More than 15 years ago I gave a course in Excel based on my 3 axioms:

1. Everything is possible with Excel except baking an omelette;

2. If I have a Pentium processor in my laptop, I can bake an omelette with Excel ;

3. Excel is designed to make omelettes.

Admittedly, the second axiom probably won't resonate with the younger generation. But what I meant by this is that Excel's potential uses are vast. In my experience, the biggest limitation usually lies in users' expectations of what's possible.

If there are certain tasks that you want to perform in Excel, and you have to do those tasks over and over again, the program offers many possibilities to automate those tasks. Macros are not always necessary for this ... a lot can be achieved with standard built-in functionalities such as "data validation", "custom views", "conditional formatting", "pivot tables", ...

Certain automations on the other hand may need one or more " Macros”.

Before the optimal solution can be worked out, a few choices have to be made:

- What information do I want to extract from my data?

- How do I want to present that information?

- How do I want to be able to update the data?

- What is the best structure of the tables to avoid having to enter the same data more than once?

One situation that many small businesses may recognise (and that I've had a lot of time to reflect on over the past few months) is the amount of time and work it takes to enter incoming and outgoing invoices and payments into the various journals required by the accountant. A single invoice often requires the same information to be available in several places. And when it's time to send everything to the accountant for the monthly or quarterly closing, it often turns out that the accountant in turn often has to rework, organise, format, etc.

Wouldn't it be handy if you as an entrepreneur only have to enter each piece of information once, and if the accountant can import all that information into their system with a few mouse clicks?

During the coming months I will be working on an application to streamline this administrative work as much as possible, so that you as an entrepreneur can achieve a maximum of time savings for yourself AND for your accountant with a minimum of data entry. In the first instance, this will be based on the VAT and accounting rules as they apply in Belgium. The user interface can be set in 4 languages (Dutch, French, English, German).

The only technical requirement to use this application (once it's ready) is to have an up-to-date version of Excel (Mac or Windows). This is where my approach differs from many available applications, for which separate software must be installed.

Do you have other scenarios in mind for which you are looking for a solution? Use our contact form on this site to submit your question.

To be continued …