Planir vs Excel

Keep the interface, move the model

You do not have to leave Excel. You have to stop it being the database. Planir holds the model your group reports from, and a native add-in puts those governed numbers back into the spreadsheet your team already works in.

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At a glance
Planir vs Excel
Planir
Excel
Multi-entity consolidation
Audit trail to the source
Trusted by CFOs and finance teams at multi-entity groups across APAC

Excel is not the problem

The spreadsheet as the system of record is the problem. Every failure a finance team recognises follows from that one thing: the file only one person can safely have open, the consolidation tab rebuilt whenever the group structure changes, the formula that broke three months ago, the figure nobody can trace. None of those are faults in Excel. They are what happens when a file is asked to be a database, because a file keeps its data and its logic in the same place. That is what makes a spreadsheet fast to build and impossible to govern: there is no separate layer in which to record who may change a calculation, whether a period is closed, or which version of an assumption a figure came from. Planir supplies that layer and leaves the interface alone, which is why it ships a native Excel add-in rather than asking a finance team to abandon the tool it is fluent in.

Which is why the boundary this page draws is about the work, not the tool.

Familiar to use, governed underneath

How Planir and Excel compare across the areas Finance teams ask about most.

Comparison areaPlanirExcel
Multi-entity consolidationEntities, ownership and group structure are configured once and applied every period.A workbook per entity and a consolidation tab that somebody rebuilds when the structure changes.
Intercompany eliminationsConfigured as rules with an audit trail, applied automatically at every consolidation.Manual journals and matching schedules, redone each close and reconciled by hand.
Multi-currency translationRates held centrally per period, with the right rate applied by account type.Possible with lookup tables. The rates and the logic then live in the file, and somebody has to maintain them there.
More than one person entering numbers at onceEach contributor gets their own input area, with permissions and a submission trail.Co-authoring in Microsoft 365 handles this well. What it does not give you is who was allowed to change what.
Audit trail from a figure back to its sourceClick a number and drill through to the transactions behind it in the accounting system.A formula can show you the cells it references. It cannot show you the journal the number came from.
Version historyNamed versions per scenario and period, with the model they were built on retained alongside them.OneDrive and SharePoint keep file history. That restores a file, which is not the same as comparing two scenarios side by side.
Scheduled refresh from the accounting systemScheduled at group level, with every entity pulled on the same calendar.Power Query can do it per workbook. Each query belongs to its workbook and runs when that workbook is open.
Period lockingLock a period and inputs stop. Reopening it is an action with a name against it.A protected sheet with a password the team shares is not a locked period.
Formula integrity at scaleA calculation is defined once on the model rather than repeated down every row.One mistyped range survives every review, because it looks exactly like the thousands of correct ones next to it.
Submission and approvalSubmit, review, approve and lock, with each step recorded against a person and a time.Email threads, and file names ending in v3-final.

Comparison as at September 2026, based on publicly available Microsoft documentation. Microsoft, Excel, Microsoft 365, OneDrive, SharePoint and Power Query are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Planir is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Microsoft. Excel is an interface Planir supports through a native add-in rather than a product we set out to displace.

Where Planir has the edge over Excel

Three things a governed model does that a file cannot, whoever maintains the file.

Entities
Add an entity
Finance, no admin request
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01

Add an entity, not a workbook

A new entity is a row with a currency against it, and every report picks it up. In a spreadsheet estate it is a new file, a new tab in the consolidation, and a formula range somebody has to widen by hand.

One model
Grows with requirements
No second environment
New entity Cost centre Scenario Business rule Group model
02

One model behind every report

Accounts, periods, scenarios and cost centres are structure rather than layout, so a calculation is defined once. Nothing is repeated down forty thousand rows where one of them can quietly be wrong.

Administration
Managed by Finance
No Power User handoff
MappingsFinance
Business rulesFinance
PermissionsFinance
03

Permissions, not a shared password

Mappings, business rules and who may change what are Finance's to set. A protected sheet whose password the team passes around is not the same control, and everyone involved knows it.

Where the spreadsheet stops being enough

Three tests rather than an opinion. If any one of them is true of your close, the file is carrying more than a file can.

01

More than one entity

The moment there are two sets of books to add together, the consolidation logic has to live somewhere. In a spreadsheet that somewhere is a tab, and the tab has an owner, and the owner goes on leave.

02

More than one person entering numbers

Co-authoring lets two people type at once. It does not record who was allowed to, what they changed, or whether the period was already closed when they did it.

03

Anybody outside Finance asking how a figure was derived

Once that question is routine, the answer has to be a drill-through rather than a conversation. A spreadsheet can show you its formulas. It cannot show you its sources.

THE ADD-IN

You keep Excel either way

This is the part that makes the rest of the page consistent. Planir ships a native Excel add-in, so the interface your team knows keeps working. What changes is what sits behind the cell: a governed model the whole group reports from, rather than a file on somebody’s drive. A report is inserted onto a worksheet as live formulas rather than pasted as values, so the numbers are current when the file is opened. A cell can be typed over and the value goes back to the model with the author and the time against it. Rows can be bound to the model so a rebuild follows the group structure instead of needing a formula range widened by hand. And when a workbook has to leave the business, Snapshot freezes it to static values so what you send carries the figures and no route back to your model.

