Who this is for
An office manager, administrator or small-business owner who inherited a report laid out for printing and now needs to sort it, filter it or summarise it.
Sorting the report fails, filters hide records, or a pivot summary will not build because of merged group labels and subtotal rows.
The result
A new sheet holds one row per record under a single header row with no merged cells, each group label repeated on every row it applied to, and the record count and each column total reconcile with the original under rules written down beforehand.
What is included
- One sheet of up to 5,000 data rows in one repeating layout, delivered as a new sheet in a new workbook
- Unmerge group labels and repeat each one on every row it covers, using a rule you confirm for each kind of label
- Remove spacer rows, repeated heading rows and subtotal rows from the data, but list each removed row by type in a reconciliation
- Make each column hold one kind of data, such as text, number or date, and report cells that do not fit
You receive
- A flat data sheet with one header row and one record per row
- A reconciliation sheet: original rows, records, removed rows by type, and each numeric column total before and after
- A short note of the rules used for labels, subtotals and unusual rows
What is not included
- Correcting figures or formulas in the original; that is a different job
- Combining several different report layouts into one table
- Building a PivotTable, chart or dashboard from the result
- Deciding which group a label belongs to when you cannot say
- Personal data of any kind, or confidential data in the first enquiry
What we need from you first
- A description of the layout (for example "region in a merged cell, then product rows, then a subtotal line") and the approximate number of rows
- Whether the sheet has formulas, and the column totals you expect to match
- An invented mock-up of two groups; no real report in the first enquiry
Never send passwords, keys, customer records or confidential code in the first enquiry. Secure handover is agreed after scoping.
How we check it is done
- The flat sheet has a single header row, and a search for merged cells in it finds none.
- The number of original rows equals the number of records plus the number of removed rows, and every removed row is listed once with its type (spacer, repeated heading or subtotal).
- For each numeric column, the total of the records equals the total of the original record rows, and each subtotal in the original equals the recomputed subtotal or the difference is listed.
- In an agreed sample of at least 20 records, every group label on the flat sheet equals the label that covers that record in the original.
You sort and filter the flat sheet yourself, check a few records against the original and sign off in writing. Payment follows sign-off.
When we would stop or decline
- The layout changes from block to block so that no single rule covers it, and you do not want it re-quoted
- A merged label could belong to the rows above or the rows below and nobody can say which
- The numbers in the original do not add up and you want us to decide which figures are right
Questions
Will the flat table change my numbers?
No. We do not alter the figures. We repeat labels, remove layout rows, and show that counts and totals reconcile with the original.
What happens to the subtotal rows?
They leave the data table, because they would double-count in a pivot or filter. Each one is listed in the reconciliation and compared with a recomputed subtotal.
Can you build the pivot table or dashboard too?
Not under this price. The result is a clean table ready for that. Building summaries would be a separate scope.
Price and terms
From £145 · untested offer price. The fixed price is confirmed in writing and paid after the agreed checks pass and you sign off. No payment before sign-off.
This is a new service with no published client results. The price is a starting point we have not yet tested with buyers. Nothing is ordered or charged by the enquiry. The full specification is on the Synthetic Industry catalogue.