Merge 12 spreadsheets into one.
Bring the numbers together without losing what they mean. Twelve workbooks should not become one larger mystery.
Try it now
Copy the prompt into your AI tool of choice, then answer its questions as they come.
Paste it into any AI chat to start. For most people, this is all you need.
Everything on this page in one paste: the prompt plus the full plan, every step and what to check. Use it for longer moves, to plan ahead, to share with a colleague, or if your AI can't open links.
How it goes
What the AI will do
- Inspect the workbooks and their context, reconcile fields and versions, and build a consolidated workbook.
- Check that records, totals, and important distinctions survive the merge.
What to have ready
- The spreadsheets, in their existing condition; related documentation or connected discussions can clarify meaning.
Where you come in
- Choose the purpose and structure when unclear, and resolve consequential conflicts in definitions or records.
What you'll get
You have a consolidated workbook checked against its sources, with traceable transformations, reconciled totals where applicable, and unresolved exceptions identified.
You're done when
You have a consolidated workbook checked against its sources, with traceable transformations, reconciled totals where applicable, and unresolved exceptions identified.
These are general instructions, not a description of this user's particular AI system, tools, access, or circumstances. Adapt the method to the user's goal and the capabilities you can actually use, while preserving the activity's essential sequence, review points, and intended result. ### Start with the activity and the user's context Read the complete activity and guide the user through it. Use the activity prompt yourself; the user does not need to paste it again. Keep the responsibilities of the user, the AI, and any colleague clear. Begin with what the user has already supplied. Establish the intended result and resolve missing context through focused questions when needed. Work within the activity's stated scope, permissions, required confirmations, and stopping points, including any deliberate order for introducing information. Make progress with the available information and reasonable, clearly identified assumptions where the activity allows them. ### Check the capabilities needed for this work Inspect relevant available tools, connectors, and data. Use small, relevant, non-destructive checks to establish whether necessary access or a capability actually works. Naming a product does not establish access to it. Let this activity determine what needs checking; do not impose a universal preliminary questionnaire or a full system audit. When useful access is missing: - Explain what you cannot reach and how that material would help. - Investigate practical setup, connection, export, or other access alternatives before asking the user to gather material or troubleshoot. - If progress depends on access, request only the specific user action or permission needed to enable it or provide the material another way. Continue useful independent work while awaiting the response. - Offer to walk the user through an export or upload. Welcome files, links, copied text, rough notes, or an interview as supported by your system and the activity, and use the best available route. If the missing access is optional, continue with what is available. ### Ask focused questions and respect the answers Ask questions only when necessary to complete the work well or satisfy the activity's required review points. Build on answers already supplied. Ask one question at a time, or a small group of closely related questions. Wait on work that depends on the answer, and continue useful work that does not. Explain unfamiliar language with examples where helpful. Confirm answers or decisions you supply on the user's behalf before treating them as the user's final answers or decisions. This does not require separate approval of every sourced finding; follow the activity's specific review requirements. ### Keep evidence and independent contributions distinct Distinguish evidence, inference, and missing information. Check your work against the source material. Use independent agents when your system actually supports delegation and independent investigation or review would improve the work: - Give each agent a bounded brief and the context appropriate to its role. - Keep discovery independent until synthesis where the activity requires it. Preserve any requirement for the user or colleagues to contribute before seeing other explanations. - Follow the activity's stated fallback and any required confirmation when independent agents or fresh contexts are unavailable. Preserve reviewer isolation where required; describe shared-context or sequential passes accurately. ### Produce, check, and revise the result Do the substantive investigation and production. Carry the activity through to the most complete, usable result within its scope, rather than ending with a plan or handing the main work back to the user. When missing information does not prevent useful work, proceed with clearly identified assumptions where the activity permits them. Check the result against the activity's completion criteria. At each substantive delivery, state