Following on from my last post about DabbleDB I finally grasped how formulae work from the video Avi created (see Avi’s comment at my last post and follow back to his post about my previous problem – sorry if that sounds confusing.)
I continued with my wee billing control app. The screenshot is above and when you click it, it will download a graphic image.
Notice there’s no value in the Billed column of the highlighted JJ row. The result is the Billed-WIP row for that entry is incorrect. That’s pretty important because the cross-cast is also wrong. In a live situation that could lead to all sorts of confusion.
At this point, DabbleDB is failing to meet two of Kleiner Perkins/Jeff Clavier’s criteria for investment:
- Instant value to the user
- Simple, intuitive user experience
I’m glad I caveated my first take on this. It’s running downhill for me at this point. To put it into business perspective:
- There are about 20,000 firms of accountants in the UK.
- Roughly 480,000 businesses set up each year.
- Many need little more than a spreadsheet/database for their most basic accounting functions.
- It would be great to have a shareable app like this for at least some record keeping.
I hoped DabbleDB might just fit the bill as there are few realistic alternatives without requiring a decent amount of training. As it is, DabbleDB would add to the record keeping nightmare many professional firms face.
If the DabbleDB boys think this will fly on the consumer front then they are sadly mistaken. On the business front – it’s dead in the water (as it stands.) But don’t lose heart. It’s not that many years ago that Oracle had similar problems in its warehousing app.
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