BigEasy4202 has described a manual workflow that most spreadsheet users will recognize: a sequence of repetitive steps, copied columns, helper formulas, and the quiet hope that nothing breaks between the first download and the final upload. The process works, but it works slowly, and it works only as long as every sheet arrives in the exact same format every time. That is the real problem here. When a column shifts, a date format changes, or the custodian bank adds a new field, the entire chain of manual steps collapses. Power Query is not just the right approach, it is the only approach that turns this fragile routine into a reliable, repeatable system.
What Power Query does, simply, is remember the steps you describe and apply them automatically to new data. Instead of ungrouping rows by hand, you tell Power Query to ungroup rows once. Instead of deleting a group of accounts manually, you build a filter that removes them every time. Instead of creating a helper column and copying values over it, you write a transformation that strips dashes from account numbers as part of the query. The XLOOKUP step that currently lives in the workbook becomes a merge operation between two queries, returning the cash amount directly without formulas that can break when rows are added or removed. The output, account numbers, money market fund names, and dollar amounts, is a clean table that refreshes with one click.
The practical meaning for BigEasy4202 is this: the time spent manually repeating the same sequence of actions each week or month can be invested once into building a query. After that, the process becomes a refresh. New data from the company software and the custodian bank feed into the same queries, and the output updates automatically. The risk of missing a step or copying a wrong range disappears. The workflow becomes predictable, auditable, and much faster. For someone who already dabbles in Power Query and likes it, the path forward is to start small: load one of those company sheets, replicate the ungrouping and filtering steps in the Query Editor, then load the custodian CSV and apply the sorting and column transformations. Merge the two queries on the account number field, expand the cash column, and load the result to a new worksheet.
The only concrete next step is to open Power Query, select "From Table/Range" on the first sheet, and begin recording the transformations one at a time. The interface shows each step in the Applied Steps pane, so there is no guesswork about what was done. If a step produces an error, it can be removed or edited without restarting. The learning curve is real, but the payoff is immediate: a workflow that used to require careful manual labor becomes a refresh button. BigEasy4202 already has the right instinct. Power Query is the tool that makes that instinct productive.