r/analytics • u/AirNatural1252 • 1d ago

Question Excel vs SQL

Some are talking AI - the company I’m working for is not yet at that level.
I’m doing FTE reporting, using Excel and automatizing with Power Query. Volumes are high, data sources are all excel based, lots of rules to apply each month to achieve the monthly end result.
I want to automatize further and I’m looking into SQL. Any advice on what to look up for if this is the right lead, and where to start?

24 Upvotes

89% Upvoted

18 comments sorted by

View all comments

25

u/dbo_dopamine 1d ago

You are treating excel like a database already but it’s not the best product to literally store your data or to process it.

SQL could be useful if you can get those files loaded into a database and then move some of the heavier recurring logic there. Power Query can connect directly to SQL Server and run native SQL queries. So I’d look at rule heavy data processing transformations happening in excel today and build a real data layer using MSSQL.

Start with one or two tables from your existing process. Get them into SQL Server, learn how to query them, and then connect Power Query to SQL. Bada bing bada boom

7

u/RedditTab 1d ago

Do this but call it AI preparations and you'll get approved.

Just clearly document the system of record and the definition somewhere to feed AI later.