Hi
I have a problem at work and I had an idea to resolve it. I would like to share the idea with you guys in order to get your opinion.
Problem:
Multiple Excel files (reports, report generators, models, etc) are currently located in multiple folders across work's shared drives.
Users have to navigate to the various folders to run the various Excel files and with so many files and so many locations, they are having problems finding what they need.
Most of these Excel files have VBA code that automate the generation of output reports or simply "refresh" the existing report by connecting to data sources. They all have a "Control" sheet from where the user selects the desired criteria and logs on to the data sources, before running them.
Idea/solution:
I would like to offer the users a Logical way to access all the files. I don't necessarily need to move the files, as they are in locations for which people may already have links. I was thinking of creating a C# Windows Form Application where users would have clear visibility of all the relevant reports, their locations, the location of their output, etc. From that app, the user would launch the excel files. An added feature is that I would like to migrate the "Control" sheets to this app, so that for example once a user has selected a month (as part of the selection criteria), they won't need to select it for the next report - all reports will run on that month.
Questions -
How does the idea sound?
Is it a good idea to have the criteria in the C# app and send it to the Excel code as parameters when running it, so the user does not need to do this for each report in Excel?
We also have sharepoint at work and I was thinking that it would be a better way to re-organize all the files, but I don't know if I can set up the criteria for the reports and run reports' macros from it - I think we can only use it as a repository of files. Is this true?
Any comments would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
Leo