Traditional planning struggles to keep pace with modern business. Connected planning brings financial, operational and strategic plans together, helping CFOs, CEOs and business leaders improve forecasting, collaboration and decision-making.
Executive Summary
Traditional business planning is often fragmented across spreadsheets, departments and systems. Finance teams spend too much time collecting, checking and consolidating information, while CFOs and CEOs receive insights too late to respond effectively.
Connected planning replaces these disconnected processes with a unified approach to financial and operational planning. It connects your business data, forecasts and budgets together with underlying assumptions, and strategic objectives, all within a shared planning environment.
With MODLR, your organisation can:
- Connect financial, operational and strategic planning.
- Build driver-based forecasts linked to business activity.
- Model multiple scenarios and assess their financial impact.
- Automate data imports and reduce manual consolidation.
- Provide real-time reporting to CFO, CEO and other decision-makers.
- Strengthen corporate governance through permissions, workflows and audit reporting.
- And enable your staff to continue using Excel where necessary while maintaining a controlled central model.
As a result, your business will have faster, more accurate forecasting, better cross-functional alignment and a clearer view of how operational decisions affect revenue, costs, cash flow and profitability.
- Executive Summary
- Why Traditional Planning Is Failing Businesses
- What Is Connected Planning?
- Connected Planning vs Traditional Planning
- How Does Connected Planning Work?
- Connected Planning in Action
- How MODLR Enables Connected Planning
- Five Business Benefits of Connected Planning
- Connected Planning Examples Across Industries
- Is Your Business Ready for Connected Planning?
- Move to Connected Planning with MODLR
- For More Info on Connected Planning
- Frequently Asked Questions About Connected Planning
Why Traditional Planning Is Failing Businesses
Modern organisations face rapid changes in customer demand, costs, supply chains, technology, regulation and competition. CFOs and CEOs need timely information to evaluate these changes and decide how the business should respond.
Traditional planning processes make this difficult.
Budgets and forecasts are frequently created in separate spreadsheets and exchanged through email. Finance needs to collect submissions from different departments, check formulas, resolve inconsistencies, consolidate versions and then only rebuild management reports.
By the time the process is complete, the assumptions behind the plan may already have changed.
This creates several problems for your business:
- Long budgeting and forecasting cycles.
- Multiple versions of the same plan.
- Disconnected financial and operational data.
- Limited visibility across departments.
- Manual reconciliation and reporting.
- Weak control over formulas and assumptions.
- Difficulty in testing alternative scenarios.
- Executive decision-making gets delayed due to long inefficient processes.
The problem is not just about using spreadsheets. Due to this, your business’ planning logic, business drivers and management information are all fragmented, spread across files, people and systems.
For example, a CFO may have one view of expected revenue, operations another view of capacity, sales a separate pipeline forecast and HR an independent workforce plan. Each plan may be reasonable on its own, but they do not automatically show how decisions in one area affect the rest of the business.
And there can be multiple errors in putting them together. So everyone sees just one part of the picture.
Connected planning addresses this gap by creating a common planning model across finance and operations. This enables everyone to literally be on the same page.
What Is Connected Planning?
Connected planning is a business planning approach that links financial, operational and strategic plans within a unified environment.
Instead of maintaining isolated budgets and forecasts, organisations connect their plans through common data, assumptions, dimensions and business drivers.
For example:
- Sales forecasts can update revenue projections.
- Production volumes can influence labour, materials and inventory plans.
- Workforce decisions can flow into operating expenses and cash flow.
- Changes in fuel prices can affect route, customer and logistics margins.
- Student enrolment forecasts can influence staffing and facility requirements.
- Capital expenditure decisions can update depreciation, funding and cash forecasts.
Connected planning allows the business to see these relationships and brings them together so that they are evaluated as part of a whole plan, rather than in isolation.
Doing so gives finance teams, operational managers, the CFO, CEO and Board access to consistent and current information. Leaders can model changes, compare scenarios and assess their effects across the organisation before committing to a decision.
Connected planning is, therefore, more than a budgeting tool. It is an approach to integrated business planning, enterprise forecasting and strategic decision support.
Connected Planning vs Traditional Planning
Let us compare traditional planning with connected planning.
How Does Connected Planning Work?
Connected planning begins by identifying the relationships between the organisational objectives, operational activities and financial outcomes.
