Reports: charts from your spreadsheets

A spreadsheet holds the numbers, but it doesn't always tell you what they mean. A report turns a file into charts and totals you can read at a glance and send to someone.

What a report is

Open ReportsReports, press Open a file… and pick an Excel (.xlsx) or CSV file. You see its sheets as tables, and you add what you want to know: a chart, a single number, a table or your own text.

A report needs no key, no AI and no spending, because everything happens on your PC. Your file is only read, never changed. The report remembers where the file is, and it keeps its last results, so it still opens if you move the file.

Reports you no longer want go to the Deleted list, where they wait until you restore them or delete them for good.

Kinds of charts

When you add a chart, Granny looks at the shape of your numbers, picks a kind and says why in a line under the choice. You can always pick another.

• Bars compare a few things side by side, such as loaves sold in each shop.
• Sideways bars leave room for long names, or for many of them, such as your best-selling products.
• A line shows how something changes over time, such as orders each day.
• A donut shows the shares of one whole, such as the flour you used. It has room for six slices; smaller ones are added up as Other.
• Stacked bars show the parts of every total, such as bread, cakes and pastries in each shop. They appear when a chart counts more than one column, and sideways stacked bars do the same for long names.

A number block shows one value on its own, large, such as this week's total. A table block shows the rows themselves.

A chart has six colours. If there are more lines or parts than that, Granny keeps the biggest and adds up the rest as Other, so no colour is used twice. Every chart has Show as table under it, so the exact numbers are always there to read.

Exact numbers, and what "left out" means

Granny adds up every row herself with plain arithmetic, so a total is the same as the one Excel gives you. She also tells you what she didn't count, right under the chart.

The sample sheet in the Monthly Sales ReportMonthly Sales Report recipe shows this on purpose. It has 28 orders and a Total row at the bottom, and one order's amount says "to confirm" instead of a number:

• Total sales comes to 1,516.5, the same as the sheet's own Total row.
• Orders counts 28, including the one that says "to confirm", because that order did happen.
• Average order is 56.1667: the total divided by the 27 orders that have a number.
• The Total row isn't counted, so nothing is added twice.

The "to confirm" cell is named in a note with its row, so you can go and fix it. Then press Refresh, and the note goes away.

Refreshing

A report shows the numbers from the date at the top of the page. When your file changes, Granny notices and offers Refresh from file, which reads it again and recalculates everything. If a column has been renamed or a file is gone, the chart it feeds says so, and the rest of the report still works.

Reading works while the file is open in Excel, but Granny sees what was last saved, so save it first.

Saving a copy

Save a copy at the top of a report makes a file you can send:

• PDF or a web page looks just like the report.
• Word and PowerPoint can be edited. Tables stay real tables, and charts come in as pictures.
• Excel and CSV hold the numbers themselves, with every row the report keeps.
• Chart pictures are ready to paste into an email.

The ⋯ on a chart or table saves just that one, or copies a chart as a picture.

On PowerPoint slides, long text wraps and each slide holds as many rows as fit. A long table shows its first 50 or so rows when you present, and the rest wait on hidden slides right after them. Printing a deck includes hidden slides unless you untick that.

A copy leaves out your private note and shows only file names, not folders, so it's safe to send. It's a snapshot, so it won't change when your report does.

Asking a baker

Give a baker the Make a report utensil, and ask for a chart in a chat. The report appears under the answer and stays in Reports.

The baker says what to work out, never the numbers: Granny calculates them on your PC, so a report made in a chat is as exact as one you made by hand. Anything the baker writes in its own words is labelled as its own, because Granny can't check that.

• It can change a report it made in that chat. If you've edited that report yourself, your version stays as it is, and the baker's goes in a new report.
• With Save a report as a file, you can say "export this to Word". A report made in that chat saves right away once the utensil is allowed.
• It can export any other saved report if you name it. For those, Granny shows you the report's name and asks every time, even if you ticked the utensil.
• A copy goes in the reports folder of your Kitchen, and it never replaces a file. Remember that a baker with a file utensil can read what's in your Kitchen.
• Reports can't be made or exported from a Telegram chat or a row-by-row step. A taste test shows the report but saves nothing.

In a recipe

The Make a report step does all this in a recipe, on a schedule if you like. It can read a file you pick, a file you add when you bake, or a sheet an earlier step made, and it can save the report in any of the formats above. Send to Telegram can then send that file.

This step needs no AI, so it costs nothing. The Monthly Sales ReportMonthly Sales Report and Expenses at a GlanceExpenses at a Glance recipes are ready to try with their own sample sheets.

Granny's rule of thumb: let the AI write the words, and let Granny do the sums.