Reports can be exported to a formatted Excel file

Description

Exporting reports to a formatted Excel file feature in Corporate Performance Management (CPM) software allows users to easily share, manipulate, and analyze data outside the CPM system. This process ensures that the data transferred from the CPM software to Excel maintains its structure, formatting, formulas, and any other applied features to ensure the consistency of the data representation.

Example Use Case

Scenario: An enterprise uses CPM software to track their budget to actuals reporting. They use several complicated formulas and detailed formatting for the reports generated within the CPM system. However, the stakeholders want the data in an Excel file, which they're more familiar with for their monthly board meetings.

Solution: The CPM software allows users to export the entire report to a formatted Excel file. All the formulas, formatting, and structure are retained. The stakeholders can now easily view and manipulate the data in Excel during their meetings, without losing any of the data's integrity.

Considerations

Just about every tool on the market will export a report to CSV, which simply outputs data. This means that any manipulation of the report requires a re-build and re-introduces all the problems that you were trying to avoid in the first place when purchasing this software.

Other products will output a formatted Excel file, but it will not contain any Excel formulas. This also creates problems, as it may be difficult to track down every calculated field and turn it back into an Excel formula. You're asking for trouble when doing this.

The best systems will output a well formatted report, and update all the formulas where possible, making the sheet self-contained. This leaves the user to simply apply formatting.

Questions to Ask a Vendor

• Look and Feel: Does the exported Excel file retain the same formatting and structure as the original report within the system?
• Calculations: Will the formulas, such as subtotals, be exported or will the output be plain text?
• Formats: If we use Google Sheets, will the export behave any differently than with Excel?