Spreadsheet Automation - Regulatory Tracking

Context

A plain SKU list comparison would only show what was there, not what was missing or wrong. The spreadsheet needed to actively flag exceptions, such as a region not fully following EU regulations, rather than leaving that discovery to manual review.

Primary Risks Identified

• A silent mismatch (e.g. an unflagged non-compliant SKU or region) if the lookup isn't validated against a known-correct sample first

Testing Approach

Built and tested VLOOKUP formulas against the SKU/regulatory reference lists, validating a sample of matches by hand before rolling the formula out across the full list.

Outcome

Flagged that EU regulations were not being fully followed for products sold into Cayman Islands, using the automated spreadsheet comparison to catch the gap.

Key Lessons

Automating a regulatory-tracking spreadsheet only pays off if it's built to flag exceptions (e.g. a region not yet compliant) rather than just list data.