Every week, I talk to founders who are stuck copying data from one dashboard to another. They export a CSV from Stripe, paste it into a spreadsheet, then reformat it for a report. It takes an hour, and it’s the worst kind of work: repetitive, error-prone, and soul-crushing.
The fix isn’t a fancy integration platform. Often, a small script can do the heavy lifting. In this post, I’ll show you three scripts that solve the most common copy-paste scenarios I see.
**1. The CSV Cleaner**
This script takes a messy export (with extra columns, inconsistent date formats, or blank rows) and turns it into a clean, consistent CSV. It’s perfect for when you’re pulling data from an old tool and need to import it into a new one.
I had a client who was migrating from a legacy CRM. The export had 14 columns, but only 5 were relevant. The dates were in three different formats. The script normalized everything in under a second.
Here’s a snippet of how it works: it uses Python’s `csv` module, loops through each row, and applies a set of transformations. You define the columns you want to keep, and it does the rest. Run it with `python clean_csv.py input.csv output.csv`.
**2. The API Pagination Helper**
If you’ve ever used an API that returns 100 results per page, you know the pain of writing a loop to fetch all pages. This script handles pagination automatically, so you get all your data in one JSON file.
I use this when I’m pulling data from analytics tools that cap their responses. Instead of manually changing the page number and re-running the request, the script loops until there are no more pages.
It works with most REST APIs that use `next` links or offset-based pagination. You just plug in your base URL and API key, and it does the rest.
**3. The Slack Digest Generator**
This one is for the team communication pain. Instead of pasting updates into multiple channels, this script pulls messages from a designated thread, summarizes them, and posts a clean digest to a channel of your choice.
A founder I know uses it to send a daily summary of customer feedback from a support channel. The script grabs all messages from the last 24 hours, groups them by topic, and posts a single message. It saves him 20 minutes every morning.
The script uses Slack’s API and a simple text-processing algorithm. It’s not AI-powered, but it’s enough to group messages by keyword and keep the noise down.
These three scripts cover the majority of copy-paste scenarios I see. They’re in our library, ready to download. Set aside 15 minutes this afternoon, and you’ll reclaim an hour every week.
No more copying. No more pasting. Just run the script and move on to work that matters.