Celebrating 40 Years of Excel

September marked a milestone: Excel turned 40. For decades, Excel has been the backbone of finance functions around the world, including budgeting, forecasting, pivot tables, macros, and more.

Recently, an old Excel commercial from 1990 has resurfaced. Watching it today, you might laugh at it, but at the time, it was groundbreaking. In the commercial, Excel creates "a miracle" in an elevator on a laptop that is the size of a briefcase.

Today, we take Excel's power for granted. A 2025 survey by the Association for Financial Professionals (AFP) found that 96% of Financial Planning and Analysis (FP&A) professionals use spreadsheets weekly for planning, and 93% use them weekly for reporting. In another study from AFP, they report that 70% of all companies rely on spreadsheets to operate their businesses. Excel has proven its staying power; even as many finance leaders try to move away from it, they still prefer it.

Excel's staying power comes down to two big things:

• Universality: Everyone knows how to open a sheet, type a formula, and filter a list. It's the common language of numbers across functions and geographies.
• Flexibility: From simple ad-hoc lists to complex financial models, Excel flexes. Very few tools have that range.

While Excel remains central, finance teams must deal with a growing array of systems: ERPs, budgeting/forecasting tools, CRM systems, HR/payroll, and cloud analytics. That's where DataBlend shines.

• DataBlend is an integration platform-as-a-service (iPaaS) built specifically for finance and accounting teams.
• It supports fast, secure integrations of "everyday applications" used by CFOs, controllers, and their teams.
• It offers a no-code/low-code workflow builder, pre-built templates, data transformations (including pivot-table-like operations), and integration with sources such as ERPs, CRMs, Budgeting & Planning, Google Sheets, Excel, and more.

We talk about reducing manual processes and spreadsheet dependencies; however, we do work in harmony with the lasting power of Excel. DataBlend helps Excel be better. By automating finance and accounting processes, finance teams ensure an accurate and timely flow of data between Excel and the critical systems they rely on daily.

Watch the demo below to see how DataBlend can take a flat file (Excel document) and kick off a workflow within DataBlend.

Since we made this demo, we have advanced even further. We can now ingest Excel via email into DataBlend. More on that soon!

At 40, Excel isn't close to retiring; it's evolving. As Excel enters middle age, the demands are different: real-time data, cross-system visibility, and turning data into action.

Let DataBlend be the connector that helps this Excel stay relevant and powerful in a world of multiple systems, faster data, and higher expectations.

Don't love Excel but use Google Sheets? DataBlend connects with that, too!