The document discusses the development and challenges of xlwings, particularly in the realm of reporting, highlighting the need for sustainable funding and user-friendly solutions. It presents xlwings reports as a way to generate both Excel and PDF reports with ease, allowing users to separate code and design without dependency on complex setups. The document also provides information on pricing, demos, and resources for getting started with xlwings.

1. PDF factsheets
with xlwings Reports
Felix Zumstein
August 12, 2021

2. Agenda
1. Introduction
2. What’s wrong with reporting?
3. Demos: xlwings Reports
2

3. 1. Introduction

4. 4
xlwings
• I released the first version of xlwings in 2014
• After working on it for 6 years as an open-
source project, I realized two things:
– Putting in the required amount of work for $0 is
unsustainable
– Most users are using xlwings for some sort of reporting
• Consequence: Either make it abandonware or
find a way to fund the project

5. 5
I wrote a Book (March 2021)
I. Introduction to Python
II. Introduction to pandas
III. Reading and Writing Excel
Files without Excel
IV.Programming the Excel
Application with xlwings
See: https://www.xlwings.org/book

6. 2. What’s wrong with reporting?

7. 7
What’s wrong with the others?
• Pure code solutions (e.g., ReportLab)
– Developer dependency / requires lots of code / slow development
• HTML/CSS-based solutions (e.g., Plotly Dash)
– Code and design can be separated, but requires frontend knowledge
• BI tools (e.g., Power BI, Tableau, etc.)
– For interactive dashboards, not PDF reports / lack of connectors
• Connecting Excel with Word/PowerPoint
– Error prone / usually requires more than one template
• Desktop publishing (e.g., Adobe InDesign)
– Can’t be automated the way we want

8. 8
What’s wrong with xlwings (OSS)?
for address in ['A1', 'B2', 'C3']:
mysheet[address].value = 'xlwings'
for address in ['A1', 'B2', 'C3']:
mysheet[address].value = 'xlwings'
'A3', 'B4', 'C5'
Code AND
template changes
Requires loops

9. 9
xlwings Reports: Placeholders
create_report(
'template.xlsx',
'report.xlsx',
name='xlwings'
)
No code
changes
No loops

10. 3. xlwings Reports: Demos

11. 11
Separation of Code and Design
Pre-processing
(e.g., database query)
Post-processing
(e.g., upload to web server)
holdings,
asofdate,…
Reports (xlsx & PDF)
Template (xlsx)
Variables/
Placeholders

12. 12
Demo 1: Placeholders & Filters
• Placeholders
{{ holdings }}
• Filters, e.g., biggest 5 positions:
{{ holdings | sortdesc(4) | head(5) }}

13. 13
Demo 2: Full reporting pipeline
• Pre-processing
– Read data from various sources incl. text, Word and CSV files
– Clean/manipulate the data with pandas
• Report Generation
– xlsx and PDF
• Post-processing
– uploading it to the xlwings.org webpage via AWS S3
90 lines of code (!): https://github.com/xlwings/xlwings-factsheet-demo

14. 14
Ways to run the reporting pipeline
• Excel workbook (used by the demo)
• Jupyter notebook
• Python script / CLI (e.g., for scheduler)
• Locally installed GUI
• Web-based UI

15. 15
Summary: xlwings Reports
• Separation of concerns: code vs. design
• Template: one, and only one
• Layout: multi-column
• Text: formatting via Markdown
• Tables: dynamically formatted with powerful filters
• Charts: via Excel or Python (Matplotlib, Plotly)
• PDF: “Print” on PDF in corporate layout

16. 16
Pricing
• From USD 82.50/month, your whole company can
run on xlwings Reports
• Developer license: only users who write Python
code need a paid license
• Tools can be used forever even if plan is cancelled
(but no support/upgrades)
• https://www.xlwings.org/pricing

17. 17
How to get started
• Get a trial license from:
https://www.xlwings.org/trial
• Read the docs:
https://docs.xlwings.org/en/stable/reports.html
• Book a meeting with me:
https://calendly.com/felix-zumstein/xlwings

18. Thank You
Let’s connect:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/felix-zumstein