Are You Still Doing Constant Manual Exports with Excel Every Month?

I remember working with a company where the running joke was, “Don’t go near the finance team at month’s end.” The reason? Everyone knew the finance team was working gruelling hours, cranking out 13-hour days, and let’s just say, no one was in the mood for small talk.

Why? Because they had this massive deadline to hit, trying to get all the numbers out by the end of the month. It was a race against the clock every single time.

But here’s the kicker—the management team didn’t fully grasp just how much manual work was going into these reports. They thought the process was fairly straightforward, but in reality, the finance team was neck-deep in spreadsheets, manually exporting data from 10 different MYOB companies and wrangling all sorts of numbers, formulas, and macros to pull together one cohesive report. It was like assembling a jigsaw puzzle where half the pieces were missing, and they had to create them on the fly.

It was a total grind. Not because the team didn’t know what they were doing—they were good at their jobs—but because they were stuck in a manual process, doing the same tedious work month after month.

There’s a Smarter Way to Do This

Here’s the thing: tools exist today to automate a huge chunk of that manual work. And I’m not talking about magic—just simple, smart solutions that pull data automatically and cut down on the grunt work. What we really needed was for the finance team to focus on what matters: spotting errors, tackling the outliers, and making sure everything adds up perfectly—not spending hours and hours wrestling with Excel to just get the data into the right format.

It’s like asking a skilled mechanic to spend 80% of their day cleaning parts when they could be fixing engines instead. It’s just not the best use of talent or time.

What’s the Real Cost of Manual Work?

If you’ve got a finance or admin team that’s stuck in this loop of exporting data, reconciling numbers, and manipulating spreadsheets every month, I’d invite you to take a step back and think about the time being spent. How much effort is going into manual work that could be automated?

The hours your team spends on these tasks aren’t just wasted—they’re hours that could be spent on higher-value work: finding anomalies, offering insights, or making strategic decisions that actually move the business forward.

It’s also worth considering the risk that comes with all this manual work. The more you rely on hand-cutting and pasting data across spreadsheets, the higher the chance for mistakes. One bad formula, one small error, and suddenly your report is off—and it can take even more time to track it down.

 The Case for Automation

So here’s the challenge: Take a hard look at your current process. If your team is burning hours every month doing the same repetitive tasks in Excel, it’s time to ask yourself if there’s a better way. Are there tools you can use to automate data exports, consolidate reports, or handle routine reconciliations?

Finance automation tools are designed to take the heavy lifting off your team’s shoulders. Instead of manually manipulating spreadsheets, they can focus on the exceptions, the critical areas that need attention. Let the system handle the grind, and your team can focus on the insights that truly matter.

Let’s Move Beyond the Grind

It’s time to stop wasting valuable hours on manual work and start being smarter about how you approach month-end reporting. Your finance team doesn’t need to spend hours reconciling spreadsheets—they need to spend their time on the things that actually add value to the business.

Think about it: Are you still doing constant manual exports with Excel every month? If so, maybe it’s time to rethink the process, free up some time, and let automation do the heavy lifting. Your team—and your bottom line—will thank you for it.

 What’s Your Experience?

I’d love to hear from you. Are you still stuck in the manual grind, or have you found smarter ways to handle your reporting? Drop your thoughts in the comments—let’s keep the conversation going.