---
title: "Why Dynamics 365 Teams Still Run on Excel"
canonical_url: "https://cognilium.ai/dynamics-365/excel-workarounds"
slug: "dynamics-365/excel-workarounds"
section: "dynamics-365"
page_type: "pillar"
date_modified: "2026-09-29"
description: "The shadow spreadsheet is not a discipline problem. It marks where the ERP records a decision it never computed, and which ones are worth replacing."
publisher: "Cognilium AI"
author: "Mudassir Marwat"
person_same_as:
  - "https://www.linkedin.com/in/mudassir-marwat/"
  - "https://orcid.org/0009-0008-1927-2598"
  - "https://github.com/mudassirmarwat"
  - "https://medium.com/@mudassir-marwat"
  - "https://www.youtube.com/@mudassir-marwat"
  - "https://dev.to/mudassirmarwat"
  - "https://hashnode.com/@mudassirmarwat"
  - "https://huggingface.co/mudassirmarwat"
  - "https://bsky.app/profile/mudassir-marwat.bsky.social"
  - "https://substack.com/@mudassirmarwat"
  - "https://topmate.io/mudassirmarwat"
  - "https://fueler.io/mudassirmarwat"
  - "https://www.instagram.com/mudassirmarwat/"
  - "https://www.facebook.com/mudassir.marwat"
  - "https://www.reddit.com/user/mudassirmarwat/"
  - "https://www.f6s.com/member/mudassir-marwat"
  - "https://cognilium.ai/founder"
answers:
  - "Why do Dynamics 365 teams still export to Excel?"
  - "Which spreadsheets are worth replacing and which are not?"
  - "Should we get rid of spreadsheets entirely?"
  - "What does a shadow spreadsheet tell you about the ERP?"
entities:
  - name: "Microsoft Dynamics 365"
    id: "https://cognilium.ai/#entity-dynamics365"
    url: "https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics-365"
    same_as:
      - "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q27556059"
      - "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Dynamics_365"
  - name: "Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central"
    id: "https://cognilium.ai/#entity-businessCentral"
    url: "https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics-365/products/business-central"
    same_as:
      - "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q58883729"
  - name: "Microsoft"
    id: "https://cognilium.ai/#entity-microsoft"
    url: "https://www.microsoft.com"
    same_as:
      - "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2283"
      - "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft"
  - name: "Microsoft Power Platform"
    id: "https://cognilium.ai/#entity-powerPlatform"
    url: "https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform"
    same_as:
      - "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q106253893"
      - "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Power_Platform"
related:
  - "https://cognilium.ai/dynamics-365"
  - "https://cognilium.ai/dynamics-365/optimizers"
  - "https://cognilium.ai/dynamics-365/built-to-order"
---

# Why Dynamics 365 Teams Still Run on Excel

Your team runs Dynamics 365 from Excel because the ERP records decisions it never computed. The shadow file is the most accurate map you have of where your system of record runs out. The useful question is not how to stop it. It is which of them are worth replacing.


## What the ERP holds, and what the spreadsheet adds

| The decision | What Dynamics holds | What the spreadsheet adds |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Safety stock and reorder point | The number, and the movements behind it | The judgement that produced the number — demand variability, supplier reliability, what happened last winter |
| Price and discount | Trade agreements and price lists | Whether this customer, on this order, should get this discount at all |
| A quote from a customer request | The catalogue, and the finished quote | The matching — which line refers to which item, and which lines a human should look at |
| Pick sequence and slotting | Bins, zones and the pick list | Where stock should live so the walk is shorter next week |
| Month-end reporting | Every transaction, correctly | The shape somebody actually needs to read it in |


## Triage: which spreadsheets to replace

### Replace

Safety stock rebuilt every planning cycle. A discount worked out per quote. A forecast reconciled every month. The logic is stable enough to state, it runs often enough to pay, and the person doing it is not enjoying it.

*Signal: It computes a decision, and it recurs*

### Replace

When a spreadsheet has been copied per user, per region or per month, the disagreement between the copies is already costing more than the original problem.

*Signal: The same file exists in four versions*

### Keep

A model built to answer a question nobody will ask again is a spreadsheet doing exactly what spreadsheets are good at. Replacing it spends money to make a fast thing slower.

*Signal: It is a scratchpad for a one-off*

### Keep

Order-entry users pasting rows because the grid is quicker are not misbehaving. If the data lands correctly and nothing downstream depends on how it got there, the workaround is the right tool.

*Signal: It is faster and the stakes are low*

### Fix the data first

A spreadsheet maintained because item masters are wrong or lead times are stale is a symptom of a data problem. Building an agent on top of that inherits the same bad inputs and hides them behind a confident answer.

*Signal: It exists to correct the ERP*

### Fix the report first

If the file is a pivot of data the ERP already holds correctly, the answer is a report, not a decision layer. Cheaper, faster, and it does not need us.

*Signal: It only reshapes what is already there*


## Questions

### Why do teams keep using Excel when they have an ERP?

Because the ERP records decisions rather than deriving them, and the spreadsheet is where the deriving happens. Master planning calculates from parameters somebody typed; the spreadsheet is where those parameters get argued about. It is not a discipline failure — it is people doing the part the software left to them, in the fastest tool available.

### Should we get rid of spreadsheets entirely?

No. Some spreadsheets are scratchpads for questions nobody will ask twice, and some are simply faster for low-stakes entry. The ones worth replacing are the ones that compute a recurring decision — where the logic is stable enough to state and the person running it would rather be doing something else.

### How do we tell which spreadsheets matter?

Three questions. Does it compute a decision, or only reshape data the ERP already holds correctly? Does it recur on a cycle? And does it exist because the ERP is missing a calculation, or because the ERP's data is wrong? The first is worth replacing, the second is a reporting job, and the third is a master-data job that should be done before anything else.

### Does replacing a spreadsheet mean changing our ERP?

No. The calculation moves outside the ERP and the result is presented back through documented integration points — OData data entities, custom services and Business Events. No fields are added to your tables and no ERP behaviour changes. Anything that moves money or stock is proposed and prepared, and a person approves it.

### What do our planners actually do afterwards?

The same job, starting further along. The analysis arrives done, with the reasoning attached, and their work becomes judging it rather than assembling it. The ones who were good at the spreadsheet are usually the ones who get most out of this, because they are the only people who can tell when the recommendation is wrong.

### Is this something we buy or something you build?

Both exist, and the words are exact. The three that most often replace a shadow spreadsheet are the Pricing, Pick-Path and Demand & Inventory Optimizers: built, and demonstrated on request against your own demand history. Contract Review Copilot is shipped, running for a customer today as Paralegent AI. Several domains are built to order, which means we have the engineering and build it for you, with no packaged app yet. The MCP server and Copilot extension are in development.


---

Canonical HTML: https://cognilium.ai/dynamics-365/excel-workarounds