what is complete and any material unfinished work, assumptions, helpful missing information, and remaining uncertainty. Explain how these affect what the user can use, and help the user revise the result. Preserve the activity's stopping point. Do not turn a rehearsal, investigation, or test-design activity into execution that the user has not authorized. Merge these spreadsheets into a usable consolidated workbook, preserving the meaning and traceability of the data. ### 1. Inspect the workbooks and establish the purpose. Open the supplied files with available spreadsheet tools. Inventory sheets, headers, data ranges, formulas, hidden rows or sheets where accessible, units, dates, identifiers, and the apparent meaning of each row. Inspect actual values and formulas, not just names. Work with the files supplied; exactly twelve is not required. Help me provide a supported export when a source is inaccessible. Search relevant available email, messages and chats, meeting transcripts, documentation, and project files to understand field definitions, reporting periods, source ownership, and earlier instructions about consolidation. Distinguish current records from historical snapshots or alternative scenarios. Infer the intended use and ask focused questions where the answer affects the merge. Explain two concrete approaches if useful: stacking equivalent records into one table, for example, or linking distinct tables by a common identifier and providing a summary. Recommend a structure based on the actual data and desired result. Wait for my choice before applying a consequential design decision. ### 2. Define and confirm the merge rules. Create a field mapping showing which source columns correspond, their intended types and units, and how each will be transformed. Identify reliable keys and test whether they are unique. Similar names alone are not proof that records describe the same entity. Check whether a proposed join could duplicate rows or lose unmatched records. Resolve or surface differences in currency, units, date formats, fiscal versus calendar periods, category definitions, and levels of aggregation. Preserve leading zeros and meaningful identifiers. Distinguish missing values from zeros. Do not combine overlapping time periods, actuals and forecasts, or different currencies into misleading totals. If conversion is needed, establish its basis, date, and source with me when not already specified. Distinguish exact duplicates, repeated observations, revisions, and conflicting records. Use version and decision evidence to determine which values should stand; a newer filename is insufficient. Present material conflicts and proposed rules with small concrete examples. Ask me to resolve any ambiguity that materially affects the consolidated result and the evidence cannot settle. Wait before applying the affected rule; continue independent inspection. If I cannot resolve it, preserve the competing values or exceptions explicitly. ### 3. Build the consolidated workbook. Perform the transformations on copies, preserving the supplied files. Retain source filename, sheet, and row or equivalent record reference in the consolidated data or a traceable mapping. Keep necessary raw-source copies or a reproducible transformation record without cluttering the main view. Apply the chosen rules and create readable sheets, consistent headers and types, useful filters, and the agreed summary or analysis view. Preserve formulas when appropriate and verify their references after restructuring. If formulas cannot be retained, clearly distinguish exported values and their calculation date. Keep unmatched records, rejected rows, and unresolved conflicts in an explicit exceptions sheet with reasons. ### 4. Reconcile and deliver. - Check source and output row counts, unique keys, duplicates, unmatched records, missingness, and totals that should reconcile. - Explain every material difference caused by filtering, deduplication, conversions, or joins. - Inspect for row multiplication and silent data loss. - Check transformed fields against representative source records and inspect all exceptions; do not merely compare grand totals. Open or parse the finished workbook, verify formulas where tools permit, and inspect its main sheets for usability. Repair discrepancies and rerun affected checks. Deliver the workbook with a concise guide to its structure, rules applied, and unresolved exceptions. If workbook creation or recalculation is unavailable, provide the most useful supported files and state precisely what remains unverified. The result must be the consolidated data, not instructions that hand the merge back to me. These instructions were written in September 2026 using the frontier models available at the time. You may now have better tools or models, or restrictions that make some tasks harder. Your AI should adapt to the tools and access you actually have and find the best available way to help. Everything here is a starting suggestion for you and your AI, not a proven best practice for every setup. Feel free to rewrite any of it to better meet your needs.
View full AI instructions
Merge 12 spreadsheets into one.
What the AI will do
- Inspect the workbooks and their context, reconcile fields and versions, and build a consolidated workbook.
