Tools and Utilities, Add in for Excel

Project description

The add-in that BDO uses is written in VBA. This programming language is outdated. BDO does not want to update the add-in because VBA is outdated. So the goal of our project is to migrate the excel add-in from VBA to newer technologies. We will have to research what better technologies should be used for this project. This new add-in will be much more maintainable then the add-in that was written in VBA. When the project is finished BDO c an easily add new functionalities to the application.

Context

BDO offers organizations new perspectives with services in the field of audit and assurance,
tax advice, advisory, accountancy and business advice. With a unique combination of local
market knowledge, an international network, personal service and a professional approach,
customers are able to do business more successfully. BDO also has a department on Digital Transformation, called BDO Digital. Here approximately 250 colleagues are working on fields like data, cyber security, IT Advisory and IT Infrastructure. This is done both internally for accountants as externally for our customers.

Many people within BDO use Excel. Within Excel BDO has developed some plugins / tools. The tool: Tools and Utilities has been developed within BDO for quite some time now (~10 years). This is a VBA application within Excel where various aspects and functions can be used that BDO colleagues can use within Excel that support their work.

The tool is still widely used, but managing it is becoming increasingly difficult. Packages need to be updated more and more often and the VBA language used is less and less supported. BDO would like to see a future-proof solution, so that the user still enjoys it and management remains future-proof. What type of application, what programming language and/how the implementation should be done is still open for research.

Results

We have managed to find a suitable solution to rebuild the outdated Add-in. The newer technology used in the development is ReactJs with Office API.

About the project group

We are small group of software engineering students. Our group has spent 40% of the semester's time on the group project. We are working by agile framework. Even though, we have lost the half of our team members since the start, we are staying strong and will deliver the project that meets the client's requirements