# 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.

- Topic: Data & Analysis
- Framework: Few-Shot
- Level: Advanced
- Tags: Data & Analytics, Fill-in Template
- Source: https://www.thinkwithprompt.com/prompts/understand-an-inherited-excel-workbook-and-map-what-it-does

## Prompt

```text
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.
```

## 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

Free to copy and use. From ThinkWithPrompt (https://www.thinkwithprompt.com/), a library of 2,663 curated AI prompts.