The activities of pi-ProductivIty consist of 3 parts:

• Ad-hoc support for users who have problems using office applications on their computer;
• Tailor-made courses;
• Developing applications (mainly in MS Excel) that offer the user time-saving additional functionality compared to the standard programs.

In light of that last part, I'm working on some applications that will hopefully be ready for distribution in the coming weeks and months. This involves 2 “projects” (which are being developed to function in 4 languages on both Windows and Mac):

pi-Add-in suite:

This is a collection of functions that are offered to the user via its own additional ribbon menu in Excel - functions that can be applied in everyday work, such as:

• Date picker;
• Crosshair (see earlier article);
• Excel shortcuts (see earlier article);
• Specific functions for processing and searching text strings;
• “Clean My Workbook” functions to clean up unused custom formats, conditional formats, defined names, data validation, ...

pi-Dashboard:

A VBA macro-driven workbook that comes with a collection of “regular” workbooks (which in themselves are easily interchangeable and accessible, also from mobile devices without macro support) to organise and collect the accounting information efficiently for small / self-employed entrepreneurs (in the context of simplified accounting and VAT returns according to the Belgian system).

Based on my own experience and from conversations with other entrepreneurs in my circle of acquaintances, there is often an unnecessary amount of time spent in registering incoming and outgoing invoices, bank and cash transactions, customer and vendor data in a manual way (often data has to be entered in several places). In order to have a more complete view on the details that are needed to do this better, I am currently following a home course in Basic Accounting (at the CVO).

The intention of this dashboard approach is to offer an efficient solution without the need to purchase (often expensive) programs or licenses ... all from the "regular" MS Excel that many entrepreneurs already have as standard. Among other functions, the following activities will be developed:

• Customer and supplier management
• Mandatory journals and entry of relevant transactions
• Inventory
• Order and Invoicing module
• Time registration / ticket system
• Follow-up of car costs and business trips
• Preparation of details for quarterly tax return and for annual tax return
• Keeping track of recurring costs, depreciation, ...
• Follow up of quarterly balance, annual balance, annual accounts
• Simulator for social security contributions and income tax based on available tax scales

More news will follow once developments are ripe for distribution.