A connected planning model typically brings together:
- Actual financial and operational data
- Budgets and forecasts
- Business assumptions
- Key performance indicators
- Operational drivers
- Departmental submissions
- Strategic targets
- Management reports
- Alternative scenarios
These components are linked through a central business model.
When a driver or assumption changes, its impact can flow through the relevant plans and reports. Finance teams no longer need to manually update every affected spreadsheet.
Connected Planning in Action
Consider a business that is experiencing an increase in its supplier costs.
In a connected planning environment, management could assess:
- The effect on product or service margins
- Whether prices should be adjusted
- Which customers or products are most exposed
- How purchasing volumes might change as a result
- The effects on inventory and working capital
- The resulting impact on profit, cash flow and the balance sheet
This enables the CFO and CEO, together with operational leaders, to evaluate a business decision as a connected set of consequences rather than as an isolated financial adjustment.
How MODLR Enables Connected Planning
MODLR provides a business modelling, planning and reporting platform to connect financial and operational information in a business or other organisation.
Its multi-dimensional modelling capabilities enable users to analyse information across relevant dimensions like business entity, department, customer, product, location, project, route, service and time. MODLR also facilitates collaborative budgeting. MODLR’s real-time aggregation, data integration and corporate reporting capabilities complement the connected planning process.
Multi-Dimensional Business Modelling
As you know, traditional spreadsheets - whether its Excel or Google Sheets - organise information into rows, columns and individual worksheets. But, when spreadsheet models grow, relationships among them become increasingly more difficult to maintain. It becomes cumbersome and takes too much time.
MODLR uses multi-dimensional models - referred to as cubes - instead of tables to organise data. Cubes allows the same underlying information to be viewed from different business perspectives.
Example: A CFO could analyse profitability by company, department and product, while an operations manager reviews the same model by facility, volume and production line. Both views remain connected to the same underlying source of truth.
You can read more about this in: What Are Data Cubes? Why MODLR Uses Them Instead of Tables
Driver-Based Planning and Forecasting
Driver-based planning and forecasting connects your forecasts to the activities that produce financial results across your business.
Depending on the organisation, these drivers may include:
- Sales volumes
- Product prices
- Customer numbers
- Employee headcount
- Labour hours
- Production capacity
- Freight volumes
- Fuel prices
- Student enrolments
- Project milestones
- Foreign exchange rates
- Working capital days
When any driver changes - and in business they are constantly changing - MODLR can calculate its downstream effects across the model.
This helps finance teams move beyond simply increasing last year’s numbers by a percentage. Operational managers can see how changes in volumes, capacity, staffing or costs affect their plans Senior decision-makers can get a clearer view of the financial impact, risks and trade-offs across the organisation.
Scenario Planning and What-If Analysis
MODLR enables you to create and compare multiple planning scenarios. Finance teams can assess different assumptions, evaluate their effect on key business drivers and re-forcast as conditions change.Operational teams can tweak their activity levels, operational decisions and budgets to see how that affects their performance.
MODLR’s scenario-planning capabilities include automated actual imports, driver-based scenarios, flexible re-forecasting, variance analysis and the ability to compare alternative outcomes within a unified platform.
A CFO could compare a base case, downside case and growth case without maintaining three separate sets of disconnected spreadsheets.
Data Integration and Automation
Connected planning depends on current and reliable information.
MODLR brings data together from systems such as enterprise resource planning (ERP), accounting, customer relationship management (CRM), payroll and other operational platforms. Before connected planning, finance staff often exported data from each separate system, copied it into spreadsheets, reconciled different formats and manually repeated the process whenever information changed.
MODLR’s data integration and ETL capabilities, together with the no-code, low-code Visual Scripting Engine, help automate scheduled data imports. One of the biggest advantages is that MODLR makes things easier by reducing the manual movement of information between systems. This saves time and lowers the risk of errors.
This gives finance teams more time to analyse performance and provide valued inputs as there is less need (and time taken) to collect, copy and reconcile data.
Read: What Is Data Integration? A Complete Guide to MODLR Integrations
Connected Reporting and Executive Visibility
MODLR’s management reporting solution connects reporting to the underlying business model.
When actuals, assumptions or forecasts change, authorised users can access updated reports. This is a world of difference from when they had to wait (and wait) for finance teams to rebuild and redistribute the revised reports.
