For an operations lead: stop rebuilding the weekly report by hand, or decide to hand it over

Write down what you do

Do the report once more and write every step as you go: where the export comes from, which filters you apply, what you copy and where, how you check it and who receives it. Time each step. This is the report's method, and today it exists only in your head. It is also the thing any person or service would need.

Note every figure that has ever been wrong, and what caused it. Those are the checks worth building first.

Make the export a contract

Decide what the export must look like every period: columns, order, types, date format, period boundaries, expected row count. Anything that is a business definition, such as what counts as a completed order, is written down with its owner. Without this, any automation is built on guesses.

Three ways forward

You can template it yourself. Microsoft documents that an Excel table as a PivotTable source includes added rows on refresh, and that Power Query can combine files from a folder if they share the same file type and columns. That works if someone on your team will own it and the export stays stable.

You can keep doing it by hand with the written steps, which at least lets someone else cover. Or you can hand it over: the standing report-pack service builds the pack from your export each period by your written rules, checks every control total against the export and notes anything unusual, from £295 a month for one monthly pack (an untested proposal, sold by proposal, set up in the first month).

• Own it: best when the export is stable and someone has the skills and time.
• Keep it manual but written: lowest cost, still error-prone.
• Hand it over: best when the report must happen every period whoever is away.

What the service does not do

It does not connect to your live systems, send the pack to anyone, change a definition without your approval or promise a delivery time. It does not suit exports containing personal data about individuals. Each pack is checked by a reviewer separate from the work that produced it, and at launch much of the work is automated. You can end it at the end of any month.

What to put in the first enquiry

Describe the report: who reads it, how often, its tables and charts and how long it takes. List the export's column headings with three invented rows. Say which totals you check by eye today. Do not send an export or a finished pack. If we agree to proceed, we agree a secure route in writing before any data moves.

• This is a new service and nothing here claims past delivery or savings.
• Any time you save is yours to measure; we do not promise a figure.