Stop Using Excel, Finance Chiefs Tell Staffs (WSJ Article)

Ubiquitous spreadsheet software that revolutionized accounting hasn’t kept up, CFOs say

By Wall Street Journal November 2017

Tatyana Shumsky

Updated Nov. 29, 2017 9:38 am ET

THIS IS A REVIEW BY OPEN AI.

P.F. Chang’s finance chief said he switched the company to Adaptive Insights from Excel because it fosters collaboration and cuts down on administrative tasks. Scott Olson/Getty Images

Adobe Inc.’s finance chief Mark Garrett says his team struggles keeping track of which jobs have been filled at the software company.

The process can take days and requires finance staff to pull data from disparate systems that house financial and human-resources information into Microsoft Corp.’s Excel spreadsheets. From there they can see which groups are hiring and how salary spending affects the budget.

“I don’t want financial planning people spending their time importing and exporting and manipulating data, I want them to focus on what is the data telling us,” Mr. Garrett said. He is working on cutting Excel out of this process, he said.

CFOs at companies including P.F. Chang’s China Bistro Inc., ABM Industries Inc. and Wintrust Financial Corp. are on a similar drive to reduce how much their finance teams use Excel for financial planning, analysis and reporting.

Finance chiefs say the ubiquitous spreadsheet software that revolutionized accounting in the 1980s hasn’t kept up with the demands of contemporary corporate finance units. Errors can bloom because data in Excel is separated from other systems and isn’t automatically updated.

Older versions of Excel don’t allow multiple users to work together in one document, hampering collaboration. There is also a limit to how much data can be pulled into a single document, which can slow down analysis.

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“Excel just wasn’t designed to do some of the heavy lifting that companies need to do in finance,” said Paul Hammerman, a business applications analyst at Forrester Research Inc.

Instead, companies are turning to new, cloud-based technologies from Anaplan Inc., Workiva Inc., Adaptive Insights and their competitors.

The newer software connects with existing accounting and enterprise resource management systems, including those made by Oracle Corp. or SAP SE. This lets accountants aggregate, analyze and report data on one unified platform, often without additional training.

Adobe switched to Anaplan early last year and many of the tasks previously performed in spreadsheets are now done in the system, maintaining “one source of truth,” Mr. Garrett said.

Reports, including about head count, are compiled faster, he said.

P.F. Chang’s finance chief Jim Bell said he switched the company to Adaptive Insights from Excel because it fosters collaboration and cuts down on administrative tasks.

Mr. Bell said he was examining how kitchen staff cuts at the company’s Boston restaurants affected profitability while on a flight from Spokane, Wash., to Phoenix in early October. The company’s northeast regional manager followed along from his office across the country.

“If I was trying to do this on a spreadsheet, it just wouldn’t happen,” Mr. Bell said.

A year ago, Mr. Bell’s team spent hours distributing hundreds of Excel spreadsheets to regional and unit leaders each month for planning and performance tracking of the company’s 415 U.S. restaurants, he said. Now the same process takes minutes.

Excel has been evolving to better serve its many groups of specialized customers, including in the financial community, said Brian Jones, head of Microsoft’s Excel product strategy.

The latest version, launched this summer, allows multiple users to collaborate in a single document, crunch more than 100 million rows of data and comes with automated tools that find trends and suggest visualization, he said.

And while many finance-industry customers might graduate to more specialized software as their needs evolve, most of these solutions have an “export to Excel” button, Mr. Jones said.

“You’re still going to use Excel for the things you’re not using a tailored solution for,” he said.

Excel also has broad reach. Office 365, which includes Excel, has more than 120 million monthly users, said Ron Markezich, Microsoft’s corporate vice president of Office 365.

The company wouldn’t comment on what share of these customers are using the program for financial analysis and accounting.

Wintrust Financial, which operates 15 chartered community banks in Illinois and Wisconsin, dropped Excel in favor of Workiva because of high error rates.

“The CFO would ask: can you tell me how many loans were paid off and how many did you refinance in the last quarter, and we got different answers from different teams,” said Anita Chakravarthy, senior vice president of performance measurement.

Workiva has automatic consolidation at the department level that helps reduce errors and tracks who made changes to the data for easy auditing, Ms. Chakravarthy said.

Kayla Davis, who runs financial planning at ABM Industries, relied on Excel to pull data from a motley of disparate accounting systems, accumulated over decades of mergers and acquisitions.

Since switching to Anaplan in May, her team can give the CFO information more quickly because it doesn’t require as much verification, she said.

“If a job is losing money, you can quickly see what [happens] if we exit that job, what does that do to my entire portfolio,” Ms. Davis said.

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Appeared in the November 24, 2017, print edition as ‘Corporate Finance Cuts Back On Excel’.Hide Conversation (389)

