Every month the same export arrives with the same junk: three header rows above the data, a combined reference field, a column of text numbers, blank rows at the bottom. Most people fix it by hand, every month, for years. Power Query records the fixes as a list of steps and replays them against next month's file — you swap the source and press Refresh. It ships with Excel, it's the highest-leverage thing in the program, and almost nobody in finance has been shown it.

1. 1Alt + A, P, N to get data from a file, then **Transform Data** rather than Load.
2. 2Do the cleaning in the editor — remove rows, split columns, change types. Each action lands in **Applied Steps** on the right.
3. 3**Close & Load**. Next month, drop the new file in the same place and press Alt + F5.

Press the shortcut to play it on a sample sheet.

• Strip the header junk and blank rows off a bank or payroll export.
• Turn a monthly download into a table that feeds a live pivot.
• Append twelve monthly files into one list without copying and pasting.