Isn't there a global somethingorother you could do?

We have to remember that scaeagles is billing by the hour.

Sadly, no. I can automate various processes such as this within the production system to compare the same data from one report to another and report mysterious variances.

However, the users don't like this (and actually the government auditors don't either) when changing from one production version of a program to a newer version with enhanced capabilities. It is actually their job to perform the final verification, but over the years they have brow beaten me and their own IT department with their laziness and lack of willingness to do the job of final approval on enhancements they request, and that has led to piles and piles of projects that are never signed off on, making me and IT look bad regardless of how much documentation we produce that it is actually the users who are not doing their jobs.

And alas, these are not Excel spreadsheets or finding any variances would be simple. They are reports run on a mainframe that produce .pdf files. So it is eyeballing line by line.

And yes, while it sucks, I do bill by the hour.

Dude, when you get to the point of making this statement, I'm sorry to say it's too late.

Sad, but most likely true.

Showers are nice.

Lounging around afterward is nicer.

Knowing you'll be at work in 45 minutes isn't.

One other thing about those stupid reports....I'm no going to tell the users, but I am only verifying totals. Each of the contracts can have anywhere from 1 to 15 years of data for those 27 elements of cost, averaging probably 6 years each. If the totals don't match, then I will investigate the years. I am not going to multiply my verification of 54000 numbers by the average of 6 and have to verify 324000 numbers on two reports.

Do you want to retire on this job or not?

You just made my eyes glaze over.

That's why he gets paid the big bucks.