THE PRACTICAL GUIDE
A little setup.
A lot more clarity.
Tabel is a free comparison desk for two to five supplier spreadsheets. The core workflow runs in your browser; no account is required.
From files to a useful report
- Add your lists. Choose CSV, TSV, XLSX or XLS files. Select the worksheet and header row for each.
- Set the details. Check column mappings, decimal separators, currencies and quantities. Confirm whether product IDs are shared across the lists.
- Compare and review. Confirm possible product matches, correct values, inspect delivery and minimum orders, and filter changes or gaps.
- Keep the result. Download a typeset PDF report, an Excel workbook or three CSV tables, including assumptions and original source evidence.
Return next week
After checking a list’s mappings, choose Save mapping profile. Save on this device creates a named project; each later save adds a retained version. To load fresh files, open Saved projects & profiles and choose Start next comparison. Select the worksheet and header row, apply the saved profile and review every declaration. Keep the same list name for history. View history compares consecutive saves by list name and unique exact product ID, preserving unknown prices and source evidence. CSV and Excel history exports are free. Backups include every saved version.
Start with sample files
These are fictional café-supply lists, made to demonstrate pack differences, a missing price, a missing product and a name match that needs review.
A reusable supplier template
The template includes an example row. Replace it with your products. Price must be the full price of the declared pack; currency must be an ISO code such as USD, EUR or KWD. Minimum-order and delivery fields are descriptive.
Download supplier CSV template ↓Supported units
26 practical units cover count, mass, volume, length and area. These include dozen, metric tonne, US liquid and imperial gallons, and square metres. Search the complete unit library for exact factors and accepted aliases.
Mass becomes kg, volume becomes L, length becomes m, area becomes m², and count becomes each. No density conversion is attempted. “Box”, “case”, “pallet” and ambiguous gallons or fluid ounces need an explicit quantity in a supported unit.
What Tabel does not assume
Are similar product names matched automatically?
No. Similarity suggestions are word-overlap candidates. You confirm identity, including brand, dimensions and specifications. Exact shared product IDs can match automatically when you declare a shared catalogue; conflicting names and duplicated IDs are flagged.
Does the lowest price include freight, tax or minimum order?
No. These terms are retained for review when supplied. Comparable unit prices exclude freight, tax, discounts and minimum-order effects. Tabel does not calculate an overall supplier winner or order total.
What happens to formulas and protected workbooks?
Formulas are never executed and are flagged rather than trusted. Export calculated values from your spreadsheet application first. Password-protected files are unsupported. Hidden Excel rows are included in the selected sheet.
Does it support PDFs, scans or AI extraction?
No. Use Excel or UTF-8 delimited text. There is no OCR, PDF import or AI matching service in this version.
Will my work be saved?
Unsaved work lives in this tab’s memory and clears on refresh or close. Save on this device explicitly stores a project, including original cells and edits, in this browser profile. Saved projects & profiles lets you reopen, rename, duplicate, delete, back up and restore saved work. There is no account or sync. Other people using this browser profile can access saved projects; browser cleanup can erase them.
PDF language support
PDF reports include Latin, Greek, Cyrillic and Arabic glyph coverage. Unsupported characters stop PDF export with a clear message; Excel and UTF-8 CSV preserve all scripts. PDF reports are visually formatted but are not tagged PDFs. Original product text stays in its supplied script. Available interface languages are shown in the language menu; unsupported locales are not offered.
Practical limits
Up to five files, each under 10 MB and with no more than 5,000 product rows. Workbooks may have up to 20 sheets and 80 columns per sheet. UTF-8 CSV/TSV only. Large or malformed workbooks may fail; a small values-only CSV is the most reliable interchange format.
Bring your lists to the table ↗