Part 2 – How I Built My Automated Cash Book/Bank Reconciliation Software” [One Key Ingredient You Need for Successful Spreadsheet Software Development]
This week, in part 2 of the step-by-step video tutorial…..I explain why successful development of your automated cash book (or indeed virtually any other real world relevant app) will often depend greatly on the existence, or establishment of a functional paper based records keeping system.
In the case of the automated cash book, that paper based system would, at the minimum, be an easy to use book keeping system.
It is what you will then use as a basis for designing the data entry and report generation interfaces in your custom Excel-VB app.
Apart from the fact that this approach ensures that your app’s design ends up being intuitive to use for the user/clients, another benefit that can accrue to you is that you will be able to use the paper based system to DOUBLE CHECK the accuracy of output you get from the app, and vice versa.
As a result, you end up with a system that boosts your ability to detect errors, since the summaries, and other parameters computed MUST always agree.
Therefore anytime the user notices they do NOT yield the same output, in any areas, s/he will know to quickly identify the cause and rectify it, so that a wrong report is NOT sent out leading to wrong interpretations being made and incorrect decisions being taken based on that.
This is important for you to keep in mind as you develop applications: You have a responsibility to make sure your app does NOT endanger the client and/or the business s/he runs by giving misleading output!
Next week, I will send you a step-by-step video recording of how to build the Imprest cash book interface in the app.