WORKED EXAMPLE · EXCEL AND POWERPOINT
OMB budget table to Excel chart and briefing deck
A budget analyst received an Excel file of US government spending, 1940 to 2031. They asked to pull out four big spending lines and chart them for their boss.
analysed the data by creating a table of defense, Medicare, Social Security and interest costs for 2015 to 2031, and drew a chart in the same Excel file. Then the chart went onto a PowerPoint slide as a real chart, not a picture.
1The original Excel file, as the analyst uploaded it
A1fx
2015201620172018
National defense589,659593,372598,722631,130
International affairs52,04045,30646,30949,002
Medicare546,202594,536597,307588,706
Social Security887,753916,067944,878987,791
Agriculture18,50018,34418,87221,789
Net interest223,181240,033262,551325,000
TableBig Four
- 2requests in plain English
- 1Excel file edited, not replaced
- 1slide deck built from it
- 0formulas typed by hand
Open the real files
These are the actual files from the run. Download them and open them in Excel or PowerPoint.
XLSXBefore: the original filehist03z1_fy2027.xlsx · as published by OMBXLSXAfter: the same filewith a new sheet and chartPPTXThe slide deck3 slides, chart you can edit
Where the file comes from: OMB Historical Tables, Table 3.1, Outlays by Superfunction and Function, FY2027 Budget.
01 · THE STARTING FILE
A big, messy government spreadsheet
The file lists every kind of federal spending from 1940 to 2031, one year per column. That is 94 columns. It has a few traps: an extra "TQ" column squeezed in after 1976, and years after 2025 labelled "2026 estimate" and so on.
BZ4
589,659| A | B | … | AL | AM | AN | … | BZ | CA | … | CI | CJ | CK | … | CP | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Table 3.1 - OUTLAYS BY SUPERFUNCTION AND FUNCTION: 1940 - 2031 | … | … | … | … | ||||||||||
| 2 | Superfunction and Function | 1940 | … | 1976 | TQ | 1977 | … | 2015 | 2016 | … | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 estimate | … | 2031 estimate |
| 3 | In millions of dollars: | … | … | … | … | ||||||||||
| 4 | National Defense | 1,660 | … | 89,619 | 22,269 | 97,241 | … | 589,659 | 593,372 | … | 873,523 | 916,140 | 966,396 | … | 1,369,123 |
| 5 | Human resources | 4,139 | … | 203,594 | 52,065 | 221,895 | … | 2,706,828 | 2,820,292 | … | 4,548,904 | 4,706,716 | 5,078,303 | … | 6,347,219 |
| 6 | Education, Training, Employment, and Social Services | 1,972 | … | 18,910 | 5,169 | 21,104 | … | 122,035 | 109,709 | … | 306,370 | 72,042 | 101,970 | … | 133,413 |
| 7 | Health | 55 | … | 15,734 | 3,924 | 17,302 | … | 482,257 | 511,325 | … | 911,290 | 978,511 | 1,047,526 | … | 1,143,249 |
| 8 | Medicare | .......... | … | 15,834 | 4,264 | 19,345 | … | 546,202 | 594,536 | … | 874,133 | 996,718 | 1,070,248 | … | 1,573,538 |
| 9 | Income Security | 1,514 | … | 60,784 | 14,981 | 61,045 | … | 508,800 | 514,098 | … | 670,548 | 701,609 | 741,971 | … | 743,752 |
| 10 | Social Security | 28 | … | 73,899 | 19,763 | 85,061 | … | 887,753 | 916,067 | … | 1,460,918 | 1,580,673 | 1,676,441 | … | 2,151,475 |
| … | |||||||||||||||
| 22 | Net interest | 899 | … | 26,727 | 6,949 | 29,901 | … | 223,181 | 240,033 | … | 879,879 | 970,065 | 1,016,650 | … | 1,363,769 |
| … | |||||||||||||||
| 35 | Total, Federal outlays | 9,468 | … | 371,792 | 95,975 | 409,218 | … | 3,691,850 | 3,852,615 | … | 6,735,261 | 7,011,105 | 7,540,434 | … | 9,279,779 |
| … | |||||||||||||||
| 39 | National defense | 17.5 | … | 24.1 | 23.2 | 23.8 | … | 16.0 | 15.4 | … | 13.0 | 13.1 | 12.8 | … | 14.8 |
| 42 | Net interest | 9.5 | … | 7.2 | 7.2 | 7.3 | … | 6.0 | 6.2 | … | 13.1 | 13.8 | 13.5 | … | 14.7 |
Table
02 · REQUEST 1
"Add a summary table and a chart"
What the analyst typed
In the attached OMB Historical Table 3.1 (FY2027 Budget), please add a new sheet called 'Big Four' and leave the 'Table' sheet exactly as it is. On the new sheet: 1. Column A: fiscal years 2015 to 2031, one row per year (17 rows). 2. Columns B-E: National Defense (row 4), Medicare (row 8), Social Security (row 10) and Net interest (row 22) from the Table sheet, converted from $ millions to $ billions, one decimal. Use formulas that point at the Table sheet if you can. 3. Column F: 'Actual' for 2015-2025 and 'Estimate' for 2026-2031 (the columns headed '2026 estimate' to '2031 estimate'). 4. A native Excel line chart of the four series with years on the x-axis, titled 'Federal outlays by function, FY2015-FY2031 ($ billions)', with a note that 2026-2031 are OMB estimates.
