The State Changers held a meeting to discuss the challenge of tracking and managing funds related to asset purchases, specifically using the example of purchasing a condo. They discussed an approach using Excel and software tools like Xano, with the conversation covering two main topics:
1. How to allocate the funds coming from different sources for the payment of the purchased asset (in this case, a condo). 2. How to keep track of those payments over time. The proposed solution recommended setting up databases, possibly in Xano, with structured data tables. This approach includes creating a 'condos' table with an array of objects representing different accounts used to finance the property. Each account object would include an ID and a 'share' representing the proportion of the total payment the account contributed. When a payment (like a rent check) comes in, the software could then reference the relevant condo data to allocate the payment correctly to the separate accounts, proportional to their 'share' in the original purchase. These transactions would be tracked over time, similar to a double-entry bookkeeping system, to provide an ongoing record of payments. They also considered using Excel for early-stage modeling and simulation in order to conceptualize and communicate the system design visually before committing to a more complex database architecture. Despite some debate over the validity of Excel in contemporary data science, the tool was acknowledged as being universally accessible and excellent for rapidly starting models and sharing concepts.
(Source: Office Hours 7/11 )
