Guides
A useful place to start, with a route to the related result.
Guides 25–48 of 52
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Troubleshooting guide
Before you pay a batch: duplicates, changed bank details and why the builder should not be the only checker
Duplicates survive an exact-match check when the number is reformatted, and changed bank details look like any other row. Add a second checker, a call-back and a list of things noticed.
Troubleshooting guide
Overdue invoice reminders to business customers: interest, fixed costs and who must not be chased
GOV.UK sets optional interest and fixed recovery costs for late business payments. Build a do-not-chase list before drafting, and have a person read every reminder.
Troubleshooting guide
Before you merge CRM duplicates: what HubSpot says a merge cannot undo
Why a merge needs a sample and an export first, what HubSpot documents about limits and workflows, and how to band duplicate groups.
Troubleshooting guide
Unsubscribes across email tools: what the UK and US rules say, in plain terms
Who counts as an individual, how fast an opt-out must be honoured and what the penalties are, so you know what to test. Not legal advice.
Troubleshooting guide
Google's bulk-sender rules and how to check every tool that sends as your domain
The thresholds Google publishes for spam rate and the authentication needed from large senders, and a monthly checklist per sending source.
Troubleshooting guide
Asking customers for reviews: what the FTC, Google and the UK allow, and what they do not
Asking everyone is allowed. Screening by satisfaction and hiding bad reviews are not, and Google bars rewards for reviews. A short, sourced summary, not legal advice.
Troubleshooting guide
Putting AI call notes in your CRM: the notice and consent you need first
What UK rules ask of a business recording calls, the US lawsuit about notetaker bots, and what HubSpot already offers, before you build anything.
Troubleshooting guide
AI-assisted SEO work and Google's spam policy: what stays on the safe side
Google allows AI as an aid and expects human fact-checking. It treats many pages made to manipulate rankings as spam however they are made.
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