A workbook may need two reports that begin with the same cleaned data. Before creating the second query, decide whether a future correction to that shared cleanup should reach both reports. Two queries that look identical today can have different maintenance behaviour tomorrow.

Use a disposable workbook with a small, understandable source. Name the starting query CleanItems and describe what its output means. Keep report-specific exclusions out of that description if only one report should apply them.

Choose the relationship deliberately

In Power Query Editor's Queries pane, right-click a query to choose Duplicate or Reference. Duplicate copies the query; later edits to the original query do not change that copied sequence. Reference creates a query based on the earlier query, and changes to the original output affect the reference. Rename the branch so its role is clear.

Choose Reference when both reports should inherit the same maintained cleanup. Choose Duplicate when you intend to maintain a separate transformation path. A duplicate query is not a frozen copy of the source data: copying the instructions does not establish that their input can never change.

For the trial, create the intended branch and apply one report-specific filter there. Confirm that the base query still represents the shared cleaned dataset. Then make a harmless, reversible correction to the base output in the disposable workbook and inspect the branch's result.

Check where future changes should live

For a reference, verify that the shared correction reaches the dependent result as intended. For a duplicate, confirm that changing the original steps does not silently become your maintenance plan for the independent copy. Restore the trial and inspect the final steps before using real data.

Write down which rules belong in the shared base and which belong in each report. For example, a common identifier cleanup may belong upstream, while excluding a category for one particular report may belong only in that branch.

Keep this dependency note with the workbook. When a future editor proposes a base change, they should know which reports need checking. Neither command proves faster refresh or correct calculations; the useful outcome is a query relationship whose inheritance matches the way the reports will be maintained.

Sources: Microsoft: Queries pane actions; Microsoft: managing Excel queries.