The Scenario
You are a localization ops manager. Q2 planning is due Friday. Your VP wants a forecast of translation spend for Q3 broken down by language pair and word count, in the format the finance team accepts, in the Excel workbook she uses for budget approvals.
The data lives in Crowdin. The finance team's template is already on the Budget tab of the workbook.
The slow version:
- Open Crowdin's Reports section
- Generate a cost estimation report
- Export as CSV
- Import into a separate Excel workbook
- Reformat to match the Budget tab layout
- Realize the Crowdin export groups by file, not by language pair
- Spend an hour pivoting manually
- Submit the forecast at 5:30 PM on Friday, two hours after the VP's deadline.
The fast version is one prompt.
The Easy Way: One Prompt in SheetXAI
SheetXAI is an AI agent inside your Excel workbook that pulls the Crowdin cost report and writes it in the shape you need, not the shape Crowdin exports by default.
Open the SheetXAI sidebar and type:
Generate a cost estimation report for the Crowdin project in cell A1 of the Budget tab. Write the language pair, word count, and estimated cost for each language into rows starting at row 2 of the Budget tab. Sort by estimated cost descending. Add a total row at the bottom.
SheetXAI calls the Crowdin API, retrieves the cost estimation data, and writes it sorted and with a total on the Budget tab. The VP gets the workbook she expects.
What You Get
A cost report on the Budget tab with one row per language pair:
- Language pair — source to target, e.g. "English → Spanish"
- Word count — total words to be translated for that language
- Estimated cost — based on Crowdin's configured rate for that language pair
- Total row — sum of word count and cost across all languages
The total row is what your VP is looking at. She checks the total and decides whether to approve or push back. Having it pre-calculated saves a question.
What If the Data Is Not Quite Ready
Cost reports for planning purposes usually need more context than a raw Crowdin export provides.
When you need to compare this quarter's cost to last quarter's
Last quarter's numbers are on the Q2 tab. You need a delta column.
Generate a cost estimation report for the Crowdin project in cell A1 of the Budget tab. Write language pair, word count, and estimated cost into columns A through C. Look up the matching language from the Q2 tab and write the cost delta into column D. Flag rows where cost increased by more than 20%.
When the report needs to cover multiple projects
Your Q3 budget covers three Crowdin projects.
Generate cost estimation reports for each Crowdin project ID in column A of the Budget tab and write the project name, language pair, word count, and estimated cost into rows starting below each project header. Add a subtotal row after each project and a grand total at the end.
When finance wants only the high-cost language pairs
Generate a cost estimation report for the Crowdin project in cell A1. Write only language pairs with an estimated cost above $5,000 into the Budget tab, sorted by cost descending. Add a separate summary row showing the total cost of all language pairs including those below threshold.
When the word count needs to be cross-referenced with translator capacity
You have a Capacity tab showing how many words each translator can handle per sprint.
Generate a cost estimation report for the Crowdin project in cell A1 and write language pair, word count, and estimated cost into columns A through C of the Budget tab. Look up each language pair in the Capacity tab and write the translator's sprint capacity into column D. Flag rows where word count exceeds capacity.
The pattern: the prompt describes the output your stakeholder needs, not just the raw data Crowdin has.
Try It
Get the 7-day free trial of SheetXAI and open a workbook with your Crowdin project ID in cell A1, then ask it to pull a cost estimation report in the format you need. The Crowdin integration is included in every SheetXAI plan. For related workflows, see how to pull a translation progress dashboard or the Crowdin in Excel overview.