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15 May 2023

Streamlining Data Collection and Consolidation using UiPath and Excel

In today’s data-driven world, organisations often deal with numerous Excel spreadsheets scattered across different sources.

Combining and consolidating data from multiple Excel sources can be a tedious and error-prone task if done manually. Fortunately, UiPath, a leading Robotic Process Automation (RPA) tool, provides a powerful solution to automate such data collection and consolidation processes.

In this blog post, we will explore how to leverage UiPath to collect data from multiple Excel sources and seamlessly combine it into an Excel Online spreadsheet.

Step 1

To begin, ensure that you have the necessary packages installed in UiPath Studio. You will need the following packages:

  • UiPath.Excel.Activities: Provides activities for working with Excel files.
  • UiPath.Web.Activities: Includes activities for automating web browsers.

Step 2

Set Up Excel Online Connection Before we start collecting and combining data, we need to establish a connection with Excel Online. Follow these steps to set up the connection:

  1. Open UiPath Studio and create a new project.
  2. Drag and drop the “Open Browser” activity from the UiPath.Web.Activities package onto the workflow.
  3. Configure the activity to open the Excel Online URL and log in to your account if required.

Step 3

Collect Data from Multiple Excel Sources Now, let’s move on to collecting data from multiple Excel sources. We will assume that you have a list of file paths or URLs to Excel files. Here’s how to proceed:

  1. Create a list of file paths or URLs to Excel files.
  2. Use a loop (such as a “For Each” loop) to iterate over the list of file paths.
  3. Inside the loop, add the “Excel Application Scope” activity from the UiPath.Excel.Activities package.
  4. Configure the activity to open the Excel file specified by the current file path.
  5. Within the “Excel Application Scope,” add activities to extract the required data from the Excel file, such as “Read Range” or “Get Cell Value” activities.

Step 4

Combine Data into Excel Online Spreadsheet With the data collected from the Excel sources, we can now combine it into an Excel Online spreadsheet:

  1. Outside the loop, add the “Excel Application Scope” activity again to work with the Excel Online spreadsheet.
  2. Configure the activity to open the desired Excel Online spreadsheet.
  3. Inside the “Excel Application Scope,” use activities to manipulate the spreadsheet and insert the collected data. For example, you can use the “Write Range” activity to write the data into a specific worksheet.

Step 5

Run and Test the Automation Before running the automation, ensure that all the necessary activities are correctly configured. Test the automation using a subset of Excel files to validate the data collection and consolidation process. Make any necessary adjustments to the workflow or activities if issues arise.

Conclusion

In this blog post, we explored how to leverage UiPath to automate the collection and consolidation of data from multiple Excel sources into an Excel Online spreadsheet.

By using UiPath’s powerful automation capabilities, organisations can streamline their data processing workflows, minimise errors, and improve overall efficiency. Automating this process not only saves time but also enables better decision-making by providing consolidated and up-to-date data for analysis. With UiPath, Excel automation becomes a breeze, making it a valuable tool for any data-intensive organisation.

If you need further technical advice or support on UiPath RPA or other RPA development platforms, get in-touch with one of our experts today.