Shortcut Tutorial
How to use the first superhuman Excel agent
Nico ChristieJuly 7th, 2025What is Shortcut?
Shortcut is just like Excel, but with the ability to do your work for you.
Use the chat interface on the right to ask for Shortcut for anything. Think of Shortcut as an analyst adept at difficult and time-intensive work. Don't think of Shortcut as a copilot for quick or single step actions.
Go ahead and check your emails, take a break, and come back to a completed task.
Example Tasks
Building models from PDF/Web Data
Build me a detailed income statement based on this 10k filing pdf.
Updating models based on feedback
Can you update this cap table to account for the increased employee option pool?
Analyzing data and building reports
Analyze this CSV dataset for key trends and make a detailed dashboard for me
Getting Started
Step 1: Choose Your Starting Point
Start from an empty sheet
Ideal for creating new models, reports, or analyses from scratch. Instruct Shortcut to fill out the required data points.
• Create dashboards
• Design custom reports
Upload an existing Excel file from your computer
Upload any Excel file to enhance or analyze existing data.
• No file size limits
• Preserves all formulas
Step 2: Start a Conversation
Open the AI chat panel and describe what you want to do. Be as specific or general as you like - Shortcut understands context, and may choose to ask you clarifying questions if needed.
Example requests:
Step 3: Watch the Magic
Shortcut will analyze your request, understand your data, and execute the changes in real-time. You'll see exactly what's happening as it works.
Step 4: Continue Your Work
Edit your file directly
Shortcut has complete Excel feature parity - make final touches and formatting changes yourself.
• All formulas & functions supported
• Direct cell editing in real-time
Ask Shortcut for more
Continue the conversation to refine results or tackle the next task.
• "Now clean the data in Sheet2"
• "Make the formatting consistent"
Step 5: Revert Changes If Needed
Made a mistake or want to try a different approach? Shortcut gives you full control to revert any changes.
For Shortcut AI changes:
Use the "Return to checkpoint" button in the chat to instantly revert to any previous state created by Shortcut.
• Jump back to any previous checkpoint with one click
• No data is lost - try different approaches safely
For your own manual edits:
Use the standard Undo (Ctrl/Cmd+Z) and Redo (Ctrl/Cmd+Y) buttons just like in regular Excel.
• Applies to all manual cell edits and formatting
• Independent from AI checkpoint system
Common Use Cases
Excel modeling from PDF/Web data
Pull data directly from documents and websites into structured Excel formats
"Please take this 10k filing and build a detailed LBO mini model to present to my boss"
"Update my list of 100 favorite founders. Add a column for recent news on each founder."
Analyze and clean large datasets
Process thousands of rows to find insights and patterns instantly
"Come to deep insights on this data and make a summary dashboard for me"
"Please extract utm_source, medium, & campaign from the URL into separate columns, standardize all values to lowercase, and calculate the conversion rate"
Build and update Excel models
Create professional financial models and reports from a blank sheet
"From scratch, please make an extremely detailed pro forma cap table across multiple sheets"
"Use this DCF template for another company"
Analyze Excel models
Quickly incorporate changes and refinements to existing spreadsheets
"Analyze this old DCF model my analyst sent me for weaknesses or errors"
"Double check my model before I send it to my boss. What do you think?"
Apply complex formulas
Deploy sophisticated formulas across multiple sheets effortlessly
"Calculate the gross margin for each year and show me the operating margin trend from 2021 to 2027."
"Match invoice no 536368 to its respective customer ID and display in separate table"
AI Rules & Custom Instructions
Customizing instructions that will guide the AI.
Access AI Rules: Click on the "AI Rules & Instructions" option in the Settings menu. Your rules will persist across sessions and spreadsheets on the same browser.
How It Works: Once set up, your rules are automatically applied to every conversation. Shortcut will be guided by these instructions across all spreadsheet tasks.
- Define formatting preferences (e.g., color coding conventions)
- Set calculation methods and modeling standards
- Specify data handling conventions
- Add company-specific requirements
Note: Shortcut may not apply these custom instructions all the time. Always review and validate Shortcut's work for critical operations.
How not to Use Shortcut
While Shortcut is powerful, it's designed for complex, time-intensive tasks. Here's what it's not optimized for:
Quick single-cell edits
Don't: "Change cell A1 to 500"
Why: It's faster to just type it yourself!
Simple formulas
Don't: "Add a SUM formula in B10"
Why: Basic Excel functions are quicker to type directly
Real-time collaboration
Don't: Expect Google Sheets-style live collaboration
Why: Shortcut focuses on AI-powered model building, not multi-user editing
✅ Think of Shortcut as...
Your AI analyst who handles complex, multi-step tasks that would normally take hours: building models from PDFs, cleaning messy datasets, creating comprehensive reports, and analyzing complex financial data. It's not a faster way to type—it's a smarter way to work.
Privacy & Security
Your data security is our priority. Shortcut is designed with privacy-first principles to protect your sensitive Excel files and financial models.
No Training on Enterprise Data
We never use your Excel files, financial models, or proprietary formulas to train or improve our AI models. Your data remains yours.
Temporary Processing
Your spreadsheets are processed in real-time. We don't store your files permanently.
Encryption and Security
Industry standard security for your spreadsheets, using encrypted processing and secure authentication.
You Control Your Data
Download your models anytime, delete processing data on request, and control sharing permissions for your spreadsheets.
Privacy-First Design
At Shortcut, security is fundamental. Every spreadsheet is processed in isolated sessions, and your proprietary data never becomes our data. We understand Excel files contain your most sensitive business information, from financial projections to confidential strategies.
Ready to Get Started?
Start using Shortcut to transform how you work with Excel