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• BOB PRICE29 November, 2017This is a misleading article.  It gives the impression that Excel is somehow flawed and shouldn’t be used for serious financial tasks.  Like any tool, you have to know what it does best, and what it’s not suited for.  Excel was never designed to be used as an enterprise-level database tool.  Even Microsoft knows that, which is why they also produce and market tools like SQL Server.  Of course, that requires a whole different skillset, which is why companies have pushed Excel beyond its intended use.Comparing Excel (an individual consumer tool) to something like Anaplan (an enterprise-level, “…See more7Share
• John Handley22 November, 2017“The CFO would ask: can you tell me how many loans were paid off and how many did you refinance in the last quarter, and we got different answers from different teams,” said Anita Chakravarthy, senior vice president of performance measurement.It is a poor worker that blames his tools.5Share
  • Gerald Ference22 November, 2017John Handley The question should have been stated more precisely.Share1 reply
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• GoldCar18 January, 2018Amen! It is disturbing to see how much data is in spreadsheets that should be in databases. However, it is the IT departments that are often to blame in that they do not provide proper tools for working with data often because they try to make work procedures fit the software rather than the other way around.3Share
• Edward Appiah23 November, 2017I like Excel. I’m currently designing new reports and dashboards for our reporting using Excel & Visual Basic.It’s quite cool learning new tricks and tips. Maybe these companies need better analysts.2Share
• GreenTurtle15 December, 2017Despite all of the technology, human error reigns. Excel doesn’t randomly create errors, people do. The same principle applies to commercial applications managed by IT. One key difference however is effective controls. IT managed systems have controls to mitigate the risks, end-user controlled applications (of which Excel is the most common) usually do not. Many companies (including my own) provide solutions that enable spreadsheet controls which lower the risk of errors, data loss and fraudulent tampering. End-user computing continues to proliferate because IT departments are either too slow…See more1Share
• PurplePopsicle26 November, 2017″Older versions of Excel don’t allow multiple users to work together in one document, hampering collaboration.”———— Their current versions do so upgrade: https://www.theverge.com/2017/3/28/15094930/microsoft-office-excel-windows-coauthor-editing-real-time-collaboration”There is also a limit to how much data can be pulled into a single document, which can slow down analysis.”———— Everything has limits but the old 65,536 row limit has been gone for awhile now as 1 million rows is standard.  Excel can do a great deal more to automate most any task if the user wants to learn VBscr…See more1Share
• GreenPlane25 November, 2017The same IT sales pitch has been made to corporate finance for decades……ain’t gunna change.  When your job is on the line and you are responsible for billions in capital allocation…..you want to know how every calculation is done in your new business model……… not wait for the IT guys to put something together for you with their latest software package they bought…….and count on you room full of excel masters to learn the new toolset which will only be around for a few years at most…..SAP had a very insightful paragraph in one of their manuals a long time ago that I always gi…See more1Share
• RedPretzel23 November, 2017So CEOs don’t know what they are doing and their staff needs training?In other news: Water is wet.1Share
• Beverly Pegnato23 November, 2017The problem is not with Excel, the problem is with the user(s). Excel is a powerful tool, but it calls for standards and discipline. When individual users mess up their spreadsheets with colors, columns, non-headings and all sorts of extraneous markings or data, the utility of the spreadsheet comes down to a user of one.  The spreadsheet cannot be shared, forgetting about the technological functionality,  because the creator is undisciplined and/or not trained to develop a spreadsheet that has broader utility through out an organization, i.e., can be clearly understood by all users.1Share
  • Kathy Herrmann27 November, 2017Beverly Pegnato Beverly – Agree. It’s also irritating to inherit a spreadsheet from someone who is clueless about the proper way to setup the spreadsheet basics — column headings, formulas, ranges, etc — that turn Excel into a manual effort to update instead of the power tool it’s intended to be.Share
• Vassili Gorshkov22 November, 2017Excel has been dead for at least 20 years.  It is buggy and awkward to use.  Google sheets have been much better almost from day one and by now are by far superior to the MS Office contraptions.  I am not familiar with Anaplan, but would not be surprised if they were much better as well.  In general, MS’ Office division seems to be made of the least competent people at MS with all the smart folks developing core OS, Azure, etc.  MS marketing has been brilliant, however, resulting in MS Office being a standard software purchased by every single government project and by most corporations.1Share
  • Terry Olsen22 November, 2017VASSILI GORSHKOV A couple of salient points for you.  First, Google had the advantage of building from a design that MSFT/Lotus had.  Second, Excel is far from dead.  It is not buggy, handles large data sets well if you know what you’re doing.3Share1 reply
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• Vaughn Brenda5 December, 2017Excel is still very powerful.  But yes, it should be used for projects.  Not day to day financial work.Share
• BlueSailboat1 December, 2017What this article ignores is that there’s a vendor (Vena Solutions) that links Excel directly to a database, meaning users can remain in a familiar interface, use existing templates/models, while adding governance and controls to ensure accuracy and cut down on manual consolidations. Ask anyone who has implemented Anaplan, Adaptive, SAP etc and they will tell you that they are still using spreadsheets to support the processes in question. It’s very difficult for these proprietary solutions to handle highly complex and custom Excel models that accurately reflect how an organization does busine…See moreShare
  • JOHN SCOTT4 December, 2017Alex Perry  I’ve been saying for years that Excel as a data store is terrible, but Excel as a way to manipulate data stored “somewhere else” is still very powerful. Excel has had data connectors for years, and I agree that it’s not an either/or decision.Share
• RedBowtie1 December, 2017While using Excel as a standalone tool for financial reporting comes with inherent risks, Excel “add-ins” built on a tight integration of Excel to ERP systems provide a live (real time) link to the ERP database—the single source of the truth. In this sense, Excel becomes “ERP aware” because it incorporates information about the ERP system’s underlying environment. As users directly pull and refresh real-time data in spreadsheets, it removes any risks of that data become redundant. Finance folks love the usability of Excel – adding the ability to refresh ERP data in real time provides an unsur…See moreShare
• Bernard and Joan Pech1 December, 2017The problem with the use of excel spreadsheets is the creation of many silos of information that cannot be easily put under central control. For many years, upper management has tried to get this problem under control without success. The potential problems are many: being held hostage to a key employee; security issue as PC can be taken home with vulnerable critical analysis; difficulty in creating real time financial score cards for the corporate executives, … BernardShare
• PurpleBattery30 November, 2017There have been systems specifically designed for data management and data warehousing so as to avoid having to download and analyze in a tool like Excel. Such systems have existed for many years. So what I get out of the article is that many “genius” CFOs are just discovering this. And, having not previously invested in systems that can facilitate enterprise data analysis, they blame the employees for “over-reliance” on Excel. Not cool!Share
• Bruce Quinn29 November, 2017Excel is perfectly good or even extremely for many things.   The fact it doesn’t work for multi use live access data sourcing is almost to obvious to deserve an article.   It would be too stupid to try and use it for that.Share
• Rich Law28 November, 2017FYI – this article doesn’t feel well informed of the standard business problem that has been out there for years and the primary frameworks and approaches that are currently being pursued by organizations. Feels more like a paid add for specific vendor solutions.Share
• PurpleAnchor28 November, 2017It’s because people are using excel as a database tool.  Not every department can afford to have developers on staff to put together applications configured to supply management with immediate answers to their inquiries.”The CFO would ask: can you tell me how many loans were paid off and how many did you refinance in the last quarter, and we got different answers from different teams”The fact that a financial company can’t immediately generate a response to this query is frightening.  Clearly the data is straight somewhere.  Otherwise loans would be out of balance and  Wintrust’s future wou…See moreShare
• GoldPopsicle28 November, 2017This sounds like a sales pitch for financial analysis software.Share
• GoldBattery28 November, 2017All businesses are not going to stop using spreadsheets anytime soon. They are, after all, an accustomed and useful business tool. But with the GDPR compliance deadline just a matter of months away, spreadsheets have the potential to be the uncontrollable source of multiple data breaches. Businesses need to implement an immediate, robust process to constantly check what data is in them. The consequences of not doing that are all too plain.– Peter Ruffley, Chairman at ZizoShare
  • Karl Johnson28 November, 2017Peter Ruffley Thanks for announcing your title.  Self promotion is key whether we like it or not lol.Share
• Dan Ryan28 November, 2017This isn’t news.  Of course Excel doesn’t work for every financial application.  Wow.QuickBooks isn’t a very good spreadsheet.  My hammer isn’t a very good screwdriver.Share
  • GoldRing28 November, 2017DAN RYAN I find the secret is to hammer really, really hard.Share1 reply
• Alex C28 November, 2017I spent thirty years supporting spreadsheets and reporting tools. In the dozens of enterprise  applications I saw, documentation and reporting were after-thoughts. IT budgets were usually burned up by the time analysts discover their reports aren’t what they need. As a result, analysts can’t get their reporting tools and turn to spreadsheets. Also,  many of the spreadsheet users I supported treated Excel as a word processor with easy tabs and knew nothing of its capabilities.Share
  • PurpleAnchor28 November, 2017Alex CampbellShare
• BlueGrapes28 November, 2017And excel is a big part of their cloud platform and MSFT keeps going up, up. The truth is excel has rested on its laurels and has not kept pace with the growing needs of its user base. Complete ferry dust….Share
• OliveFan27 November, 2017Author argues not too terribly informed and likely highly influenced by the planning apps PR machines. As long as the Anaplan/Adaptive and friend’s solutions exactly fit your requirements perfect, go for it (if you have the money and are happy to deal with more than in-transparent pricing strategies). After 20 years specializing in business intelligence I have learnt that this is very rarely the case and then you are at the mercy of the vendor’s/partner’s very specialized consulting services that have to customize web applications. Even when you have sorted planning, your next challenge is to…See moreShare
• PurpleChilli27 November, 2017Is it an excel issue or is it a lack of a working data warehouse and the integration of all the disparate business software?Share
  • Karen Session27 November, 2017Chuck Liebenauer “…or is it a lack of a working data warehouse and the integration of all the disparate business software?”BINGO!!!Share
• Jeffrey Mcintyre27 November, 2017Hopefully PowerPoint is next in line….Share
• Kathy Herrmann27 November, 2017Oh brother. I’m going to guess Shumsky doesn’t actually know Excel, given the silliness of this article.Excel is great for what it’s designed for which is analysis. However, Shumsky quotes managers who try to use Excel as databases — which it is not.The real thrust of this article should be the stupidity and/or cheapness of management in corporations that don’t invest in the right database applications to run their businesses.Share
• GoldTeepee27 November, 2017Fact check:  “crunch more than 100 million rows of data” … what version?  Can anyone share a link?  I am often plagued by the Excel row limit (as well as the performance issues caused by large spreadsheets) – am I missing something important?Share
  • OliveFan27 November, 2017Robert Champlin check out the Power Pivot feature. I have explained the approach in a bit more detail here: http://managility.com.au/2017/11/05/excel-a-business-intelligence-toy/1Share
• GreenWrench27 November, 2017As a CPA and Financial Controller, I think this article is comparing apples to oranges.Excel is a design tool that you can tailor to what you want to analyze. I find that most critics of Excel can’t use even some of the most basic tools in Excel. Plus, most people don’t know how to use “queries” and SQL links to live data.That is not Excel’s fault. Excel is powerful in many ways, but it is not idiot proof. A bad Excel user will create a bad spreadsheet, or won’t know how to fix what he just broke. “Stupid is as stupid does”.If you want analysis, you will need Excel, AND a BI tool. Blame sting…See moreShare
• KEVIN HENDERSON27 November, 2017Personally, I missed being able to use Lotus 123.  I think it was superior to Excel.However, now that I’m retired, it’s no longer my problem.;-)Share
• Douglas Wolf26 November, 2017Back to the future! 40 years ago the king of financial modeling was Prophit from Via Computer in San Diego, CA. It ran on the IBM time sharing network.  I was there when Lotus 123 hit the PC world like a tsunami and we warned our user base that errors etc would creep into their data due to the limited scope of a spreadsheet. Alas, even though my tea, converted the mainframe version to Micro-Prophit very successfully the die was cast. I do think it is still available and it still much superior for modeling from  Advanced Micro Applications, IncShare
• Marie Frederick26 November, 2017While we as Finance people understand the need to migrate from Excel, its important to pick the right cloud based EPM partner. In Gartner’s 2017 Critical Capabilities Reports for Cloud Financial and Cloud Strategic CPM, Host Analytics scored the highest for Midsize, Midsize/Large, and Business Units for Large Organizations, across both strategic and financial corporate performance management. Read the reports at: http://resources.hostanalytics.com/analyst-reports/2017-gartner-critical-capabilities-reportsShare
• Mark Jordon26 November, 2017It is true that many users are unfamiliar with databases and push spreadsheets beyond their limits. Excel has no relational database ability therefore it’s use is limited . Better to use a database to keep track of employees rather than a spreadsheet, the ability to crosscheck job requirements, pay per job designation and even employee demographics is not feasible with a spreadsheet. MS Access is not that hard to learn, once you do use it you realize how powerful a database is as compared to a spreadsheet.Share
• Loren Walch26 November, 2017As someone who has written thousands of legal documents and pleadings I can testify that Word is the absolute worst word processing program out there.Now that the Addidas bribery scandal is coming to light, the Congressional Hush Money Fund (financed by taxpayers, thank you) with it 274 sexual deviants protection racket has been exposed, and old Bob Mueller is grifting taxpayer money for his trip to nowhere, how about a good old investigation to determine when, if, and how much money changed hands for Microsoft to have the ability to foist its lousy programs upon us?Share
