Project 01

I did 4 hours of Excel work in 9 minutes.

By Sudhanshu Shekhar · Excel & Analytics · 6 min read

TL;DR

One ChatGPT prompt merged 4 messy regional sales files, standardized inconsistent columns, fixed mixed date formats, and built a region-wise summary table — in 9 minutes instead of the usual 3-4 hours. No macros, no VBA, no paid tools. The full prompt is below — copy it and swap in your own files.

No Macros. No VBA. No Paid Tools. Just ChatGPT + this prompt.

The task

Four regional sales files, one messy afternoon

→ Merge 4 regional sales files
→ Clean duplicate customers
→ Fix messy date formats
→ Build a summary by region

Usually takes

3–4 hours

This took me

9 minutes

The 4-step workflow

No formulas. No code. Just smart prompting.

1. Upload your 4 files
2. Paste the master prompt
3. Answer 2 questions
4. Download the result

The prompt

Copy. Paste. Done.

"You are an expert data analyst. I have 4 Excel files with regional sales data. Columns have inconsistent names. Dates are in mixed formats. Help me: 1. Standardize column names 2. Convert dates to "YYYY-MM-DD" 3. Merge duplicate customers 4. Combine into one master sheet 5. Summary table by region I'll share files one at a time. Ask me for file 1."

The result

Within 9 minutes, you'll have:

✓ All 4 files merged into one
✓ Inconsistent columns standardized
✓ Dates in one unified format
✓ Duplicate customers handled
✓ Summary table by region

All inside one .xlsx file. Ready to share.

Why this prompt works

Three patterns you can reuse in any prompt

→ Role first.

"You are an expert ___" — better framing produces better output. Telling the model what expert to imitate sets the quality bar before it writes a single word.

→ Specific over vague.

"YYYY-MM-DD" beats "fix dates." Precision kills ambiguity — the more exactly you specify the output format, the less the model has to guess.

→ Sequential, not bulk.

"Ask me for file 1" beats dumping all 4 at once. One thing at a time means zero mistakes — the model processes each file with full attention instead of splitting focus.

Master these 3 patterns → master any prompt.

Sudhanshu Shekhar

Founder, AI with Suds · Ex-AVP Credit Suisse · Ex-Zomato

I read every comment — if you try this prompt on your own files, tell me how it went.

Want to go deeper than one prompt?

The masterclass builds on this exact workflow — a dashboard, a cleanup pipeline, and a monthly report, live in 2 hours.

See the masterclass →