ERP systems provide comprehensive solutions for business processes, but they may lack the detail needed for specific data manipulation tasks. Office Scripts for Excel complements these systems by filling these gaps. By automating routine Excel tasks, Office Scripts improves data accuracy and efficiency, freeing up resources for more strategic initiatives.
Note that the examples below apply to Excel Online only.
Automatically Format Cells or Ranges to Maintain Consistency
Automated formatting ensures that your financial spreadsheets are both consistent and professional. Manually updating formats is a time-consuming and painful process. By setting standards and parameters first, Office Scripts can automatically scrub entire workbooks in seconds.
Cell Formatting
- Apply consistent font styles, sizes, and colors across cells or ranges
- Implement conditional formatting rules to highlight anomalies or specific data points (e.g., when a cell value is outside average values of a range)
Data Transformation
- Convert text to proper case, upper case, or lower case
- Convert date formats (e.g., from MM/DD/YYYY to DD-MM-YYYY)
Handling Numbers and Currency
- Standardize the display of numerical values (e.g., number of decimal places)
- Convert numbers to currency format or vice versa
Data Consistency
- Replace specific text or characters (e.g., changing all instances of U S A to USA)
- Standardize categorial data by ensuring consistent naming (e.g., M and Male to just Male)
Fill and Patterns
- Remove cell background colors or patterns
- Apply gradient, pattern, or specific color fills based on data values or conditions
Data Alignment and Structuring
- Transpose data from rows to columns or vice versa
- Split data from one column into multiple columns
- Merge data from multiple columns into one
Hyperlink Management
- Extract URLS from hyperlink-formatted cells
- Convert URLs in plain text cells to clickable hyperlinks
- Remove or validate broken hyperlinks
Clean Up Data
Data cleaning, while seemingly minor, is essential for maintaining the integrity of your accounting tasks. Cleanups are usually done manually can take anywhere from a couple of minutes to hours. Using Office Scripts can significantly speed up the data cleansing process, leaving your staff to focus on what really matters.
Removing Unwanted Data:
- Delete empty rows or columns
- Clear cells with errors or specific unwanted values (e.g., #N/A or #DIV/0!
Whitespace Management
- Trim leading and trailing spaces from text in cells
- Remove excess spaces between words
Comments and Annotations
- Clear all comments from a sheet
- Add comments based on specific criteria (e.g., a value is above a threshold)
Interested in learning what automation can do for your business? Contact us for a no strings attached free consultation.