  • Michael C26 November, 2017Loren Walch “I can testify that Word is the absolute worst word processing program out there.”That’s why Corel Wordperfect is still in existence as there’s still lots of WP users out there who can’t stand MS Word, despite the latter’s ‘popularity’. For long documents and lots of editing, WP is still the go-to word processor.Share
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• Ken Perry26 November, 2017Word and PowerPoint suck as well.Share
  • GreenGoggles26 November, 2017Ken Perry They both suck. Officially!Share
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• Domingo Trassens26 November, 2017This story is advertisement disguised at technical article. It doesn’t give the technical reasons in a technical level of a possible change of software.Share
  • GreenGoggles26 November, 2017Domingo Trassens Although that may seem to be the case, I’ve been reading Tatyana Shumsky’s articles on Finance for many years, and I really don’t believe she has a bias toward or against certain applications.  Her articles are always well researched. Just one man’s opinion.Share1 reply
• OliveSnow26 November, 2017The problem is the proprietary aspect of the software that people cannot gain control over to do the job. Excel does have the capability. You can blame Microsoft for its not living up to its full potential. Switching to another proprietary platform will not solve the problem. I think you would just trade one problem for another. What will solve it is a full knowledge of your business and a full knowledge of the tools your using.I will be willing to bet not that many people (relatively speaking) know how to actually program in excel in addition to the basics of spread sheet abuse.Share
  • BlueSailboat1 December, 2017Matthew Rensen Couldn’t agree more.  I work at a vendor called Vena, we utilize Excel as the primary interface (author and publish) and link it back to a database. Approx 30% of our projects these days are replacing proprietary vendors. We’re finding they lead to low user adoption, and most importantly, they aren’t flexible enough to handle complex custom Excel models (recently had a client who found they couldn’t do FICA calcs and staff allocations in one sheet using a proprietary solution, so it was all done in Excel).Share
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• Ralph Lundvall25 November, 2017What I found was an average worker can learn Excel however badly. Those that try to add a database (e.g. Access) to their skill stack invariably do that poorly.  Those that successfully learn a database to the level necessary to yield results do so at the risk of not being recognized for their achievement because the supervisors merely learned Excel and stopped.Share
  • Michael C26 November, 2017Ralph Lundvall Not many schools/universities teach database to its students, esp. those in finance/accounting when Excel is still considered king. It also depends on what wants from a spreadsheet.For accounting/bookkeeping, it’s best to use any/some sort of accounting software as using spreadsheets just plain suck. Heck, many people still use manual OneWrite sheets instead of the old OneWrite software.People must be educated to use software properly!Share
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• TAD REMINGTON25 November, 2017Want the benefits of Microsoft Excel and the multi-user scalability and security of SQL Server in a Cloud or on-premise Corporate Performance Management (CPM) solution?  Then consider Solver’s BI360 CPM solution which provides enterprise wide reporting, planning, dashboards and data warehouse for executives and business unit managers.  BI360 uses Excel for the report and budget template design experience; pushes reports and budgets out to users in workflow enabled web browser experience.  www.SolverGlobal.comTad W. Remington, CMA, MCTSChief Commercial OfficerSolver, Inc.Share
• BlueFan25 November, 2017Since this was an advertisement for Anaplan, those with the right need should consider https://www.domo.com/Share
  • Arjun Mehta25 November, 2017Grant Harper Agreed, not sure how much WSJ was paid by Anaplan, Workiva and Adaptive Insights for this article, but this is pretty shameless “reporting”Share
• PurpleLeaf25 November, 2017If companies continue to hire accounting staff that has no idea how to create a spreadsheet, insert formulas, drag, copy, and paste; and no idea how to read financials, then of course the company is going to have problems.Try QuickBooks, but at some point, even that has to be translated into a spreadsheet.Share
  • Michael C26 November, 2017ANGELA JOHNSON “Try QuickBooks, but at some point, even that has to be translated into a spreadsheet.”It depends on what the user wants to do with the QB data. Lots of QB data do NOT need to be ‘translated’ into a spreadsheet.Then again, can one really ‘rely’ on the QB data? Lots of people can’t even do QB properly.An old term that can be applied to any software usage… Garbage in, garbage out!Share
• OrangeBus25 November, 2017It is not Excel that has not kept up, it is the software industry that has evolved and has shaped expectations and demands for functionality.  Excel is a spreadsheet and does that well.  Punching in enterprise level controlling is not what Excel is designed to do, and when Excel was created, there was no enterprise level controlling in real time to compete with.Share
• DC Palter25 November, 2017Excel is used for everything in a small to medium business, not just financial analysis.  As a small company, we use it for tracking customers, tracking new opportunities, tracking inventory and production, tracking trade show leads, tracking employee hours and vacation time, and many other things for which it isn’t really suited.  But it’s so much simpler and cheaper than setting up real CRM, ERP, and HR database systems. Yes, it’s limited, but it’s also simple and all employees know how to use it without special training.Share
  • GreenPlane25 November, 2017DC Palter not just small and medium business….. we built massive software applications taking years to deliver with upgrades annually for some of the largest high tech manufacturing companies…… all of which supported business models that were obsolete by the time they were deployed……at the time the entire industry was chasing one leading company……. that $150B+company did everything with a room full of MBAs and excel sitting on top of a business data warehouse….and could change and adapt their workflow and business model on the fly…..lesson learned==> the important part, the …See moreShare
• DC Palter25 November, 2017The problem is not Excel, it’s how it’s used by business planning departments.  I’ve seen the following “Excel fallacy” occur over and over: management says revenues must go up 20%.  The accountants add 20% to the revenue projections. To get the 20% growth, they raise the product price by 20%.  Looks perfect on a spreadsheet, but takes no account of the real world where higher prices cause reduced sales, but because the accountants can’t do that, it never gets factored into the spreadsheets.   Sales quotes go up, sales people jump to competitors. Managers get fired because they aren’t meeting…See moreShare
• CyanAirBalloon25 November, 2017There is nothing wrong with Excel except it has too many bugs, inconsistenciesand errors. Every new updated version behaves quite different in use.MS software departments needs to put their heads together to make MS “great again” – insufficient testing in house is only one part of it. Backwards compatibility the other.But that is true for all software created today, because of the rush to “make money”.MS Access is more useful for financial departments than Excel just by itself.CFOs  are not created with a mind of the future – They have to make the future exploring new options without ignoring…See moreShare
• Sidney Friedman25 November, 2017for money management firms’ analysis, etc…., which has evolved to be the better choice: MSFT’s Excel v. AAPL’s Numbers v. GOOG’s Sheets? figured this would be a good forum to pose this question. obviously MSFT’s Excel has been the default choice, now….?Share
• Gary Blakely25 November, 2017Any “Financial Chief” trying to run their company records on a spreadsheet is Dope.  An article like this shouldn’t be published in the WSJ.  These guys are idiots.Share
• JOHN AUBREY25 November, 2017Excel and adaptive insights or other suites are complimentary, not mutually exclusive. Every cfo wants their analysts focused less on manipulation and more on analysis. This is the “magical box” fallacy of finance; if you just had a magical box that contained the clean information and relationships, you wouldn’t need so many analysts or you could spend more time improving the business and less time cleaning and processing data. But it never works that way. Systems take time and expertise and doggedness to keep aligned. The fact the Adobe cfo says it takes “days” to get basic headcount in…See moreShare
• Jeffrey Forrester25 November, 2017This is a ripe area for blockchain technology.  Think for a moment – an amorphous spreadsheet “zone” shared by all employees as opposed to the closed bucket that excel offers.  A space that lends itself to data mining by auditors.  If I were a younger man I’d be looking for an emerging startup in this space – but at my age, I think I’ll just pay attention to the Patrick Byrne’s out there and use some table money picking up their stocks.  OSTK has been a recent favorite of mine.Share
  • CyanCandy1 December, 2017Jeffrey Forrester https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/introduction-blockchain-bankers-excel-sheet-analogy-jayaram-frm/:-)Share
• GoldHammer25 November, 2017Excel is fine for small businesses and other applications. That larger corporations are using it for far larger tasks tells me that they (the larger corporation) has been utterly and totally remiss in their software development and investment. What were these people thinking? CIO doesn’t mean Catastrophic Idiocy Officer.Share
• john gury25 November, 2017This article should be marked as a paid endorsement for Anaplan.Share
• GoldCar25 November, 2017The loss of *real* multi-dimensional number-crunchers like MDS’s Express, Mainstay (once used by DARPA and much of the DOD for vendor bidding of complex projects), and others has almost crippled complex financial data modeling. One cannot effectively audit a spreadsheet. If I were looking now I would check out Analytica or Quantrix, for the data/financial modeling, and probably use something like Information Builders’ products to update a data warehouse in real time. Btw: certain large corporations keep 30-year-old legacy installations of Express as the tightest of corporate secrets. You migh…See moreShare
• Stephen Ward25 November, 2017Can we please burn PowerPoint next?  It has destroyed critical thinking within the Department of Defense.  The private sector is following closely.Next slide.Share
• Acco Hengst24 November, 2017I would recommend a sledge hammer to mash the potatoes. Anything stupid can be abused, including human brains, reporting software, data repositories and desktop software.The primary issue, to this IT Enterprise Architect, is the use of desktop software beyond its intended scope and an arrogant, ignorant leadership. Look, there is a squirrel.Share
• GreenSeahorse24 November, 2017We’ve all been guilty of making extreme statements when frustrated.  This CFO is correct, when left to its own devices, excel can accurately be classified as a silo’d tool, in some cases its perfect for the task at hand, not so good in other scenarios.Let’s not throw the baby (excel) out with the bathwater, at least not yet.Share
• The Lambs24 November, 2017With all of the tools out there for these sorts of tasks, the CFO of a publicly-traded company has his people using Excel for this task? The problem is not Excel (although it has its problems), it is him.Share
  • Acco Hengst24 November, 2017The Lambs WSJ making him a poster child for the usual. Peter principle advertisement, free of charge?1Share
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• Jane Curley24 November, 2017Misuse of Excel shouldn’t be used to suggest Excel is a poor tool. If your production process involves importing to Excel, processing, and then exporting from Excel, you are doing it wrong. That’s not an Excel problem, it’s a you problem. I love Excel. I feel like it gets me closer to the numbers. IMO, a lot of programmers and quants don’t get their hands dirty enough. No, you can’t look at each of a million numbers. But you can look at some of them, and look for unexpected patterns, test for relationships, and be able to “see” more in Excel. See more of what is unexpected, that is. In additi…See moreShare
• PurpleCorn24 November, 2017Interesting to see some light being shed on new versions/options out there other than Excel, and the issues folks having with Excel e.g. the software’s lack of connectivity to other programs.  It would be quite special to see a version of Excel with ERP capabilities.   I suppose MS Access has that???Share
• CyanCherries24 November, 2017I went whole-hog into MAC several years ago. My needs are small, but Numbers is so much easier to use and has better graphical displays, at least for my needs. I have missed MS not at all.Share
• GreenPalmtree24 November, 2017Excel is all too often used as a data base application, when in fact, it is Not. Use the correct tool for the job.Share
  • GoldHammer25 November, 2017BILL BREESE Bingo.Share
• BENJAMIN FITZPATRICK24 November, 2017Let’s hope that Excel begins to see more competition for “home use” spreadsheets. Google is fine, but I’d like to see something else. MS has a real “racket” going in “home use” spreadsheets.Share
  • OliveFan24 November, 2017BENJAMIN FITZPATRICK OpenOffice, free and works just as well.  I have been using the suite for the last 15 years.Share1 reply
• Lee Zehrer24 November, 2017I miss my Lotus 1-2-3, at least I could write macros in it. I simply don’t have the time to learn VBA .Share
  • Kathy Herrmann27 November, 2017Lee Zehrer Long ago in a far away time, like Excel 4.0, I was able to write some pretty fancy macros because you didn’t have to be a VB expert. I propped a book of commands on my desk and bootstrapped my way through. The MS added VB as the Excel Way of the Macro and torched folks like me who don’t know it.Share
• GoldBottleOpener24 November, 2017/123Share
  • David Eyke25 November, 2017Used to love VisiCalc. Didn’t love staring into a 6×8 cathode ray display to use it.Share
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• Joan Newcomb24 November, 2017I have to tell you something crazy about Excel. I recently bought a computer with the latest version of Excel. One business task I have is to run a macro where about 50 individual client statements would be opened, automatically updated from a host spreadsheet, and then each would be briefly manually inspected before emailing to clients. It was a very efficient process with any version of Excel except the latest one. With the latest version of Excel, when the macro is run, the client statement isn’t just opened in the Excel you have open, rather a new Excel opens for each statement! So, after…See moreShare
  • Mark Jordon26 November, 2017Joan Newcomb Solution is to stay behind the curve and use older Microsoft products. They change things simply for the reason of changing them, not because the changes increase value for the users. MS always promotes new software, one can stick with Office 2007 for example and get all the functionality you need. I converted to MS Office 2007 from Office 2000 only two years ago. Granted, my needs are modest, but I would just use the older version. Saves money too. I call this the “trailing edge” rather than the “bleeding edge” concept.Share
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• OliveClover24 November, 2017Excel will be in the office for some time to come, however a good ERP really does speed things up, minimize error, and help teams collaborate. Netsuite was good but got too expensive with Oracle acquisition. Seeing a lot of good cloud-based ERP services rise up.Share
