Spreadsheets and reports

From raw export to a summary people read. Describe the sheet, get formulas you can test, and turn a table into three sentences where every figure traces back.

Part of the AI at Work programme. In this sample academy, only the first course, AI at Work: The Essentials, is open.

Lessons

• Describe the sheet before you ask. What each row is, what each column means and what's missing: the brief a spreadsheet needs.

• Formulas you can check. Ask for the formula and a plain explanation, then test it on three rows you already know.

• Cleaning an export. Duplicates, odd dates and blank rows, with a row count before and after so nothing quietly disappears.

• From table to three sentences. The summary your reader needs, with every figure traceable to a cell.

• Charts that answer one question. Pick the question first, then ask for the chart that answers it.

• The Monday report, folded. A reusable brief for the report you build every week, and the check that goes with it.

• When the numbers don't add up. Totals, rounding and the average nobody asked for: where drafted figures go wrong.