diff --git a/backend/data_export/pipeline/formatters.py b/backend/data_export/pipeline/formatters.py
index b72bf359..bfe6e460 100644
--- a/backend/data_export/pipeline/formatters.py
+++ b/backend/data_export/pipeline/formatters.py
@@ -10,17 +10,19 @@ class Formatter(abc.ABC):
     def __init__(self, target_column: str):
         self.target_column = target_column
 
-    @abc.abstractmethod
     def format(self, dataset: pd.DataFrame) -> pd.DataFrame:
+        if self.target_column not in dataset.columns:
+            return dataset
+        return self.apply(dataset)
+
+    @abc.abstractmethod
+    def apply(self, dataset: pd.DataFrame) -> pd.DataFrame:
         raise NotImplementedError("Please implement this method in the subclass.")
 
 
 class JoinedCategoryFormatter(Formatter):
-    def format(self, dataset: pd.DataFrame) -> pd.DataFrame:
+    def apply(self, dataset: pd.DataFrame) -> pd.DataFrame:
         """Format the label column to `LabelA#LabelB` format."""
-        if self.target_column not in dataset.columns:
-            return dataset
-
         dataset[self.target_column] = dataset[self.target_column].apply(
             lambda labels: "#".join(sorted(label.to_string() for label in labels))
         )
@@ -28,11 +30,8 @@ class JoinedCategoryFormatter(Formatter):
 
 
 class ListedCategoryFormatter(Formatter):
-    def format(self, dataset: pd.DataFrame) -> pd.DataFrame:
+    def apply(self, dataset: pd.DataFrame) -> pd.DataFrame:
         """Format the label column to `['LabelA', 'LabelB']` format."""
-        if self.target_column not in dataset.columns:
-            return dataset
-
         dataset[self.target_column] = dataset[self.target_column].apply(
             lambda labels: sorted([label.to_string() for label in labels])
         )
@@ -40,13 +39,10 @@ class ListedCategoryFormatter(Formatter):
 
 
 class FastTextCategoryFormatter(Formatter):
-    def format(self, dataset: pd.DataFrame) -> pd.DataFrame:
+    def apply(self, dataset: pd.DataFrame) -> pd.DataFrame:
         """Format the label column to `__label__LabelA __label__LabelB` format.
         Also, drop the columns except for `data` and `self.target_column`.
         """
-        if self.target_column not in dataset.columns:
-            return dataset
-
         dataset = dataset[["data", self.target_column]]
         dataset[self.target_column] = dataset[self.target_column].apply(
             lambda labels: sorted(f"__label__{label.to_string()}" for label in labels)
@@ -55,11 +51,8 @@ class FastTextCategoryFormatter(Formatter):
 
 
 class TupledSpanFormatter(Formatter):
-    def format(self, dataset: pd.DataFrame) -> pd.DataFrame:
+    def apply(self, dataset: pd.DataFrame) -> pd.DataFrame:
         """Format the span column to `(start_offset, end_offset, label)` format"""
-        if self.target_column not in dataset.columns:
-            return dataset
-
         dataset[self.target_column] = dataset[self.target_column].apply(
             lambda spans: sorted(span.to_tuple() for span in spans)
         )
@@ -67,10 +60,7 @@ class TupledSpanFormatter(Formatter):
 
 
 class DictFormatter(Formatter):
-    def format(self, dataset: pd.DataFrame) -> pd.DataFrame:
-        if self.target_column not in dataset.columns:
-            return dataset
-
+    def apply(self, dataset: pd.DataFrame) -> pd.DataFrame:
         dataset[self.target_column] = dataset[self.target_column].apply(
             lambda labels: [label.to_dict() for label in labels]
         )