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Showing entries 161–200 of 222 in this first collection.
Buyer collection
For an office manager: sort your PDF, scan and old-file jobs into do it yourself, buy, or leave
List the jobs by what the file actually is, find the ones your own software already handles, and ask for outside help only where volume, repetition or the need for a checked record justifies it.
Buyer collection
For an operations lead: stop rebuilding the weekly report by hand, or decide to hand it over
Work out what the report actually costs you in steps, put the method in writing, decide whether to template it yourself or hand it over, and choose checks that show each pack matches its export.
Collection
A messy workbook: the order to diagnose it in, and where each fix leads
Seven checks in a fixed order, from stale calculation to import readiness, each pointing to the guide that explains it and the checked job that covers it if you would rather not do it yourself.
Collection
From a PDF to a checked spreadsheet: the order of questions that saves the most effort
Seven steps from "does it have text?" to "who signs off the exceptions?", linked to the guides, the worked example and the checked jobs, including what to do when the same document arrives every month.
Troubleshooting guide
Excel shows #REF! or #NAME?: work out which kind of broken formula you have
Each Excel error value points to a different kind of break. Learn what they mean, how to trace a formula back to its inputs, and why hiding the error is not a repair.
Troubleshooting guide
Totals look wrong but Excel shows no error: stale calculation, text numbers and displayed versus stored values
When no error appears, three quiet causes explain most wrong totals: manual calculation, numbers stored as text and rounding that is displayed but not stored. Here is how to tell which.
Troubleshooting guide
Merged cells stop Excel sorting and pivoting: how to flatten a printed-style report safely
Merged group labels, spacer rows and subtotal lines make a report readable on paper and unusable as data. See what merging does, what a flat table needs and how to prove nothing was lost.
Troubleshooting guide
Dates sort wrongly or change between computers: serial numbers, text dates and day-month order
Excel stores dates as numbers and reads typed dates through regional settings. Learn how text dates, a four-year offset and day-first entries produce wrong sorting, and what to do with rows that cannot be settled.
Troubleshooting guide
Cleaning duplicates in a contact list: write the match rules before you delete anything
Removing duplicates is a set of decisions, not a button. Compare exact and near matches, avoid merging people who only share a field, and keep a log so every merge can be undone.
Troubleshooting guide
Old .doc and .xls files: what converting really changes and how to check a whole batch
Converting one old Office file is easy. Converting a folder needs an inventory, copies instead of overwrites, a decision about macros and a check that the new files match the old.
Troubleshooting guide
Renaming thousands of files: rules, collisions, path limits and a manifest that proves nothing changed
A bulk rename can overwrite files, break on reserved names or exceed path limits. A dry run, a rule check and a checksum manifest make it safe and reversible.
Troubleshooting guide
Mail merge and quotation templates: why numbers arrive wrong and how to test a batch
A merge copies cell values into a template. Currency symbols, percentages and codes come through differently from how they look, so calculations and formats must be settled before the merge.
Troubleshooting guide
Rebuilding the same report every week or month: how to make it repeatable and checkable
A recurring report drifts when it is rebuilt by hand. Fix the export contract, make refreshing change only the data, and add control totals so each period can be checked against its source.
Troubleshooting guide
Before you import a spreadsheet into another system: the checks that stop a failed load
Loads fail on blanks, types, dates, codes and keys. A column-by-column readiness sheet, the right CSV handling and a test on a copy catch most problems before they reach a live system.
Troubleshooting guide
Can this PDF be read as data? Check for a text layer before you plan an extraction
A PDF can hold selectable text or only a picture of each page. A two-minute test tells you which, and that decides the method, the checks and what anyone can honestly promise.
Troubleshooting guide
How to check a PDF extraction is right: count, compare, and list what could not be read
Extraction mistakes are silent. Counting rows page by page, comparing a pre-chosen sample and keeping an exceptions list shows where a spreadsheet differs from its document.
Troubleshooting guide
Filled-in PDF forms: where the answers live and when they are really gone
Answers typed into a fillable PDF are stored as named fields inside each file. Learn how to tell whether a returned form still has them, and how to decide what checkboxes and blanks become in a spreadsheet.
Troubleshooting guide
A scanned PDF cannot be searched: what text recognition can fix and how to test it
Scanning produces pictures of pages. Text recognition can add a hidden text layer, but quality depends on the scan. Test it with words you know are on known pages rather than trusting a percentage.
Platform
Xero integrations: identity, limits, accounts and currency decide whether a sync can be trusted
What Xero documents for integration builders (contacts, invoice numbers, idempotency, paging, limits, accounts, lock dates, demo company) and which failures map to which guide or outcome.
