Excel or software?
A comparison.
A spreadsheet is quick to set up. But with several accounts, companies and people involved, it becomes a source of errors.
For a straightforward set of assets with only a few accounts, a spreadsheet is often enough. As soon as several companies, properties, securities accounts and people come together, Excel becomes laborious and error-prone: account balances have to be transferred by hand, investments across several levels calculated and documents searched for elsewhere. Family office software takes over this work and keeps the figures up to date.
Where Excel is strong
Excel is flexible, available almost everywhere and quick to set up. For a simple overview, for example a few accounts and one securities account, a spreadsheet costs hardly anything extra and is easy to adapt.
Where Excel reaches its limits
- Timeliness: You enter account balances and prices yourself. The spreadsheet always shows the state of its last update.
- Structure: Investments across several companies can only be mapped with nested formulas.
- Errors: A wrong cell reference is often only noticed late. In a Dartmouth College study of 50 operational spreadsheets used in businesses, 43 contained at least one error that led to a wrong result. Reference errors were among the most common causes (Powell, Baker and Lawson, 2009).
- Documents: Contracts and receipts are kept separately in folders or emails.
- Access: A file has no roles. Anyone who can open it usually sees everything. Even worksheet protection does little to change this: Microsoft itself points out that it is not intended as a security feature and only prevents locked cells from being changed.
- Traceability: Current versions of Excel show changes to cell values and formulas, but only as long as everyone involved works with a current version in the same saved file. If the file is saved as a copy, replaced or edited in an older version, the history is no longer complete.
Comparison at a glance
| Topic | Excel | Family office software |
|---|---|---|
| Account balances and prices | entered by hand | automatic via the bank connection, prices daily |
| Investments across several levels | your own formulas | structure mapped, figures consolidated |
| Receipts and contracts | filed separately | assigned to company and asset |
| Access | whole file or nothing | roles per entity, down to the individual asset |
| Changes | only partly traceable | history and log |
| Costs | hardly any extra cost | monthly fee |
What family office software does differently
Large family offices also rely on specialised software: in the UBS Global Family Office Report 2026, just over half (52%) of the 307 family offices surveyed said they use financial reporting software from an external party. Those surveyed were UBS clients with an average of US$1.3 billion in assets.
Taking Finaure as an example: accounts and securities accounts are synchronised via finAPI, a provider regulated by BaFin, Germany’s financial supervisory authority. Prices update daily. You map people, your holding company, GmbHs, property companies and foundations as a structure; the consolidated P&L eliminates payments between your own companies and accounts. The AI reads receipts and suggests which company and asset they belong to; you review and confirm. You assign roles per entity, and if you wish, payments go through a payment approval based on the four-eyes principle.
The switch is smaller than you think
You don’t have to start from scratch. With SmartOnboard you upload up to 50 files at once, for example bank statements, contracts or your existing Excel list. The AI suggests entities, assets and accounts from them; you review and accept. How getting started works is described under Getting started, and you will find all features under Features.
Sources
- Powell, Baker and Lawson: Errors in Operational Spreadsheets, Journal of Organizational and End User Computing, 2009
- Microsoft Support: Protect a worksheet
- Microsoft Support: Show changes that were made in a workbook
- UBS: Global Family Office Report 2026 (p. 39)
More guides
- What is a family office? Meaning and tasks
- When is a family office worth it?
- Family offices and taxes in Germany
- Family office software: features and costs
- Holding company assets: structure and reporting
- Reading statements, receipts and contracts automatically
- Private equity: capital calls and open commitments
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