What did
- Worked inside the uploaded Excel file. It did not make a new file.
- Checked the year labels first, so 2015 lines up with the right column despite the extra TQ column.
- Added a new sheet, "Big Four": one row per year from 2015 to 2031, four spending lines in billions, and an "Actual" or "Estimate" label.
- Filled it with formulas that point back to the original sheet, so every number can be traced. Click a green cell below to see one.
- Drew a real Excel line chart that you can click and edit.
- Did not touch the original sheet. We checked every cell.
B2
=ROUND(Table!BZ4/1000,1)| A | B | C | D | E | F | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fiscal Year | National Defense ($ billions) | Medicare ($ billions) | Social Security ($ billions) | Net Interest ($ billions) | Type |
| 2 | 2015 | 589.7 | 546.2 | 887.8 | 223.2 | Actual |
| 3 | 2016 | 593.4 | 594.5 | 916.1 | 240 | Actual |
| 4 | 2017 | 598.7 | 597.3 | 944.9 | 262.6 | Actual |
| 5 | 2018 | 631.3 | 588.7 | 987.8 | 325 | Actual |
| 6 | 2019 | 685.7 | 651 | 1044.4 | 375.2 | Actual |
| 7 | 2020 | 724.6 | 776.2 | 1095.8 | 345.5 | Actual |
| 8 | 2021 | 753.9 | 696.5 | 1134.6 | 352.3 | Actual |
| 9 | 2022 | 765.6 | 755.1 | 1218.7 | 475.9 | Actual |
| 10 | 2023 | 820.3 | 847.5 | 1354.3 | 658.3 | Actual |
| 11 | 2024 | 873.5 | 874.1 | 1460.9 | 879.9 | Actual |
| 12 | 2025 | 916.1 | 996.7 | 1580.7 | 970.1 | Actual |
| 13 | 2026 | 966.4 | 1070.2 | 1676.4 | 1016.7 | Estimate |
| 14 | 2027 | 1205 | 1200.8 | 1771.1 | 1065.4 | Estimate |
| 15 | 2028 | 1323.2 | 1350.5 | 1864.4 | 1167 | Estimate |
| 16 | 2029 | 1341.6 | 1316.2 | 1957.3 | 1234.6 | Estimate |
| 17 | 2030 | 1348.8 | 1473.4 | 2052.1 | 1304.5 | Estimate |
| 18 | 2031 | 1369.1 | 1573.5 | 2151.5 | 1363.8 | Estimate |
| 20 | Note: 2026-2031 are OMB estimates. | |||||
TableBig Fournew
Federal outlays by function, FY2015-FY2031 ($ billions)
- National Defense ($ billions)
- Medicare ($ billions)
- Social Security ($ billions)
- Net Interest ($ billions)
An AI double checked the numbers: 2015 defense 589.7, Medicare 546.2, Social Security 887.8 and interest 223.2 (billions) all match the government figures.
03 · REQUEST 2
"Now turn it into three slides"
What the analyst typed
Now build a 3-slide PowerPoint for the Deputy Secretary from the 'Big Four' sheet: 1. Title slide: 'Interest costs vs. defense, Medicare and Social Security', subtitle 'FY2015-FY2031, OMB Historical Table 3.1 (FY2027 Budget)'. 2. The line chart, with a one-line headline stating what it shows, and 'Source: OMB Historical Tables, Table 3.1, FY2027 Budget; FY2026-2031 are estimates' at the bottom. 3. Three takeaways, each with figures from the sheet: (a) how net interest grew from FY2015 to FY2025; (b) the first fiscal year in which net interest exceeded national defense, with both amounts; (c) what OMB projects for the four lines in FY2031. Plain government style, no stock images.
What did
- Read the "Big Four" sheet it had just made, so the slides and the spreadsheet show the same numbers.
- Let the analyst pick a design from its template library.
- Put the chart on slide 2 as a real PowerPoint chart, with its data inside. Right-click it and choose Edit Data.
- Wrote the key points from the numbers: interest costs grew 4.3 times from 2015 to 2025, and passed defense spending for the first time in 2024.
Your files, edited where they live
Most AI tools read your spreadsheet and hand back a new one. opens the file you uploaded, changes only what you asked, and keeps every earlier version.
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