Is Phocas an Excel add-on or does it modify my Excel in any way?

No, Phocas is a powerful, standalone Business Intelligence (BI) and Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A) platform. It is not an add-on that alters your existing Excel software. Phocas operates independently but is designed to work with your Excel workflows, allowing data to be easily imported from and exported to Excel, so you can use the best tool for each task.

Will we have to abandon our existing Excel reports and processes if we adopt Phocas?

Absolutely not. Phocas is designed to work in partnership with your existing Excel environment. You can continue using Excel for specific modeling, final report formatting or ad-hoc tasks as you like. Phocas complements this by handling the heavy lifting of data processing and analysis, with easy import/export capabilities to ensure your established Excel workflows are enhanced, not replaced.

How does Phocas improve our FP&A capabilities when used alongside Excel?

Using Phocas in conjunction with Excel creates a powerful FP&A toolkit. Phocas allows you to rapidly consolidate vast amounts of data, perform complex scenario modeling, generate dynamic forecasts and easily drill down into the detail. You can then export specific views or summaries to Excel for familiar presentation or further bespoke calculations, ensuring speed, accuracy, governance and deeper insights across your entire FP&A cycle.

How easy is it for an Excel-proficient finance team to use Phocas?

Finance teams accustomed to Excel typically find Phocas intuitive and easy to learn. While Phocas offers advanced analytical capabilities, its user interface is designed for business users, not just data scientists. The principles of data analysis, filtering and interrogation are familiar, allowing your team to quickly leverage Phocas's power to gain new insights without a steep learning curve or disrupting established Excel-based knowledge.

If our team is already very skilled in Excel, why do we need to add Phocas?

While Excel is a fantastic tool for many financial tasks, Phocas is purpose-built to overcome common Excel limitations, especially concerning large data volumes, complex multi-dimensional analysis, speed and maintaining a single source of truth. Adding Phocas empowers your skilled team to automate data consolidation, perform deeper analyses in seconds (not hours or days) and gain insights that are often too cumbersome or slow to achieve with Excel alone, elevating their strategic impact.

Finance runs on Excel? Phocas adds powerful FP&A

Keep the familiarity your team relies on while gaining the speed, scale and deep insights needed to better execute FP&A. Discover how the Phocas platform can integrate with Excel processes to elevate your financial planning and analysis capabilities.

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Finance runs on Excel? Phocas adds powerful FP&A

Excel plus Phocas Advanced FP&A Source of data truth Powerful FP&A tools Rapid ROI Upgrade your FP&A

Your team know Excel. They will love Phocas.

Microsoft Excel has been the workhorse of finance departments around the world. Your team knows it, trusts it and has built critical processes around it. But as data volumes increase and the demand for faster, more complex analysis grows, relying solely on spreadsheets can let you down. The good news? You don't have to choose between the tool you know and the capabilities you need. Phocas is designed to work easily with Excel data, overcoming spreadsheet limitations without disrupting your core workflows.

Centralised, consolidated data: Phocas handles data pulled from multiple ERPs, finance systems and spreadsheets into one consolidated view
Handles complexity: Powerfully manages large, diverse datasets (multi-entity, currency, users) with speed and accuracy
No more version control issues: Forget the headaches of managing multiple, static versions of excel spreadsheets
Trust your numbers: With Phocas your team can move confidently without the risks of formula errors

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Familiar feel, more advanced FP&A

Phocas offers sophisticated analytics capabilities – far beyond standard Excel – delivered in a user-friendly interface. Finance professionals often comment on its ease of use, allowing them to quickly drill down, slice and dice data and uncover trends without needing specialist coding skills. Leverage your team's existing analytical mindset in a more powerful, purpose-built environment.

Accelerated budgeting & planning cycles: Consolidate historical actuals and large datasets from various sources for baseline creation and trend analysis. Seamlessly export to and import from Excel for processes that suit your team
Faster variance analysis & forecasting: Instantly drill down into budget vs. actual or forecast variances across multiple dimensions (product, region, GL code) within Phocas, bypassing spreadsheet limitations
Flexible, accurate reporting: Phocas delivers a 'single source of truth' which enables automated, reliable financial reporting and dynamic dashboards, without manual processing or errors
Robust scenario modelling: Use Phocas to ensure data integrity for planning. Perform high-level scenario comparisons across entire datasets to quickly visualize the broader business impact

more-insight-into-your-business-performance

Working to reduce dependence on spreadsheets

Leading manufacturer and supplier of steel leaf chain is equipped with the information they need to make accurate and informed decisions across the whole business. No more reliance on varying Excel skills within the team.

