Understand an inherited Excel workbook and map what it does
Maps a spreadsheet you inherited: what each tab does, how data flows, which cells are inputs, and where it could break.
The prompt
I've inherited an Excel workbook and need to understand what it actually does before I change or rely on it.
What I was told it does: [e.g. "calculates monthly bonuses", "builds the weekly ops report"]
Tabs: [LIST each sheet name with a short description of what's on it]
Key formulas: [PASTE formulas from the important cells - use Ctrl+` to show formulas - especially totals and anything feeding the final output]
Inputs I know about: [e.g. "an export pasted into the Data tab each month"]
External links, macros, Power Query, or pivots: [yes / no / not sure - paste what you see]
What I need to do with it: [run it monthly / fix it / rebuild it / hand it over]
Return:
1. Plain-English summary: what the workbook does from start to finish, in 5 sentences or fewer.
2. Data flow map: Source -> tab -> tab -> final output, as a simple text diagram.
3. Tab-by-tab guide: Tab | Purpose | Inputs (typed or pasted) | Calculations | Feeds into.
4. Manual steps hidden in the process: anything that must be pasted, refreshed, overwritten, or adjusted by hand each cycle.
5. Fragile spots: hard-coded numbers, external file links, hidden sheets, ranges that won't grow with new data, macros, and single cells everything depends on.
6. Questions for the previous owner, marked [ASK], in priority order.
7. A run guide draft: the steps to produce the output, so the knowledge isn't lost again.
Where the logic is unclear from what I pasted, say what you'd need to see instead of guessing what it does.
Highlighted [brackets] are blanks to replace with your own details.
Fill in the blanks and use this promptMore Data & Analysis prompts
What to fill in
- LIST each sheet name with a short description of what's on it
- e.g. "an export pasted into the Data tab each month"
- yes / no / not sure - paste what you see
- run it monthly / fix it / rebuild it / hand it over
- ASK
How this prompt is built
This prompt follows the Few-Shot structure (Few-shot prompting). A few-shot prompt includes one or more worked examples of the input and the output you want, so the model can copy the pattern instead of guessing it.
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