Tips & Tricks Series: October 2024

Oct 1 / Data Prep U (Jose Arevalo)
Welcome back to our Alteryx Tips & Tricks Series, where each month, we explore untapped aspects of the Alteryx platform and dive into three intermediate-to-advanced tips & tricks that can elevate your Alteryx skills and help you tackle common data challenges! 🚀
Avoid Join Headaches: Convert Doubles to Fixed Decimals

When working with financial data, precision is key. Alteryx often handles numeric values as floating-point numbers (doubles), which can cause small rounding discrepancies. These minor differences can lead to issues when joining datasets or calculating totals. For example, when matching financial data from bank records and internal ledgers, differences in decimal places can result in mismatched values or incorrect totals. Converting doubles to integers or fixed decimals ensures consistent results.

How Does It Work?

Floating-point numbers store extra decimal places, like 100.0000001, which can appear the same as 100 but behave differently during joins. This can lead to mismatches or inaccurate calculations. By converting doubles to fixed decimals or integers, you round numbers to a consistent precision, preventing these discrepancies.

Here’s how:

1. Use the Select tool to locate columns stored as doubles.
2. Change the data type to Fixed Decimal (for precise decimals) or Int (for whole numbers).
3. Proceed with joins or calculations knowing the data is accurate.

This step ensures that floating-point variations won’t impact your financial reports, preserving data integrity for critical accounting tasks.

Quick Totals Using the Crosstab Tool

One powerful yet often overlooked feature in Alteryx is the ability to add row and column totals using the Crosstab tool. Many users resort to manually calculating these totals in Excel, but Alteryx can automate this step, saving time and reducing errors. For example, when preparing financial statements like a P&L, many miss out on the efficiency of using the Crosstab tool to sum categories like revenue and expenses.

How Does It Work:

The Crosstab tool not only pivots your data but also applies aggregation functions, such as Sum, that allow you to automatically calculate row and column totals. By using the Crosstab tool, you can eliminate the need for manual calculations, ensuring more accurate reporting with minimal effort.

Here’s how:

1. Pivot your data using the Crosstab tool, grouping by rows (e.g., account categories) and columns (e.g., time periods).
2. Select the Sum, Total Row, and Total Column function to automatically generate totals for each row and column.
3. Your report will now include totals for easy analysis, removing the need for manual summing.

Many users don’t realize how simple it is to automate this step, which can vastly improve efficiency during financial close or when preparing key financial reports.

Excel Formatting Made Easy: Write to Specific Ranges

One underutilized feature of Alteryx is its ability to write data directly to specific ranges in an Excel file, preserving existing formatting. Accounting teams often rely on Excel templates with pre-set formats for reports, such as bold headers, currency formats, or custom formulas. Many users are unaware that they can maintain these formats when writing data from Alteryx, reducing the need for manual adjustments after exporting.

How Does It Work:

Instead of overwriting the entire sheet or manually reformatting every time new data is added, you can specify the exact range in an Excel file where Alteryx should write the data. This allows you to update only the data while keeping the original formatting intact.

Here’s how:

1. In the Output Data tool, select Excel as the output format and specify the range (e.g., Sheet1!A1:D10) where your data should be written.
2. Ensure the formatting in the Excel file (e.g., headers, currency symbols) is pre-set before running your workflow.
3. Run the workflow, and Alteryx will populate the specified range without altering the formatting of the rest of the sheet.

This small but powerful feature can save hours of manual reformatting, especially when working with recurring reports, making your processes more efficient and consistent.
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Don't miss our next monthly post for more tips and tricks! 🚀