  • Live formulas on a worksheet, reading from the same model the group reports from
  • Type a number over a cell and it is written back to the model, with who entered it and when
  • Reports whose rows follow the model, so a rebuild adds and removes rows as the structure changes
  • Empty rows and columns suppressed on the server, so a report arrives the size it should be
  • Snapshot freezes a workbook to static values when the file has to leave the business
  • The same add-in puts native tables and charts into Word and PowerPoint

Full detail on the Excel, Word and PowerPoint add-ins.

What Finance teams have achieved

The consolidation feature alone justified the decision to go with Planir
Belle LeongGroup Financial ControllerLBD EngineeringPlanir for Construction →
We gained greater confidence in our financial data and a more consistent reporting process across the group.
Isabel YongGroup Finance ManagerGlobal REIT GroupPlanir for Real Estate →
We significantly reduced manual reconciliations, improved forecast accuracy and made planning more efficient across Finance.
Chandra MenonFinance DirectorGlobal Electronics and Manufacturing GroupPlanir for Manufacturing →

Read further

The evidence behind this argument, and the pages either side of it.

Evidence

Why finance teams move off spreadsheets

The error rates, the cost of a close run on files, and what changes when reporting is automated. The research behind the case this page makes.

Read the analysis
The add-in

Excel, Word and PowerPoint

Live formulas you can type over and write back, and native tables and charts a refresh rewrites in place.

See the add-ins
Use case

Multi-entity consolidation

What replaces the consolidation workbook. Eliminations and currency translation as configured rules rather than a rebuilt tab.

See consolidation
Comparison

Planir vs Power BI

The other half of the question. Power BI reads your numbers, and planning means writing them.

Read Planir vs Power BI

Planir vs Excel FAQs

Do I have to stop using Excel?
No, and we would rather you did not. Planir ships a native Excel add-in precisely so the interface your team already knows keeps working, reading from the same governed model the rest of the group reports from. A cell holding a PLANIR.RW formula reads one value out of the model, and typing a number over that cell writes it back and then restores the formula, so a budget round can be collected in Excel without the spreadsheet becoming the record. What changes is not the tool, it is what sits behind the cell: a dimensional model where entities, accounts, periods and scenarios are structure, rather than a file whose layout is also its schema. Reports can bind their rows to the model, so a rebuild adds and removes rows as the group structure changes. Full detail on the Excel, Word and PowerPoint add-ins.
So what exactly are you replacing?
The spreadsheet as the system of record, not the spreadsheet. The workbook only one person can safely have open, the consolidation tab rebuilt whenever an entity is added or the ownership structure moves, the formula that broke three months ago and has passed every review since, the figure nobody can trace back to a journal. Those are properties of asking a file to be a database rather than faults in Excel. A file keeps its data and its logic in the same place, which is exactly what makes it quick to build and impossible to govern: there is no separate layer in which to record who may change a calculation, whether a period is closed, or which version of an assumption a number came from. Planir supplies that layer and leaves the interface alone.
Is Planir just a better spreadsheet?
No, and the difference is structural rather than a matter of degree. A spreadsheet stores values in cells with calculations beside them, which is why a model and its data are the same file and why layout doubles as schema. Planir holds a dimensional model: entities, accounts, periods, scenarios, cost centres and currencies are structure you configure once, not rows you copy. A calculation is defined against that structure rather than repeated down forty thousand rows, so there is no population of near-identical formulas in which one can quietly be wrong. Consolidation logic is configured with an audit trail against it rather than assembled in a tab. And a period can be locked, which is a concept a file has no way to express, because a protected sheet with a password the team shares is not the same control.
We already use Power Query to pull our data. Does that go away?
It does not have to. Power Query is a reasonable way to get data into one workbook and it keeps working exactly as it does now. The limit is ownership rather than capability: each query belongs to the workbook it lives in, runs when somebody opens that workbook, and is maintained by whoever built it. If three entities each have their own workbook and their own queries, you have three refresh schedules and three people who know how they work, and the group view is only as current as the last file somebody opened. Planir pulls every entity on one schedule at group level, from the accounting systems directly, so the calendar is a property of the group rather than of whoever happened to open a file that morning. Power Query then does what it is genuinely good at, which is ad-hoc work.
Can more than one person work on a budget at the same time?
Yes, and this is where the two genuinely differ rather than one simply lacking a feature. Co-authoring in Microsoft 365 lets several people type in one file at once, and it does that well. What it does not give you is any record of who was allowed to type what. Planir gives each contributor their own input area with permissions against it, then a submission step, a review step, an approval step, and a record of who entered which number and when. Once the round closes the period can be locked, and reopening it is an action with a name against it. One is concurrent editing, which solves a file-locking problem. The other is a controlled process, which solves an accountability problem. Most groups find they needed the second only after a figure is questioned.
Where does this leave our month-end consolidation workbook?
The logic moves and the layout often survives. Intercompany eliminations and multi-currency translation become configured rules with an audit trail against them, applied the same way every period rather than rebuilt when the group structure changes, with the correct rate applied by account type rather than by a lookup table somebody maintains. That is the part of the workbook that costs time and carries the risk. The workbook itself frequently stays in use as a reporting layout, now reading live figures through the add-in instead of holding them, so the format your board already recognises does not have to change. What stops is the monthly reassembly: the copying between files, the manual journals, and the reconciliation that exists only because the numbers were put together by hand. Most groups keep the workbook for a period or two, then stop opening it once they trust that the figure in Planir and the figure in the pack are the same number.

Bring a workbook you actually use

Bring your consolidation file or a budget template, and leave with it reading live from Planir.

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