While commenting recently on a post by Paul Barnhurst—where he shared an excellent, comprehensive checklist for evaluating FP&A tools—another important thought struck me:
Does the tool integrate with Excel, not just export to Excel?
This distinction is critical and often overlooked.
Many FP&A platforms, such as Adaptive (Workday Adaptive Planning) and Anaplan, position themselves as replacements for Excel, claiming that spreadsheets are outdated or inadequate. Yet, these very platforms almost always include a “Export to Excel” feature.
If Excel were truly obsolete, why maintain the ability to export?
The presence of an export function is already an acknowledgment that Excel remains vital.
But true integration with Excel reveals something even more telling.
The Real Implication of Excel Integration
When a planning tool integrates with Excel, it tacitly admits that Excel offers capabilities the platform itself lacks:
✔️ Flexible logic
✔️ Agile interfaces
✔️ A familiar and powerful user experience
This raises an even deeper question:
If Excel can integrate directly with planning tools, why not leverage Excel itself for modeling, reporting, and analysis?
In practice, most organizations aren’t asking their FP&A tools to provide better modeling logic. What they really want is centralized, reliable access to data—while retaining the freedom to customize calculations, layouts, and insights based on their evolving business needs.
Exporting data to Excel implies a separation—a break in process.
Integration, however, keeps the ecosystem dynamic and fluid.
And today, with tools like Power Query and smart API connections, integrating Excel with live enterprise data is not just possible; it’s expected.
A Practical Example
Consider Adaptive Planning. Suppose you have budgets stored there. Using Power Query in Excel, you can create a live, read-only connection that automatically pulls the latest data. You can even design supporting tables in Excel that Adaptive can interact with—controlled, secure, and without compromising system governance.
This approach doesn’t invite “chaos” or unregulated manual changes.
Rather, it empowers decision-makers to enhance planning workflows, create alternative group mappings, perform agile consolidations, and respond to changing business requirements—without being handcuffed by the platform’s interface limitations.
Executives today expect agility. They will not tolerate cumbersome workarounds or be forced into manual processes simply because the platform can’t adapt quickly enough.
Final Thought: A New Evaluation Standard
Paul’s checklist was excellent—and it inspired an important addition:
When evaluating FP&A tools, don’t just ask:
“Can it export to Excel?”
Instead ask:
“Can it integrate with Excel?”
Integration means live, dynamic, two-way collaboration with the tool’s data environment. It recognizes Excel’s enduring strength as a business platform—and sets a new standard for how we judge the real-world usability of financial systems.
It’s time we stop settling for static exports and demand real integration.
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