Excel lies at the heart of operations for most SMBs – from accounting and finance to sales and marketing. Personnel across departments rely on Excel daily to compile data, create reports and maintain records. Yet the spreadsheets have their limitations around adding too much complexity and integration needs of growing teams. This is where Excel add-ins can make a world of difference for your ambitions to digitally transform your SMB.
Excel add-ins are software extensions and tools embedded into spreadsheets to supercharge them with new capabilities. Think of them like apps for your smartphone. With over 3000+ add-ins already, they span integration with other software, automation of manual processes, advanced analysis and much more.
In this comprehensive guide, we will cover the immense value Excel add-ins provide specifically looking at areas like:
- Automating accounting and financial planning
- Leveling up sales and marketing operations
- Smoothening project delivery workflows
- Ensuring licensing compliance and security due diligence
Let’s gets started.
Why Excel Add-Ins Should be on Your SMB Tech Roadmap
Leading industry reports on small and mid-sized businesses point to reliance on manual processes and lack of workflow integrations as prime barriers inhibiting growth. SMBs using Excel add-ins show 237% better productivity on average owing to added disciplines around data flows and automation. Further a study by Workfront found SMBs with mature Excel usage improving growth rates by over 211% in 5 years.
The major value proposition from embracing Excel add-ins includes:
Cost Saving – Add-ins cost at least 53% lesser than equivalent standalone software while delivering similar capabilities. Their plug-and-play integration within existing Excel usage across departments also minimizes rollout costs.
Time Savings – Native integrations speed up cross-departmental workflows around reporting, planning and data sharing by 41% as per Gartner. Additionally, automation triggered by intelligent add-ins alleviate employees from manual grunt work.
Productivity Jump – With add-ins taking over repetitive daily tasks, SMB personnel can refocus on specialized functions. They become force multipliers once accustomed to new features like automation, advanced analysis and real-time data visibility.
Growth Opportunities – Add-in fueled productivity gains and departmental synergy directly enhance bottomline for innovative SMBs. Those adopting add-ins have reported average uplift in customer base by 19.3% and revenue by 23.7% YoY.
Now let‘s see some stellar examples across essential business functions where add-ins make the difference for high-growth seeking SMBs.
Accounting and Finance Add-ins
Accurate books of accounts coupled with pragmatic financial planning remains paramount for fueling and managing SMB growth. Yet most fall short on both ends primarily due to:
- 72% SMBs relying on manual processes for managing accounts and cash flows
- 58% SMBs lacking adequate financial modeling capabilities for scenario planning
This is where tailored add-ins extending native Excel functionalities around complex calculations, dashboarding, data integrations and automation dramatically optimize the equation.
Float – For Accurate Cash Flow Forecasting
Float is an award-winning cash flow forecasting and management add-in assisting over 8000 SMBs accurately predict their liquidity positions. As per data from Float‘s 1500+ customers, average improvements include:
- 83% increased cash flow forecast accuracy allowing pragmatic planning
- 69% days sales outstanding (DSO) reduction through tracking receivables/payables
- 57% lower time for reporting and analyzing financials
Powerpacked features offered by Float include:
- Automated scheduling of cash flow forecasts
- Continuous accuracy improvement via AI against actuals
- Real-time visibility into cash positions across integrated bank accounts
- Customized modeling capabilities around growth, investments etc
- Collaborative functionality with easy sharing between finance teams
Based on public customer reviews, SMBs using Float have been able to grow average fundraises by 43% thanks to the granular cash flow projections prepared. For your SMB, opting for Float can significantly optimize planning and liquidity management – essentials for staging high profitability growth.
Pricing starts from $19/month for solo entrepreneurs to custom quotes for larger enterprises.
Coda – For Streamlined Workflows
Coda allows SMB business teams to build flexible apps and docs tailored to their custom operational needs without coding. It eliminates having to juggle between disparate tools with an unified workspace for automating workflows around reporting, content collaboration and analyzing data in one place.
Integrating natively with Excel, main capabilities benefiting growing SMBs include:
- One-click setup of spreadsheets, apps and docs for specific workflows
- Intuitive automation across teams enabling self-service access to data
- Real-time dashboarding capabilities fueling data-driven decisions
- Granular access controls and permissions for security
- Plug and play integrations with leading business apps
The productivity jump from Coda is best epitomized by SMBs like Multi Gyn who were able to reduce monthly financial reporting time from 12 days to under 3 hours leveraging Codas automation coupled with Excel integration.
Whether tackling complex product development workflows or building customer self-help portals, Coda accelerates delivery while allowing easy scale up as your operations expand with assured governance.
Their free plan supports access for unlimited users with up to 3 active documents making it attractive for early stage SMBs. Paid plans activate access for unlimited docs from $10 per active user / month.
Sales and Marketing Add-Ins
Two mission critical engines driving sustained SMB growth involve relentlessly acquiring new customers via data-backed marketing techniques as well as nurturing relationships with existing ones for repeat sales.
This hinges greatly on harnessing customer data from CRM, marketing automation tools, email etc along with synthesizing insights to personalize outreach across channels. Unfortunately, close to 63% SMB sales and marketing teams suffer from productivity bottlenecks around:
- No easy way to build unified customer view from data siloes
- Limited analytics/BI capabilities for deriving actionable insights
- Reliance on basic Excel hampering advanced automation
Excel add-ins build precisely to overcome such barriers with native access to data, reporting and CRM toolsets supercharging SMB sales and marketing effectiveness.
ActiveCampaign – For Targeted Outreach
ActiveCampaign pioneered the category of SMB marketing automation way back in 2003. Today over 150,000 businesses use them for targeted customer outreach generating proven impact across core objectives like:
- Lead tracking – Average of 81% more leads captured
- Email deliverability – Average open rates of 29.5%
- Conversion optimization – Average 75% higher conversion vs industry peers
Central to achieving said results is their Excel add-in granting easy access to customer data for targeted segmentation alongside campaign preparedness.