• BlueTooth23 November, 2017Let’s not blame Excel because it is used to provide analytical capabilities that are lacking in software and systems that create and store the data. And by the way, Excel can be set up to refresh from data sources automatically.Share
• Norman Spaulding23 November, 2017And another misuse of Excel is for a requirement that should be handled by a (relational) database program. Probably exacerbated by the fact that being intimately familiar with Excel, the user just unconsciously turns to it for everything requiring analysis.Share
• Brad Spivack23 November, 2017Lotus 1-2-3 was ” the ubiquitous spreadsheet software that revolutionized accounting in the 1980s,” not Excel. Excel for the PC wasn’t introduced until 1987, and didn’t make market inroads until the early 1990s, benefiting from the introduction of Win 3.0, and Lotus Development Corp’s ill-fated decision to develop on IBM’s OS/2. By the time Lotus realized that OS/2 was a bust it was too late, Microsoft had introduced the bundle we now recognize as the Office Suite, and the battle was theirs. WSJ Editors, your readers shouldn’t have to do your fact checking for you. We continue to expect more …See moreShare
  • Lee Zehrer24 November, 2017I remember back in the 80s that Lotus 1-2-3 what is the most popular word processing program.Share
• GoldFlame23 November, 2017Microsoft’s CFO should advise people to stop eating at P. F. Chang’s because of high artery clogging rates and low nutritional return on investment. 😉 IMRANhttp://blog.imran.comShare
• CyanBasketball23 November, 2017Single source of truth? I have been hearing that for 25 years now. And then the CFO says we are buying the ERP or planning package off the shelf with no modifications and out come the analysts with their spreadsheets. Push button analysis? Dream on!Share
• GreenTurtle23 November, 2017I just have to shake my head in disappointment, again.  How many times, over how many years, have I heard Excel is dead?  Well I’d have to say those rumors are always greatly exaggerated.  I’m a Sr. Director in FP&A, and I’d love an alternative to Excel, but there just isn’t one.  Yeah I’ve used adaptive and the other packages.  Guess what they all end up in Excel at some point.  Oh, the CFO wants to ask a random question that he/she just thought of and it can’t be answered quickly.  I think perhaps the CFO has forgotten their role.  Which is to support the business, not be the focus of the b…See moreShare
• GreenApple23 November, 2017Excel is a wonderful tool.  It users are often not so wonderful.  Move along, nothing new to see here.Share
  • PurpleCocktail26 November, 2017Mona Keegan I agree.  In my business, I often use a mallet.  The mallet is a wonderful tool.  If the mallet isn’t getting the job done, the answer usually isn’t to hit harder, or “get a bigger mallet”. The answer is the mallet is the correct tool, but I just haven’t figured out why the mallet isn’t getting the job done.  If you get the analogy.Share
• Jonathan Levi23 November, 2017Python + Database system of your choice. End of discussion.Share
• SETH GOLDHAMER23 November, 2017If exporting data into Excel doesn’t meet your needs and you want to pull data from various data sources real-time you could look into Microsoft Power BI. I am surprised it was not mentioned in this article. It provides all kinds of data analysis tools and pretty presentation in dashboards and charts if that is what you desire.Share
• Thomas Atwood23 November, 2017Most companies over-rely on Excel as the rest of their systems are horrible.  People are using Excel for things it was never meant to do (i.e., database).  I had never heard of the Anaplan software mentioned in the article (which seemed more like advertising for Anaplan) and a few minutes, I wasn’t able to figure out how their software would help my firm whatsoever…  Their message was not clear whatsoever.  Therefore, back to Excel…Share
  • john gury25 November, 2017Thomas Atwood The article should have been marked as a paid endorsement for Anaplan.Share
• GreenCupcake23 November, 2017Really not a fair article…and I am not usually a defender of Microsoft. The focus in this article is on people who don’t use any of the more sophisticated  functionality that is available through the Microsoft stack of software, including the use of SQL databases, for tapping into more centralized data stores, and instead focused on companies using older versions of the software, and those using it in inappropriate ways for large orgs. Cmon… I don’t think SQL was even mentioned once in the article, which is sort of hard to believe given the context of the article. Where centralization is …See moreShare
  • Kathy Herrmann27 November, 2017BRIAN CAVOTO Brian – Excellent points that should be obvious to a writer than has MS knowledge. The writer is remiss on this story.Share
• GreenApple23 November, 2017Excel has been and will be used by firms throughout the world as an analysis tool. Having other strong competitors in the field will be great for customers as it pushes Microsoft to improve its office system. Microsoft excel is known for errors and security vulnerability. Hope these competitors will push them change their strategyShare
• Ray Wasser23 November, 2017I think Excel is more cutting edge than the author would acknowledge:https://qz.com/1087888/microsoft-is-packing-artificial-intelligence-into-excel-for-anyone-to-use/Share
• Bill Fotsch23 November, 2017Excel, or Lotus 123 before it, or Visi-Calc before that, provided the ability to easily do what if analysis, and therefore examine potential future scenarios.  Excel became the industry standard.  Getting information from company information systems more rapidly is great.  But its value tends to be retrospective, being able to see what has happened.  Good management is not based solely on what has happened, (the rear view mirror of information system),  but importantly on what is going to happen, and choosing the right options, (looking through the windshield).I applaud the ongoing improvemen…See moreShare
• PurpleBattery23 November, 2017Why are you using “older versions of Excel” if you want multiple people to collaborate on a single workbook? The 120 million people using Office 365 enjoy co-authoring capabilities. This is a training issue: the Power Query tools available in Excel 2010, 2013, and 2016 can automatically connect to your data and automate the retrieval process.So – basically, you have paid for expensive solutions because you did not realize that the same functionality is built in to modern versions of Excel. That is a beautiful waste of your company’s money!Share
  • RedPretzel23 November, 2017William Jelen Which is what CEOs do best!Share
• OliveCone23 November, 2017For a lot of small businesses Excel in its latest version may be over kill. I have used Quattro Pro which is free with the Corel Wordperfect suite for over 30 years. It is a polished product and for many entrepreneurs it is fine. Surely a multinational company may find it weak but for most of us it does a fine job.Share
• BlueBoomerang23 November, 2017Well, most people (even experts!) are not really aware what can easily be done with Excel, e.g. in process management and data gathering, just check out this new add-in, very powerful: www.carbonocorporate.com (just one doubt, should this be marked as advertisement? How?)Share
• CyanFries23 November, 2017Mark this as advertising please.Share
• Scott Sparr23 November, 2017As a spreadsheet user since the mid 80s (Lotus 123), to say that this space has evolved is an understatement.   What has struck me the most is the inconsistent level of training and experience in the use of Excel, specifically with the more advanced data analysis and financial functions.  If corporations mandated training and instituted standards of use, they’d be in a much better place with Excel.Share
• Antonio De Vido23 November, 2017Microsoft is constantly improving excel. Thank you Microsoft!Share
• GreenQuill23 November, 2017Sounds like Microsoft needs to fix this.Share
• RedQuill23 November, 2017So, Excel fails to excel.Our love-hate relationship with Microsoft continues…Share
• Steve W. Bell23 November, 2017This article furthers a trend which has emerged in the WSJ over the past few years, articles containing strong opinions about tech are published but there is no fact – no logic to tie the recommendation down. While it is true that database software can often be better for large corporate applications, this article just glosses over that aspect, and does not offer real specifics. What’s left is really, just a bit of mush – a ‘puff piece’ advancing certain vendors agenda. My guess is, this article was actually WRITTEN by those vendors. Separate topic: WSJ, you have invested over $100M in your w…See moreShare
• OliveUmbrella23 November, 2017In complex business environments requiring effective internal controls, software that is specifically designed for finance & accounting activities should be used.  In my previous role overseeing the accounting and internal controls function for a large multichannel video service provider, we replaced spreadsheets and used BlackLine to automate the routine journal entry and reconciliation processes, reducing human error and freeing the accounting team to focus on more value-add activities. FP&A activities can experience similar benefits by eliminating the over-reliance on spreadsheets.Years ag…See moreShare
• Cottagiri Titus23 November, 2017This is because the staff have no idea of using spread sheets efficiently.Share
  • OrangeBus25 November, 2017Cottagiri Titus And the managers have no idea about software and how to select and implement it, which they undervalue massively and create massive problems in doing so.Share
• Cottagiri Titus23 November, 2017This is because your staff have no idea how to use the spread sheet efficientlyShare
• PurpleDucky23 November, 2017TThis article is about advanced tools.My needs are very simple. I still keep an old computer witha copy of an old Microsoft Works Program.  I use only thespreadsheet which is so simple to use.I can export it to an old format & use it on Excel or Qutattro.I’d like to see a barebones spreadsheet running on Windows 10.Share
  • Antonio De Vido23 November, 2017Time to upgrade. I just used excel on my new phone. Works great. Good luck.Share
• PurpleDucky23 November, 2017Well, automated soft sometimes makes errors. In practice, the accountants need an alternative to verify their results. Excel still suits for this job.Share
• George Carlisle23 November, 2017People sometimes show their ignorance in ways that are humorous sometimes. Excel is a data analysis and data visualization tool If you want a huge data store you need to use SQL Server 2016. Also, many large organizations aren’t even using the latest versions of office and some are on version like 2007/2010 which Microsoft has announced EOL(End of Life). Honestly, cloud is not going to make life better because you have to be connected. Hybrid Cloud should be the direction.Share
  • RedPretzel23 November, 2017George Carlisle Agreed. Excel is not the right tool in the IT box for what most large companies need, while SQL Server or Oracle is perfect, but CEOs tend to be penny wise and pound foolish when it comes to the IT needs of their companies.Hence, the endless hacking and other IT disasters, followed by CEOs blaming everyone but themselves.Share
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• Kedar Kulkarni23 November, 2017Anaplan Inc would be wise to pause before celebrating an apparently glowing article about their product.. this is a forum populated by people who have spend decades in IT and finance… I checked out their website, just to see if there was anything new, and they still seem to be relying on a straw man argument – comparing a purported data analytic tool with Excel – instead of comparing with a real analytical tool. This seems to be their only strategy – comparing apples to orangesShare
  • BlueSailboat1 December, 2017Kedar Kulkarni Couldn’t agree more.  I’m at a vendor called Vena, we utilize native Excel as the primary interface (both author and publish) and link it back to an database. We’re finding proprietary solutions are creating their own challenges with low user adoption and a lack of flexibility, and the only way they can sell their product is by creating the perception that the Excel interface itself is somehow the problem.Share
• Kevin H23 November, 2017″ This lets accountants aggregate, analyze and report data on one unified platform, often without additional training.”Its a a CFO’s wishful hope to deskill the lower and mid level finance positions. Deskilling a job allows it to be easily outsourced, offshored or chalk it up to 6 month contractors.As companies centralize their disparate data and systems to a single highly controlled system, the unintentional consequence is that human nature in the workplace takes over … the team in control of the centralized system create their own fiefdom and broker political power by being the only group…See moreShare
  • Edward Reep23 November, 2017Fascinating perspective. Do you think that issue could be mitigated with the Agile embedding of BI resources in different teams throughout an organization?Share1 reply
• David C Smith23 November, 2017Change is a constant. This article is interesting, but I wonder whether it really has front-page importance.<< Mr. Bell said he was examining how kitchen staff cuts at the company’s Boston restaurants affected profitability while on a flight from Spokane, Wash., to Phoenix in early October.>>Copy edit!Share
• BlueBox23 November, 2017The world – rightfully – has a love-hate relationship with spreadsheets. It’s definitely a more nuanced subject than this article (and most of the comments) suggest. For those interested in a little deeper dive I recently wrote this three-part blog series on the origin and nature of spreadsheets:* Spreadsheets are programs: https://medium.com/@hjalli/3-things-you-dont-understand-about-spreadsheets-part-1-7dfd6b3759cb* Spreadsheets made the PC market: https://medium.com/@hjalli/3-things-you-dont-understand-about-spreadsheets-part-2-43a4fb7b6a45* Spreadsheets are everywhere: https://medium.com/…See moreShare
  • OrangeBucket23 November, 2017Hjalmar Gislason Very concise presentation and summary of strengths & weaknesses of spreadsheets.Share
• RedButton23 November, 2017Repeatedly, the IT world has tried to re-establish control after Personal Computers placed computing in the hands of middle management. Minicomputers, enterprise software, thin clients and cloud computing- to name a few. These fail when middle managers find that CIOs are blind and deaf to local needs, preferring to dictate what form information will be available (and on inconvenient schedules). Report writers are so complicated that no manager wants to undergo the classes. Mini IT depts will spring up in every division to run custom reports.However, they keep trying because budgets are determ…See moreShare
  • RedBone23 November, 2017Eleanor Drew IT is ts own worst enemy, proud because they have knowledge that most don’t, arrogant that they report outside of the income stream.1Share
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• Alan Pierce23 November, 2017If you really want your company to come to a screaching halt then definately go with SAP. You will beg to have Excel spreadsheets back!Share
  • Charles Anesi23 November, 2017Alan Pierce  Agree, SAP is a baroque, over-engineered, archaic piece of junk.   Helps me understand why the Germans lost WW II.Share
• Matthew Fulco23 November, 2017I never found Excel intuitive. Am I wrong?Share
  • Naresh Kumar23 November, 2017Matthew Fulco In a word, yes.Share
• RedFlask23 November, 2017Wow a whole article about finance and Excel without a single word about Essbase? The problem is not Excel, it is a great tool, but people are misusing it. Products like Essbase allow people to use Excel without the shortcomings. Saying that you need to move to product like Anaplan is just marketing without understanding the needs of the users.We had an Anaplan rep coming to my company trying to sell us on an ‘excel killer’ as if we wanted to ‘kill’ it… we decided to go with Essbase because it complimented and enhanced what we already do in Excel and wasn’t a rip and replace of a perfectly g…See moreShare
• RedCoffee23 November, 2017My version is from 2002. It meets my needs.Share
