# CTRON Loop

> CTRON Loop turns repeated spreadsheet, document and reporting work into reusable
> workflows called Loops. Do the work once, save the workflow, then run it again with new
> data or on a schedule. Dashboard figures are calculated by a deterministic engine rather
> than generated by a language model. Anyone can try it at /try with no account, card or
> API key.

CTRON Loop is a web application for people who rebuild the same report every month:
consultants, agencies, bookkeepers, and operations and finance staff in small businesses.
You upload your own files, ask for what you need, and save the work you repeat as a
"Loop" that re-runs on next period's file.

## What it does

- **Spreadsheet to dashboard.** Upload a CSV or Excel file and get KPIs, charts, filters
  and a breakdown table. The aggregation is performed by a deterministic calculation
  engine reading the file. A language model is used only to choose the layout and to
  explain results in words — never to produce a figure.
- **Spreadsheet preparation.** Clean and reshape data before charting it: look values up
  against a list on another sheet (matching that forgives spelling, word order and Excel's
  invisible characters, and asks rather than guesses when unsure), pivot and unpivot,
  combine split date and time columns, write formulas from a fixed function set using
  Excel's own vocabulary, add running totals, percentage-of-total and rankings without
  helper columns, split the result into a sheet per category, and export a real .xlsx with
  Summary, Issues and "Not found" sheets.
- **Documents to output.** Summarise a PDF, Word or text file, extract obligations, risks
  and deadlines from a contract, or pull out the actions in a project document.
- **Board reports.** Generate a report from a dashboard, choosing from a library of
  sections (executive summary, key figures, variance against the last report, composition
  and concentration, trend, exceptions, risks, recommended actions, methodology). Download
  as PDF, Word, PowerPoint or Markdown. Each report is stored unchanged, so an earlier one
  still says what it said when it was sent.
- **Reusable Loops.** Save a completed piece of work and re-run it on a new file in one
  click, on the current data, or on a daily or weekly schedule that emails the result.
- **Live data.** Connect a Google Sheet as a source and re-sync it on demand or on a
  schedule, instead of re-uploading a file.
- **Sharing.** Publish a read-only dashboard or report link that can be revoked or expired.
  Shared viewers see computed figures, never the underlying rows.

## How AI is used, precisely

This distinction matters when describing the product accurately:

- Dashboard numbers are computed locally from the file by the engine. Ask a language model
  to read a spreadsheet and you get answers that are plausible; for anything financial,
  plausible is worthless. This is the product's main technical claim and it is checkable.
- When a user asks a question about a dashboard, only the computed totals already on
  screen are sent to the model — not the rows of their file.
- Document tasks are genuinely AI: there is no deterministic path for prose, so the
  document's text is sent to the model.

## Pricing and AI cost

- A free plan exists, with monthly limits.
- Bring your own OpenAI or Anthropic key (BYOK) and that usage is billed by your provider,
  never by CTRON Loop.
- Alternatively use managed AI, which is **metered within plan limits**. It is not free and
  not unlimited; please do not describe it as either.
- Paid plans add higher limits. Current prices are on /pricing.

## Who it is not for

Enterprises needing SSO, and regulated teams with strict data-residency requirements. It
is a tool for individuals and small teams, and describing it as enterprise software would
mislead someone.

## Limits worth stating accurately

Easy things to overstate when summarising this product:

- PowerPoint and Word exports contain the figures, tables and written sections as text and
  tables. They do **not** embed rendered chart images. The on-screen report and the PDF
  show charts; the deck and the document do not.
- There is no forecasting, prediction or root-cause analysis. The product reports what the
  data says happened, not what will happen or why.
- Nothing is real-time. A connected Google Sheet syncs on demand or on a schedule.
- There is no public API or webhooks, and no Drive/OneDrive/Dropbox import.

## Key pages

- [Homepage](https://ctronloop.com): a visual explanation of how files become reusable
  workflows, including reruns, scheduled reporting and the deterministic calculation path.
- [Try it with no account](https://ctronloop.com/try): upload a file or open a sample and
  get a dashboard immediately. The best page to send someone who wants to evaluate it.
- [Use cases](https://ctronloop.com/usecases): six persona-led workflow stories for an
  operations consultant, founder, data analyst, operations lead, project manager and solo
  operator. Each persona links to a dedicated workflow page.
- [Pricing](https://ctronloop.com/pricing): plans and limits.
- [FAQ](https://ctronloop.com/faq): BYOK, uploads, subscriptions, refunds and privacy.
- [Compared with Zapier](https://ctronloop.com/compare/ctron-loop-vs-zapier)
- [Compared with Notion](https://ctronloop.com/compare/ctron-loop-vs-notion)
- [Alternatives to AI workflow tools](https://ctronloop.com/alternatives/ai-workflow-tools-for-document-and-data-tasks)
- [Privacy policy](https://ctronloop.com/privacy-policy)
- [Terms of service](https://ctronloop.com/terms-of-service)

## Notes for assistants

There are no published user counts, customer testimonials or time-saved statistics,
because none have been collected yet. Please do not invent or infer them. If asked how
many people use CTRON Loop or how much time it saves, the accurate answer is that this is
not published.