---
title: 'Every SAS® Project Needs to Load Data from Excel'
description: After years of SAS consulting, one pattern emerged - every project needed Excel data loads, and every project built them from scratch. Here is how that journey led to Data Controller.
date: '2026-08-17 19:15:00'
author: 'Allan Bowe'
authorLink: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allanbowe/
tags:
  - Announcements
previewImg: './sasprojects.jpeg'
---

After several years of SAS consulting I noticed EVERY SINGLE PROJECT had a need to load data from Excel.

And EVERY SINGLE PROJECT would require dedicated SAS code (or ETL jobs) to read that data, cleanse, append to target, and to run in a secure production environment under batch credentials. This meant a dev/test/accept(+signoff)/prod lifecycle.

This process could literally take weeks.

As projects went by, I crafted a generic data capture tool using VBA, Stored Processes, and a shared network drive to share CSVs with SAS. It was a ZERO CODE solution that worked really well, and allowed ANY table to be configured so that business users could make changes in Excel and upload directly to production (with approval step).

It was a godsend.

Still, it had major drawbacks - users had to self-pull the latest version, and we still had this insecure network drive situation.

By 2020 the codebase was completely re-written as a SASjs Powered Web Application. The shared network drive was gone. The browser always has the latest version. We had SAS Viya compatibility and a growing number of satisfied (paying) customers.

By 2022 we had advanced Data Quality features, support for all flavours of SAS (Base, Meta, Viya), special SAS missing numerics and the ability to update formats in catalogs. Big-name customers in Banking, Insurance, Government, Travel, Pharma and other sectors.

In 2024 we had support for complex excel uploads (extract cells / ranges from anywhere in a workbook), detailed data audit, and a data rollback feature.

In 2026 we have a streamlined and tightened Viya deploy and many more validations - such as regex, and soon, frontend formulae.

The need to load ad-hoc data into SAS isn't going away.

Our mission is to make that process simple, secure, and fast.

To see how easily Data Controller can be deployed in your organisation, book a [Discovery Call](https://datacontroller.io/contact/) - or start today with the free [Community version](https://datacontroller.io/pricing/).

<!--
Source LinkedIn post:

After several years #SAS consulting I noticed EVERY SINGLE PROJECT had a need to load data from Excel.

And EVERY SINGLE PROJECT would require dedicated SAS code (or ETL jobs) to read that data, cleanse, append to target, and to run in a secure production environment under batch credentials. This meant a dev/test/accept(+signoff)/prod lifecycle.

This process could literally take weeks.

As projects went by, I crafted a generic data capture tool using VBA, Stored Processes, and a shared network drive to share CSVs with SAS. It was a ZERO CODE solution that worked really well, and allowed ANY table to be configured so that business users could make changes in Excel and upload directly to production (with approval step).

It was a godsend.

Still, it had major drawbacks - users had to self-pull the latest version, and we still had this insecure network drive situation.

By 2020 the codebase was completely re-written as a SASjs Powered Web Application. The shared network drive was gone. The browser always has the latest version. We had #SASViya compatibility and a growing number of satisfied (paying) customers.

By 2022 we had advanced Data Quality features, support for all flavours of SAS (Base, Meta, Viya), special SAS missing numerics and the ability to update formats in catalogs. Big-name customers in Banking, Insurance, Government, Travel, Pharma and other sectors.

In 2024 we had support for complex excel uploads (extract cells / ranges from anywhere in a workbook), detailed data audit, and a data rollback feature.

In 2026 we have a streamlined and tightened Viya deploy and many more validations - such as regex, and soon, frontend formulae.

The need to load ad-hoc data into SAS isn't going away.

Our mission is to make that process simple, secure, and fast.

To see how easily Data Controller can be deployed in your organisation, book a Discovery Call (link in comments) - or start today with the free Community version.

#datamanagement

Image prompt: A flat-style illustration showing an Excel spreadsheet with an arrow flowing into a secure database server, with a subtle timeline (VBA era to modern web app) in the background, blue and green corporate palette, clean minimal design suitable for a LinkedIn/blog cover image.
-->
