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 Duration 28 hours

Course Outline

From Manual Reports to Automated Processes

  • Mapping the current manual report workflow
  • Selecting candidates by frequency, effort and risk

Setting Up the Automation Workbench

  • Python, editor and virtual environments
  • Installing pandas, openpyxl and Selenium

Python Essentials and Reusable Scripts

  • Variables, conditions, loops and lists
  • Small functions and sequential script steps
  • Reading and acting on error messages

Files, Paths and Data Formats

  • Reading and writing CSV and Excel files
  • Naming, archiving and date stamping outputs

Data Preparation with pandas

  • Loading sources into dataframes
  • Filtering, joining and aggregating data
  • Cleaning dates, amounts and duplicates

Report Generation with openpyxl

  • Writing results into Excel workbooks
  • Formatting, formulas and charts
  • Driving output from an Excel template

Validation and Reconciliation of Results

  • Control totals and row count checks
  • Detecting duplicates and outliers
  • Quality gates before release

Claude for Script Creation and Reusable Skills

  • Prompting for automation code
  • Reviewing and correcting generated code
  • Packaging reusable skills for the team

Web Automation with Selenium and Chrome

  • Locating elements, waits and navigation
  • Signing in to internal portals safely
  • Pagination, downloads and file handling

Power BI and Excel Internal Sources

  • Accessing published reports and exports
  • Shared folders and file lock conflicts
  • Coping with changed layouts and columns

Report Distribution by Email and WhatsApp

  • Gmail sending with app passwords
  • Attachments, summaries and recipient lists
  • Business messaging templates and opt-in

Orchestration with PowerShell

  • Running scripts and capturing output
  • Parameters, logging and exit codes
  • Chaining steps into one pipeline

Unattended Scheduling with Task Scheduler

  • Creating and configuring scheduled tasks
  • Service accounts and run-as permissions
  • Monitoring runs and retry behaviour

Troubleshooting, Logging and Security

  • Structured logs and error capture
  • Credential storage and least privilege
  • Personal and regulated data handling

Documentation, Handover and the Automation Capstone

  • Process documentation and runbooks
  • Capstone: building a departmental report
  • First scheduled execution and review

Requirements

  • No prior programming experience is required.
  • Confidence using Windows, Microsoft Excel and a web browser.
  • Working knowledge of the report or process that is to be automated.

Audience

  • Business, operations, finance and administrative staff responsible for recurring reports.
  • Team leads and supervisors who will pass these skills on to their own teams.
  • Analysts moving from manual reporting to automated data pipelines.

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