Planacy vs Excel

Planacy vs Excel – which solution is more suitable for financial planning and analysis? Excel has been the go-to tool for a long time. It's flexible, powerful, and widely known. However, when a company grows and their processes become more complex and there’s an increased need for precision, speed, and collaboration, Excel isn’t enough. In this comparison of Planacy vs Excel I list five reasons as to why Planacy is the best choice for finance teams looking to simplify and automate their planning processes. I’ll also talk about how to maximise the strengths of Excel while optimising your financial planning processes with a dedicated system for financial planning. 

Planacy vs Excel – 5 reasons to why Planacy is the better choice

1. Automation and Efficiency Instead of Manual Work

Excel works well for more simple tasks but when it comes to complex budgets and forecasts it quickly becomes unmanageable – especially when many people are involved. Planacy on the other hand, is designed to automate and simplify these processes: 

• Integrations: Integrate your existing systems to automatically import data, which reduces’ the risk of human errors and saves time. 
• Ready-made templates: Use ready-made templates and standardised processes to get started quickly and meet your deadlines. 

2. Collaboration and Transparency

When working on your company budget, Excel files are often sent via email. Besides the risk of them ending up in the wrong persons inbox, it's also hard to keep track of the latest version, who made what changes, and who owns what in the process. With a system like Planacy, you get: 

• Real-time updates: All users see the same data and all changes are updated immediately, eliminating version control issues. 
• Role-based security: Give the right people access to the data they need when they need it. This increases security in the planning process and makes it clear who is responsible for providing input at various stages. 

3. Precision and Control

One of the biggest challenges with Excel is the risk of errors. A single misplaced number or broken formula can lead to significant consequences. With a modern system, you work with standardised templates, reducing the risk of errors, and as previously mentioned – you can easily see who made what changes and when. 

4. Flexibility and Scalability

Excel is a great tool and very flexible – in its own way. But as organisations grow and their needs become more complex, it's difficult for the Excel solution to be scaled up at the same pace.  

Planacy, on the other hand, can be tailored to your specific needs and processes. With custom templates and proven best-practice modules, the platform can grow with your business, ensuring future-proof financial planning and analysis. 

5. Insights and Analysis

Analysing data in Excel can be both time-consuming and complicated. Planacy offers a simple solution for analysis that provides better insights. Our solution includes: 

• Intuitive dashboards: Get an overview of your key KPIs and financial goals in an easy-to-understand manner. 
• Continuous updates: Save time on previously manual, time-consuming tasks by updating your reports with just one click. 

Optimise Excel with a Dedicated System  

As mentioned earlier, we believe Excel is an excellent system with many advantages, which is why Planacy offers its own Excel add-in.  

With our add-ins, you can quickly export data from Planacy to both Excel and Google Sheets – create your forecasts in Planacy and use the Office suite or Google Workspace for reporting and ad-hoc analyses. Or why not let your existing report package be automatically updated from Planacy? With Planacy, you get a planning platform that streamlines the workflow while eliminating the manual labour and risks associated with budgeting and forecasting in spreadsheets. 

Conclusion

Excel is a very good tool that can be used for many different tasks. However, it’s also important to be aware of the tool’s limitations. It often works well initially, but as the organisation grows and demands increase, it quickly becomes unsustainable. By transitioning to a system like Planacy, you can automate your processes, improve collaboration, increase accuracy, and gain better insights into your operations.