Spreadsheets remain the default tool for managing performance for many organisations. They are familiar, flexible, and readily available. Over time, however, what begins as convenience turns into dependency.
Budgets, forecasts, operational plans, compliance tracking, and performance reporting are spread across multiple files, owned by different teams, updated at different times, and reconciled manually. The result is a performance management process that is fragmented, time-consuming, and increasingly fragile.
As organisations grow in complexity, spreadsheet-based performance management hinders more than it helps, causing multiple versions of the truth, driven by manual consolidation and offline updates, as well as delayed insight, as data must be collected, checked, and reconciled before it can be trusted.
Many companies attempt to manage these risks by adding controls around spreadsheets. These include any variation of stricter templates, more sign-offs, or tighter timelines. While this may reduce errors, it does not address the underlying issue. The problem is not how spreadsheets are used, it’s that they are being used to do work they were never designed to do. Spreadsheets were designed for individual analysis, not enterprise-wide decision-making.
When time is of the essence
The real cost of spreadsheet-driven performance management isn’t inefficiency, it’s hesitation.
When data is fragmented, decision-making slows down. Leaders second-guess insights. Teams spend their time reconciling instead of responding. Performance conversations become backward-looking exercises rather than forward-looking interventions. And the more complex the organisation becomes, the weaker this approach gets. You can’t manage a modern business with tools designed for static, individual work.
Spreadsheets give the comforting illusion that everything is under control, but behind the scenes, the business is operating on delayed, partial, and often contradictory information. Every reporting cycle becomes a mini project. Finance chases inputs, business units argue about whose numbers are right, and leaders wait for one more version before making decisions. Strategy discussions get postponed because the data isn’t ready yet, and by the time clarity arrives, the moment to act has usually passed.
That tension is exactly why many organisations eventually move away from spreadsheets and toward Enterprise Performance Management (EPM). EPM replaces fragmented files with a single, governed environment where planning, forecasting, and performance tracking are connected by design. Instead of assembling information at the end of a cycle, data is captured, validated, and updated continuously. This removes the recurring scramble for inputs and, more importantly, removes the debate about whose numbers are “right”. The conversation shifts from reconciling data to interpreting it.
Another driver is decision timing. In spreadsheet-led environments, insight arrives too late to influence outcomes. EPM changes this by giving leaders visibility into performance as it evolves, not weeks after the fact. Variances surface earlier, assumptions are transparent, and scenarios can be tested before decisions are locked in.
From reporting to decision-making
Unfortunately, many companies find themselves still falling short even with EPM in place. Too often, EPM is implemented as a finance tool rather than an enterprise-wide system, limiting its impact. Data may be connected, but if planning and execution remain siloed, the organisation is still making decisions in isolation rather than in alignment. Systems may provide dashboards and metrics, but if culture, accountability, and cross-functional collaboration haven’t evolved at the same time, performance management becomes a reporting exercise in disguise.
In other words, EPM can solve the mechanical problems of spreadsheets, but it doesn’t automatically fix the human and organisational challenges that caused the spreadsheet chaos in the first place.
The key to unlocking the full potential of EPM lies in treating it as an organisational capability, not just a finance system. This means integrating people, processes, and technology in a way that drives continuous performance management across the business.
The spreadsheet has been a comforting fallback for decades, but it comes at a cost. This is the year to break the cycle. By treating EPM as a true organisational capability, not just a tool, your business can move from fragmented reporting to predictable, aligned, and high-performing decision-making.