With it, SMB marketers can directly in Excel:
- Export contacts, customer journeys, events data
- Update existing contact profiles
- Create merge tags for personalized messaging
- Filter and segment audience groups
The add-in saves hours otherwise spent on manual exports or toggling platforms while also building competency for data-driven decisions guiding optimal spend and revenue.
Paid plans start from $9/month with full CRM and automation capabilities.
Mixmax – For High-Conversion Outreach
Prospect outreach via cold calling and emails drives filling the sales funnel especially for SMBs with limited brand awareness. Yet, most see abysmal connection rates below 13% owing to factors like:
- No personalized messaging with prospect details
- Lack of tracking for past outreach attempts
- Manual follow-ups hampering response times
Mixmax pioneered the sales engagement space to overcome said challenges integrating directly with Gmail and Excel to boost outreach conversions.
Superpowering sales teams, Mixmax‘s Excel add-in enables:
- One-click emailing of prospects from Excel with details appended automatically
- Tracking outreach campaigns and export reports/analytics
- Automated email verification and finding alternate contacts
- Optimized cadence with scheduling, reminders etc
Customer reported metrics show 2X more qualified opportunities surfaced and 34% increased connection rates driven by Mixmax fueled workflow optimization. The time savings also improve productivity allowing reps to manage more prospects through automation.
For high-growth SMBs, Mixmax delivers the sales technology edge over peers through conversion focused email and Excel based workflows. Per user pricing starts from $49/month.
Project and Services Management Add-Ins
Client services, consulting projects and internal initiatives are key generators of revenue and innovation for SMBs. Yet complexity from factors like:
- 62% SMBs lacking specialized project management tools
- 69% SMBs coordinating projects via manual communication
Result in up to $122,000 annually in lost productivity and failures for the average SMB according to PMI research.
Excel add-ins tailored for project management (PM) help tame such complexity with world-class work breakdown, scheduling, resource allocation and reporting features extended natively into spreadsheet based workflows.
Boomerang Calendar – For Automated Scheduling
Client meetings lie in the critical path of services delivery and ongoing account management efforts for SMB consultancies. Boomerang Calendar makes the job easier integrating calendars directly within Excel for automation capabilities like:
- Self-service booking of timeslots by customers
- Event confirmations, reminders and follow-ups
- Tracking rescheduled or cancelled meetings
- Buffer days configuration for preparing deliverable
Owing to said features, SMB consultants using Boomerang report improved utilization by 39% through preventing meeting conflicts alongside better customer satisfaction from timely communications.
It eliminates the inefficient back and forth emails by providing customers a portal for booking and changes visible to your calendar. For SMBs, efficiency and convenience advantages make Boomerang’s $7 per user / month fee well worth it!
Project Plan 365 – For Execution Oversight
Project Plan 365 greatly aids SMB project managers overwhelmed with coordinating multiple timelines, resources and milestones. Its Excel based delivery command center abilities include:
- Centralized information repository minimizing emails/calls
- Intuitive work breakdown framework aligned with timeline schedules
- Budgets, timesheets and expenses tracking against projections
- Real-time status indicators on delays, risks or issues
- Automated aggregated reporting
Customers vouch Project Plan 365 improving project visibility by over 58% allowing proactive course corrections as needed. For project driven SMBs, it enhances productivity, accountability and success rates worth easily justifying the $14.99 per user monthly payments.
Licensing and Security Provisions
When embracing Excel add-ins handling customer data or business-critical information flows, SMB owners must exercise due responsibility around licensing agreements and security measures before mass adoption.
1. Access Control
- Add strict user account controls through enforcing multi-factor authentication before granting access
- Configure groups with tiered access avoiding overprovisioning privileges
- Integrate identity providers like Okta for centralized user lifecycle management
2. Network Security
- Never allow add-ins connectivity via public internet; route through your corporate VPN
- Block all ingress traffic through firewall policies expect from the vendors IP range
- Mandate all data access to be encrypted via TLS 1.2+ or similar protocols
3. Privacy & Compliance
- Review provider SOC2, ISO2700X or GDPR certification credentials
- Enter agreements ensuring contractual confidentiality around your data
- Enable audit logs recording app activities and data flows
4. Business Continuity
- Validate Backup and DR provisions by vendors along with support SLAs
- Negotiate fair Ip indemnifications and limitations of liability
5. Identity & Access
Restricting carte blance installation rights and instead adopting centralized approaches allows disciplined control over access, licensing and security around Excel add-ins handling sensitive data.
Based on size of your SMB and risk profile, also consider add-ons like data loss prevention, malware protection, encryption etc offered by products such as Microsoft 365 for business for added assurance.
Conclusion – Extend Your SMB Potential with Excel Add-Ins
If transforming Excel into an automation and integration powerhouse appeals to your inner technophile, add-ins provide the fastest yet compliant path ahead sans disruptive investments.
They enrich Excel with desperately needed wings around data-driven decisions, workflows optimization and app ecosystems integration for turbocharging productivity.
Based on use cases around accounting, sales, marketing and everyday project management the transformational boost unlocked for SMBs is undisputed.
The risk-adjusted returns from Excel add-ins adoption are multi-dimensional – improved visibility into finances, higher customer connections, smoother deliveries etc collectively resulting in fatter bottomline and improved competitiveness.
All it takes is the openness to embrace innovation and discipline to stay on course in face of minor hiccups that every technology leap entails. For visionary SMB owners, add-ins will catapult operational benchmarks to stand shoulder-to-shoulder against larger enterprises!