With connected reporting, senior leaders can view high-level performance indicators immediately (as they happen in real-time) and then investigate the operational or financial detail behind them. This gives the CEO and CFO greater visibility into what is changing, why it is changing and what action may be required. The biggest advantage is in the timeliness of action that MODLR’s connected planning supports.
Governance, Permissions and Auditability
Connected planning should increase collaboration without weakening financial control.
In order to do so, MODLR has been built to support controlled access, audit reporting, variance commentary and visibility into who changed information, how and when.
MODLR’s financial consolidation capabilities also include validation rules, traceable audit logs and drill-back functionality.
Strong variance analysis features and other user management features together, help finance to maintain accountability while involving more business users in the planning process.
Spreadsheet Integrations with Excel and Google Sheets
Moving to connected planning does not necessarily require an organisation to abandon Excel immediately.
MODLR’s Microsoft Excel Integration supports planning and reporting from Excel workbooks while keeping the information connected to the central MODLR model. This allows experienced spreadsheet users to work through a familiar interface without recreating disconnected versions of the corporate plan.
MODLR also offers an integration for Google Sheets .
Five Business Benefits of Connected Planning
1. Faster and More Responsive Forecasting
Traditional planning cycles can take weeks because information must be collected and consolidated manually.
Connected planning reduces the distance between an operational change and the ability to see its financial impact. It makes it possible for actuals to be imported, forecasts to be updated and reports to be refreshed without rebuilding the entire planning process. This saves a lot of time and effort.
Connected planning supports:
- Rolling forecasts
- More frequent re-forecasting
- Faster variance analysis
- Quicker management reporting
- More timely executive decisions
For CFOs and FP&A teams, this means less time spent assembling numbers and more time interpreting what they mean.
2. Better Alignment Between Finance and Operations
Financial plans are only useful when they reflect how the business actually operates. A disconnect, often caused by differing versions or data sets and reports, makes collaboration difficult and fosters distrust.
In contrast with traditional ways of working, connected planning links finance with sales, operations, HR, supply chain, projects and other business functions. Departmental managers can contribute operational knowledge while finance maintains control over the wider model.
With MODLR’s collaborative features which enable even hundreds of participants from across the globe to take part in discussions, collaboration among dispersed teams becomes easier.
This reduces the risk of strategic targets being disconnected from operational capacity, available resources or financial constraints. With better alignment and trust in the numbers comes better and more productive collaboration.
3. Stronger Scenario Planning and Risk Management
A single forecast cannot represent every possible future.
Connected planning enables leaders to test different assumptions before making decisions. They can change the figures easily and check what the downstreams impacts of going with that particular figure means for the business profitability and operations.
A CFO can evaluate downside risks, while a CEO can compare strategic opportunities and their expected returns.
Scenario planning can be used to assess:
- Demand changes.
- Cost inflation.
- Pricing decisions.
- Workforce restructuring.
- Capital investments.
- Supply disruptions.
- Acquisitions.
- New products or locations.
- Foreign exchange movements.
- Funding requirements.
Scenario planning features in MODLR do not remove business uncertainty. But it gives leaders a structured way in which to evaluate their responses and to better prepare the business to operate with resilience and more confidence when dealing with uncertainty.
4. More Reliable Executive and Board Reporting
When reports are assembled from disconnected files, typically leaders waste precious meeting time debating the accuracy of numbers. This is a common occurrence.
Connected planning changes this by improving confidence in the numbers as it links reports to common data, definitions and assumptions. It promotes trust in data.
The CFO can explain the financial result, the operating drivers behind it and the expected future impact using information drawn from the same business model.
This gives the CEO and Board a more complete view of performance and improves the quality of strategic discussions.
5. Greater Capacity for Innovation and Growth
Innovation requires organisations to allocate resources without knowing the outcome with certainty.
Connected planning helps leaders test proposed investments before committing capital. They can compare costs, benefits, risks, capacity requirements, funding needs and payback periods using different assumptions. Using this type of scenario analysis helps make more informed decisions and to take calculated risks, rather than going by assumptions alone. The underlying calculations in each scenario helps justify the decisions taken in this context.
Reliable scenario modelling is not a guarantee that every initiative will succeed. However, it gives decision-makers better evidence for selecting, prioritising and managing investments and for mitigating business risks.
