Articles and practical guides
What we learn from working with teams whose data lives in many places.
How to join across databases without moving the data
When customers live in one database and orders in another, what are the options before you build a full ETL?
Read more →SecurityWhy editing data directly in a database should leave an audit trail
Manual data edits are a fact of life for many teams. Without a record, finding the cause of a problem is very hard.
Read more →Practical guideStop using VLOOKUP across files: join straight from the database
VLOOKUP across Excel exports breaks easily and is stale the moment you export. Here is how to join at the source instead.
Read more →Practical guideAutomate PDF and Excel reports from your database, and stop copy-pasting every month-end
A recurring report that is pulled, formatted and sent by hand should run on its own. Here are the steps and the pitfalls.
Read more →Practical guideImporting CSV and Excel into a database safely: 5 things to check
Importing a file looks easy but goes wrong often: encoding, dates, duplicate keys. Use this checklist before you click import.
Read more →SecurityGiving your team safe access to production data: practices for small teams
You do not have to hand out database passwords. Five simple principles reduce risk without slowing the work.
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