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Audit intermediate Works with: Any AI

Excel Regional Settings, CSV Import and Date Format Audit

Table output Has example

Prevent day-month swaps and decimal comma problems.

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Audit imports for locale problems. Source files (CSV, exports) with how dates, decimals and thousands separators appear: [SOURCE_FORMATS]. The machines or regions that open them: [REGIONAL_SETTINGS]. Examples of wrong results: [EXAMPLES].

Explain how text such as 03/04/2026 can mean 3 April or 4 March depending on settings (a date with a day above 12 reveals the order), and why a decimal comma can turn 1,234 into a date or text. Check my examples for swapped days and months, numbers read as text, lost leading zeros in codes, and encoding problems with accented characters. Propose a safe import: import as text, set the locale for the column in the import step [VERIFY], convert in a separate column, and compare counts. Design a test file with five known values and define the expected result for each in advance; for example 03/04/2026 (day first, meaning 3 April) opens as 4 March on a machine set to month first.

Return a checklist and a table of columns with Format, Risk and Handling. Add a team rule to exchange dates in ISO form (year-month-day). Tag version-dependent features [VERIFY].

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See an example result (fictional data)
Invented test file with five rows. Source text 03/04/2026 (day first, meaning 3 April) opens as 4 March on a machine set to month first. 13/04/2026 stays as text on that machine, which reveals the problem. A value 1,234 (a thousands separator) opens as 1.234 in a region using the decimal comma, and 0042 loses its leading zeros.
Safe import: bring the file in as text, set the locale for each column in the import step [VERIFY], convert to dates in a new column, and compare the row count and the earliest and latest dates with the source (expected 1 April to 30 April).

Illustrative only, made-up data. Your results will differ and must be reviewed.

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