Part of the Operations series on the Mobtag platform.

In short: Exports should end a debate, not start a rebuild in Excel. Agree the decision first—stock variance, late inspections, or contractor throughput—then lock the filters that answer it. A 400-column dump is homework for a rainy Friday, not a management pack.

Failure What the room feels
Board “official” number ≠ yard number Trust is gone by slide two
Side spreadsheets because “the system is not quite” Three truths, one audit
Export = every column; nobody asked a question The file never gets shorter next month

A cleaner habit

  1. Name the decision and the audience—e.g. month-end stock movement by cost centre for finance.
  2. Name the row grain—per asset, per line, or per event—before the first pivot, not the day the CFO re-states the question.
  3. Re-use the same saved view for each review so trend has meaning next quarter, not a one-off ad hoc.

Summary: Exports are where spreadsheets die—or where new ones are born if you are not ruthless about one answer, one line of evidence per number, and a path back to a scan in the file you hand out.