Who this checklist is for
This Claude for Excel checklist is for anyone who works in Excel or Google Sheets: owners, accounts teams, sales managers and the one person in every office who makes the reports. Most of that time goes on the same few jobs: finding what changed, fixing a formula, cleaning an export and turning numbers into something the boss can read.
Claude, like most AI assistants, can read spreadsheets you attach to a chat, and Claude can also make real Excel files with working formulas. Each item below says what to upload and what to ask. Only upload what you are allowed to share, never passwords or ID numbers, and check any number you will act on against the sheet itself.
The 8 things, in the order of the reel
Upload your sales sheet, ask what dropped and why
Ask which product, customer or region fell compared with last month, and what the rows suggest as the reason. You get the two or three lines worth a closer look instead of scanning the whole sheet.
Describe a sum in plain words, get the exact formula
Write what you want, for example the total of column D where column B says paid, and say whether you use Excel or Google Sheets. Paste the formula into a copy of the sheet and check one row by hand.
Paste a broken formula, ask why it shows an error
Paste the formula, the error it shows and a few sample rows. You get a plain explanation of what is wrong, such as a text value in a number column, and a fixed version.
Upload two price lists, ask what changed line by line
Upload last year's and this year's supplier price lists and ask for a table of every item whose price changed, with the old and new price. Items that disappeared or were added show up too.
Upload a messy export, ask it to remove duplicate rows
Exports from billing or CRM software often repeat rows and mix date formats. Ask for the duplicates to be removed and the dates put in one format, and ask how many rows were removed so you can check.
Upload your bank export, ask to group spends by type
Ask for every payment to be put into simple groups such as rent, salaries, suppliers, software and travel, with a total for each. It is a quick way to see where the money went this month.
Upload monthly expenses, ask for a chart you can read
Claude can draw charts inside the chat. Ask for one chart that answers one question, such as which costs grew most this year, rather than a chart of everything.
Ask Claude for a real Excel file, with working formulas
Claude can make Excel files to download with working formulas such as VLOOKUP, several tabs and conditional formatting, for example an invoice tracker that colours late invoices red. Open it and test it before you use it.
Questions about using AI with spreadsheets
Can Claude read Excel and Google Sheets files?
Can Claude make an Excel file for me?
Is it safe to upload business spreadsheets to AI?
Want your reports built without anyone opening Excel?
Book a digital audit. We will look at the spreadsheets your team updates by hand and show which ones AI and automation can take over.
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