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“Spreadsheets are always out of date, and you can’t manipulate the data. A quick fix of the formula may reveal that we are behind in orders or losing money on shipments. The information is not live, and as we started operating across two businesses, we really wanted to kill spreadsheets.”

Peter Church

Managing Director at FB Chain

Trust your one source of truth

Eliminate the risks associated with multiple spreadsheet versions, hidden errors and inconsistent formulas. Phocas provides a single source of truth with robust data governance, user permissions and audit trails. Ensure everyone is working from the same validated data, leading to more accurate forecasts, reliable budgets and confident decision-making.

All your data in one place: Seemlessly integrate all your data from your ERP, Excel, CRM or other sources into one reliable source of truth

Granular data control: role-based access and layered permissions ensure the right users access necessary data quickly, while protecting sensitive information
Always up-to-date: with meticulous mapping and validation, your data synchronizes daily (or as needed), ensuring accurate, up-to-date insights
Trusted platform: SOC 2 Type 2 and GDPR-compliant, helping you meet regulatory requirements and expand into new markets

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Keep pace with powerful FP&A tools

Don't fall behind waiting for complex spreadsheets to calculate. Phocas is built to handle millions of data rows with lightning speed. Perform complex variance analysis, forecasting, and reporting in seconds, not hours. Free your team from data wrangling and empower them with instant insights.

Faster analysis, better decision-making: Drill down into the details behind the numbers for fast, multi-dimensional analysis, budgeting and forecasting
Enhanced collaboration: Shared, real-time data enables effective collaboration and better global insights
Strategic finance: Shift focus from manual number crunching to providing proactive recommendations that actively shapes business strategy
Adapt quickly, stay competitive: Identify opportunities, mitigate risks, and adapt resource allocation far quicker than rivals relying on slower, less sophisticated methods

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Fast implementation, rapid ROI

Connecting data is one of our specialities, enabling us to guide you on a quick path to value. Our rapid deployment process is designed for seamless integration with multiple ERPs and diverse data sources, including Excel.

Dedicated support: an implementation team is assigned to work alongside your business to deliver a tailored, pre-built solution, ensuring smooth onboarding
Experienced integration: pre-built connectors for leading ERPs; Infor, Oracle NetSuite, Epicor, Kerridge, Sage, SAP + many more to align with your existing technology
Secure data: benefit from secure data warehousing for multiple sources - gain a central, reliable data platform for your growing needs
Accelerated insights: begin harnessing meaningful insights in approximately 8 weeks for a mid-size business, enabling you to fuel growth sooner

Get better tools without leaving Excel behind

Familiar UI, quick time to value

Easy learning curve and familiar functionality means users can start getting value from Phocas from day one.

Export to Excel

Need to share a specific view or perform a unique calculation? Export tailored data sets or pre-formatted reports from Phocas directly to Excel with a click.

Import from Excel

Have budget figures, forecasts, or mapping tables in Excel? Easily import them into Phocas to integrate with your broader dataset.

Enhance without disruption

By introducing Phocas alongside your current Excel-based financial processes user adoption is quick and manageable.

Report in anyway you need

Share insights through interactive Phocas dashboards or distribute reports in familiar Excel or PDF formats.

Powerful and purpose-built

By integrating Phocas into your financial tech-stack you can maintain processes while adding powerful new FP&A capabilities.

Upgraded FP&A, unlimited growth

Phocas can work alongside Excel to streamline your FP&A processes, reduce risk, and unlock deeper financial insights. This synergy allows you to use the best tool for the job. Phocas upgrades your data mangement, large-scale analysis, collaboration and governed reporting; while you can still use Excel for its unique formatting, specific modeling needs, and offline portability where required.

We understand the hesitation to introduce new tools. Phocas complements your existing Excel skills and processes, minimizing disruption. Implementation is streamlined, and user adoption is typically fast due to the intuitive design.

By adding Phocas, you're not abandoning Excel; you're strategically expanding your FP&A toolkit to handle greater complexity, improve efficiency, and drive better business outcomes – mitigating the risk of outgrowing your Excel-only approach. Plus, your investing in purpose-built FP&A tools that your team will love to use.

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Frequently asked questions

Understand the past, operate better today, and plan well for the future

Whether you want to get your data organized for your team or you’re looking to combine business intelligence capabilities with financial reporting, planning and forecasting… We can help.

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