Richard Sage FCA was clearing a series of accounts which had amounts that netted off many-to-one rather than one-to-one, and unclear references.
Frustrated with moving numbers in and out of columns in Excel to try to see which combination(s) summed to zero, he searched online for a tool to help.
The closest was Solver in Excel, but that is limited, awkward, and very slow for more than a handful of numbers, so he created the initial version of what became https://sotozeo.com
He then found himself using it for other purposes, like identifying backdated postings, separating reclassification issues from net differences; even for bringing forward, and creating bank reconciliations.
The tool is now an online offering for all, free for small-scale use, and modestly priced thereafter.
As Sage told PQ magazine: “It is Apparently Trivial, but that doesn’t stop it being Jolly Useful.” “If it only saves an average user one hour each month, that’s 1.5 whole days a year,” he added.
