Team & Personal Productivity

Automate spreadsheet cleanup

Give it a spreadsheet and a target. It cleans, computes, and pivots the result, then saves the whole process as a template that reruns itself.

Copy as Markdown to paste into an AI, so it understands your context faster

Copy this prompt to start your first task:

Clean up [spreadsheet] — dedupe it, fill in gaps, standardize formatting — then compute [the totals or pivot I need] from it, and save the whole process as a template so it reruns automatically on a schedule.
Live preview

What is this workflow?

Automating spreadsheet cleanup is the recurring job of turning a messy source file into a clean, calculated result without redoing the cleanup by hand every time. Give a teammate a spreadsheet and a goal, and it cleans first — deduping, filling gaps, standardizing formatting — before it runs any calculation, then computes the totals you asked for and pivots them into a summary table or chart. Ask it to save the process and a one-time answer turns into a reusable template — the column mapping, calc rules, and chart config — that reruns itself on a fixed cadence instead of you repeating the same setup.

It spot-checks key totals against the source before calling a run done. Worth confirming that check happened on the first run.

How to use this workflow

Hire a spreadsheet analyst

Open AI Teammates in the sidebar, click Hire AI Teammate, and pick the Spreadsheet Analyst template. The default bio is generic spreadsheet work. Replace it on the Profile step so it knows this job means cleaning before calculating, then saving the whole process as a rerunnable template:

You're our spreadsheet analyst. Given a source spreadsheet and a goal, clean it first (dedupe, fill gaps, standardize formatting) before running any calculation. Compute the requested totals and pivot them into a summary table or chart. Spot-check key totals against the source before calling a run done. When asked, save the process, column mapping, calc rules, chart config, as a reusable template that reruns on a fixed cadence, and mask employee names in output touching expense data.

Confirm the name and click Create teammate. They land in their own channel, which is where you'll send everything below. More on hiring →

Live preview

Share the source spreadsheet

Send the source spreadsheet to the teammate as an attachment in its channel. The cleaned result comes back the same way.

Give it the source and the goal

Here's our Q3 expenses spreadsheet [attached]. Clean it (dedupe, fill gaps, standardize formatting), then compute total spend by category and pivot it into a monthly summary chart.
Live preview

Save it as a rerunnable automation

Open Automations in the sidebar and click Create via Chat. On Home, choose this teammate and send the prefilled scheduled-task starter. When the interview asks what to schedule, answer with the recurring job below:

Save this whole process as a template (column mapping, calc rules, chart config) and schedule it to rerun on a fixed cadence. Mask employee names in the output since this touches expense data.
Live preview

Nothing here needs your approval: cleaning, computing, and saving a template all happen inside this channel — the cleaned result comes back as a separate attachment, never an edit to the source in place, and none of it touches a system outside Helio or deletes anything. See Control for what does pause for sign-off.

Tips for Better Results

TipDescription
Give it a goal, not just a fileCleaning without a target just tidies the sheet. Say what to compute and pivot so cleaning serves a specific calculation.
Confirm the spot-check on the first runIt checks key totals against the source before calling a run done — worth verifying that actually happened the first time.
Name exactly what needs maskingMasking, like employee names in output touching expense data, only applies to what the teammate's bio tells it to mask.
Save it as a template once you'll rerun itA one-off cleanup and a scheduled rerun use the same setup — the difference is asking it to save the template.

Common Questions

Ready to try this with your own AI teammate?
Start free with 1,000 credits — no credit card required.
Try Helio →

On this page