• RedElephant23 November, 2017Use Oracle or SAP or Workiva instead of Excel?Let’s rephrase that issue.If companies are trying to emulate Oracle or SAPs’ comprehensive financial, HR, Operations relational datums by using Excel, is a concept known as “penny wise, pound stupid”.Thirty years ago, database retrieval software pulled data for import into Excel to use Excel’s tables and charting capability.Basically, way back in the dark ages of financial reporting.Companies that fail to upgrade their IT infrastructure, data capture points and frequency, meta data and quality of integrated data relationships while developing rele…See moreShare
  • RedPretzel23 November, 2017Ted Kowalski Worse is that these are the people promoted to IT managers. It is beyond frustrating to work for someone who knows a few buzzwords, but no in depth knowledge of information technology. Millions of dollars are wasted because they were dazzled by a salesperson who knows a useful idiot when they see one.Share
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• PurpleTeepee23 November, 2017Excel is not the Problem, it is merely the Symptom of the Problem, and should have been treated as such by the journalist.  The Problem in all the article’s anecdotes is failure to spend the little required to implement and maintain a simple web app that allows their diverse business units to enter the desired key common business data into a central database, from which everyone can then extract for analysis, roll-up and report customization as desired (often using the cheapest and most flexible analytic tool and report customization package ever created – Excel).  And then spending just a ti…See moreShare
  • Kevin H23 November, 2017Ken Oudeman Well said. Often any attempt at a system/app that pulls from a centralized data is highly controlled by a small politically connected group. They create pre-set  metrics and dashboards that often do not fit the need for the end user. Try to get them to make changes or additions (because you do not have access) and it is resoundingly rejected. You must come barring political gifts to this team in order for anything to happen.Share
• RedApple23 November, 2017???? this is OLD NEWS; VERY OLD NEWS, big corporations/companies have been using more advanced spreadsheet software (usually specially designed) for years. these companies are old-fashioned for not switching years ago. Is it just me or has the quality of WSJ reporting plummeted over the past recent years????Share
  • David C Smith23 November, 2017Simon Kanner <<  Is it just me or has the quality of WSJ reporting plummeted over the past recent years????  >>Could be both, but it’s definitely the latter.Share
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• Kevin Kohler23 November, 2017Two macro points: 1) many are conflating misuse and poor spreadsheet design with inherent flaws, and 2) everything has its place and while Excel is often overused, in other places it, well, excels.  The vast majority of the problems I’ve seen in Excel have been from bad design with jumbled links & hardcodes rather than Excel bugs.  If users are enabled to design their own analysis, no system will be immune to errors.  To aggregate mass amounts of standardized data, SQL Server is unquestionably better; BI tools like Tableau are well-suited to sit on top. But I don’t know of anything else allow…See moreShare
• Edward Reep22 November, 2017Excel is perfectly fine for broad use by smaller organizations that do not have budgets for enterprise tools, and it works extremely well for ad hoc analyses of small datasets and for small-scale manual data tracking.It becomes a serious issues in three scenarios:1. When people’s jobs consist entirely of completely routine manual Excel tasks like copy-pasting data or resetting formula references over and over again as a form of white-collar factory labor. These jobs should be able to be automated away, using scripts, database views, or various business intelligence tools that can justify thei…See moreShare
• Bryan Smith22 November, 2017https://blogs.wsj.com/cio/2017/11/22/uber-hack-raises-question-of-how-to-secure-data-in-the-cloud/Share
• OliveFlower22 November, 2017Is this an advertorial for Workiva Wdesk?@guyrosaShare
• CyanController22 November, 2017Welp! My screwdriver is a terrible wrench.Share
  • CyanRaindrop22 November, 2017Ramesh Gandham Get a hammer! Then everything looks like a nail.Share
• CHRISTOPHER HILL22 November, 2017Excel is by far superior than anything on the market.  The problem is that the business world is moving towards needing real-time predictive and decision analytics.   No software package, akin to Excel, can handle the millions of data points this creates and wrap it up in a pretty “KPI” bow. More robust business intelligence software is needed to handle this.   If employees are still crunching numbers in MS Excel, then they either lack the BI reports that provide them such answers or they/or the company lack the expertise to build such reports in platforms like Tableau.  BI software and trai…See moreShare
  • Kevin H23 November, 2017CHRISTOPHER HILL BI software is great if the company is willing to allow more than 6-10 people have licenses. Everywhere I have seen Tabelau or Qlick rolled out, it is tightly controlled and anyone outside of this select team is restricted from being granted a license to edit/create. The team with the full access creates their own little fiefdom.  I am talking about 2 Fortune 250 companies btw.Share
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• Michael C22 November, 2017I’ve known many people in many companies that STILL uses Excel spreadsheets for lots of calculations and for reporting purposes.Many people, esp. top managers, do NOT Want to spend money to either get dedicated software for their needs or custom build their software for their needs.Too many times have I seen overly complicated spreadsheets piecing together information from many different places!Then again, I’ve seen people and small company users Not even KNOW HOW to use spreadsheets efficiently or correctly. Many have NO clue that you’re Suppose to Preview your work before printing, hence th…See moreShare
  • GreenToast22 November, 2017Michael Chan your last remark is spot on!  functional, not elegant!Share
• BlueTooth22 November, 2017Someone below makes a very good point. The main issue with Excel is…how do you check a huge spreadsheet for accuracy? I can read over a script in a matter of minutes or hours, but when you mix your math and data in Excel….good luck.  What a nightmare.Share
• PurpleTeepee22 November, 20171. Whatever happened to WINGZ? I thought that one was better than Excel.2. I saw really smart people do amazing things with Excel and I wonder if Excel was found wanting or the people who used it just did not push it.Share
• D Skroch22 November, 2017Soon, the executives at P.F. Chang will discover that collaboration ≠ productivity.Collaboration often inculcates a undesired behavior called “free-riding” in which anyone who had a group project in college will instantly recognize. A minority will carry the majority of the load, others contribute based on comfort levels, while others simply want their name on the project and credit, if it is successful. After a few such projects, the productive become resentful and unproductive.Share
  • Abdallah Anwar22 November, 2017M Skroch  Most MBA programs now all focus on collaboration and teamwork over actually developing the skills “each” person should learn from any particular course they take during the program.Share
• Bryan Smith22 November, 2017I would rather have my own servers and robot A.I. to handle all the data and have it interconnected than have the cloud biased computing do it.Something about putting all you eggs in one basket…Share
  • BlueTooth22 November, 2017Bryan Smith How do I explain this to a noob…Ummm…the Internet.  You connect your servers to it they’re connected to the same Internet as the “cloud biased (sic)” servers.  So you may control your services (makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside), but people who know much more than you can probably break into them.For you especially it would make sense to use a service and hire people who actually understand security.Share2 replies
• Bryan Smith22 November, 2017And if the cloud gets hacked, or goes down, what then?What is the back up?Share
• RedBee22 November, 2017If you’re an Excel guru, you really need to ask yourself an in depth why?Share
  • D Skroch22 November, 2017Thomas Archer Education is heavily invested in teaching it and government demands it for current and prospective employees.Share
  • BlueTooth22 November, 2017Thomas Archer Excel guru = layoff candidate  All it takes is one person to use Excel and everyone gets sucked into that lowest common denominator.Share
• BlueTooth22 November, 2017LOL. Who in their right mind would crunch 100 million plus lines in Excel?  I wouldn’t use Excel for a calculator for two numbers, let alone millions. It’s absurd, but I’m sure there are Old World companies with members of the 40+ crowd still doing this.  As Donald Trump would say: SadYou know you’re a noob if…you use Excel.  But Python is free, so this is hope for those who are handicapped when it comes to data analysis.Share
  • Jonathan C22 November, 2017Anna Kaikou You can always tell the power users from the average person by their disbelief.  Try calculating sales trends across multiple months for each clothing product at West Coast Target stores without Excel and without going over a million rows.Share1 reply
• Craig Marino22 November, 2017″Blasphemy,” I say!Excel is the most robust and flexible application ever created!!Share
  • DAN GONCHAROFF24 November, 2017True. But the real issue is that Access never was a robust and flexible database program. Many people managing data looked at MSFT database programs and their eyes glazed over, so they turned to Excel to solve their database issues. Because they could.Share
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• OliveUmbrella22 November, 2017Many companies are also moving away from the over-reliance on spreadsheets to calculate and record the accruals, amortization, cost allocations and other journal entries to the ERP. Eliminating errors from spreadsheets in FP&A leaves room for the potential for errors in the accounting data that feeds into the ERP and ultimately, into FP&A. For integrity of the finance function, over-reliance on spreadsheets needs to be eliminated end-to-end.Share
  • PurpleTeepee22 November, 2017Tammy ColeyUsing a spreadsheet automatically demands integrity: The user should have a vested interest in reliable data. As the number of users increases, the probability of data corruption increases. A hammer in the hands of a cabinet maker results in quality workmanship. The same hammer in the hands of a three-year-old results in a lot of damage.Share
• Jonathan C22 November, 2017I call shenanigans on the  100 million row per Excel spreadsheet claim made in the article.https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Excel-specifications-and-limits-1672b34d-7043-467e-8e27-269d656771c3Share
  • BlueTooth22 November, 2017Jack Chang Yeah, it’s a pretty ridiculous claim.  Excel is a resource hog.  Microsoft Bloatware.Share
• Walter Koenig22 November, 2017LOL, I wish the guy good luckdon’t blame your employees if you will have problems with your financial info soon.it is always easier said than done, if you want a big change.  not sure that he is doing the analytics himself too or whether the CFO has a “staff member” who is providing the info for him!Yes, I often hate Excel, but so far I do not see who will actually be able to replace it and has all the necessary interfaces.Share
• Donald Arkin22 November, 2017The biggest problem with Excel is that it’s not a programming language, so there’s no reliable way to test or validate the accuracy of the “code”, since there is no code, just an unreadable jumble of formulas with no systematic structure, hidden behind each cell.  This has been the case since Excel’s introduction, and it’s encouraging to know that users are finally beginning to wise up.Share
  • Zoltan Strebely22 November, 2017I used a spread sheet for payroll after developing a Windows App front end to a database back end for production and billing. It quickly became apearant to me that the database was the way to go for everything. Spreadsheets have to many moving parts, a change that you make may change all of your data without you realizing it. SQL queries can be a much better tool for analysis, yes there is a learning curve, but anything of complexity in a spread sheet has one also. If you want graphs, the data can be exported to a spread sheet. You can work well with spread sheets, but you must keep the calc…See moreShare
• Katie Nelson22 November, 2017What is the learning curve on the other products? Virtually everyone in IT can navigate themselves around Excel.  Will they be able to that in another system without 6 weeks of training?Share
  • Donald Arkin22 November, 2017Katie Nelson A properly coded in-house application could provide a user interface to flatten the learning curve, and would be a slam-dunk cost improvement over the massive inefficiency and inaccuracy of the current Excel regime.Share1 reply
• Cam Dipalo22 November, 2017If you search for answers in an excel spreadsheet. You will not find them. But there is no more powerful, flexible tool to confirm hypothesis and intuitions than excel. It is all about reducing complexity to simplicity. And excel is, in my opinion, the golden standard to achieve that in the corporate and corporate finance world.Share
• greg mcelvy22 November, 2017A perfect example of how Excel has gotten better but virtually no one knows is the VLookup. As far as I’m concerned VLookup was/is a horrible way to query data because it forces you arrange data and create columns just so you can use Vlookup. I was ready to bite the bullet (add superfluous columns etc)  on a project I was working on when I decided to do a little research on the web. What I found was that hardcore Excel guys thought you were being a dunderhead if you ever used Vlookup. They favored index/match which combines two functions but doesn’t have the restrictions of vlookup.The point …See moreShare
• GoldAnchor22 November, 2017Reports are typically emblematic ofShare
• Charles Stehney22 November, 2017Funny how people use Excel and how they complain.I started in Lotus 123 and was so disappointed when Microsoft muscled everyone into Excel, cicra 1992. My Word Perfect and 123 skills didn’t directly translate into Office, but I could work with other people.Funny, I just got the 50,000 line excel spreadsheet about 3 hours ago.Evidently we’re throwing out a few more trouble codes than I thought.I wondered why the download took so long.If the CFO’s think excel is difficult, wait until they get SAP.Yeah, you can tun queries in real time,.You just can’t change your data structure or do anything t…See moreShare
• Terry Olsen22 November, 2017When I see a corporate accounting or finance person that can write requirements for a system that can replace Excel, I might think about this.  40+ years in the business/accounting world and I haven’t seen it yet.  Corporate management rewards new twists on data that can be used, yet complain about how long it takes to produce said data.  This shows that management is absolutely disconnected from the work that they require their employees to do.  For the last 17 years, this arrogant and ignorant management style has gotten worse every year.Share
• GoldDucky22 November, 2017In 1984 they put a desk top personal computer in a room, aptly called the computer room, and told all the accountants to figure it out.  That meant dragging your work into the room and waiting a turn to use it.  Of course no one used it, because it got in the way of working efficiently at the time using pencil and 12 column worksheets. A few years later everyone had one on their desk and Lotus 123 was used on a daily basis.  It still meant keying in all the numbers by hand, but once the worksheet was set up, it was good for changing out numbers easily and printed worksheets were nice to look …See moreShare
