How coding empowers business operators

As an operations leader, coding has been the most powerful tool for driving efficiency and impact. By leveraging coding abilities, I've been able to automate tedious processes and improve how I approach financial modeling.

One of the biggest time drains for ops teams is repetitive, manual processes. But with coding abilities, you can build custom apps that streamline these workflows. Take the accounting team's monthly pain point - extracting financial data from systems like QuickBooks to create static PDF dashboards. A coding-savvy accountant could:

• Develop an app integrating QuickBooks' API to automatically pull real-time data

• Visualize metrics in an interactive React dashboard updated live

• Save days of manual work while unlocking richer insights through dynamic filtering

This is just one example. With the rise of APIs, coding unlocks automation opportunities across payments, CRM, marketing, project management, and more. Ops professionals can custom-build lightweight apps replacing tedious manual tasks.

Using software principles has significantly improved how I build and maintain Excel models. In particular, the concept of composability has been invaluable. Rather than creating one large, complex model, I break it down into smaller, manageable components. Each component either:

1. Handles inputs and calculations (stateful)

2. Displays outputs and insights (stateless dashboard)

This modular approach makes the financial model easier to understand, update, and reuse.

Here's a simplified example:

1. Revenue Input Component:

   • Handles user inputs for revenue drivers (e.g., product prices, sales volumes)

   • Stores and manages the state of revenue assumptions

   • Calculates total revenue based on the inputs

   • Passes the calculated revenue to other components

2. Expense Input Component:

   • Handles user inputs for various expense categories (e.g., salaries, rent, marketing)

   • Stores and manages the state of expense assumptions

   • Calculates total expenses based on the inputs

   • Passes the calculated expenses to other components

3. Cash Flow Component:

   • Receives revenue and expense data from the input components

   • Stores and manages the state of cash inflows and outflows

   • Calculates net cash flow and running cash balance over time

   • Passes the cash flow data to other components or dashboards

1. Financial Dashboard Component:

   • Receives data from the stateful components (e.g., revenue, expenses, cash flow)

   • Displays the financial metrics and insights in a visually appealing format

   • Uses charts, graphs, and tables to present the data

   • Doesn't store or modify any data itself, but simply presents the data it receives

The stateful components are composable, and can be integrated into other models like a hiring forecast.

Coding has become an essential skill for modern business operators, unlocking new levels of efficiency and insight. By embracing coding capabilities, operations professionals can drive automation, enable data-driven decision making, and craft adaptable systems that span functions and use cases.