Connected Planning Examples Across Industries
Retail and FMCG
A multi-store retailer receives sales and inventory forecasts from various regions via separate spreadsheets. Putting them together into a consolidated form takes several weeks. The demand for its products may have changed even before the final consolidated forecast is available.
With connected planning, sales, pricing, promotions, inventory and store-level assumptions can feed into a common forecast. This removes the time and effort spent on consolidating data from the regions. Since the data can be accessible in real-time or with speed, depending on how data flows are arranged, management can quickly find out how demand changes affect stock requirements, revenue, margins and cash flow.
See: Annual Budgeting with MODLR
Education
A university builds its annual budget around historical enrollment patterns. Demand later shifts between programmes, and demand from overseas students declines. This is a reality faced by educational institutions everywhere at present. Without connected planning, staffing and facility allocations remain tied to the original plan.
Connected planning allows the institution to link student enrolments, programme demand, staffing, facilities and financial outcomes. This enables education leaders to model different intake and pricing scenarios in order to redirect their resources towards areas of growth, make new investments and cut down on capacity in courses that show a decline.
Logistics and Supply Chain
A logistics company experiences sudden increases in fuel prices and disruption across selected routes. Its data is spread across spreadsheets, making it difficult to calculate the ultimate effect on customer and route profitability .
With connected planning, management is able to evaluate fuel, volume, capacity, route and pricing assumptions together. This enables them to anchor their budgets, targets and operations on realistic assumptions. Connected planning enables the business to identify exposed customers, test surcharges and understand the effects all the changes have on their profit margins.
Financial Services
A financial institution is considering a new lending product. Finance, sales, operations, risk and compliance teams each maintain their separate assumptions. Bringing them all together, into one page, to collectively make decisions is difficult.
Connected planning allows all these teams to work from a shared set of volume, pricing, credit risk, cost and capital assumptions. One shared source of truth. This way management can compare product scenarios, discuss what adjustments are necessary, and come to an overall agreement after assessing their effect on profitability, keeping in mind the regulatory requirements.
Manufacturing
A manufacturer is considering warehouse automation.
Using connected planning, the business can compare equipment costs, labour savings, production volumes, maintenance expenses and payback periods. Decision-makers can assess both the operational and financial impact before approving the project.
By linking the investment to production planning and scenario planning, management will be able to compare the best option from among full automation, phased implementation and continued manual operations. Workforce planning can also show the impact of automation on staffing, need for retraining and demand for new technical roles.
This gives the CFO, operations team and CEO a shared view of the project’s financial and operational impact to make more calculated, data driven decisions before putting together a proposal for approval by the Board.
Is Your Business Ready for Connected Planning?
Consider the following questions:
- Does your budgeting or forecasting require information to be copied between multiple spreadsheets?
- Does the finance division spend days consolidating submissions from different departments?
- Are managers working with different versions of the same plan?
- Is it difficult to connect your operational forecasts with financial outcomes?
- Does information get outdated before reports reach the CFO, CEO or Board?
- Is scenario planning too slow and cumbersome to support urgent decisions? Do you do without it?
- Are important formulas or assumptions controlled by only one or two employees?
- Is it difficult to determine who changed a forecast, where and why?
- Do departmental plans conflict with wider corporate objectives?
- Is the business outgrowing its spreadsheet-based planning process?
- Would rolling forecasts improve your ability to respond to changing conditions?
- Could better planning data improve investment and resource-allocation decisions?
A “yes” to one or more of these questions suggests that your organisation may benefit from a connected planning platform.
Move to Connected Planning with MODLR
Connected planning is not simply about replacing spreadsheets with another piece of software. It is about creating a stronger connection between strategy, operations, finance and performance in your business.
MODLR’s connected planning platform gives your business a unified environment for multi-dimensional modelling, driver-based forecasting, scenario planning, data integration, collaboration, reporting and governance.
Your Finance teams can reduce manual work and significantly shorten their planning cycles with the shift. Operational managers can contribute information through controlled processes, and the changes they make will flow through across the plan. The CFO can see how business drivers affect your financial outcomes. The CEO and the Board are able to make strategic decisions using timely, consistent and forward-looking information.
The result from moving to connected planning with MODLR is not just about building a better budget. It gives you a more connected and responsive approach to running the business.