  • Terry Olsen22 November, 2017Randal White The systems evolved enough to allow importing of large datasets from a central repository or repositories.  Unfortunately, IT was not able to keep up with the ability of finance/accounting teams to access, digest and produce meaning information.  I’m sure that had the same problem we do now; manager wants data from anywhere and yesterday with little regard to how much it cost or where the data came from.Share
• RedButton22 November, 2017Since those departments reporting to CFO cannot use Excel, subsidiary contributors cannot use it either. It is ridiculous that CFOs force local units to use the gimpy reports included with off the shelf software. What efficiency and utilization is being achieved in various departments? How many cases of raw material non-conformance are there? Is the vendor responsive, and how do competitors match up? If not included in the standard reports, who knows?If a new CFO wants different reports, Anaplan Inc., Workiva Inc. or Adaptive Insights will charge for custom mods and re-charge during each soft…See moreShare
• Kencana Sriwijaya22 November, 2017This “smells” like fake news. @WSJ. Can we block this writer PLEASE?Share
• CyanStrawberry22 November, 2017Add-ins like Power Query, Power Pivot and Power BI address many of the legacy Excel problems mentioned.Excel is a tool.  Should be part of the data architecture, not the architecture itself.Share
• z Sim22 November, 2017And what is going to stop Microsoft from killing those guys ? Microsoft already has the cloud piece, Excel piece and is more than capable of throwing it in their office 365 packet for a little bit extra?Share
• Jonathan C22 November, 2017You really shouldn’t call yourself a CFO if your multi-million dollar nationwide enterprise is still using Excel as the main database.   SQL queried databases are the backbone of almost every large company.100 million rows in Excel though.  Really?  Number crunchers rejoice!Share
  • greg mcelvy22 November, 2017Jack Chang I actually found code that allowed one to read data from a table directly into Excel. But it is soooo slow. Boil the data down using SQL and read in the summary info using some pretty impressive functions that don’t rely on the location of the data in the spreadsheet (index/match etc. ) . Until we get an AI that you can dictate your wants and needs and it can figure out how to get the data, it’s what you have to do.Share
    • Jonathan C22 November, 2017greg mcelvy We use Access to query our database tables and it is much faster than any Excel based solution.  The exports can then be manipulated in Excel as needed. The graphics based solutions from the likes of Tableau cost an arm and a leg.  It is much cheaper to build your own UI for data entry and manage the databases with an admin.Share
• John Cox22 November, 2017If Adobe’s “team struggles keeping track of which jobs have been filled at the software company”, then their problem is probably too much software & too little in the way of clear thinking about requirements + roles / responsibilities.Share
• CyanFish22 November, 2017Lol … no Excel problem from the CFO description here. The problem is the CFO’s choice of a siloed financial system outside of the enterprise operations system. Who hasn’t seen this gross IT error. Excel isn’t advertised to bandaid corporate IT system choice errors.Share
• CyanBucket22 November, 2017I still love excel.  I can analyze data easily, and look for patterns.  That is its strength.  Companies using it as a database probably still  use roman numerals as well.Share
• BILL BREEN22 November, 2017When using Excel, it is always good to have a rough idea of what the answer will be. Several years ago, a friend of mine was using Excel for a PV calculation for a project he was quoting (a small start-up with limited resources and no IT staff). The expectation was that the answer would be approx 60% of the current value. He got an answer 20% off his expectation and called me to see if I would run it and what I got. I got the same answer which didn’t make sense so I went to a dusty finance book I used in school in 1977, went to the charts ran the calculation by hand and got the the answer we …See moreShare
• OrangePin22 November, 2017When Bill Gates drove out of business lotus 123 and Quattro Pro after eliminating supercalc, it ensured that excel would stop improving.  A classic example of a monopoly spending on politicians to protect their predatory practices and harvesting profits.  And, Bill Gates made hundreds of billions.Share
• J Boone22 November, 2017This is really funny.  Hilarious in fact.   It is like the crew boss telling the builders to stop using the table saw because it isn’t working to hammer nails. Excel is just a data presentation tool.  It can be a front end to back-end data.The model is the data warehouse.  It is a 3-decade old solution.  It is where disparate operational systems feed a mid-tier relational or cube data model with data aggregated and summarized at the management reporting level.  Excel connects to the database and can be used to present the data in ways that help data-dumb managers get the point.However, I do h…See moreShare
• Mark Cowart22 November, 2017I had to go to the top of the article – twice – to make sure this article wasn’t from the 1980’s….  I can’t believe this is news to  people and some of us don’t realize there are plenty of tools that can do the job…. WOW!If it’s strictly been defined as a capacity problem in your IT Department… Let’s see…  I wonder what we could do…  how about hiring enough staff to do the work (consultants if not permanent).If we have outdated or inflexible systems… how about replacing them….. or adding BI tools to integrate with them.  This does not require magic or super powers to fix – I rea…See moreShare
• PurpleCorn22 November, 2017The two most dangerous people in a company are the recent MBA with an excel spreadsheet who thinks that 20% increase of the next 20 years is feasible; and the CFO/CEO who won’t make a “gut” decision while waiting for better data.Dealt with many over a 40 year career. Young Billie Gates made a gut decision, seems to have worked out OK for him.Share
• greg mcelvy22 November, 2017The big ERP’s will have ways of taking literally millions of records and summarizing them to a level where Access and Excel can handle them. I thing that Access has a 2 gig limit so large data sources need something else. If you are in this kind of environment then you figure out that there is no one stop shop. You can boil the ocean with say something like SAP and spit out an acceptable number of records for Access/Excel. Then you can make it pretty using Excel and Powerpoint. The problems is that some environments never hit the evolutionary natural selection criteria that absolutely ruled o…See moreShare
• Phillip Lax22 November, 2017If Microsoft is reading this, a couple basic updates you should make:1) Update the tracked changes functionality in Excel so that it is more similar to the tracked changes in Word.2) Both Excel and Word – allow multiple users to edit the document at the same time with live updates. Google docs can do it, why can’t you?Share
  • Tim Fettkether22 November, 2017Phillip Lax  You can edit Excel and Word docs with multiple users, real time.  It’s available with Office 365,Share
• PurpleCorn22 November, 2017Having been one of the original uses of Lotus 123, ( a 640KB expander board was a trip to heaven) then onto excel as a former CFO I read both comments by Kristan and Kevin below. They are both right. ( And MING is right on !!)>The real problem in information gathering, particularly  for a smaller company is that the programmers are usually backed up with months work of operational requests, and they may never get around to , especially if its one off.In the example below, if you can’t estimate that your average labor cost is 20 bucks per hour, and you reduce 5 hours a day 6 days a week, what …See moreShare
• Ming Szeto22 November, 2017Don’t blame Excel, it is just a tool.  Blaming Excel is like blaming a gun for killing because gun don’t kill, people do.  Most people have extremely superficial knowledge of Excel.  P.F.Chang’s struggle only indicates how poorly they understand the power and proper usage of the various aspect of Excel, and by extension, the Google Sheets.The challenge of using Excel, as with all other tools, is the proper architectural design when there are multiple data sources and/or multiple result distribution points.  There is no tool that can replace that.  With that understood, P.F.Chang probably coul…See moreShare
• Kristin Sampayan22 November, 2017Excel is simply not suited to anything more than simple data reduction or standalone project budgeting. Trying to use it as an enterprise-wide solution for an organization of more than 10 people is inherently inefficient. With all of the good application specific and ERM software available, why would any one be using it for company-wide solutions?Share
• Kevin Kerrigan22 November, 2017Obviously, if you can automate what’s happening in Excel then you should do that. We don’t need an article to tell us that. However, that automation often requires custom app development or expensive consultants and needs to be updated as API’s change. Ultimately, you’re weighing the labor costs of periodically updating your manual excel version to the cost to automate it. Usually, you have to be pretty big for the automation costs to make sense.Excel is a pretty amazing tool and I don’t see it ever going away. As CFO of a high tech start up, we do a significant amount of data analysis (often…See moreShare
  • Kristin Sampayan22 November, 2017″…we do a significant amount of data analysis (often “ad hoc”)  in Excel that could not be done in any other application.”This is what Excel excels at.  :-)Share
• Thomas Hauber22 November, 2017Having been a senior programmer/analyst for years I have seen the trend to do analysis via Excel instead of using the ERP systems companies have in place.While the Excel spreadsheet may help in the short term, there is definitely a downside to using them instead of having proper programs that access the live data from ERP systems.The problem is users and their managers want results faster than a programmer can come up with a viable long term solution.  Other times the companies are too small or cheap to have a programmer on staff to handle this type of work, so they are stuck with Excel to do…See moreShare
• ALAN T22 November, 2017Nothing like paid product placement under the guise of journalism.Share
• Lynn Hales22 November, 2017I am solely a personal user of Excel and I agree with the poor functioning of Macro$carf’s Excel. I purchased a copy of ‘Office 365’ and updated the included programs to the 2016 versions earlier this year. I have a spread sheet that I use to track various aspects of my IRA. The Excel spread sheet is roughly 800K and housed on an NAS on my home network. It takes an average of 75 seconds for this spreadsheet to open. One of the pages has numerous links out to other pages in the spread sheet. When I go to that page it takes up to a minute and a half before I can make any changes, most of the ti…See moreShare
• Sam Horton22 November, 2017See: Microcomtrol, 1988, later Hyperion, so, this is all BS. Reminds me of the paperless office horse pucky. All this article indicates is that people believe IT is their mouse battery supplier, so, long ago, talent to write the code needed to keep up was fired. Now people act astonished and go buy a cloud. This case of headcount in particular is specious; all it means is HR can’t do math. I’ve watched them punt this forever. They can’t even handle badging or temps, they actually have IT do it. So if you want less excel in finance, then hold other groups accountable for their own …See moreShare
• Jacob Yahiayan22 November, 2017Thanks for the engaged article and comments; Most helpful. It has been 35+ years since the IBM/PC revolution and we are still struggling with a wholistic adaptive CRM that captures all the functionalities; Accounting, Cash Management-Treasury, Operations Management, etc. This SaaS divide is intended to drive costs up whilst promoting as otherwise Software solution. Have yet to see a full suite solution SaaS. We have lost count on the amount of “licensing fees” we pay monthly.Share
  • Sam Horton22 November, 2017Bingo. They sell buzzwords and point solutions. Nobody built an ERP for Finance. Can’t sell that. Can’t have the capital plan, project cost control, job costing, Mfg variance, walks, debt management and hedging in the same platform as consolidations and budgets with features like expense management and document control with delegation of authority and a single set of permissions with headcount. That’s just hard. Nah. Sell people this shiny thing instead. I see the same thing and worse, like salesforce instances all over the place but not a sales forecast in sight. If CEOs knew h…See moreShare1 reply
• OrangeBike22 November, 2017Mark Garrett clearly has no idea what he’s talking about or his “team” is incompetent….or both. Microsoft has been incorporating new features into it’s Business Intelligence platforms, Excel and Power BI, on a quarterly basis which give great power to the individual analysis. This comment is not meant to be a shameless plug for Microsoft but rather to point out just how incorrect some of the statements made in this article are.  Those who know what PowerPivot and Power Query are know exactly what I’m talking about. Visualization of any data source is child’s play with theses tools. The cost…See moreShare
  • Vassili Gorshkov22 November, 2017Del Swingle Really?  I could never spend more than 5 minutes with any of the MS Office products without running into a number of bugs.  Many people have learned to work around these bugs over the years and have been treating this as if this was a great skill set.  If it were not for this old guard and their need for the job security, these products would have died under their own weight.  I simply can’t see how you can “improve” and innovate on top of this rotten code base.Share1 reply
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• OliveGrapes22 November, 2017I design and build financial software for a living. Visicalc, Lotus 123, Excel, Quattro, Google Apps all provide(d) a very powerful and standard platform for ad hoc and customized, purpose built analytics. Excel is, of course, the dominant spreadsheet in use. Addins and VBA programs can be used to provide purpose built tools for any accounting task. A good example is F9 (I was one of the designers/programmers of this) which allows Excel to access many general ledgers directly. Custom snapshot or future estimates reports are easily made with products like this.Using addins and creating standar…See moreShare
  • J Wood22 November, 2017Theo Butter  Theo….as an old guy…..there is no way I’m switching from Excel to another system…or doing a bunch of addins. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a huge Excel fan. It annoys me sometimes.Having said that….”sometimes” is like 1% of the time. The time and effort involved in buying, installing and learning a new system would be waaaaay too much and tough.Good luck to anyone who wants another way of doing these things.Share
• Charles Anesi22 November, 2017Allow me to re-write the headline:  “Clueless CFO’s finally realize that standalone Excel was never intended to be an enterprise data and analytics system.”  Subhead:  “No kidding, Sherlock.”Makes sense that Adobe is struggling with this, given that its fame rests on unstructured data (PDF) and that dreadful Flash product, but the other companies have no excuse.  Also worth noting that if you know what you are doing, it is easy to use Excel as an interface to systems of record, though Excel may not be the best way to do that.  Not that the other options mentioned are any better, however.  The…See moreShare
  • Thomas Hauber22 November, 2017Charles Anesi These are also the same companies that downsized their IT programming staff.  They figured they could do it cheaper with Excel.Now that the proverbial monster has gotten too large, they realize the error of their ways.Share1 reply
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• Bruce Hansen22 November, 2017The examples given are part of a natural evolution that has been happening for decades. A task starts out simply, tracking is done on a spreadsheet. The task gets more and more complex, eventually outgrows the spreadsheet, graduates to a specialized application. This is a feature of Excel, not a bug. In reality Excel is one of the most successful software platforms of all time, having launched thousands of products that originally grew out of a spreadsheet. Its flexibility and adaptability to widely disparate problem types is nothing short of miraculous.Share
