Break It First

Kits

Messy sales export cleaner

Turns messy sales exports into one Excel workbook where every row is accounted for.

Covers: sales exports in the layouts it knows, cleaned into one Excel workbook with a reason for every rejected row.

Limit: The rules fit three synthetic layouts. These numbers say nothing about real exports.

What you get

  • This kit, set up on your data after a written brief.
  • Its test report: what we broke, what caught it and what got through.
  • A plain list of its limits, and a report or log after every run, so you can check the counts the next day.

What we need from you

  • A sample export, or access to a test copy of the tools it connects.
  • A written brief: what it should do and where you think it breaks.

Price: from $49, fixed quote in writing before any work.

Timing: the written quote states the delivery date.

Ask about this kit

or write to [email protected]

The problem

Sales exports mix real sales rows with subtotal lines, grand totals, duplicates and dates nobody can read. Add up the amount column and the answer is wrong.

What we broke

  • We cleaned two messy made-up sales exports and a product list into one Excel workbook.
  • Adding up every amount gave 13,815.45. Of that, 8,487.25 sat in subtotal and grand total lines, which are not sales.
  • Clean sales rows add up to 4,718.90 and rejected rows to 9,096.55. Together, that is the 13,815.45 we started with.
  • Raw 118 rows = 92 clean + 26 rejected. The difference is 0 on rows and on amounts.
  • Every rejected row has a reason: duplicate row, totals row, missing amount, missing date or unreadable date.

Before / after runMessy sales export cleaner

Short video, no sound. The slides below show the same steps.
  1. Hook: raw files 13,815.45, clean sales 4,718.90. Raw lines: Subtotal 616.95 and Grand Total 3159.05 inside the sales file.
  2. Raw POS export rows: dates written three ways, amounts with a currency sign or code, and a row with no line total.
  3. Raw file lines: three subtotal lines and a grand total line sit among the sales rows.
  4. Reconciliation sheet: 118 raw rows = 92 clean + 26 rejected, 13,815.45 raw = 4,718.90 clean + 9,096.55 rejected, difference 0 on both lines.
  5. Every rejected row has a reason, such as duplicate row 5 or totals row 5. 28 tests passed, 25 of 25 planted bugs caught.
  6. Limits: the rules fit three synthetic layouts and say nothing about real files. Follow for one tested kit at a time.

What it does after the fix

It reads each export, takes out totals rows and duplicates, and sets aside rows it cannot read, each with a reason. Then it writes one workbook where raw rows equal clean rows plus rejected rows, on counts and on amounts. The made-up data comes from a generator with a fixed seed (2026), so the same run gives the same numbers.

Limits

  • The rules fit three synthetic layouts. These numbers say nothing about real exports.
  • Our own demo kit, run on made-up data.

What happens after you write

  1. You write

    Email us or send a DM on X: what it does and where you think it breaks.

  2. We ask a few questions

    About your tools, your data and what counts as done.

  3. Fixed written quote

    The quote states the price and the delivery date.

  4. Work starts only after you say yes

    Nothing is built before you agree to the quote.

Want this on your data?

or write to [email protected]

Kits set up on your data from $49. A test run on your own automation from $45. Fixed quote in writing before any work.

This kit's logged test run

tests
28 passed -> OK
bugs
25 of 25 planted, caught
data
made-up
Our own demo kit, run on made-up data.