For More Info on Connected Planning
- Check out our FAQs on connected planning.
- Contact MODLR today:
- Explore MODLR’s connected planning platform to see how your organisation can connect financial, operational and strategic planning.
- Ask questions about MODLR from the MODLR Team. Get in touch with our Contact Us page or email us.
- Contact us for a demo today
Frequently Asked Questions About Connected Planning
CONNECTED PLANNING FUNDAMENTALS
What is connected planning?
Connected planning is an approach that links financial, operational and strategic plans of an organisation within one shared planning environment. It connects data, business drivers, assumptions, forecasts and reports so that changes in one area can be reflected across the wider organisation.
How is connected planning different from traditional planning?
Connected planning uses shared data and connected business models, while traditional planning commonly relies on separate spreadsheets, systems and departmental processes. Connected planning enables more frequent forecasting, faster collaboration and real-time analysis instead of periodic manual consolidation.
What is connected planning software?
Connected planning software is a business planning platform that brings together budgeting, forecasting, scenario modelling, reporting and operational planning. It allows finance and business teams to work from consistent data and understand how operational changes affect financial results.
What is the difference between connected planning and integrated business planning?
Connected planning is the technology-enabled approach used to connect plans, data and teams, while integrated business planning, or IBP, is the broader management process used to align strategy, sales, operations, finance and resources in a business. Connected planning software can provide the modelling, workflow and reporting foundation needed to support an effective IBP process.
Is connected planning the same as FP&A software?
Connected planning and FP&A software overlap, but they are not always identical. FP&A software primarily supports financial planning, budgeting, forecasting and analysis, while connected planning extends these processes into operational functions such as sales, workforce, supply chain, projects and production.
What business processes can be included in connected planning?
Connected planning can include financial forecasting, annual budgeting, workforce planning, sales planning, demand forecasting, supply chain planning, production planning, capital expenditure planning and management reporting. The precise scope depends on the organisation’s operating model and strategic priorities.
Why do businesses need connected planning?
Businesses need connected planning when fragmented data and manual processes prevent leaders from responding quickly to change. Connecting financial and operational plans gives CFOs, CEOs and managers a clearer view of how business decisions affect revenue, costs, cash flow, capacity and profitability.
CONNECTED PLANNING FOR CEOS & CFOS
How does connected planning help CFOs?
Connected planning helps CFOs shorten their forecast cycles, reduce manual consolidation and connect financial outcomes with operational drivers. It makes the finance function more productive and effective, delivering better value to the business. This is because finance staff can spend less time assembling information and more time analysing performance, modelling scenarios and advising the business.
How does connected planning help CEOs?
Connected planning gives CEOs a more complete view of business performance, strategic priorities and emerging risks; and do it faster than is possible with traditional spreadsheet-based planning. It allows them to compare growth options, understand resource constraints and assess the financial and operational effects of major decisions.
How does connected planning improve executive and Board reporting?
Connected planning improves executive and Board reporting by linking reports to common data, definitions and assumptions. Instead of debating which spreadsheet contains the correct figures, leaders can review financial results, operational drivers and forecast implications from the same underlying model.
Can connected planning support real-time decision-making?
Yes. Connected planning can support faster decision-making by updating forecasts, reports and scenarios as new data or assumptions become available. The speed of the response will also depend on how frequently source data systems are updated and how the organisation’s planning workflows are designed.
How does connected planning improve collaboration?
Connected planning gives finance, operations, sales, HR and other departments a controlled environment in which to contribute assumptions and review results. Updates can be shared without emailing multiple spreadsheet versions, while finance retains oversight of the central planning model. Connected planning improves collaboration by bringing everyone onto the “same page” in terms of data underlying business reports.
Does connected planning provide a single source of truth?
Connected planning can provide a governed central source of planning and performance information. This does not mean every operational system is replaced; it means relevant data from those systems is brought together and used consistently for planning, forecasting and reporting.
FORECASTING, SCENARIOS & RISK MANAGEMENT
How does connected planning improve forecasting?
Connected planning improves forecasting by linking forecasts to current data and measurable business drivers. When sales volumes, headcount, prices, exchange rates or other drivers change, their impact can flow through the relevant financial and operational plans.
It helps businesses to:
- Update forecasts more frequently as actual results and assumptions change.