  • Kurt Polier22 November, 2017Bruce Hansen Bruce, excellent point. Maybe we could all agree that an occasional do-it-yourself-er does not really need the same quality work tools as a professional. With a minimal knowledge of math you can easily learn by yourself how to use spreadsheets. When you need a custom application ‘by yesterday’ it can be very useful – at least until a programmer has coded a perfect program after weeks or months. So it happened with a friend a couple of years ago who had started a second-hand truck dealership and badly needed a database to manage it.Share
• RedCoffee22 November, 2017I work for a CPM Solutions company that literally takes Excel as the interface and maps it to an OLAP database + Relational DB. We solve for all the inherent challenges this article describe while using Excel. Very interesting we were left out of the article :)Share
• Matthew Sabourin22 November, 2017Two things: The Adobe example at the beginning doesn’t sound like the kind of task Excel was meant to do…sounds like something I’d use a database for.  How is that Excel’s fault that this company is misusing the software.  Secondly, a lot of the points about what Excel doesn’t do refer to the OLDER versions of the software.  Newer versions do plenty of those things.  This article basically compares Excel from 10 years ago to new software from the past year or so.  Really weird piece of writing.Share
• GreenTurtle22 November, 2017Spreadsheets weren’t meant for large-scale applications.Share
  • Greg Feigel23 November, 2017Jerome Abernathy  Nor were spreadsheets designed to be databases.  Nor were spreadsheets designed to be EDP audit-quality systems integrations tools.This article is way off base.Share
• OliveBandAid22 November, 2017When did the WSJ start running advertisements masked as articles?Share
  • RedBee22 November, 2017Beau Mersereau “Sponsored content” my friend.  All the cool kids are letting “partners” put content right into their systems.Buy enough old school ads – you can “write” an article.Don’t buy enough – expect a “hit” piece.Actual journalism – mostly dead I fear (or at least I can’t hardly find it anymore).Share
• CyanRaindrop22 November, 2017Actually “the ubiquitous spreadsheet software that revolutionized accounting in the 1980s” was 1-2-3.And astoundingly, to this day Excel still has bugs from the 1980s.Share
  • OrangeBike22 November, 2017Dave Mulligan  For what it is worth, the spreadsheet that revolutionized accounting was VisiCalc.  It was replaced by 1-2-3 and/or Excel after awhile but VisiCalc showed how PCs could be used easily to facilitate accounting tasks..It is interesting to note that 1-2-3 was designed by accounting types while Excel was designed by programmers.   In using a spreadsheet, only a programmer would think to input numbers in a spreadsheet, you had to start with the sign of the number but if you input letters, nothing is needed.Share
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• BlueBeer22 November, 2017I loved the “a motley of disparate accounting systems” line.  Most people know and use only the adjectival form.  Ms. Shumsky’s degree just paid for itself!Share
• CyanDog22 November, 2017Editorial oversight at the WSJ must be slipping or their ‘staffs’ are equally confused as the title seems to indicate. Companies using Excel to keep track of sales is like using email to send an IM. Every software platform has its own relevance and usefulness and inevitable drawbacks. Marshalling and deploying those resources for proper and adequate use is what a manager, officer or CFO needs to do.Share
  • Matthew Sabourin22 November, 2017Samit Banerjee Exactly what I was thinking…The Adobe example in the first paragraph was bizarre, nothing they described is a function Excel was meant to fill.Share
• Ashton Thorogood22 November, 2017It’s not the technology, it’s the imprecise, or inaccurate semantics that prevail in most systems. How many variant meanings of “Order” exist in your enterprise? Systems developed upon a common domain model, with well-defined interfaces, implementing precise semantics, allow for clean inter-operation. Complex transformations (ETL) are a clear indication of poor semantic consistency.Share
• GoldSubmarine22 November, 2017There is probably a strategically placed ad near this article for Oracle, Anaplan, Workiva, etc, in the print version of WSJ.  Excel is not the problem.BI software purchase decision making are usually done somewhere far away from the end users.  Therefore, the canned reports written by the BI vendor have already outlived their usefulness by the time the BI tool is rolled out. On one occasion, my old company decided to reach out to the end users for business requirements.  The poor BI consultant was thoroughly confused by the requirements because they just didn’t understand the business.  The …See moreShare
  • greg mcelvy22 November, 2017ELTON TENG Wasn’t BI designed for endusers to basically write their own SQL query. However that requires a preformed universe that often doesn’t contain all the objects that an enduser needs. So we really get back to the principal problem. Endusers want what they want but typically won’t pay the price to learn how to get it. At least that what I have observed over the nearly 40 years of doing this.Share1 reply
• CyanWeights22 November, 2017This is a very interesting article.Finance teams often do outgrow Excel due to a lack of database and overall governance/workflow. Anaplan, Adaptive, Host, and Tagetik are all amazing tools tools but as someone below mentioned… they still export to Excel. Herein lies a fundamental CPM irony… users are still reverting back to Excel.I wonder if finance leaders have heard of or envisioned a solution that centralizes disparate systems, allows users to collaborate in one template, has a robust database and all the while… keeps users in native Excel?Share
  • Thomas Hauber22 November, 2017Sendu B They also should be using programmer/analysts to design proper programs and reports rather than tweak the data themselves.But companies are cheap and managers impatient.Share
• greg mcelvy22 November, 2017I pretty much gave up on Excel or any spreadsheet once I was introduced and figured out relational databases. The problem is that relational databases require knowledge that your typical finance professional is unwilling or unable to learn. So every since I’ve been doing this there has been this Holy Grail wish from management that they get something just as easy as Excel but as powerful Oracle SQL.. We are probably still decades away from that. The trick in all of this is to understand the strengths and weaknesses of all of these tools and use them where the fit the best. I actually gained a…See moreShare
• GoldCorn22 November, 2017Using a true relational database management system can require entire departments dedicated to ETL, report development, security/access, maintenance, data governance, etc. If you put all that manpower on maintaining a system of excel spreadsheets instead you’d see a great improvement in your results too. I think one of the biggest things gained from switching to RDBMS is the expertise you have to hire or contract. Excel is a very flexible and powerful tool but it can’t be everything to everyone. Once you have too much data or too many people working with it, you need to spend resources on mak…See moreShare
  • CyanRaindrop22 November, 2017Nick Lombardo you need to spend resources on making sure that data is reliable and accurate Interesting that the managers in this article are here in a national newspaper confessing to all the world their incompetence and failure to do just that.Share1 reply
• Carl Hattermann22 November, 2017I started on Finance Staff at Ford Motor Credit in 1977.  We had a state of the art computer program to do calculations called FAST3.  It was a row/column manipulator.  My supervisor had developed a program that would age all auto loans on the books.  During budgeting you took a few days loading the data on your Hazeltine CRT terminal hoping that a static discharge wouldn’t destroy a days work.  Once completed we pushed the button.  I forgot the number but it did many millions of calculations and literally used up Ford’s corporate computer power for a couple of hours so we could only run it a…See moreShare
• Cary Conrad22 November, 2017This marketing piece (obviously placed PR) is complaining about bad management – NOT bad software. All of the ills presented can be easily managed.  Will check Anaplan to see what it’s all about……presented as MiddleWare for data arrays (spreadsheets) with some features……will get back to you……grinOh, and about their CEO:Earlier in his career, he spent 21 years at IBM. Frank also sits on the boards of Adobe Systems, Inc., Palo Alto Networks, Inc., and Nimble Storage, Inc.dots connectedShare
• OrangePumpkin22 November, 2017Reads like an ad.Share
• Robert Grow22 November, 2017Lotus 123 forever!Share
  • Shawn Nelson22 November, 2017Robert Grow Paradox will always be the gold standard.Share
• Ralph Parsons22 November, 2017Doesn’t this article have to be identified as ‘sponsored content’?Share
• Stephen Newell22 November, 2017There are many good cloud based software packages that companies can use for dynamic forecasting and reporting.  Two mentioned are Adaptive Insights and Anaplan but there is also Host Analytics, OneStream, and Tagetik.  These software products are designed to be easy to use for the accounting/finance and can quickly aggregate data for consistent reporting and analysis.  Even Oracle has updated Hyperion so that it is cloud based.This class of software is called “Corporate Performance Management” or “Enterprise Performance Management.Share
• FRANCES AKRIDGE22 November, 2017Excel was never a great place for analysis. However, once the analysis is complete, it can be a good presentation tool for those who want to do a few “What if’s?”Share
• Timothy Shannon22 November, 2017In my 30+ years of experience as a CPA, I noticed companies who relied on Excel as their primary financial reporting tool were almost always led by CEOs and CFOs who did not clearly define, articulate and deploy the proper reporting metrics from their existing accounting systems to support business decision-making. Your quote “Finance chiefs say the ubiquitous spreadsheet software that revolutionized accounting in the 1980s hasn’t kept up with the demands of contemporary corporate finance units” is really CFO-speak that actually says “I was clueless in implementing our current accounting syst…See moreShare
  • Thomas Hauber22 November, 2017Timothy Shannon Excellent analysis.  That has been my experience as well.  I would sit down with sales managers who wanted new programs and reports from our ERP system.  They hated it when I would start the conversation by asking what they were hoping to accomplish.  They never looked further than the end of their nose when it came to data analysis.Share
• Charles Nilsen22 November, 2017With over 20 years of BI experience… Total clickbait. – Companies that try to use excel as a DB tool are usually the cheap ones. Of course you’re going to get errors… it wasn’t what it was designed for.- I love the power of the multidimensional DB tools on the market for powerful analytics, but the BI tool companies are very happy to sell you down the river on their proprietary “all in one” solution.- “My upstream systems are crappy and disaligned… but let’s blame excel!” – At the end of the day it’s the old GIGO affect.. Garbage in, Garbage out.Share
• James Ewins22 November, 2017Complacency can lead to death of a company….well deserved by Microsoft.Share
• STEVEN FALLON22 November, 2017Excel is capable of auto population from databases.  Apparently, the smart people at Adobe don’t know that, despite Adobe’s ability to convert a spreadsheet into a PDF.Share
  • CyanBucket22 November, 2017STEVEN FALLON yes, you have the central database and you pull the data out into excel to manipulate, and selected people are able to push data back into the database.  You get one source of truth that way.Share1 reply
• Bradley S Armstrong22 November, 2017It would be great to have another conversation about how constantly transitioning between close, budget, and forecast mode keeps us from improving our processes.  This infomercial fails to start that conversation.Share
• RedBone22 November, 2017″The process … requires finance staff to pull data from disparate systems that house financial and human-resources information”This sums up the problem.  The issue isn’t excel, but is instead that the needed information is not stored in one central database as it should be.  This requires the organization to try to use excel to do something it wasn’t designed to do.Share
  • Thomas Hauber22 November, 2017William Mullaney This is typical of a cheap company.  They don’t want to spend the money or effort to convert to a real ERP system that centralizes all of their data and reporting.Share
• JAMES HOWELL22 November, 2017From a non-finance guy (Engineer) – I decided to retire from the workforce prematurely due largely in part on the horrors experienced with the company’s Excel based part data management system.  The tasks associated with the data entry and the time necessary to do these clerical duties to feed databases were incredibly punitive.  The frustrations encountered with hugely user-unfriendly algorithms result in annual job satisfaction surveys to cite this one area as the largest dissatisfier each year.  Oh, and by the way, the product still actually had to be engineered properly with the little ti…See moreShare
  • John Pound22 November, 2017JAMES HOWELL My experience with ERP system implementations was its own sad story. It’s a critical undertaking for any business requiring buy-in from the top, constant monitoring and accountability and retraining of everyone from the janitor on up.Very easy to fail in one or more of those areas…Share1 reply
• John Pound22 November, 2017″ A year ago, Mr. Bell’s team spent hours distributing hundreds of Excel spreadsheets to regional and unit leaders each month for planning and performance tracking of the company’s 415 U.S. restaurants, he said. Now the same process takes minutes.”Wow, think of the lost jobs due to this innovation. Perhaps the Trump admin ought to tax technology like it proposes to tax imports to save those jobs…Share
• GoldDucky22 November, 2017I’m enjoy wading around in numbers that are more difficult to pull together than to analyze-NOTShare
  • John Pound22 November, 2017Randal White I do consulting work and can tell you, the effort needed in some companies’ systems (software & human effort) to organize the basic data is vastly more than the time it takes to properly analyze results and decide on tactical changes…Share
• Andrew Clark22 November, 2017Excel is like an old fashioned calculator -a great tool you need to pull out of the drawer time to time.  Excel can deep dive into data for custom analysis which out of the box software can’t.  You may not like it but Excel works.Share
  • John Pound22 November, 2017Andrew Boese Agree- it is not the numbers crunching, big data handling tool most bigs need, but it is a highly adaptable tool for creative analysis once that heavy lifting is done…Share
• Ross Hanahan22 November, 2017Clickbait. Advatorial.Share
• Christopher Lacerenza22 November, 2017My take away from the article was that maybe it was an issue with the talent, not the tool.Share
  • Michael Duff22 November, 2017Christopher Lacerenza Management incompetency was not even mentioned in the article. How can a CFO not know the payroll headcount?Share1 reply
• Mike W22 November, 2017Modern accounting systems can process transactions from inception through to financial reports without the involvement of people…and this capability has existed for decades.But, to implement that efficiency would leave no *flexibility* for creative interpretation (i.e., manipulation) of the results by management.  Then what would all those staff do?Share
