I have been tasked with creating Power BI KPI reports and the data to feed those reports comes from different sources and is collected manually.
There is one person responsible per KPI. That person collects the KPI's data monthly and puts it in an Excel file. Then, that person sends the xlsm file to another person, who is responsible of organizing multiple KPI's into one Excel file. Ultimately, that person sends it to me and I use that xlsm file to create the report. The same process goes on per area of the company (6 in total) every month.
As you can see, there is a lot of copy/paste going on which can indice errors.
What is the best way to approach this?
I can't comment, so I will explain here what I think you can do.
I will ignore the collecting of data by person responsible per KPI.
You can use a database connection, using plugins or VBA, to send the Excel data to a database. Create a VBA Excel file with a script to send the data to a database and there you can do whatever you want. The most important thing that you need to do, is limit the 'columns' of data that Excel will have, or find a way to get the data directly from the source, using an API or whatever you find.
Another approach is creating a web form to send data directly to you, but i don't know if this is possible in your case.
It's the only thing I can think, given the limited options.
Related
I currently have an Excel file with a data entry form- a formatted sheet with vba to provide combo boxes, validate data types & form completeness, and then load the entered data to another sheet. I'd like to put this on Sharepoint for my team to use, but Sharepoint disables VBA. I'd prefer that they be able to enter data online rather than downloading the Excel file and re-uploading. Any advice on how to do this? It's preferred if I don't have to start from scratch, but suggestions on the easiest way to implement this are also welcome.
Specifically, this is a savings tracker for a procurement group. I'd like my team members to individually be able to enter negotiation data once complete: project name, supplier, baseline costs, negotiated value, effective date, etc. Some fields have a list of allowed inputs- most are short lists, but the supplier list is quite long. Their data would then be stored in a single table that I can build reports with in Power BI. My team is not particularly tech-savvy.
Thanks!
I have a dozen spreadsheets with identical structure and formulas, essentially tables, only the data differ, say one spreadsheet per country.
For example there is a spreadsheet to manage the US employees, another for the UK employees, and another for the Canada employees.
They are exactly the same except that each will store a different set of employees.
The spreadsheets act both as a database to store data and a user-interface to interact with data.
Each change (updating or adding a formula, updating some drop-downs values, changing style...) has to be replicated in all the spreadsheets which is time consuming and error-prone.
As an example I could change the formula to compute the seniority of each employee by editing the 3 spreadsheets.
I was wondering if there was a reasonably simple way to avoid duplicating the common parts, only having different data.
I'd like to avoid a full-blown development with plenty of VBA code, a complete database, some user input forms... but if really necessary I can write some VBA and build some database to fill in the blanks if there is no out-of-the-box solution.
With a full-blown development I would do something like:
store all the employees in a single SQL database table
develop a single spreadsheet
when opening the spreadsheet ask the user to choose a country to only load the this country's employees
save the data changes to the database
If you're effectively talking about an efficient way to handle version control so that input sheets that have previously been distributed to users match a master template, then I'm afraid there is no out-of-the-box solution.
I use something along the lines of http://datapigtechnologies.com/blog/index.php/building-version-control-in-excel/ to force users to download the latest template should they be using an older one.
In addition, I also place a big note at the top to prompt users to download a new template each time, rather than recycle an old one, because if a user didn't enable macros the automatic download of the latest template won't kick in.
Note that the above screenshot shows a form that I've built in Excel's grid itself, using shudder merged cells. (i.e. It is not a userform)
If the templates need to preserve user-submitted data that isn't held centrally, then you're probably going to need to develop an add-in along the lines of what the authors do in the book Professional Excel Development.
Short version: Is there any way/hack to use the embedded DataModel/PowerPivot cube of an Excel 2013/6 file from another Excel file?
Long version:
We have a large Excel Data Model with >400k rows and >100 measurements, feeding multiple reports (i.e. PivotTable on separate worksheets). As all this is growing, we want to split this out into a (large) data model and multiple reports. I know this could be done with SharePoint or PowerBI - however one of the key requirements is to be able to analyse the data offline. Hence, I'm trying to figure out any way to connect to the data model from another file....
There's no way that I know to do what you're asking. Is there any reason you can't just include all the reports in one workbook with the data model? Since you have to be able to analyze offline, anyway, everyone will need a local copy of the model. If the concern is just that there will be too many sheets in a single workbook, you could just put a thin veneer of VBA in it to hide and unhide sheets in groups for ease of use.
It looks like Microsoft has added an option to establish connection via ODC file.
