Planning Millions of Dollars of Capital Investments using a Spreadsheet, Is it Sustainable?

A recent study of 125 financial executives responsible for capital planning found that many are dissatisfied with using manual spreadsheet processes as a part of capital planning. Almost half of the respondents cited the use of spreadsheets as their top pain point, along with concerns around the inability to track affordability and ROI while maximizing opportunities, resources, and budgets. In today's business world, companies are in a near constant state of planning, with 25% of respondents reporting an ongoing state of planning and 51% engaged in it quarterly. Companies need to develop the discipline of portfolio management on an ongoing basis, which starts with planners having access to data at the ready. The manual nature of planning and its complexity are particularly problematic in this environment, where on-demand access to accurate data is still limited.