Great article by ExcelUser on VBA Standards for Excel Programmers

I was just reading another article by Charley Kyd over at ExcelUser (the guys with the sweet Excel Dashboard package for cheap!) on VBA standards for Excel "programmers." The article talked about providing documentation, and about using "Option Explicit".

While, I've been fairly meticulous about providng both "in-line documentation" (explanatory comments) and "title blocks" containing a general purpose statement for each macro, I especially appreciated the discussion on "Option Explicit" to remove the "variant by default" variable types. This is not something that I've routinely done, but will certainly endeavor to do from now on, as the benefits include enhanced processing performance and more easily identifiable errors.

While on the ExcelUser site, I also learned two other new things:

1. For all of you stock-traders, you can get a free dashboard-style report for any company on the market.


2. For all of you with your own Excel-related blogs or website, ExcelUser has a great Affiliate Marketing system. They'll pay you 30% on all sales you refer. I've signed up and have already referred 6 sales! Wow! Check it out.

Update on the Excel Dashboard Kit - Quantity Discounts for companies

I just got a note from Charley Kyd over at ExcelUser, and they're rolling out a new quantity discount program, so that companies can get ahold of the kits for multiple users, and save substantially. Here's what she wrote:

"The Excel Dashboard Kit is licensed to a single user, not to an entire company. I recently received a request from a lady who wanted to purchase a quantity of kits. Here is the discount schedule I gave her:

Units Discount
2 = 20%
6 = 30%
10 = 40%
300 = 50%
500+ = 55%

These are approximiateldy the discounts that book publishers offer, except that they are slightly more generous for small quantities."

If your company is thinking about implementing a dashboard reporting system (or beefing up the one you have), be sure to check out Charley's prouducts.

Have you guys checked out Excel User®'s book on dashboards?

I just recently stumbled upon Charley Kyd's definitive book - Dashboard Reporting with Excel - on creating and managing Excel-based management "dashboards," which are streamlined, multi-metric management reports that visually represent key data and trends in one easy-to-grasp document.

In a past life I worked for a company that was very into management dashboards, and this book would have certainly given me an edge. The book is available for less than $30, but if you're serious about starting a management dashboard system or enhancing the one you've got, spring for the whole kit, which is still less than $50.

I say, get a copy, read it.

Out.