SJD Parties like it's 1999

[northernladuk]

5. Update the colour scheme from 1970s pub carpet to some nice modern subdued pastel blues and greys.

HTH.

Or how about something like orange yellow and red perhaps??

Don't want to diss pj's wish list but the idea of hidden stuff in pull downs etc doesn't sit well with me and looking at some of the people that post on here I can imagine the number of calls SJD will get asking 'Where is the xxxxxxxx' when they don't try the pull downs.

[xing]

If you work in IT and can't manage to keep a backup of your spreadsheet, then you're in the wrong profession.

Redundancy, security, availability, integrity ... a lot of things to think about to make a backup. A few copies on an external hard drive is hardly a backup.

[northernladuk]

I have a feeling they own the site.....

Care to elaborate?

[malvolio]

Redundancy, security, availability, integrity ... a lot of things to think about to make a backup. A few copies on an external hard drive is hardly a backup.

Yeah, but after 30 years mainly in datacentre management, DR/BCP consutlancy and high availalbility service design I hope I can manage to backup a single spreadsheet reliably...



No, Nol I take it back. Touch wood....

[simondolan]

Thanks - much appreciated.

What do you think for the colour scheme though - not sure on blues and greys - magnolia is always nice though.....

Hi Simon.

Well, I guess losing the one-tab-per month and having separate all-year tabs for Invoices, Bankings and Expenses as I mooted above is probably a step change too far, so here is a more modest wish list, off the top of my head, my Company Secretary could probably give you a few more:-

1. More internal validation. E.g. that an amount in 'Bankings' against an invoice number matches the corresponding entry for the same number in 'Invoices'. Alerts for invoices with no corresponding payment, duplicated payments. Check that dates entered are actually dates and fall in the correct month. Etc.

2. Make the list of expenses categories a dropdown list, rather than having to scroll a bejillion miles over to the right to find the 'stationery' (or whatever) column. Failing that, freeze the pane so that the amount you entered in cash or bank is still visible. Some of us have severe short term memory. Although, as everything for the same month is on a single tab, that would mess up the rest of the sheet, see above.

3. Some import/export macros would be nice, output into other packages or spreadsheets, import from bank downloads.

4. Try and get all the summary information easily visible on a single pane at legible magnification.

5. Update the colour scheme from 1970s pub carpet to some nice modern subdued pastel blues and greys.

HTH.

[simondolan]

Or how about something like orange yellow and red perhaps??

Don't want to diss pj's wish list but the idea of hidden stuff in pull downs etc doesn't sit well with me and looking at some of the people that post on here I can imagine the number of calls SJD will get asking 'Where is the xxxxxxxx' when they don't try the pull downs.

And therein is the problem we have - what is a wish list for some, others don't like. Hopefully we strike a decent balance at the moment but as I say, we are looking at improvements at the moment.

[simondolan]

I have a feeling they own the site.....

How cool - I can kick off all our competitors now then

[MarillionFan]

And therein is the problem we have - what is a wish list for some, others don't like. Hopefully we strike a decent balance at the moment but as I say, we are looking at improvements at the moment.

I charge £1500 a day for Excel development. Drop me a line, it shouldn't take much longer than 20 man days.

[simondolan]

b) Really?? If it does, you can't get to your on line system though can you?
c) If you are not at a computer you can't access the on line system either
d) Sure? Do you think Sony thought the same thing before they got hacked? Or blackberry before they went down? These are massive, massive companies with nigh on infinite resources to spend on data security - do you think on line accountants are more protected than them?
e) Cross checks, and manual validation when we do the accounts and VAT returns. What is the validation on a do it all yourself on line system?
f) See b and c above

b) An individual's computer can go down more often than an online portal;
c) You can only use a speadsheet when you're at your computer; (and internet connection is almost available everywhere)
d) Online system is more secure because the provider can often afford to implement proper security policy in their server rooms;
e) What's the validation in speadsheets?
f) What if your hard drive is dead?
g) Same as f)

[TheFaQQer]

c) If you are not at a computer you can't access the on line system either

The key word was your - I could access a portal from any computer with internet access. A spreadsheet I would need to be on a computer that has access to the latest copy of my spreadsheet.

Just playing devils advocate here, though - how often would I be doing my accounts on a machine that wasn't mine, or where I couldn't get access to my online backup?

All that said - last Easter I did my end of year accounts (the whole year) in one go into a spreadsheet while I was on holiday with no internet access at all. Can't do that in an online portal