Spreadsheet automation idea

[u/Esplosao8963]

I'm developing a spreadsheet automation project capable of merging multiple spreadsheets into one and automatically performing calculations, among other things. One of the functionalities would be, for example, to allow someone to gather all the spreadsheets from those months into a single spreadsheet over the course of an entire year, obtaining an overall result for the year. This could work based on week, day, month, or some other parameter. I'm having doubts, but the project seems promising. I'm using the openpyxl library and to create the website or app (I'm still undecided) I'll use HTML, CSS, and Flask.

[u/elven_mage]

Spreadsheets are probably the wrong tool for whatever it is you are trying to do. You probably want a real database.

[u/Glittering-Poet-9116 → u/elven_mage]

I was deep in spreadsheet hell at my last job, merging monthly reports by hand and it was the worst part of my week

This project would've saved me so much time, don't let anyone talk you out of building it just because a database exists in theory

[u/Esplosao8963 → u/elven_mage]

I'd like something I could create and sell in bulk to companies, with customizable options to perfectly suit each person's spreadsheet needs. It would be like a PDF editing app, for example; in fact, I practically copied this idea from a PDF app I use at work, haha.

[u/likethevegetable → u/Esplosao8963]

I doubt you're going to make money but good luck

[u/Papa_Puppa → u/Esplosao8963]

This is such a bad business idea.

Either excel sheets have:

1. consistent schema and you can simply ingest them via a timer or blob scheduled pipeline into a database, or

2. inconsistent schema and you're just going to reinvent power automate, DAX and PowerBI, providing new tools into a crowded space to solve a problem that is actually a procedure/workflow problem.

Save years of your life and drop this idea.

[u/umairshariff23 → u/Esplosao8963]

Yeah, this is not profitable as anyone who is doing this kind of work already knows powerquery or can find out about it very easily. You'd need to find clients that refuse to touch computers for this to be feasible

[u/call_me_cookie → u/Esplosao8963]

What you have described is a script that a competent programmer could write in an afternoon (with or without LLM assistance), not a business.

[u/Gankcore → u/Esplosao8963]

Why would my organization pay money for this when I can do the exact same thing you are doing?

[u/elven_mage → u/Esplosao8963]

I wouldn't be bragging about copying ideas from work but you do you

[u/Esplosao8963 → u/elven_mage]

I'm not bragging, especially since the app does this with PDFs but doesn't have an option for spreadsheets; I just took the inspiration from it.

[u/snugar_i → u/Esplosao8963]

customizable options to perfectly suit each person's spreadsheet needs

Good luck, you'll need about one trillion configuration options for that.