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Send a monthly report written from your spreadsheet
Each month, turn your figures into a short written report with a chart, what changed and why it matters, ready to email to your team.
When to use it
First working day of each month
Step by step
Keep one tidy tracking sheet
Have one Google Sheet or Excel file with a row per month and a column per measure (for example sales, enquiries, costs). Add a chart of the main measure from the Insert menu.
Book the monthly slot
Create a recurring calendar event for the first working day of the month called 'Monthly report' with the sheet linked.
Draft the commentary
Copy the last 13 months of data (so it can compare with last year) into your AI assistant with this prompt.
Prompt to copyHere is our monthly data for [team or business], with the newest month at the bottom. Write a short monthly report for [audience]: 1) a one-line headline, 2) 3 to 5 bullets on what changed compared with last month and the same month last year, with the actual numbers and percentages, 3) anything unusual worth looking into, 4) 2 questions for the team. Plain English, under 250 words. Don't guess at reasons. Show your calculations in a separate list at the end so I can check them. [paste data]Check the maths
Compare two or three of its percentages with a quick calculation in the sheet. Delete the calculation list once you're happy.
Email it
Paste the report and a screenshot of the chart into an email to your team. Gmail's scheduled send lets you prepare it in advance.
What you get
October: enquiries up, conversions down. Enquiries 184 (+12% on Sept, +20% on last Oct). Bookings 41 (-5% on Sept). Conversion fell from 27% to 22%. Worth a look: 30% of enquiries came from the new website form. Question: are we replying to form enquiries fast enough?
Tips
- Run the same prompt every month so reports are consistent and easy to compare.