See this f.e. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/reporting-services/report-data/use-an-office-data-connection-odc-with-reports?view=sql-server-ver15
However it's not working out for me, I am using Excel 2016, exported data model from the file with data model as a separate odc file but when I try to add this as a connection in another file - I get the message - can't open the file. Looks like creating ODC file is not that straightforward.
Anyone had similar issues?
Good day all,
I am very new to Access and VBA, so some of these questions may seem elementary, but any help offered would be greatly appreciated... I am a member of a recruiting organization, and am trying to build a database system that will greatly increase our administrative efficiency and quality of life. My organization insists on the use of Excel spreadsheets that are supplied to us to document our efforts and for our reports, thus ruling out the possibility of using the reports from Access. I have the underlying database pretty well ironed out, but what I need help with is taking that data and putting it in specific cells within an existing excel spreadsheet. Specifically, what steps do I need to tell access to do, how to select the appropriate worksheet, and how to select individual cells to send data to. I also need to link all of this to a button on a form labeled, say, "Generate Applicant Log"... Additionally, I would like both the database and all applicable template spreadsheets we would need to be located in the same folder that I can lock, so that I can send the whole folder to another user and all necessary files are included, but they can't get into the folder to mess with stuff. I am concerned this will affect whatever coding I would use due to the changing file path names from user to user, so any help in figuring out a way to tell access how to find the spreadsheets relative to where the database is so it always works no matter who's computer the folder is on or where it is at in the same computer, would also be greatly appreciated... I apologize in advance for the length of this inquiry, and graciously appreciate any help in this matter! Thank you for your time!
Rather than send data from Access to Excel, it is easier to pull data into Excel from Access. In Excel, on the "Data" tab select "from other sources" and build a Microsoft Query. I like to put the data into a spreadsheet and link the data into the sheet the user will see - I hide the original sheet. This way you can put all of the data into the hidden sheet, and then move things for the reports you need.
Using this method, I bring measurement data from a database, show it to users that need to review it, and run VBA routines to evaluate the data and highlight the interesting / important data. I also keep the users out of the original database.
I have my database on a server and I cannot offer help on sending the database and files to the user. I just send the file - they have access to the server and the data is refreshed each time the spreadsheet opens.
My current employer (to remain nameless) has a collection of incredibly sophisticated Microsoft Excel 2003 worksheets (developed by contractors, also to remain nameless).
The employer is replacing the Excel-based solution with a SalesForce-based solution (developed by other contractors, likewise to remain unnamed). The SalesForce solution is also very complex using dozens of related objects and "Dynamic SOQL" to contain the data and formulas which previously was contained in the Excel-based solution.
The employer's problem, which has become my problem, is that the data from the Excel spreadsheets needs to be meticulously and tediously recreated in .CSV files so it can be imported into SalesForce.
While I've recently learned I can use CTRL-` to review formulas in Excel, this doesn't solve the problem that variables in Excel have cryptic names like $O$15. If I'm lucky, when I investigate $O$15, I'll find some metadata explaining if n cells up and/or some other data m cells to the left, and/or (in rare instances) there may be a comment on the cell.
Patterns within the Excel spreadsheets are very limited, rarely lasting more than 6 concurrent rows or columns and no two sheets which need to be imported have much similarity.
Documentation of all systems are very limited.
Without my revealing any confidential data, does anyone have any good ideas how I might optimize my workflow?
It's not clear exactly what you need to do: here are 3 possible scenarios, requiring increasing knowledge of Excel.
1. If all you want is to convert the Excel spreadsheets into CSV format then just save the worksheets as CSVs.
2. If you just want the data and not the formulae then it would be simple (using VBA) to output anything that isn't a formula (the cell.Formula won't start with =).
3. If you need to create a linkage excel-->csv-->existing Salesforce objects/SOQL then you will need to understand both the Excel Spreadsheets and the Salesforce objects/SOQL that have been created. This will be difficult unless you have good knowledge and experience of Excel and also understand what the salesforce App requires.
Brian, if you're still working on this, here's one way to approach the problem. I use this kind of process often for updating data between SFDC and marketing automation apps.
1) Analyze the formulae that you're re-creating in Salesforce.com to determine what base data fields you need (stuff that doesn't have to be calculated from something else.
2) Find those columns/rows in your spreadsheets and use Paste Special -> Values in a new spreadsheet to create an upload file with values instead of formulae that you need for each data area (leads, prospects, accounts, etc.)
3) If you have to associate the info with leads or contacts or accounts and you have already uploaded or created those records in Salesforce.com, be sure to export them with their ID numbers. That makes it easy to use the vlookup formula in Excel to match up fields that you need to add and then re-upload the data into Salesforce.
Like data cleaning, this can be a tedious process. But if you take it step by step it shouldn't be too hard. Good luck.