# Fibady vs Excel for a group's month-end close

> Line-by-line comparison of closing in Excel and in Fibady: hours, risk, traceability and cost. Including where Excel wins.

Updated: 2026-10-02 · Author: Santiago Viglione (Fibady) · https://www.fibady.com/en/compare/fibady-vs-excel

Excel is the most used FP&A tool in the world and it will stay on your team: for modelling, for one-off analysis, for whatever fits no system. Where it stops making sense is the recurring close of a group: export from each ERP, paste, reconcile, consolidate and redo when a late entry lands. That is what Fibady automates. This comparison is about that work, not about Excel in general.

## Line-by-line comparison

| Close task | In Excel | In Fibady |
|---|---|---|
| Loading ERP data | Export and paste every month, per entity | 25+ ERPs connected (live API with Odoo, Holded, Tango, SOS Contador and EternumPRO); otherwise you export the journal to Excel and Fibady adapts it, remembering the format |
| Account classification | VLOOKUPs over the chart; break when an account changes | Mapping done once; new accounts are flagged |
| Multi-entity consolidation | Master sheet linked to n workbooks; eliminations by hand | By consolidation group: intercompany accounts, or entries tagged as intercompany, are left out of the group total |
| Multi-currency | Manual FX table, one method per sheet | FX by month and currency; three currencies (accounting, reporting, display) in one click |
| P&L, balance sheet, cash flow | Three sheets that must tie to each other | Derived from one source and checked with invariants |
| Budget vs actual | Another sheet, another structure, another paste | [Plan vs. actual](/product/budgeting) in the same P&L structure; variances by line, area, company or group |
| Sales and purchasing | Pivot table over an invoice export | Commercial analysis: sales and purchasing with the margin by customer, supplier, product and period |
| People costs | A separate headcount sheet | People: fully loaded cost per person and scenarios for hires, raises and leavers |
| Board report | PowerPoint the night before | AI-generated report with charts and commentary; you review and export to Word or PDF |
| Traceability | "Where does this number come from?" → search n tabs | Every figure opens to the ERP entry |
| Versioning | close_v3_FINAL_ok.xlsx | One source with history |
| Key-person dependency | One person understands the master sheet | Any user with permissions logs in and understands |
| Error risk | High and silent: a badly dragged cell does not warn | [Control Center](/product/financial-reporting): checks each month before you present it (debits = credits, balanced balance sheet, unclassified accounts and movements) |
| Asking the numbers | Search the sheet by hand | FibadyGPT and [Fibady Agents](/product/ai-agent) in the app, plus a connector for ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini |
| Scaling to more entities | Each new entity multiplies the work | Mapped and added to the consolidation |
| Ad-hoc analysis and modelling | Excel wins: total flexibility | Export to Excel and model there |
| Cost | Licence ~$0, but ~25 h/month of skilled work | $200 per entity per month, ~6 h/month of review |

## What does closing in Excel cost?

A three-entity group spending 25 hours a month on the close, at $35/h controller cost, spends about $10,500 a year building reports that expire the following month. With Fibady it pays $7,200 a year for the three entities and the close drops to about 6 hours: the net time saving exceeds the software cost from month one, and the work that remains is the work that adds value. Illustrative estimate; in the demo we calculate it with your hours.

## When to stay in Excel

If you have one entity with a simple operation, if your books have no structured journal, or if your ERP is mid-migration. In those cases Fibady will not help you yet, and we will say so in the demo.

## Frequently asked questions

### Do I have to stop using Excel?

No. Fibady exports everything to Excel and many customers keep modelling there. What disappears is the monthly consolidation spreadsheet.

### Can I upload my current Excel to Fibady?

If it contains the journal, yes: the converters translate it to Fibady's format. If it is an already aggregated reporting sheet, no: Fibady needs the entries.

### What if my Excel consolidation has manual adjustments?

Intercompany is handled by flagging the intercompany accounts once or tagging the entries: they are left out of the group total instead of living in loose cells. Other adjustments, such as unrealised profit in inventory between group companies, are not calculated by Fibady.

Book a demo: https://www.fibady.com/en/demo