- Use driver-based forecasting instead of relying mainly on historical trends or fixed percentage increases.
- Connect financial and operational plans so that changes in sales, staffing, production or supply chain activity are reflected in financial forecasts.
- Compare multiple scenarios to assess the impact of demand shifts, inflation, pricing decisions or other risks.
- Reduce manual consolidation by bringing data and forecasts together in one planning environment.
- Improve forecast accuracy by using consistent data, assumptions and business logic across departments.
- Identify variances earlier and understand which operational drivers are causing performance to differ from plan.
This gives CFOs and business leaders a more current and forward-looking view of expected performance.
What is driver-based planning?
Driver-based planning creates forecasts using the activities and assumptions that cause business results. Common drivers include customer numbers, sales volumes, prices, employee headcount, production capacity, fuel costs, enrolments and working capital days.
MODLR supports business modelling and connected financial planning, while its scenario-planning capabilities allow organisations to evaluate the impact of changing key business drivers.
How does scenario planning fit in with connected planning?
Scenario planning is a core part of connected planning because it allows businesses to test how different assumptions could affect financial and operational performance across the organisation.
Within a connected planning environment, leaders can:
- Create multiple scenarios , such as base, growth and downside cases.
- Change key business drivers , including sales volumes, prices, headcount, costs, exchange rates or production capacity.
- See the wider impact of each change across revenue, expenses, cash flow, profitability and operational plans.
- Compare possible outcomes using consistent data and assumptions.
- Prepare contingency plans for risks such as supply disruption, inflation, lower demand or funding constraints.
- Make faster decisions without creating and reconciling multiple spreadsheet versions.
Because financial and operational plans are connected, scenario planning shows not only what might happen, but also how a change in one part of the business could affect the rest of the organisation.
MODLR supports concurrent scenarios, automated actual imports and faster what-if analysis so that decision-makers can evaluate alternative outcomes and business drivers.
Can connected planning support rolling forecasts?
Yes. Connected planning supports rolling forecasts by allowing actual results and revised assumptions to be incorporated regularly. This keeps the forecast horizon moving forward rather than relying only on a fixed annual budget.
Can connected planning help manage business risk?
Connected planning helps manage risk by allowing leaders to test downside assumptions and evaluate possible responses before an event occurs. It can show how risks such as cost inflation, lower demand, foreign exchange movements or supply disruption could affect cash flow, margins and funding requirements.
Can connected planning support three-way forecasting?
Yes. Connected planning can link the forecast profit and loss statement, balance sheet and cash flow statement so that changes remain consistent across all three. This helps executives understand not only expected profit but also liquidity, funding and balance-sheet implications.
MODLR AND CONNECTED PLANNING
How does MODLR support connected planning?
MODLR supports connected planning by bringing business modelling, budgeting, forecasting, scenario analysis, collaboration and reporting into a unified cloud platform. Organisations can model financial and operational information, compare scenarios and analyse performance across multiple business dimensions.
What types of data can be modelled in MODLR?
MODLR can model financial and operational data across dimensions such as company, department, customer, product, location, project, route, service and time. Its multidimensional cube structure allows users to analyse the same underlying data from different business perspectives.
How do MODLR data cubes support connected planning?
MODLR data cubes store information across multiple dimensions rather than limiting it to static spreadsheet rows and columns. This enables users to analyse, aggregate and report data by different combinations of products, entities, locations, customers and periods while remaining connected to the same model.
Can MODLR connect financial and operational planning?
Yes. MODLR can connect financial models with operational plans such as sales, workforce, production, supply chain and project planning. Changes in operational drivers can therefore be translated into their expected effects on revenue, costs, cash flow and profitability.
Can MODLR automate data imports?
Yes. MODLR can integrate data from financial and operational systems and automate data-import processes. Its integration capabilities can reduce repeated copying, reconciliation and manual manipulation before planning or reporting begins.
Is MODLR suitable only for large enterprises?
No. Connected planning can benefit small and mid-sized enterprises, growing organisations and large enterprises. However, the models, workflows and level of complexity will differ. The strongest fit is usually an organisation that has outgrown disconnected spreadsheets or needs to connect financial and operational planning more effectively.
MOVING FROM EXCEL TO CONNECTED PLANNING
Do businesses have to stop using Excel when adopting connected planning?
