A column by Mehdi Ben Salah, co-founder of Beyond Plans
A simple question asked to an audience of finance professionals reminded me of something essential: if Excel remains so present, it is not only out of habit, but because it still fills blind spots in processes. At Beyond Plans, I see it in almost every project: Excel is not a dysfunction, it is a revealer that deserves to be looked at differently.
I am coming back from Financium 2025 – the annual DFCG conference – with a paradoxical feeling. We talked about AI, intelligent automation, augmented models… and yet, what sparked the most reactions came down to one word: Excel.
Beyond the tool itself, what I heard resonates with what I see every week with the clients we support at Beyond Plans.
During a session dedicated to new AI uses in finance, the facilitator asked a simple question to the 120 participants — mainly management controllers and finance managers:
“What irritates you the most in your budgeting processes?”
And then, repeatedly: Excel, Excel, and more Excel.
We could smile. In reality, I felt rather uneasy. How can we explain that in 2025, with powerful, cloud-based and accessible EPM platforms, the dependence on Excel remains so strong?
As a partner to finance departments, I suddenly thought: what if we missed something?
What if the issue was not the tool?
We have been saying for a long time: “we need to get out of Excel.”
But I am beginning to think we are approaching the problem the wrong way.
Excel is not just software. It embodies something much deeper:
- an immediate response,
- total autonomy,
- intuitive understanding,
- the ability to tinker and iterate quickly,
- and above all… no guardrails.
But Excel is also like water. And water seeps in as soon as there is a crack in the process. So maybe the issue is not Excel… the issue is the crack!
Processes evolve faster than tools
We are touching here on something CFOs know all too well.
A project starts in January. It is built over 12 to 18 months, but when it goes live… business reality has already changed. Result: the model is obsolete before even being used.
Meanwhile, Excel remains the perfect crutch: flexible, immediate, ready to absorb the exception of the moment. It is not that Excel “wins the game.” Excel adapts faster than the organization transforms its processes.
And that… no tool, not even the most agile Anaplan models, can compensate for alone.
The real issue: a cultural and methodological gap
What we observe — and what I still see in far too many projects — is a recurring trio:
Processes that are too complex
Year after year, organizations add exceptions, sub-cases, local rules… until the whole becomes unreadable.
Low adoption of EPM workflows
Many users experience the tool as excessive centralization that does not understand their specific cases.
A lack of agility in modeling
Trying to cover everything from day one often means building a rigid cathedral that is impossible to evolve.
And in this context, Excel appears as the only zone of freedom: it never says “no”, requires no training, and never blocks anything.
Excel is not a competitor. It is a symptom.
Rethinking transformation: stop fighting Excel
This is a conviction I increasingly stand by: if Excel reappears, it means something is wrong in the process, not in the technology.
When a user creates a file outside the tool, it is almost never resistance to change. It is a message, sometimes even a call for help.
In reality, it often means:
- “The process is not clear”
- “I was asked for a new report last week”
- “I don’t know where to put this data”
- “The tool is not ready for this specific case”
- “We didn’t plan for this exception”
It is therefore an issue of alignment, pace, and change governance. Not a technology issue.
And it is our role, at Beyond Plans, to help finance departments hear these weak signals and address them before they explode into 200 scattered files.
What I really take away from Financium 2025
I do not take away that “Excel is a problem” but rather that organizations leave a gap that neither tools nor processes manage to fill sustainably. And Excel naturally rushes into that gap.
To progress, the right question is not:
“How do we make Excel stop?”
But rather:
- Why does Excel become indispensable for your teams?
- Which part of the process lacks clarity, stability, or governance?
- How to design models that remain useful despite rapidly changing business needs?
- How to inject agility — the real kind, not the one written in the specification — into modeling and maintenance?
In short, Excel is not the enemy: it is the revealer!
Excel reveals:
- a process that is too complex,
- a model that is too rigid,
- an unmet need,
- too rapid a change,
- or an organization that has not yet found its rhythm.
If we want to support finance departments in solid, useful, and lasting transformations, it is not by trying to eradicate Excel.
It is by building processes and models that breathe, that adapt, that evolve at the rhythm of the business… and that finally give teams a reason not to return to Excel.
And that is work that goes beyond the tool. It is collective, methodological, and cultural work. And that is where true transformation happens.
FAQ
The questions finance departments really ask about Excel and EPM transformation
Why does Excel systematically come back in budgeting processes?
Because it immediately absorbs a request, an exception, or an emergency. When the process or the tool does not offer a clear response, Excel fills the gap. It is therefore not a technical issue: it is a sign of misalignment between team needs and the way the model has been designed or governed.
Do we need to “eradicate” Excel to succeed in an EPM transformation?
No. The issue is not to eliminate Excel, but to understand why it appears. When users create off-process files, they reveal a flaw: overly complex rules, lack of agility, a rigid model, or insufficient change management. The real lever is alignment and simplification.
How can we prevent the EPM model from becoming obsolete before going live?
By adopting an iterative approach, limiting the initial scope to essentials, and deliberately leaving room for evolution. Programs that try to cover everything from the start often miss their target. Agility in modeling is key — in Anaplan as in any other EPM.
How to manage exceptions without recreating Excel files in parallel?
By clarifying business rules, making arbitration decisions visible, and industrializing recurring exceptions. Good governance prevents the proliferation of isolated files. Ad hoc exceptions must be integrated without breaking the model.
Is the problem coming from EPM tools or from organizations themselves?
Mostly from organizations. Current tools — Anaplan, OneStream, Pigment, Adaptive — are mature. What blocks progress are overloaded processes, accumulated edge cases, poorly understood workflows, and transformation rhythms that do not match business pace. Excel simply reveals these imbalances.
How do I know if my organization suffers from a “process void” that Excel fills?
Several signs exist: duplicate reports, “temporary” files that become critical, models too heavy to maintain, discrepancies between finance and business teams, or the inability to integrate a new rule without an IT project. When Excel keeps coming back, it is rarely by chance.
