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This looks really promising. We generate about 1gb of financial CSV files per day for finance/accounting/audit teams and the number one response is "wow this da

This looks really promising. We generate about 1gb of financial CSV files per day for finance/accounting/audit teams and the number one response is "wow this data is great, but my computer just can't handle it". The biggest issue that I think I would run into in my organization is that all of the spreadsheet lovers are Excel die-hards and they refuse to even use Google Sheets, not to mention something else that isn't Excel. But maybe they could finally be convinced to stop complaining aboutrequesting huge files with something like this...

gamegoblin 3y ago
We try really hard to be Excel-compatible with all our formulas and hotkeys, etc. If there is a formula or hotkey we are missing, let us know and we will add it (usually with < 24 hour turnaround time!) The use-case you describe is exactly what we built it for. There are a lot of people who have data that is no longer human-scale and won't fit into Excel, but they still want to use their Excel skills. We love Excel and spreadsheets, but when working at AWS we found we just had too much data to fit into it.
- samstave 3y ago
  This is just a fun FYI ; This is 8 years old! (as of yesterday!!) but its pretty amazing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VI_riscmviI&list=PLJsVF3gZDcuTxcdH5FmQRTd6MiJ29X_OQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VI_riscmviI&list=PLJsVF3gZDc... Its Martin Skreli (yes that one) -- but see how fast this guy is with excel... this is what I imagine when I think of excel power users... (But also, he does a lesson in DD on investing and doing calcs in Excel - so aside from awesome Excel input, there is good investing info here - recall this was the guy that bought a medical company and immediately raised the price 7,000% or some such (he then bought the Wu Tang Album whilst imprisoned)
sbensu 3y ago
I've found that while people don't want to change out of Excel they are forced to by the size of new files. The more data is generated by computers, the less likely it is to fit in Excel I imagine many professions won't be able to use Excel in 10 years based on this trend.
- layer8 3y ago
  Unless Microsoft invests in changing that situation.
  - bookaway 3y ago
    >Unless Microsoft invests in changing that situation. Unless Microsoft invests in row zero as a "distribution partner" as it did with Mistral, you mean: Row Zero, available now on Azure. There, I fixed it for you.
    - b0ner_t0ner 3y ago
      It'll be funny if they get acquired, tomorrow. It'll be the fastest acquisition, ever.
yau8edq12i 3y ago
I'm curious, which ones of these limits are you hitting? https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/office/power-query-specifications-and-limits-in-excel-5fb2807c-1b16-4257-aa5b-6793f051a9f4 https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/office/power-query-speci... If your answer is "Maximum number of rows filled to worksheet", you should understand that this means exactly what's written, rows filled to the worksheet - you can still have more rows in the source and do your transform/queries on that.
antisthenes 3y ago
Help me understand this. You generate 1gb of critical financial data...that most of your Excel die-hard users can't actually use because their computer can't handle it. How does your org complete any work then?
- bburnett44 3y ago
  lol excel isn't the only data analysis tool
emeril 3y ago
omg dude - shouldn't these users be querying a database in some capacity where this data resides in the first place? perhaps via some more "accountant friendly" app than SQL? That said, I suppose that's partly the goal of this product... a visual/faster alternative to SQL though I personally avoid putting big data in excel, I just (as an accountant myself) carve out subsets from SQL and then peruse it via excel to identify whatever transactions/activity I need to analyze since the web interface for the ERP is such slow steaming garbage... I'm more in search of a better excel than an excel which can handle big data as I suspect many users will somehow, no matter how well this is built, make it slow/terrible whereas an SQL based approach could be multiple of orders of magnitude faster....

gamegoblin 3y ago

We try really hard to be Excel-compatible with all our formulas and hotkeys, etc. If there is a formula or hotkey we are missing, let us know and we will add it (usually with < 24 hour turnaround time!) The use-case you describe is exactly what we built it for. There are a lot of people who have data that is no longer human-scale and won't fit into Excel, but they still want to use their Excel skills. We love Excel and spreadsheets, but when working at AWS we found we just had too much data to fit into it.

samstave 3y ago
This is just a fun FYI ; This is 8 years old! (as of yesterday!!) but its pretty amazing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VI_riscmviI&list=PLJsVF3gZDcuTxcdH5FmQRTd6MiJ29X_OQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VI_riscmviI&list=PLJsVF3gZDc... Its Martin Skreli (yes that one) -- but see how fast this guy is with excel... this is what I imagine when I think of excel power users... (But also, he does a lesson in DD on investing and doing calcs in Excel - so aside from awesome Excel input, there is good investing info here - recall this was the guy that bought a medical company and immediately raised the price 7,000% or some such (he then bought the Wu Tang Album whilst imprisoned)

sbensu 3y ago

I've found that while people don't want to change out of Excel they are forced to by the size of new files. The more data is generated by computers, the less likely it is to fit in Excel I imagine many professions won't be able to use Excel in 10 years based on this trend.

layer8 3y ago
Unless Microsoft invests in changing that situation.
- bookaway 3y ago
  >Unless Microsoft invests in changing that situation. Unless Microsoft invests in row zero as a "distribution partner" as it did with Mistral, you mean: Row Zero, available now on Azure. There, I fixed it for you.
  - b0ner_t0ner 3y ago
    It'll be funny if they get acquired, tomorrow. It'll be the fastest acquisition, ever.

yau8edq12i 3y ago

I'm curious, which ones of these limits are you hitting? https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/office/power-query-specifications-and-limits-in-excel-5fb2807c-1b16-4257-aa5b-6793f051a9f4 https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/office/power-query-speci... If your answer is "Maximum number of rows filled to worksheet", you should understand that this means exactly what's written, rows filled to the worksheet - you can still have more rows in the source and do your transform/queries on that.

antisthenes 3y ago

Help me understand this. You generate 1gb of critical financial data...that most of your Excel die-hard users can't actually use because their computer can't handle it. How does your org complete any work then?

bburnett44 3y ago
lol excel isn't the only data analysis tool

emeril 3y ago

omg dude - shouldn't these users be querying a database in some capacity where this data resides in the first place? perhaps via some more "accountant friendly" app than SQL? That said, I suppose that's partly the goal of this product... a visual/faster alternative to SQL though I personally avoid putting big data in excel, I just (as an accountant myself) carve out subsets from SQL and then peruse it via excel to identify whatever transactions/activity I need to analyze since the web interface for the ERP is such slow steaming garbage... I'm more in search of a better excel than an excel which can handle big data as I suspect many users will somehow, no matter how well this is built, make it slow/terrible whereas an SQL based approach could be multiple of orders of magnitude faster....