Save time, make money

A lot of people get into programming to build some kind of SaaS tool. I just want to provide some insight to how I made ~10k using basic html/javascript in 2 hours.
 
How I made ~$12k using basic html/javascript in one day.
 
In a previous role I supported a B2B platform. On this platform vendors would have to process invoices and submit them via CSV.
One of my responsibilities was ensuring that these were submitted properly. The portal used to submit was actually contracted to a 3rd party (terrible decision, but this is what happens with large orgs that just keep abstracting systems).
 
The portal required a CSV file to be imported but provided a starter file as xls. Some vendors had no issue submitting, while others really struggled with formatting, not to mention the extremely strict rules about what each record required with over 20 use cases. Accounts payable did not make any exceptions, one mistake and the entire file was rejected.

This meant the entire invoice was not paid until a corrected version was resubmitted.
 
As the platform grew to almost 100 vendors, I was spending (conservatively) 1 hour a day checking these files or providing some kind of support/training.
Okay so you may be thinking, fix the UI/UX. I offered to do that, but since it was contracted to a 3rd party company we couldn’t touch it, and management didn’t  believe the business case would get a budget approved for UI/UX enhancements since it “worked”.
 
I created an html file, threw in a form, a table, and an export button. Then using Javascript I setup the form to add a row to the table after checking against the strict rules based on the “reason code”. If there was a problem with the row, clear error messages educated the user how to properly submit. Finally the export button handled the conversion of the html table to an array that exported to CSV.
 
I sent this file out to a couple vendors for beta testing, iterated on a few features, added a clear table button, an import CSV button and ability to delete lines, all using only vanilla JS and some basic CSS.
 
Okay you may be wondering about things like MRR or acquisition keywords, but the answer is, this one file saved me from having to do auditing or constant retraining. That’s an extra hour a day I didn’t have to spend working, so I can write up blog posts like this. Luckily I’m salary so I still get paid to do this, and 5 hours a week saved was  around ~12k/year for me at the time.