution.

This time around what I’ve come up with happened really by accident. A problem I had making sense of the MS Excel based bank statement I downloaded from the online banking interface for one of my accounts.

Below: Screenshot of online banking interface, with download of MS Excel statement in progress.

The data was in too basic a format for me to find the information I needed, and trend it to arrive at useful deductions.

Below: Screenshot of downloaded copy of January to December MS Excel based statement I generated from my online banking interface on 15th December 2016. 

Today I generated one covering 1st January 2012 till date, which I successfully used to test the new app I built. It worked superbly. Details, including screenshot of generated table and chart based summaries in tomorrow’s issue of my PII newsletter.

It was while I was crawling around in confusion in the downloaded spreadsheet version of my statement for 2016, that I remembered I possessed MS Excel-VB automation skills.

And that meant I could do something about the problem I had with the data I was looking at!

My desire to use the data for my planned purposes drove me to build an app to do what I want with the statement.

Then when I began using the finished app, it occurred to me that others who also use online banking interfaces to generate their bank statements would probably find this app useful.

So, I decided I would use it as my new “product” going into the new year.

Below is the description of the app, that I’ve put in its about window.

This Custom Automated Excel VB Driven Entreprise Information System(EIS) was built by Tayo K. Solagbade, for SDAc’s Creative Business Solutions(CB Solutions) arm, using MS Excel® Visual Basic. It allows even a PC novice quickly and effortlessly import bank statement data from an MS Excel based workbook downloaded from his/her bank’s Internet Banking platform. Using in-built cystom automation tools the user is then able to generate tabulated and charted reports.

Tomorrow, the Monday issue of my weekly Performance Improvement Ideas (PII) newsletter, will go out.

In it, I will provide detailed descriptions and screenshots, as well as a step-by-step video demonstration of how the app works.

Then I will end with an introductory promotional offer of the app. Members of my Excel Visual Basic Automation Club will get a heftier discount.

Stay tuned – in a few hours, the details will be LIVE.

Below: Screenshot of the data auto-imported from the MS Excel-based bank statement downloaded from my online banking interface

[PS: This post is a precursor to tomorrow’s special issue of my Performance Improvement Ideas (PII) newsletter, which will feature full details of this new product to be announced via a special promo offer]