What does Ms. VBA do?

We help streamline business processes and automate routine tasks using Microsoft Office products like Access, Excel, Word, Outlook, PowerPoint, and Publisher.

Think of something you do over and over again - some mundane manual process. Maybe it's a report that your boss wants every week or a contact list you email to your sales team every day. Right now you gather all of this information manually from all over your organization and put it all into a nicely formatted Excel spreadsheet or PowerPoint presentation. This manual process may take you a long time to complete - even a few hours - and once you're done there may be critical errors in your data.

Ms. VBA can reduce the time and effort it takes to gather this information from hours to seconds allowing you to focus on other aspects of your business. As an added bonus, we'll make sure this information conforms to proper business rules and standards, thereby reducing the risk of embarrassing errors.

How much do you charge?

Just like any other made-to-order item (like a suit, car, or house), development costs vary depending on the complexity of the project and the amount of time and effort needed to create the solution. Usually we can reuse the free templates available from Microsoft or snippets from past projects to reduce overall development costs.

Most projects cost between $500 and $5000 (USD) from start to finish. We're happy to work with you to find a solution within your budget, and we will always provide high-quality results no matter how much you can afford to spend.

It's important to consider more than just cost when choosing an application developer. Sure, there are some folks who charge as little as $20 per hour for their services, but what most of those low-cost companies aren't telling you is that they double, triple, or even quadruple their hours to make up for the lower billable rate.

Don't be fooled by a low hourly rate - get a free quote from Ms. VBA to compare the true cost of your developed application.

Will you work onsite?

Typically we work at our own office. However, we are happy to meet with you and your team (at your office, our office, or via web meeting) any time during the project. Most of our clients are not local to the Kansas City area, so we are well-versed in communicating over a distance. Even our local clients rarely need our services to be performed at their office.

Before contacting a staffing company for your Microsoft Office development needs consider this: Paying a staffing agency to supply an onsite worker for one week is typically twice as expensive as hiring Ms. VBA to complete the same work.

Why should I contact Ms. VBA for VBA development?

With nearly a decade of Microsoft VBA development experience, we specialize in providing clients with logical, reusable, common-sense solutions. Our primary goal in accepting any project is to improve and automate manual processes in an effort to increase your organization's productivity and reduce cost. We want you to have complete confidence in using your custom-built application and, while we're always available if you need us, strive to create systems which can be maintained and updated by you.

Because most software development companies don't have anyone on staff who knows the ins and outs of Microsoft Office, they may try to pressure you into a more expensive solution when you really don't need it. Even some of the best IT companies don't have any Office experts on staff. We will research and present the best options for your particular situation - whether it's Microsoft Office or a software service or package available from another vendor.

How do we get started?

First we'll need to gather the requirements for your project. This includes information about how many users will be using the system and where they are located (all in one office versus multiple remote offices), what is already developed or in use, and what your specific input and output requirements are. Don't worry if you're not sure - we can help you determine all of these items during the free consultation.

Next Ms. VBA will develop a free, no obligation quote based on the information provided. This will include a suggested course of action as well as estimates for time and cost.

If the project is large enough to warrant a Statement of Work (SOW), one will be created after you have approved the initial estimate. If no SOW is required, Ms. VBA will develop a first draft based on the approved quote.

We'll send you the first draft when the application is 60-75% complete. You'll have a few weeks to review, and then we'll incorporate your requested revisions into the final draft of the application.

For a more detailed explanation of this process, see the Development Process section of the Services page.

What about a contract?/Will Ms. VBA sign a non-disclosure agreement?

Yes and yes. Ms. VBA has a standard development contract outlining our relationship and payment terms. We're happy to review and sign any other legal documents so long as they do not inhibit our ability to provide our services.

Will I own what Ms. VBA creates for me?

Yes, unless we have agreed in writing to license the application instead of transfer ownership at the completion of the project. Keep in mind, though, that Ms. VBA retains the right to reuse any pieces of any application we create in future projects. This pertains to any designs, functions, procedures, documentation, code, images, or logic that was not provided by the client. Any application or code created by another party remains the property of that other party.

In order to effectively provide our services we must be able to reuse code from project to project. Typically none of this code is seen by you and it does not contain any proprietary information.

The ownership rights (if included in the signed agreement) and source code are provided upon payment of all outstanding invoices.

Feel free to contact us or your attorney if you have any questions or concerns about who owns an application developed by a third-party.

What are Ms. VBA's payment terms?

We accept credit cards (via PayPal) and checks. Invoice terms are NET-30 and there is a 5% late fee assessed every 15 days on overdue invoices. We bill on the 1st and the 16th of the month.

What is VBA?

Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) is a flavor of Microsoft's Visual Basic programming language that is embedded in the background of all Microsoft Office applications such as Outlook, Word, Excel, and Access. It is in the same family as Microsoft Visual Basic (VB) and Visual Basic Script (VBS or VBScript).

What is the advantage of using VBA?

Creating customized solutions from scratch is time consuming and expensive. Building an application on the basis of an existing Office program greatly decreases the development time and cost by extending the functionality and usability of a familiar technology.

How can VBA help my business?

If you are already using Word, Excel, Outlook, or Access, implementing VBA code can help automate some of the routine processes. In turn, this will increase productivity and reduce cost. It's even possible to integrate non-Office/third-party programs for more usability. We've connected custom Microsoft Office applications with Quickbooks, enterprise programs, iTunes, and many other services. The possibilities are virtually endless! Click here for examples.

How much does VBA cost?

If you have any version of any Microsoft Office program, it's already installed! There are no extra steps or fees. Development, implementation, and training costs are minimal compared to standard custom applications.

Will VBA grow with my business?

Yes, to a point. Custom VBA applications are most effective for small or medium-sized projects, but there are plenty of large organizations that use Microsoft Office applications to interface with their larger enterprise-level programs. Most VBA development can easily be scaled into a larger web or desktop application as your company experiences growth.