Excel is not the enemy
Let us be clear: Excel is an extraordinary tool. It is flexible, powerful, and universally understood. Finance professionals have built empires on it. The issue is not that Excel is bad -- it is that the demands on finance teams have outgrown what a desktop spreadsheet can reliably deliver.
When a two-person finance team manages a single-entity budget in Excel, it works beautifully. When a ten-person team manages a multi-entity, multi-currency, multi-scenario planning model with rolling forecasts, actuals integration, and board reporting, the spreadsheet becomes a liability.
The tipping points
Collaboration. When more than two people need to work on the same model simultaneously, Excel's limitations become apparent. Even cloud-based Excel struggles with concurrent editing of complex, formula-heavy workbooks.
Version control. "Which version is current?" is a question that should never need asking. In spreadsheet-based planning, it is asked daily.
Audit and governance. Regulators, auditors, and boards increasingly expect documented change trails. Excel has no native audit log. Third-party add-ons exist but add complexity.
Integration. Pulling actuals from accounting systems, headcount from HRIS, and pipeline from CRM into spreadsheets is a manual, error-prone process that consumes hours every month.
Scale. As the chart of accounts grows, as new entities and dimensions are added, spreadsheet models slow down. Formula chains become opaque. A single broken reference can cascade silently through the entire workbook.
What finance teams are using instead
The FP&A software market has matured significantly. The current landscape includes:
Dedicated FP&A platforms. Tools purpose-built for financial planning: budgeting, forecasting, consolidation, and reporting. They maintain a formula-driven, grid-based interface familiar to Excel users while providing database-level reliability, collaboration, and integration. Grove FP sits in this category.
EPM suites. Enterprise performance management platforms from large vendors (Anaplan, Workday Adaptive, Oracle) offer comprehensive planning capabilities but typically require significant implementation effort and budget. Best suited for large enterprises with complex, multi-entity planning needs.
BI and reporting tools. Platforms like Power BI and Tableau complement planning tools by providing visualisation and ad-hoc analysis. They are strong on reporting but weak on planning -- you cannot build a budget in a BI tool.
Spreadsheet add-ons. Tools that extend Excel's capabilities (Vena, Datarails) by adding a database layer, workflow management, and audit trails on top of the familiar Excel interface. A pragmatic option for teams that want to keep Excel as the front end.
The practical migration path
The move away from Excel is almost always gradual:
Phase 1. Move the annual budget and monthly forecast into the planning platform. Keep ad-hoc analysis in Excel.
Phase 2. Connect the platform to your accounting system for automated actuals import. This eliminates the most time-consuming manual step.
Phase 3. Build board reporting and management packs in the platform. Retire the PowerPoint-based reporting process.
Phase 4. Extend to workforce planning, scenario analysis, and multi-entity consolidation as the team gains confidence.
Each phase delivers standalone value. You do not need to complete the full journey to see benefits.