I’ve got a little spreadsheet story that might save you some headaches down the road. I recently had an somewhat interesting chat with a friend about a Google Sheets problem. It’s a real-world story that shows how small data issues can snowball into bigger headaches.
So, my friend is a virtual assistant working with a tutoring service teaching three subjects: math, English, and science. Simple enough, right? Well, not quite.
They use a payment gateway app to collect fees from students. Great for getting paid, but it turned into a data management nightmare. Here’s why:
They download their payment data as a CSV file. So far, so good.
But in this file, there’s a column where the subjects are all jumbled up because the remarks are manual input.
Sometimes it says “Matematik,” other times “MATH.” English might be “BI” or “B.Inggris.”
And don’t get me started on how they’re separated – commas, “&” signs, you name it!
My friend wanted to know if there was a magic button to sort this mess into neat columns for each subject. Wouldn’t that be nice? As it turns out, her current process was a real time-sink.
Before we dive in, take a quick look at this spreadsheet snippet I’ve attached. It’s a dummy sample I’ve put together to illustrate our little data dilemma. Don’t worry, these aren’t real student records or anything – just a mock-up to give you an idea of what we’re dealing with. It might look familiar if you’ve ever handled payment tracking for classes or similar services.
Column A, B, and C is the data exported from the payment gateway. Column D, E, and F are her own addition to the spreadsheet needed for further processing/analysis.
She explained how she’d spend hours each month painstakingly sorting through the data. For each entry or transaction, she’d have to manually check which subjects were marked, then type in the paid subject the dedicated columns (D, E, and F). With dozens, sometimes hundreds of entries, this task would eat up a significant chunk of her day.
I could feel the frustration. It’s not just time-consuming, it’s mind-numbing. She will constantly be worried she’ll make a mistake or miss an entry. And don’t even get me started on how this cuts into time she could be spending on other things.
This wasn’t just about tidying up a spreadsheet; it was about reclaiming valuable time and mental energy.
