The weekly report built by hand from several exports
The same steps, every week, by the same person.
A report somebody needs every week gets rebuilt from scratch, by hand, from several places.
Not every business has this problem, and some should leave it alone.
Most of these can be handled better. Whether it's worth doing is a separate question. What follows is one common form of the problem, described in general terms, because your version will differ. These are possible challenges, not a description of your business, and some should be left exactly as they are. If it sounds like your week, that's worth a conversation.
Sound familiar?
- Somebody spends part of every week building the same report.
- The report is late when that person is out.
- Last week's numbers do not quite match this week's method.
- Nobody else knows how it is put together.
What it looks like
Every week, somebody exports data from more than one system, pastes it into a spreadsheet, cleans it up, adds a few formulas, and sends the result around. The steps are the same every week. The person doing them knows them by heart.
The report itself is useful. The building of it is the same work repeated, and it depends on one person remembering every step.
What it costs
The same hours, every week. The work does not get faster, because each week starts from a blank export.
Small changes creep in. A column is sorted differently, a filter is left on, a row is missed. The report still looks right.
It stops when the person stops. Illness, vacation, or a new job, and the report either does not arrive or arrives built differently.
Where it goes wrong
- The steps are not written down. They live in one person's habits.
- Exports change shape. A system adds a column, and the paste lands in the wrong place.
- Checks are by eye. Nobody compares totals against the source.
- The report is trusted because it arrived. Not because anyone checked it.
What a better version looks like
The report builds itself from the same sources, the same way, each week, and arrives before anybody asks. Totals are checked against the source systems, and anything that does not tie out is flagged in the report instead of hidden.
The person who used to build it reads it instead, and spends the time on what the numbers mean.
What still needs a person
A person decides what the report should show, reads it, and acts on it. A person investigates anything flagged as not matching. And a person decides when the report needs to change.
Questions worth asking about your own operation
- Which reports get rebuilt by hand every week or month?
- How long does each take, start to finish?
- What happens when the person who builds it is out?
- How would you know if a week's report was built wrong?
If this sounds familiar
Bring me the version you actually have. I'll learn how the process really works before I suggest anything. If it isn't worth changing, or isn't a fit for me, I'll say so. Talk through a problem