  • TK Wallace22 November, 2017Michael Wood Complex systems are ONLY as accurate as the least accurate department processing into the system. I used to teach college level supply chain and I always asked the students what the accuracy level of the following system is:Bill of material – 98% accurateSales forecast – 95% accurateInventory level – 97% accurateSales orders – 97% accuratePurchase order file – 97% accurateRouting sheets – 97% accurateThe response would always be around 95-97% accurate. The reality? They are interconnected so they are multiplicative – the accuracy is around 82% AT BEST. And those numbers are highe…See moreShare
• DONALD W HESS22 November, 2017This looks like click bait! There’s nothing wrong with Excel – it’s how it’s being used (or the expectations from what it’s being used for) that is wrong.Share
  • CyanRaindrop22 November, 2017DONALD W HESS I agree. Excel is not a database manager. It is a calculator. Too many people use it to manage large volumes of data which should be housed elsewhere. The importation of data from an external source does not have to be time consuming or labor intensive.Share1 reply
• OrangeWeights22 November, 2017i knew excel was not goodsignedlotusShare
  • David Bowman22 November, 2017michael obrien Cute. If Lotus had more funding and had been able to stay in the game, Excel would probably be even better. Or Redmond would have simply overpaid for it at some point.Share
• Christopher Keillor22 November, 2017Yes, Excel is a terrible database program.Of course, it wasn’t designed to be a database program.  The fact that you are misusing it doesn’t make it “bad.”  While I have, at times, used a wrench to pound in a nail, a hammer works a lot better.  Use the right tool.Share
• TK Wallace22 November, 2017It is worse than thought – Excel makes POCKETS of “success” within a company, and each department generates its OWN spreadsheet to show how THEY are “succeeding”.I work for a company that created a product that could be used in aiding in the space required to transport finished products. It cost $0.02 more than its competing old style products. It resulted in a $0.14 per unit SAVINGS in freight because of its characteristics. Net savings? $0.12.We could NOT get customers because the people responsible for the commodity only cared about THEIR spreadsheet and showing THEIR “savings” – and getti…See moreShare
• DIMITRI TRIANTAFYLLIDES22 November, 2017Although they have their uses, PowerPoint and Excel are frequently used as weapons of mass wealth destruction by start ups.  If you add enough columns in excel, any financial projection can eventually look profitable. Combine that with the snippy-ness of PowerPoint and millions of dollars have been poured into worthless startups.Share
• PurpleScooter22 November, 2017Oh, and don’t forget to stop using MS Word to edit your pictures.Share
  • PurpleScooter22 November, 2017And fire. Stop using fire to refrigerate your food.Share
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• Robert Hoff22 November, 2017This piece ignores the obvious…..complex corporate structures with multiple branches, countries , who fail to synchronize their enterprises which involves huge investments in planning, capital , management , will ultimately throw the task on EXCEL, which is then the ” little train that could” or couldn’t .Share
• BlueUmbrella22 November, 2017I think this just shows the over analyzing that we have come to in making decisions in the world of business and particularly finance today making all of this into a brainless soulless process devoid of any of the human factors that truly make the difference between failure and success.Share
  • ERIC M ELLIS22 November, 2017Sometimes I think you’re right. What has all this data collection really done for business? Creepy Google ads for web sites we visited ten minutes ago?It reminds me of the cheesy Clint Eastwood movie Trouble with the Curve. At the end Clint, the seasoned industry vet, gets the call about a baseball player right. The hot shot younger scout with tons of data analysis gets it wrong and is fired.In the end I think data is nowhere as useful as experience and insight.Share
• CyanBucket22 November, 2017I use excel as an analytical tool… my data resides within a database that can be queried using the ODBC tool within Excel.  Very powerful combination, but always open to hear new ideas.Share
  • TK Wallace22 November, 2017Michael Brescio BINGO! This is exactly how I have used Excel, quick report writing basically, and the ability to do what ifs. But ALWAYS with the mainframe data as a download so that things tie together. Then, run your results back through the mainframe and validate the CORPORATE WIDE impact. This is the vacuum most Excel users live in, they could care less how it impacts other departments, they are just out to protect themselves, not the company.Share
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• Eli Hauser22 November, 2017In other words, they have allowed their systems to degrade such that their staff are using an application that is not suitable to the complexity of the requirement.  Excel is a tremendous product suitable for all kinds of analysis.  But it is not designed as a multi-user transactional system for managing a multi-billion dollar quarterly close. This is on the leadership for not creating a structured application and information architecture suitable for their business.Share
  • Thomas Hauber22 November, 2017Eli Hauser What you suggest costs companies money and unfortunately companies (especially publicly traded ones) are cheap cheap cheap.Share1 reply
• Ben Ryan22 November, 2017After about two paragraphs, I thought this piece was clickbait – how much did Anaplan pay the Wall Street Journal to publish this?Share
  • Doc Sweeney23 November, 2017Ben Ryan I agree.  Sounds to me like some CFO’s have never heard of Power Pivot or DAX formulas.Share
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• RedBulb22 November, 2017Believe me, I am on the forefront of any ideas that involve eliminating the use of software that shouldn’t be used, but the issues outlined in this article are not software issues – they are human issues.It sounds like the problem is not so much with Excel itself, but how it’s been put in use in the company. Sure, one way to fix that is by using a different solution which requires a pivot in how you do work but it’s short sighted to blame it all on Excel. What’s worse is once you pivot to a new means it will only be a matter of time before things turn into the same confusing mess as they used…See moreShare
• GreenCloud22 November, 2017Yes, go back to using your fingers.Share
• Tracy Lee22 November, 2017I am very disappointed in such an obvious puff piece.  I’ve worked in IT for many decades now and while I understand the limits put on us by apps installed on grandpa boxes this idea of running software over the Internet (cloud) as being better integrated and /or connected to other software is hocus pocus nonsense.  Sure Excel is starting to show its age, but whatever import/export processes are needed or direct linkages to real-time database Excel can handle via ODBC drivers has handled for at least a decade . . . I don’t buy this idea that it is not technically fit to work in the office any…See moreShare
  • William George22 November, 2017Tracy Lee Grandpa Boxes! Love it 🙂 ha, ha.Share
• OliveSailboat22 November, 2017Hear! Hear!Share
• John Cole22 November, 2017Excel is a great tool, but it it’s the wrong wrench if you’re trying to pound in a screw.  I’ve written scores of custom programs to replace what people were doing with Excel.  As the article states, importing and exporting is one of the problems, and data validation is another.  Since most of what the users want to calculate is already in a database, and Excel’s database connectivity is limited, custom programs can be the way to go for a medium to large organization.Share
• Daniel Perez22 November, 2017In a regulated environment, the LAST thing you want to do is dump data in an uncontrolled spreadsheet for processing.Share
  • Eli Hauser22 November, 2017Daniel Perez or maybe it is….Share1 reply
• MICHAEL HIGGINS22 November, 2017Bank CFO wants to compare weighted average origination rate on new loans versus existing portfolio yield and have that trended by commercial loan officer on a rolling 12 month chart to see who is providing lift to net interest margin.  DBA “Uh, we can’t do that.”  Excel Power User “I’ll have that to you in a couple of hours with totals to reconcile against the general ledger.”  True story.  Different tools for different uses.Share
  • Thomas Hauber22 November, 2017MICHAEL HIGGINS They your programmer wasn’t worth what you were paying him.  If he couldn’t do what you wanted, he was either lazy or incompetent.Any decent business programmer/analyst should have been able to do what you wanted, provided the tools were available in your system.Share
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• CyanPin22 November, 2017SAP is junk.  Avoid, very disatsified ex customer.  Went back to Macros and spread sheets and management dashboards for project management so everyone can see the same thing across all levels AND input accordingly.That way can import to analytics software that does the rest.  SAP is no where close to the anatlytics software you can get and the feed is EXCEL.This article is an advertisement….but in reality….spreadsheet works for a 1000+ employee company with 4 divisions.Share
• OrangeAirBalloon22 November, 2017Good to see continued innovation in this space.  I read a few companies want to modernize their financial analysis tool set, which is likely 5-7 years old and unsupported. Good idea, probably an opportunity to shorten the cycle by days and increase accuracy. Why limit the insight to a couple of tiny niche players while ignoring the leaders in the arena.  Have these folks heard of Tableau, Qlik, and according to Gartner, Microsoft’s own Power BI SaaS Service?Share
  • CyanPin22 November, 2017GORDON MACDONALD The standard in the finance alaysis industry is Excel….there are custom models out there….AND you know why?  Everyone knows it and it is easy to manipulate.Best of luck, but I will say if there is a better mousetrap we would consider it.Share
• RedPalmtree22 November, 2017Excel is the tool it was designed to be:  the spreadsheet for the individual to do “what if” or ad-hoc analysis. It’s the tool used to do those things the programmers failed to anticipate when preparing the company’s automated analysis systems.I know one company which spent a huge amount of money and man hours over two years transitioning to a centralized SAP solution.  Now, they are finding errors at end-of-year due to their programming project team failing to fully understand the nuisances of the workflow in that large company’s multiple departments.People are using Excel to track down the …See moreShare
  • OliveTooth22 November, 2017Tom Herdman  “When all analysis is based on the Black Hole data as it was entered, all analysis is now at risk for the one fat-fingered data error.”So true.Share
• JOSEPH MICHAEL22 November, 2017The standard joke was:”Why did Microsoft invent Access?” — to  make Excel look good.Share
  • ERIC M ELLIS22 November, 2017I’m sure there’s other good stuff out there. But I’ve used Access successfully in several applications. It is far from garbage.Share
• Stephen Graham22 November, 2017Excel is a fine tool for data analysis, but it was never meant as a replacement for a database–which is really what they’re talking about here.  Database tools are essential to huge organizations with mounds of data, who can hire or contract people to write and maintain tailored solutions.  And in fact, larger companies can save more than it costs to switch to such solutions, and shame on them if they don’t.It doesn’t mean that Excel is irrelevant or useless.  Excel is the zero-effort generic tool for the many cases in which developing specialized solutions is not cost effective.Share
  • GoldGlasses28 November, 2017How about better report generators? That’s what’s needed.Share
• OrangeStrawberry22 November, 2017The problem with excel is that it is a modeling tool that has become an adjunct accounting tool that breeds reconciliation problems. Clearly the use of excel in accounting processes is to overcome the limitations of the accounting system in general, but it is a Faustian bargain. It’s not scalable or controllable. As such, I absolutely ban excel for all accounting functionsWhen I assess a company’s Systems and I see excel as part of those systems, I know that there is a lot to change.It will soon be 2018. We live in a Cloud world and excel is not of that world, yet.Share
• ERIC M ELLIS22 November, 2017It’s an interesting article. You could infer that Microsoft has been focusing on the wrong issues: trying to get everyone to pay a monthly fee and installing intrusive back end data gathering tools instead of keeping their software relevant.Share
• Geoff Aronson22 November, 2017As data sharing and cloud based applications proliferate, so does both the number and severity of hacking. Of course any security system is only as strong as its weakest link: lazy humans.Share
  • ERIC M ELLIS22 November, 2017″The Cloud” has been hot in recent years, and there certainly are advantages. But I think companies are going to start backing off it. There are a lot of hassles that come along with the advantages, and security is the biggest one.Share1 reply
• Joseph Katz22 November, 2017LibreOffice does it much better.  It’s free, and open-source so bugs and security holes are fixed promptly.Share
• PurpleTrumpet22 November, 2017Excel is still going to be the workhorse for most companies. In addition to keeping the application relevant, Microsoft needs to fix all the known bugs/shortcomings that heavy users experience on a regular basis – too many format ‘errors’, application crashes causing lost work, no easy way to find links to other spreadsheets, etc. All very well known issues that make users yell at there computers on a regular, sometimes hourly, basis.Share
  • JOSEPH MICHAEL22 November, 2017Jackson Tucker Excel is loaded with extraneous junk that no one asked for and (i am guessing) few people use.Share
• CyanScissors22 November, 2017I am a die hard Excel fan. I agree with Mr. Garrett, that people should spend  more time analyzing data rather then struggling with export,import  and spreadsheet design. Any collaborative cloud or local  based  technology that provides access to information makes sense. In my other life, as an auditor and with the advent of Sarbanes Oxley, I was shocked  to see material errors in financial systems due to  improper design, weak internal  controls  and misuse  of spreadsheets. Time is wasted  exporting, importing and,  worst, some people incredibly,  may manually re -enter the data into a spre…See moreShare
• Stephen Colley22 November, 2017″A year ago, Mr. Bell’s team spent hours…  Now the same process takes minutes.”Major staff reductions to follow. For example, see articles about banks shrinking back office personnel due to AI and automation.Share
  • Douglas Berg22 November, 2017Stephen Colley When I worked for the EPA in the 70s they did all the budgeting for the Office of Air and Radiation on ledger forms involving over a dozen budget analysts (and a lot of time from engineers and others) .  A few years later when I stopped by to wish a previous co-worker the best on moving to Washington for a new assignment, he had replaced all of them with an Apple II with VisiCalc ….Share2 replies
• Robert Hutchings22 November, 2017Interactive database software is probably the best tool for large routine projects.  But that requires someone to set it up, write the code, etc.Share
• CyanStrawberry22 November, 2017Anaplan and Wdesk have a place but with any technology you have to know how to apply it. I do not envision Excel being replaced with either of these applications. Both Excel, Anaplan and Wdesk with work collaboratively integrating each of their strengths. Excel being used as a tool of choice for the user to input data and the tool of choice for the person who analyzes the data might consider Wdesk or Anaplan.Some of the problems that I envision with a tool like Anaplan is that the “top down approach” can be used as tool to overstep the management team that has direct contact with the numbers …See moreShare
• GoldGlasses22 November, 2017Yup wonderful grinding water for ……………………………………..