- Check that records, totals, and important distinctions survive the merge.
What you can provide
- The spreadsheets, in their existing condition; related documentation or connected discussions can clarify meaning.
Where you'll take part
- Choose the purpose and structure when unclear, and resolve consequential conflicts in definitions or records.
What you'll get
You have a consolidated workbook checked against its sources, with traceable transformations, reconciled totals where applicable, and unresolved exceptions identified.
Activity context
Bring the numbers together without losing what they mean. Twelve workbooks should not become one larger mystery.
For the user
Share the workbooks or a folder. The AI will investigate their structure and context, propose a useful way to combine them, and do the consolidation. You’ll answer questions about ambiguous definitions or conflicts and choose between genuinely different approaches when needed.
Guidance for the AI
These are general instructions, not a description of this user's particular AI system, tools, access, or circumstances. Adapt the method to the user's goal and the capabilities you can actually use, while preserving the activity's essential sequence, review points, and intended result.
Start with the activity and the user's context
Read the complete activity and guide the user through it. Use the activity prompt yourself; the user does not need to paste it again. Keep the responsibilities of the user, the AI, and any colleague clear.
Begin with what the user has already supplied. Establish the intended result and resolve missing context through focused questions when needed. Work within the activity's stated scope, permissions, required confirmations, and stopping points, including any deliberate order for introducing information. Make progress with the available information and reasonable, clearly identified assumptions where the activity allows them.
Check the capabilities needed for this work
Inspect relevant available tools, connectors, and data. Use small, relevant, non-destructive checks to establish whether necessary access or a capability actually works. Naming a product does not establish access to it. Let this activity determine what needs checking; do not impose a universal preliminary questionnaire or a full system audit.
When useful access is missing:
- Explain what you cannot reach and how that material would help.
- Investigate practical setup, connection, export, or other access alternatives before asking the user to gather material or troubleshoot.
- If progress depends on access, request only the specific user action or permission needed to enable it or provide the material another way. Continue useful independent work while awaiting the response.
- Offer to walk the user through an export or upload. Welcome files, links, copied text, rough notes, or an interview as supported by your system and the activity, and use the best available route. If the missing access is optional, continue with what is available.
Ask focused questions and respect the answers
Ask questions only when necessary to complete the work well or satisfy the activity's required review points. Build on answers already supplied. Ask one question at a time, or a small group of closely related questions. Wait on work that depends on the answer, and continue useful work that does not. Explain unfamiliar language with examples where helpful.
Confirm answers or decisions you supply on the user's behalf before treating them as the user's final answers or decisions. This does not require separate approval of every sourced finding; follow the activity's specific review requirements.
Keep evidence and independent contributions distinct
Distinguish evidence, inference, and missing information. Check your work against the source material.
Use independent agents when your system actually supports delegation and independent investigation or review would improve the work:
- Give each agent a bounded brief and the context appropriate to its role.
- Keep discovery independent until synthesis where the activity requires it. Preserve any requirement for the user or colleagues to contribute before seeing other explanations.
- Follow the activity's stated fallback and any required confirmation when independent agents or fresh contexts are unavailable. Preserve reviewer isolation where required; describe shared-context or sequential passes accurately.
Produce, check, and revise the result
Do the substantive investigation and production. Carry the activity through to the most complete, usable result within its scope, rather than ending with a plan or handing the main work back to the user. When missing information does not prevent useful work, proceed with clearly identified assumptions where the activity permits them.
Check the result against the activity's completion criteria. At each substantive delivery, state what is complete and any material unfinished work, assumptions, helpful missing information, and remaining uncertainty. Explain how these affect what the user can use, and help the user revise the result.
Preserve the activity's stopping point. Do not turn a rehearsal, investigation, or test-design activity into execution that the user has not authorized.
Your AI prompt
Merge these spreadsheets into a usable consolidated workbook, preserving the meaning and traceability of the data.
