Turn a sales spreadsheet into a monthly report

2. Prepare the skills

Open each guide for the upstream source, setup requirements, and a smaller first exercise. Installation depends on your agent and its available tools.

1. 1

   Prepare XLSX and DOCX

   Use the linked skill guides and upstream installation instructions. Confirm that your agent can produce both workbook and Word files.

2. 2

   Supply the source and brief

   Download monthly-sales.xlsx and monthly-report-brief.txt, then attach both. The CSV contains identical input rows if your environment needs that format.

3. 3

   Verify the numbers

   Use the spreadsheet skill to retain the raw rows and compute the requested measures. Check totals and definitions before writing the narrative.

4. 4

   Write the report

   Use the document skill with the checked summary. Separate facts from hypotheses, and describe margin differences in percentage points.

5. 5

   Reconcile both artifacts

   Open both files. Check that every figure in the report matches the workbook and inspect the report layout.

3. Run the first task

Attach the sample inputs in your agent, then send this prompt.

Use the XLSX and DOCX skills with monthly-sales.xlsx and monthly-report-brief.txt. Create sales-summary.xlsx with Raw data and Summary sheets. Preserve all six source rows and use formulas for monthly revenue, cost, gross profit, gross margin and month-over-month changes. Recalculate and check the numbers. Then create monthly-report.docx for the operations lead, with a two-month comparison table, three factual observations and one clearly labeled proposed follow-up. Use USD, distinguish percent changes from percentage-point changes, and invent no causes or forecasts. Inspect the report layout and return both files with the checks actually performed.

4. Check the files you get back

Use these specifications to check your own result. Any recorded example outputs are listed separately below.

sales-summary.xlsx

Raw data and Summary sheets with monthly revenue, cost, gross profit, gross margin, and month-over-month changes.

monthly-report.docx

An editable one-page brief with a comparison table, three factual observations, and a clearly labeled proposed follow-up.

Acceptance checklist

• January revenue is USD 12,000, cost is USD 6,000, gross profit is USD 6,000, and gross margin is 50%.
• February revenue is USD 15,000, cost is USD 7,800, gross profit is USD 7,200, and gross margin is 48%.
• Revenue grows 25% and gross profit grows 20%; gross margin falls by 2 percentage points.
• All six original rows remain intact, and summary calculations use formulas with recalculated values.
• The DOCX figures match the workbook, its table is editable, and the rendered report has no clipping.
• No unsupported explanation for the changes, customer claim, forecast, or recommendation presented as an observed fact appears.

Limits of this exercise

• The data is synthetic and small. It does not test refunds, tax, missing dates, mixed currencies, or accounting reconciliation.
• Gross profit here means revenue minus the supplied cost; it is not net income.
• The recipe checks reporting consistency, not financial forecasting or business performance.