Yesterday I spent almost half the day doing something that should be simple: generating statements of account for a small business I usually deal with.
If you know me, you know I run a small cyber café in Kiamaiko. I’m not some big-shot software engineer. I’m just the guy people come to when they need documents typed, ETIMS invoices generated, or help with online stuff.
One of the businesses I help makes supplies to bigger businesses. I’m usually the one handling their invoices, ETIMS documents, and statements. They’re actually the main inspiration behind my BDOCS idea — a set of tools to make boring business documents less painful.
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And this time, they pushed me into building something new:
a supplies and payments statement generator.
You can see it live here:
👉 https://mwashcyber.co.ke/tools/code/public_codes/generate-statements.html
The Pain: Simple Statements, Too Much Work
The task was straightforward in theory:
- List what was supplied
- Show how much was paid
- Show what balance is still owed
But in practice, it turned into:
- Copying dates
- Typing descriptions
- Manually calculating totals
- Updating balances line by line
- Double-checking everything so there are no errors
By midday I caught myself thinking:
“Why am I doing this manually in 2025?”
So instead of just suffering through it quietly, I opened ChatGPT and typed a prompt.
Confession: I’m Not a “Real” Developer
Before I go further, let me be clear:
- I’m not a software engineer.
- I don’t have a CS degree.
- I don’t sit down and write complex code from scratch.
I’m a vibe coder.
I know how to describe what I want.
I know how to break down a problem.
And I know how to prompt ChatGPT until it gives me something that works.
That’s exactly how this tool was built.
I wrote a detailed prompt explaining what I needed:
- A tool in HTML
- For a supplier and a client
- To capture products and services supplied, payments, and balances
- And then generate a clean A4 PDF
ChatGPT wrote the code.
I tested it, broke it, asked it to fix things, tweaked the layout, adjusted the PDF formatting… and eventually, it became usable.
What the Tool Actually Does
The tool is meant for small businesses that supply goods or services and need to show clear statements to other businesses.
Here’s what it can do:
1. Capture both business profiles
You can enter details for both the supplier and the client:
- Business names
- Logos
- Addresses
- Taglines
- Phone numbers
- Email addresses
So the final statement looks professional and properly branded on both sides.
2. Define the statement
You can set:
- The statement name (e.g. Supply Statement, Meat Deliveries — August 2025)
- The statement period (from–to dates)
- The opening balance (if the client already owed money or had some credit before this period)
3. Add supplies, payments, and methods
For each transaction (usually per day), the user can enter:
- Date of the business transaction
- Description (e.g. “Meat supply”, “Chicken delivery”, “Transport service”)
- Quantity (e.g. 70 kilos)
- Price (e.g. 700)
- Total amount (this is auto-calculated)
- Amount paid on that date (user enters this)
- Payment method (Mpesa, cash, or bank)
On each line, the tool automatically calculates:
- How much is owed for that transaction
- The running balance after payment
So as you keep adding lines, the statement basically “builds itself”.
4. Running balances and final totals
At the bottom of the statement, the tool totals everything:
- Total supplied
- Total paid
- Balance (positive or negative)
So it’s very clear whether:
- The client still owes the supplier money, or
- The client has overpaid and has a credit balance
5. Clean A4 PDF: Preview, Download, Share
Once all the data is entered, the user can:
- Preview the statement as a PDF
- Download it
- Print it
- Share it with the client
The PDF is:
- Properly formatted for A4
- Designed so that lines are not cut off
- Able to continue to a second page if needed without omitting any rows
This was important because in real life, some statements are long — and nothing is more annoying than a PDF that cuts off lines at the page break.
Why This Matters (Especially for Small Businesses)
Small suppliers don’t always have accountants or fancy software.
They have:
- PDFs
- Excel (sometimes)
- And people like me at the cyber café
If I — with access to tools and some basic tech skills — can lose half a day generating a simple statement, then it’s probably even harder for small business owners.
This tool is my way of saying:
“You don’t need to suffer through spreadsheets and manual math every month.”
You go to a simple web page, enter your details, and get a proper statement that you can send to your client or print and file.
Built With Prompts, Not Ego
I’m sharing this partly to show off the tool, but mostly to show something else:
You don’t have to be a “real developer” to build useful things on the internet.
I’m just:
- A guy running a cyber café in Kiamaiko
- A vibe coder who knows how to describe problems
- Someone who leans heavily on ChatGPT to generate HTML, fix bugs, and improve layouts
The real skill here isn’t writing every line of code — it’s knowing what you want the tool to do, and being patient enough to iterate until it works.
Try It Out
If you’re a small business owner, supplier, or just curious, you can try the tool here:
👉 https://mwashcyber.co.ke/tools/code/public_codes/generate-statements.html
And if you ever feel like you’re “not technical enough” to build something, remember:
You don’t have to be a full-stack engineer.
Sometimes, you just need a problem, a clear description, and the courage to vibe-code your way through with ChatGPT.