1. Inspect the workbooks and establish the purpose.
Open the supplied files with available spreadsheet tools. Inventory sheets, headers, data ranges, formulas, hidden rows or sheets where accessible, units, dates, identifiers, and the apparent meaning of each row. Inspect actual values and formulas, not just names. Work with the files supplied; exactly twelve is not required. Help me provide a supported export when a source is inaccessible.
Search relevant available email, messages and chats, meeting transcripts, documentation, and project files to understand field definitions, reporting periods, source ownership, and earlier instructions about consolidation. Distinguish current records from historical snapshots or alternative scenarios.
Infer the intended use and ask focused questions where the answer affects the merge. Explain two concrete approaches if useful: stacking equivalent records into one table, for example, or linking distinct tables by a common identifier and providing a summary. Recommend a structure based on the actual data and desired result. Wait for my choice before applying a consequential design decision.
2. Define and confirm the merge rules.
Create a field mapping showing which source columns correspond, their intended types and units, and how each will be transformed. Identify reliable keys and test whether they are unique. Similar names alone are not proof that records describe the same entity. Check whether a proposed join could duplicate rows or lose unmatched records.
Resolve or surface differences in currency, units, date formats, fiscal versus calendar periods, category definitions, and levels of aggregation. Preserve leading zeros and meaningful identifiers. Distinguish missing values from zeros. Do not combine overlapping time periods, actuals and forecasts, or different currencies into misleading totals. If conversion is needed, establish its basis, date, and source with me when not already specified.
Distinguish exact duplicates, repeated observations, revisions, and conflicting records. Use version and decision evidence to determine which values should stand; a newer filename is insufficient. Present material conflicts and proposed rules with small concrete examples. Ask me to resolve any ambiguity that materially affects the consolidated result and the evidence cannot settle. Wait before applying the affected rule; continue independent inspection. If I cannot resolve it, preserve the competing values or exceptions explicitly.
3. Build the consolidated workbook.
Perform the transformations on copies, preserving the supplied files. Retain source filename, sheet, and row or equivalent record reference in the consolidated data or a traceable mapping. Keep necessary raw-source copies or a reproducible transformation record without cluttering the main view.
Apply the chosen rules and create readable sheets, consistent headers and types, useful filters, and the agreed summary or analysis view. Preserve formulas when appropriate and verify their references after restructuring. If formulas cannot be retained, clearly distinguish exported values and their calculation date. Keep unmatched records, rejected rows, and unresolved conflicts in an explicit exceptions sheet with reasons.
4. Reconcile and deliver.
- Check source and output row counts, unique keys, duplicates, unmatched records, missingness, and totals that should reconcile.
- Explain every material difference caused by filtering, deduplication, conversions, or joins.
- Inspect for row multiplication and silent data loss.
- Check transformed fields against representative source records and inspect all exceptions; do not merely compare grand totals.
Open or parse the finished workbook, verify formulas where tools permit, and inspect its main sheets for usability. Repair discrepancies and rerun affected checks. Deliver the workbook with a concise guide to its structure, rules applied, and unresolved exceptions. If workbook creation or recalculation is unavailable, provide the most useful supported files and state precisely what remains unverified. The result must be the consolidated data, not instructions that hand the merge back to me.
Done when
You have a consolidated workbook checked against its sources, with traceable transformations, reconciled totals where applicable, and unresolved exceptions identified.
These instructions were written in September 2026 using the frontier models available at the time. You may now have better tools or models, or restrictions that make some tasks harder. Your AI should adapt to the tools and access you actually have and find the best available way to help. Everything here is a starting suggestion for you and your AI, not a proven best practice for every setup. Feel free to rewrite any of it to better meet your needs.
These instructions were written in September 2026 using the frontier models available at the time. You may now have better tools or models, or restrictions that make some tasks harder. Your AI should adapt to the tools and access you actually have and find the best available way to help. Everything here is a starting suggestion for you and your AI, not a proven best practice for every setup. Feel free to rewrite any of it to better meet your needs.