I like the Excel plugin with Workiva, because as someone working in FP&A, I can easily upload budget and forecast data to the web-based version for other users to see. It makes things a lot easier. I just create a standard Excel upload template, turn on the Workiva Excel plugin, and push the data into Workiva. Workiva being the source of truth for the latest actuals simplifies the quarter-end close process by saving me the step of linking data together and updating in Excel or PowerPoint to analyze budget vs. actual variances, effectively reducing version control issues. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Some challenges are that not all of the Excel formulas are readily available. Sometimes it's not so easy to see which Excel formulas are being run in certain cells. We've had issues in the past where another team was using a subtotal formula, and then we were using some formulas. So the subtotal and some formulas were interacting in a way where the totals on the page were not adding up. This is more of a challenge with Workiva. If we were able to audit or see more clearly which formulas are being run on which cells, it would be easier to catch these inter-team differences. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.