Free tool
CSV header diff: find missing, added, renamed and duplicate columns between two files
Paste two CSV header rows, or read the header of two small files in your browser, and see missing, added and likely renamed columns, duplicate and empty headers and the delimiter. Nothing is uploaded.
Free tool
Invoice rounding bench: compare per-line and total rounding, half-up and half-even
Enter invoice lines and see net, tax and gross under four rounding rules side by side, in exact whole-number minor units, with the difference between summing lines and rounding the total. Not tax or accounting advice.
Free tool
Pack and case unit-price calculator: compare supplier prices per single unit
Enter supplier price lines priced per unit, pack or case. Get the exact price per single unit, the working, and the lines whose pack basis is unclear. No floating point.
Inspectable example
Synthetic webhook test vector: why a re-formatted body makes a genuine event fail verification
Five versions of one made-up event, each shown in full with its real SHA-256 digest, show that re-formatting the body changes the hash and that a one-character change is rejected.
Troubleshooting guide
The same webhook arrives twice and runs twice? Acknowledge fast and make a repeat do nothing
Providers redeliver events that time out or fail. An endpoint that does the work before answering, with no memory of what it has seen, will run the action twice.
Inspectable example
Synthetic test vectors for a Slack events endpoint: signature, five-minute window and repeated events
Five invented requests with their computed signatures show which a verifier should accept and which it should reject, and why an event ID must be claimed before the work is queued so a repeat or a simultaneous duplicate does not run it twice.
Troubleshooting guide
Slack events hit your endpoint twice, or not at all: signature, timestamp and the three-second rule
How Slack signs events, why the raw body and a five-minute window matter, and how to reply in time without running the work twice.
Troubleshooting guide
Website form to Pipedrive: store first, match by email, create a linked lead, respect the limits
The order of calls, the API versions, the matching rule, the rate limits and the outage design for pushing a form enquiry into Pipedrive without losing it, and the lookup that keeps a lost reply from creating a second lead.
Buyer collection
For a bookkeeper retyping supplier invoices: get a batch into rows, with the doubtful ones listed
Measure whole invoices, not fields. Check the arithmetic on every invoice, keep an exceptions list, and test on invoices you labelled and the tool has not seen.
Collection
From messy files to numbers you can trust: the order to put checks around data jobs that use AI
Six steps, from reading documents and matching records to defining metrics, watching data and keeping AI steps honest, each with the outcome that covers it.
Troubleshooting guide
Matching company names across two lists: standardise, block, then use a model only for the unclear pairs
How record linkage tools work, why comparing every pair is wasteful, and why the false-link rate on look-alikes is the number to test.
Troubleshooting guide
A forecast must beat a simple baseline: how to test one on your own history
Rolling-origin testing against mean, naive, seasonal-naive and drift forecasts, and why a language model is not a reason to trust a forecast.
Buyer collection
For a bookkeeper: check supplier statements and payment runs before the money moves
Check statements against the ledger by closing balance and reference, and put a second pair of eyes on every payment run for duplicates and changed bank details.
Buyer collection
For an office manager: get the accounts mailbox sorted and the receipts matched to the card statement
Decide where each kind of mail should go, measure the misroutes that matter, and pair receipts to card lines so missing ones show up as two lists.
Buyer collection
For a finance manager: draft the month-end variance commentary with every figure traced, and know where AI tools send your data
Trace each variance against budget or last month to the ledger lines, ask for the reason from a named person, and write down what each AI tool does with the data you put in.
Buyer collection
For sales admin: turn customers' parts-list requests into quote drafts priced only from your list
Match each requested line to a catalogue code, take the price only from the approved list, flag look-alike codes and units, and let a person send the quote.
Collection
Finance admin checks with AI, in order: start with a file and no access, end with a monthly service
An ordered path through the finance-admin jobs: files only first, then document reading with tie-outs, checks before money moves, drafts for a person, workflows in your own account, then monthly care.
Troubleshooting guide
AI document reading: why a high field accuracy still leaves many documents with an error
A field rate is not a document rate. Count documents, state the sample size and pass mark, and see what a pass actually shows before you rely on a reading tool.
Troubleshooting guide
Checking a supplier statement against your ledger by hand: six kinds of difference
Start with the closing balance, match each line by reference, and classify every difference as missing, extra, amount, date, reference or an unapplied credit.
Troubleshooting guide
Sorting a shared accounts mailbox: keep an Unsure bucket and count the misroutes that matter
Label each email with one of up to eight labels, send doubtful ones to Unsorted with a best guess, and count the invoice, statement, legal or tax-authority mail that lands in the wrong place.
Troubleshooting guide
Hostile text in invoices, emails and receipts: what prompt injection means for finance automation
Any document an automated reader opens can carry instructions. Limit what the reader may do, check its output with code, and test with planted hostile documents, run more than once.