4. Tips and Tricks for Working with the Data File

When you work with the GAIS platform, it's crucial that your data file is correct and well-structured. The platform analyzes exactly what you provide it—so errors or inconsistencies in the file will quickly show up in the reports.

As a Premium/Enterprise customer, you'll get help with quality assurance from a GAIS specialist, but it's still important that you send a clean and reviewed file. The better the quality of your data, the stronger your foundation for insight and action will be.

What Should Your Data File Contain?

It's important that your data file contains the correct columns with information about each participant. 

Read our guide on how to create a data file with the right information.

Checklist to Avoid Errors in the Data File

The GAIS platform relies completely on the data an administrator uploads via the data file. It's therefore absolutely essential that the data is quality-assured and reviewed for errors before it's uploaded to the platform.

Use the checklist below to avoid simple errors and inconsistencies in the data file—something that will later cause problems.

✅ Format

• Save the file as CSV (comma-separated)

• Create a new, dated version when you make corrections to the file.

• Avoid formatting, formulas, and colours – only raw data

• Clean up the file

• Unhide all hidden columns and rows

• Remove sensitive personal data (e.g. national ID numbers, private email addresses)

• Delete columns you don’t need

✅ Standardise names and values

• Use consistent spelling throughout the data file

  • For example, do not write "Mike A. Hansen" in the name column and "Mike Andrew Hansen" in the column for the direct manager. The platform will treat them as two different people. 

• Use the same spelling from one survey to the next:

  • Write names, departments, job titles, etc., in the exact same way when you update the data file before a new survey. Otherwise, you won't be able to compare data.

• Keep gender labels, titles, and department names consistent

  • E.g. use “Female” throughout – not “female”, “F”, or “Woman”

✅  Use the same date format

• Use the dd-mm-yyyy date format consistently throughout.

✅ Avoid errors and clutter

• Remove extra spaces before/after names and values

• Check for correct use of upper/lowercase and fix typos

• Use a consistent notation for missing data, e.g. “N/A” – not “NA” or “n / a”

Excel tips and tricks for avoiding errors

If your Excel skills are a little rusty, you'll find some simple advice below. You can also find many tutorials for the Excel tool on the internet.

1. Different spellings and typos 

With very few exceptions, the GAIS platform reads the content of the data file exactly as it's written. Therefore, inconsistent spelling, capitalization, typos, etc., will result in the platform seeing them as different values.

In the example below, there are actually 3 departments ('Blue Room', 'Green Room', and 'Yellow Room') and 3 managers ('Board', 'Person1', and 'Person2'). However, due to careless spelling, the platform will read this as 5 different departments (Blue Room, Green Room, Blue room, Yellow Room, and blue room) and 6 managers (Board, Person1, person1, Person2, Persson2, and Person 2).

You can use two tricks to check for such errors:

a) Table filtering 

By selecting all the data in the file and pressing "CTRL + L", you convert the area into a 'Table', which gives you access to several tools. In a table, an arrow appears next to the column name, and by expanding it, you'll see a list of all unique values in the column. In the example above, you would, for instance, be able to see that there are a few too many managers in the 'Direct Manager' column.

Afterward, you can, for example, choose to filter for all the incorrect spellings and correct them.

b) Find and Replace

Table filtering will, by default, ignore capitalization (in the example, 'person1' won't appear in the list of unique values). Therefore, you must find these errors using 'Find and Replace'.

The easiest way to do this is to select the column you want to search in and then press "CTRL + H" to open the 'Replace' sub-tab.

In the 'Find what' field, type the value that needs to be corrected (here, capitalization is not important), and in the 'Replace with' field, type the value that should be in the final data file (with the correct capitalization).

By clicking 'Find All', you can see a list of all values. Clicking 'Replace All' will overwrite all found values with the text you entered in 'Replace with'.

NOTE: It is important that a column is selected beforehand, as it will otherwise search and replace across the entire sheet—which could lead to unwanted corrections. Similarly, it is crucial to search for the full value, as it only replaces the text you search for and not the entire value in the cell. For example, if you search for 'Blå' and replace it with 'Blå Stue', these cells will instead say 'Blå Blå Stue'.