No. A business does not necessarily have to abandon Excel completely or immediately when moving to connected planning. When an organisation begins using MODLR, Excel can remain a familiar reporting, analysis or input interface while MODLR provides the central business model, governed data and connected planning environment.
Can a company move from Excel to MODLR gradually?
Yes. A company can take a phased approach by first moving its most complex, risky or time-consuming planning processes into MODLR. Additional budgets, forecasts, reports and operational plans can then be connected over time as users become familiar with the platform.
What is the best way to transition from spreadsheets to connected planning?
The best approach is to identify which spreadsheet processes create the greatest risk, workload or delays, and move those first. Before rebuilding the planning logic in a controlled model, organisations should document their existing formulas, drivers, data sources, reporting requirements, owners and approval processes.
Here’s why: Streamline your corporate performance reporting: automate critical processes, eliminate the stupid
Can existing Excel models be used when implementing MODLR?
Existing Excel models can be used as a valuable starting point for identifying business logic, assumptions, dimensions and reporting requirements. They should not always be copied exactly, however, because implementation also creates an opportunity to remove duplicated formulas, unnecessary manual processes and outdated model structures.
What happens to existing Excel reports after moving to MODLR?
You can retain existing Excel reports, redesign them or replace them depending on their purpose. Reports that users still need in Excel can potentially remain connected to MODLR, while interactive reports and input workflows can also be delivered through the MODLR platform.
How does connected planning reduce spreadsheet risk?
Connected planning reduces spreadsheet risk by moving core business logic, data and permissions into a controlled central model. This limits problems caused by broken formulas, uncontrolled copies, inconsistent assumptions, version confusion and manual consolidation that is inevitable with Excel.
Does moving from Excel to connected planning reduce flexibility?
Not necessarily. Connected planning replaces uncontrolled spreadsheet flexibility with structured modelling and governed user access. Users can still analyse information and test scenarios, but the underlying data, business logic and permissions remain more consistent. In fact, you can argue that things become more flexible in a useful way once you move to a connected planning environment like MODLR.
MODLR EXCEL INTEGRATION AND EXCEL ADD-IN
Does MODLR integrate with Microsoft Excel?
Yes. MODLR provides an Excel integration and an Excel Add-in that connects Microsoft Excel workbooks with a MODLR instance. It supports bidirectional data flows, allowing spreadsheet users to interact with centrally managed MODLR data through the familiar Excel interface.
What is the MODLR Excel Add-in?
The MODLR Excel Add-in is software installed within Microsoft Excel that creates a connection between an Excel workbook and MODLR. It allows users to work with MODLR data from Excel rather than relying on exported, disconnected spreadsheet copies.
Is it called the MODLR Excel Add-on or Excel Add-in?
The official term is the MODLR Excel Add-in . “Excel add-on” may be used informally, but “add-in” is the terminology used in MODLR’s documentation and by Microsoft for software that extends Excel functionality.
What is the difference between MODLR’s Excel integration and the MODLR Excel Add-in?
MODLR’s Excel integration is the broader ability to connect Excel-based work with the MODLR platform. The MODLR Excel Add-in is the specific software component installed in Excel to provide that connection and support interaction between workbooks and MODLR data.
Is the MODLR Excel Add-in the same as importing an Excel file?
No. Importing an Excel file normally transfers information at a particular point in time, while the MODLR Excel Add-in establishes an active connection between a workbook and MODLR. This helps avoid repeatedly exporting, emailing and reconciling disconnected spreadsheet copies.
Can the MODLR Excel Add-in send data from Excel to MODLR?
Yes. MODLR describes the Excel Add-in as supporting bidirectional data flows between Excel spreadsheets and a MODLR instance. This means appropriately configured workbooks can retrieve information from MODLR and send authorised inputs back to the platform.
Can Excel reports be refreshed with current MODLR data?
Yes. A connected Excel workbook can retrieve current information from the MODLR model, subject to its configuration and the user’s permissions. This allows reports to remain linked to centrally maintained data instead of becoming static exports.
Can users enter budgets and forecasts through Excel?
Yes, where the workbook and MODLR model have been configured for input. Users can work through the familiar spreadsheet interface while authorised planning data is sent to the central MODLR environment.
Does the MODLR Excel Add-in support real-time collaboration?
