Visual Basic for Applications

And then here I can process the data.

So you have the way to process the data using the menu here, the menu here, or here using VBA.

So here I have created these two menu, which are created with VBA macros.

So another just examples or the integration with Excel standard workflows.

And

And that's just a normal Excel chart? Normal

Excel chart, yes.

And in the VBA here, it's not a normal VBA.

And we were on a call with a client a couple of weeks ago, um, where the person was sharing this entire process, and it was very copy/paste heavy.

There was a lot of moving pieces in spreadsheets, and you, Chris, sat back and said, "Have you looked at the, uh, VBA scripts? Do you have access to that?" And they were like, "Well, I think we do." And you're like, "Yeah, you just need a script for that." And for me, like, the light bulb, if you could see, like, the light bulb go off above my head, I was like, oh, damn.

Yep, there's a lot there that I'm doing that doesn't need AI to be doing it, and that has nothing to do with cloud-based or local.

It has everything to do with being aware of the kind of work that you are doing repeatedly and what is the best solution for it.

That, for me, was one of the biggest learnings in going through this requirements gathering process, which is why we always stress do the requirements before you start building anything.

And so, you know, so Chris, I'm aware of, you know, the Apps Script and the VBA scripts in Excel, but what are some of the other examples of scripts that people who aren't overly technical can build and aren't using?

If you're doing this on your computer, which presumably a lot of people are-

Mm.

I'm curious to dig into it more.

Rapid fire incoming, 20 questions, yes or no answers, no hedging allowed, circular references, VBA, the future of Excel, and more.

Let's find out what our guest really thinks.

So here we go.

It's actually quite interesting.

Excel is quite advanced if you like to do some coding and not just the visual basic VBA, which has always been around.

but yeah you know that's just me let's focus on you and i love your enthusiasm because many times when people say oh would you like to see a demo you're a one-person show almost you are running this entire show you build this from ground so you're not representing a massive corporate interest you are passionate about something and you want to show the world when something's better it's just so natural

I think for me, BJ, and maybe we can finish with that.

You know, what's the risk profile of that organization? How willing are they for things to go wrong? And what's the business criticality? And you can't strangle an organization because if you strangle an organization, you say, well, every single app that someone wants to build must go through this rigorous process.

What happens is you end up with a little cottage industry growing up and you get this cottage IT industry that springs up Where, you know, someone over there in the corner has decided to make this Excel spreadsheet and has put some VBA in some horrendous stuff like that that isn't supported properly or isn't really accepted anymore.

And has built this thing.

And before you know it, it's become business critical.

Okay.

I mean, I find because I've heard the argument that it's because obviously to avoid use it or having circular references using iterative calculations, you know, the no brainer for me is to use a simple VBA right now.

And I think a well-structured VBA or macro sheet is a great aid to make sure that that isn't a black box.

But the argument that I often hear is that VBA is a black box.

But I just think a iteration in the background done by Excel is much more of a black box to me.

So anyway.

And then again, taking the resulting files and sucking it up back into her master file.

So what we did was to create a, I mean, we automated all of it.

Earlier also the same thing was happening.

If there is some monotonous job, we used to automate it using VBA or something, uh, any other tool, and people used to get rewarded with Six Sigma certificate, right?

Yep.

Even today also most of the places AI is playing a major role because it was a redundant job.