Sunday 5 October 2014

A Dynamic Accounting Application

Below is a short video demonstrating a dynamic interface for doing basic accounting. The objective was/is to categorise line items to make them easier to display and work with based on classification. This can be done manually or the system can be trained to automatically classify items. You can dynamically choose the level of line items you want to display and similarly choose what items are to have notes in a printed report. In addition to this level of automation you can generate automated reports and save the key ingredients of the displays as a CDF.

If you encounter any problems with the embedded link below -- which is best viewed in full screen mode -- then click here for full video

Unable to display content. Adobe Flash is required.

The classification of line items can be done manually, and must be initially, but after initial classification machine learning code can automatically classify line items and assign a probability -- with colour code for easy identification and inspection. The combination of line item classification and the dynamic interface means items can move automatically based on their balance. For example if a bank balance becomes negative, rather than remain as a negative asset the line item automatically moves to the liabilities section of the balance sheet where it appears as an overdraft. Ditto movement of payables/receivable line items.

If you encounter any problems with the embedded link below -- which is best viewed in full screen mode -- then click here for full video

Unable to display content. Adobe Flash is required.

A full transaction record is kept along with notes for each transaction which are shown as tooltips for easy access.

If you encounter any problems with the embedded link below -- which is best viewed in full screen mode -- then click here for full video

Unable to display content. Adobe Flash is required.

Saturday 6 April 2013

Interfaces in Mathematica



An example of a flexible interface with tab buttons in the docked cell at the top of the notebook.

Opening display



Import some data using the import wizard. Selected columns chosen for importing are highlighted:



Display the data:


Style the data:



Thursday 7 February 2013

Automatic report generation: part 4


This is the fourth of three posts (!) that show how Mathematica can automate the processing of data -- an addendum that shows some newly created features.

The new feature added is a function to compare various periods: month vs month, quarter vs quarter, calendar/financial year vs calendar/financial year, and year-to-date vs year-to-date.

Note that the recording was made on a 7 year old 32 bit computer (running Mathematica V8) and some of the operations shown were slowed down by having to run the recording.

The key take home message I'd like viewers to get from both these posts and the rail freight post is that mundane data processing tasks can be automated. It doesn't matter what format your data is in, as long as the format is coming consistently your data processing can be automated. Additionally this could be taken a step further can all be done in the background and scheduled to run as given times -- but there would be no video to show in that case!

This video is best viewed in full screen mode.


Wednesday 6 February 2013

Point and click "Tableau-like" visuals in Mathematica: Part 2

This video shows an interactive application that displays Excel data -- although the source could be any of a wide variety of formats. Some dummy data on house sales activity is imported and displayed. The user chooses the locality they want to focus on and can adjust the viewing period. The bubble chart shows fraction of pending sales over the viewable period.

A more advanced version would link to e.g. Google Maps to display the location data automatically.

Note that the recording was made on a 7 year old 32 bit computer (running Mathematica V8) and some of the operations shown were slowed down by having to run the recording.

The key take home message I'd like viewers to get from this and other similar posts is that mundane data processing tasks can be automated. It doesn't matter what format your data is in, as long as the format is coming consistently your data processing can be automated.

This video is best viewed in full screen mode.



Wednesday 23 January 2013

Automatic report generation: part 3


This is the third of three posts that show how Mathematica can automate the processing of data.

1. This video shows the presentation of the data as bar charts.

2. Some styling options are shown.

3. Bar charts can be toggled to show, for example, monthly, quarterly, and annual data.

Note that the recording was made on a 7 year old 32 bit computer (running Mathematica V8) and some of the operations shown were slowed down by having to run the recording.

The key take home message I'd like viewers to get from both these posts and the rail freight post is that mundane data processing tasks can be automated. It doesn't matter what format your data is in, as long as the format is coming consistently your data processing can be automated. Additionally this could be taken a step further can all be done in the background and scheduled to run as given times -- but there would be no video to show in that case!

This video is best viewed in full screen mode.


Automatic report generation: part 2

This is the second of three posts that show how Mathematica can automate the processing of data. This video shows some of the plotting features that are possible once the data has been processed.

1. Plots can be toggled to show, for example, monthly, quarterly, annual, and seasonal data.

2. Where a category that is plotted has nested line items a drill down button allows the break down of the line item to be shown.

3. Notes can be added to plots.

4. Underneath the plot the category being plotted is tabulated as a percentage of other categories/line items.

5. Plots, tables, and notes can be saved as PDFs for distribution among colleagues.

Note that the recording was made on a 7 year old 32 bit computer (running Mathematica V8) and some of the operations shown were slowed down by having to run the recording.

The key take home message I'd like viewers to get from both these posts and the rail freight post is that mundane data processing tasks can be automated. It doesn't matter what format your data is in, as long as the format is coming consistently your data processing can be automated. Additionally this could be taken a step further can all be done in the background and scheduled to run as given times -- but there would be no video to show in that case!

This video is best viewed in full screen mode.


Automatic report generation: part 1

This is the first of three posts that show how Mathematica can automate the processing of data. In this example the data is in the form of Excel spreadsheets. A previous example showed importing data from a PDF.

I haven't added a voice over so a few points to note:

1. The Excel files are generic balance sheets and P&Ls. Each file containing a separate worksheet for a given month.

2. The display objective is to nest different categories. So the first step is to establish a parent-child relationship. For example current assets is a child of assets. This relationship is stored so it only has to be done once.

3. The nesting allows the user to determine the level of drill down they want to display in the accounts.

4. The raw data for this example was monthly data. Once imported and processed the user can toggle between monthly, quarterly, calendar year, financial year, and year-to-date for presentation purposes.

Note that the recording was made on a 7 year old 32 bit computer (running Mathematica V8) and some of the operations shown were slowed down by having to run the recording.

The key take home message I'd like viewers to get from both these posts and the rail freight post is that mundane data processing tasks can be automated. It doesn't matter what format your data is in, as long as the format is coming consistently your data processing can be automated. Additionally this could be taken a step further can all be done in the background and scheduled to run as given times -- but there would be no video to show in that case!

This video is best viewed in full screen mode.