Planful Spotlight for Microsoft 365: Level-Up Reporting and Analysis in the Tools You Already Use

Your team already works in Excel, PowerPoint, and Word. Those tools play a central role in how you report, present, and communicate financial performance. The question is whether those tools work as hard for finance as finance works in them.

For most teams, the answer is no. The hours that should go into analysis go into data movement instead, exporting from one system, pasting into another, reformatting, and emailing files around. By the time a board deck is finalized, the numbers in it may already be out of date.

Planful Spotlight for Microsoft 365 removes that problem. It turns Excel, PowerPoint, and Word into live extensions of your planning system, so the time you used to spend manually assembling reports goes into analyzing them instead.

Get started with Planful Spotlight for Microsoft 365 with an interactive tour.

Spotlight is a native add-in for Excel, PowerPoint, and Word that gives you direct access to Planful data without leaving the Microsoft environment your team already works in.

Customizable reports that refresh on demand

Design your reports once in Excel or Word, then refresh them when new data is available. There’s no need to rebuild or manually update each cycle.

Drill into any number without leaving Excel

Spotlight’s drill-through capability lets you explore the detail behind any cell, down to the transaction level, without switching tools or filing a query request. The number a board member just questioned can be defended in real time.

Board decks that stay current with the business

Create PowerPoint presentations with charts, tables, and KPIs linked directly to Planful. When numbers change between the dry run and board meeting, a single refresh updates every slide.

Governance that travels with the data

Spotlight carries Planful’s security, validation, logic, and audit trails into Microsoft 365. Permissions, dimension security, and audit history follow the data into every spreadsheet, slide, and document.

Apollo Therapeutics, a growing biopharmaceutical company with operations in the UK and the U.S., needed to scale reporting without adding complexity for its lean finance team.

Before Planful, Apollo’s reporting relied heavily on Excel. Monthly updates required hours of manual work to pull, validate, and rebuild reports. This approach became harder to sustain as the business grew.

With Planful’s Spotlight for Microsoft 365, that process changed.

“What used to take a couple of hours in Excel is now just a quick refresh in Planful,” said Gary Collins, VP of Finance at Apollo Therapeutics.

The team refreshes repeatable reports in seconds. Data stays aligned across outputs, and updates flow through without manual intervention.

The impact has been immediate:

• Monthly reporting refreshed in seconds
• Forecasting cadence increased to monthly
• 20+ business leaders enabled with self-serve reports and forecasts

For a lean team supporting a growing business, reporting is now a foundation the team can scale on, not something they have to scale around.

If your team already works in Microsoft 365, Spotlight is a practical way to reduce the manual work that slows reporting down and keep your Planful data accurate across every output your business relies on.

How it Works:

Spotlight is built to be deployed and used by finance without unnecessary reliance on IT.

• Install the add-in. Add Spotlight directly from the Microsoft 365 add-in store, in Excel, PowerPoint, and Word. No custom development, no infrastructure project, or PS effort required.
• Sign in with your Planful credentials. Your team’s permissions, dimension security, and audit history carry over automatically. The data each user sees in Spotlight matches what they see in Planful.
• Pull live data into your reports. Drop Planful data into any cell, slide, or document. Refresh with a single click whenever the underlying data changes.

That’s the full setup. Most finance teams are building their first refreshable report in the same session they install the add-in.

• Spotlight is built for finance, no IT required. Spotlight installs straight from the Microsoft 365 add-in store across Excel, PowerPoint, and Word, with no custom development, scripting, or infrastructure work needed to get up and running.
• With Spotlight, you work with live Planful data inside the tools you already use. Design reports, decks, and documents once, then pull in Planful figures and refresh with a single click so every cell, slide, and page stays current with the business.
• Enterprise-grade governance carries over automatically. Signing in with Planful credentials brings your permissions, dimension security, and audit history with you, keeping a single source of truth and eliminating version-control headaches across outputs.

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Ready to level up your FP&A in the tools your team already uses?

Get started with Planful Spotlight for Microsoft 365 today.

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What is Planful Spotlight for Microsoft 365?

It is a native add-in for Excel, PowerPoint, and Word that connects directly to Planful, allowing you to build reports and presentations in Microsoft 365 with data refreshed from Planful with a single click.

Does Spotlight work across Excel, Word, and PowerPoint?

Yes. Spotlight works across all three applications, so you can build and refresh your Planful-backed content in whichever Microsoft tool your workflow requires.

Do you need IT or development resources to set up Spotlight?

No. Finance teams install and use Spotlight themselves. There’s no custom development, no scripting, and no infrastructure setup required.

How does Spotlight handle version control?

Because Spotlight pulls data directly from Planful, your team works from the same centralized, up-to-date source. That reduces the risk of conflicting versions and outdated exports circulating across the business.

Can you drill into the details behind a number in Spotlight?

Yes. Spotlight’s drill-through feature lets you explore the transactions behind any line item in Excel without leaving the Microsoft environment.