The MODLR Excel Add-in is designed to connect spreadsheet activity with the shared MODLR environment and supports bidirectional flows and dynamic analysis. Because information is connected to a central model, users do not need to rely solely on independently maintained workbook versions.
Can finance teams continue using familiar Excel layouts?
Yes. Finance teams can retain suitable Excel layouts for reporting, analysis or data entry while connecting them to the MODLR model. This can lower the initial learning barrier and help organisations introduce connected planning without forcing every user to change working methods at once.
Does the MODLR Excel Add-in eliminate version-control problems?
It can substantially reduce version-control problems when users work through approved connected templates. The central MODLR model remains the source of data, reducing dependence on multiple emailed workbooks, although organisations must still manage workbook design, user permissions and process governance.
Does the MODLR Excel Add-in replace the MODLR web platform?
No. The MODLR Excel Add-in complements the MODLR web platform rather than replacing it.
MODLR remains the central environment where models, business rules, data, permissions, workflows, scenarios and approvals are managed. Excel users can then connect their spreadsheets to this governed source, retrieve current data, build familiar reports and analysis, and send authorised inputs back to MODLR without relying on disconnected files.
In practice, users keep the flexibility of Excel while the organisation retains one controlled source of truth.
Can MODLR reports be created without Excel?
Yes. MODLR supports reporting and analysis through its own cloud platform, so Excel is not required for every report or user. Organisations can choose the most appropriate interface for executives, finance teams, operational managers and other stakeholders.
Who should use the MODLR Excel Add-in?
The MODLR Excel Add-in is most useful for finance professionals, analysts and other experienced spreadsheet users who want to retain Excel as an interface while working with centrally governed planning data. Executives and operational contributors may instead use tailored browser-based reports, dashboards or input interfaces that are part of the MODLR platform..
What systems are required to use the MODLR Excel Add-in?
MODLR’s current documentation lists Windows 10 or 11, the 64-bit edition of Microsoft Excel and .NET Framework Runtime 4.8 or newer as operating requirements. The documentation states that Excel on macOS and Linux is not supported for this level of integration. Organisations should confirm the latest requirements before deployment.
CONNECTED PLANNING IMPLEMENTATION AND BUSINESS READINESS
How do we know when our business has outgrown spreadsheet-based planning?
Your business may have outgrown spreadsheet-based planning when:
- Forecasting requires extensive manual consolidation
- Teams maintain conflicting versions
- Formulas are difficult to audit, and
- Reports take too long to prepare.
Other warning signs include limited capacity for scenario modelling, dependence on a few key employees, and weak alignment between finance and operational teams.
Which planning process should a business connect first?
The best first process is usually one that is strategically important but currently creates substantial manual work, delay or risk. Common starting points include annual budgeting, rolling forecasts, management reporting, workforce planning, cash flow forecasting or sales forecasting. Lately, more businesses in logistics and other industries have shown an interest in dimensional profitability analysis as well.
How long does connected planning implementation take?
Implementation time depends on the number of models, data sources, users, integrations and workflows involved. A focused use case can generally be delivered more quickly than a company-wide transformation, which is why many organisations adopt connected planning in phases.
What data should be prepared before implementing connected planning?
Businesses should prepare historical actuals, planning assumptions, chart-of-account structures, organisational hierarchies, operational drivers and reporting requirements. It is also necessary to identify data owners, source systems, approval processes and any spreadsheet logic that needs to be retained or redesigned.
Does connected planning require changes to business processes?
It often does. Implementing connected planning is an opportunity to simplify your planning cycles, clarify ownership, standardise assumptions and remove duplicated and obsolete tasks. Recreating every existing spreadsheet process without improvement can preserve the same inefficiencies in a new platform.
How should CFOs evaluate connected planning software?
CFOs should evaluate strategic fit, modelling flexibility, data integration, scenario planning, reporting, governance, usability, scalability and total cost of ownership when looking at connected planning software. It pays to also assess how much control finance can retain over model changes, reporting and automation after implementation.
Points shared in How to Choose FP&A Software: A Practical Evaluation Guide for CFOs, will also be helpful.
What is the main benefit of connected planning?
The main benefit of connected planning is that it connects decisions with their wider operational and financial consequences. This gives leaders faster, more reliable information for allocating resources, managing risk and responding to change.
Originally published: 20 February 2018
Updated by: Nilooka Dissanayake
