Why “good enough” spreadsheets aren’t good enough anymore

For many trusts, Excel models are still doing plenty of heavy lifting around budgeting and forecasting. They’ve grown and transformed over years, layer upon layer, and a confusing legacy is often inherited by today’s CFO. For leaders trying to modernise their systems – and CFOs focused on stability and audit-readiness – that creates a difficult balance: you want change, but you can’t afford chaos.

At the same time, the financial headroom has gone. Recent Kreston UK academies analysis shows the proportion of trusts in in-year deficit has more than doubled since 2021, rising from 19% to 47%, with later commentary suggesting the picture continues to worsen. In that context, decisions made on the back of fragile spreadsheets become a real strategic risk.

And it’s not just education. Multiple studies suggest that 88–90% of spreadsheets contain significant errors, and that around half of complex spreadsheet models used in large organisations have material defects.

The good news: you don’t need to throw the playbook out the window this term. What you can do though, is start with five small, practical moves that build confidence in a more modern, MAT-wide budgeting approach.

1. Pick one mission-critical spreadsheet and “quarantine” it

Instead of trying to tackle every one of your finance models at once, identify one spreadsheet that keeps you awake at night – for most trusts, that’s the consolidated staffing or trust-wide budget workbook.

Quick win:

• Lock in the structure for the rest of the year, with no more hidden columns or side-tabs.

• Move the outputs (key KPIs, totals, graphs) into a simple online dashboard or shared planning tool – even if the underlying data is still in Excel for now.

• Standardise how changes are requested (e.g. SBMs submit changes via a form or template, not by tweaking the file themselves).

You haven’t “turned off Excel” here. What you have done is reduced the risk of invisible edits, while creating a clearer line between data entry and decision-making – an important confidence builder for CFOs who value predictability.

2. Standardise assumptions across schools this term

One of the biggest weaknesses of spreadsheet-led planning is inconsistent assumptions: different inflation rates, pay awards or pupil number forecasts hidden in different tabs.

This term, aim to:

• Agree a single set of trust-wide assumptions (pay awards, energy increases, inflation, high-needs contributions).

• Publish them in one place – a planning “source of truth” – and link every school back to that, whether in a platform like Anago or a shared assumptions file.

• Use your next finance or SBM meeting to walk through the assumptions and capture local risks, rather than debating the formulas.

Sector reports show non-staffing costs have risen sharply (around a 16% increase per pupil in some benchmark data, driven by energy costs up nearly 50%). Standardising how you model those pressures is a quick, visible step towards more strategic, MAT-wide planning.

3. Create a single staffing “view” for ICFP conversations

The DfE promotes integrated curriculum and financial planning (ICFP) as a way for schools and trusts to align staffing, curriculum and funding over a 3–5 year horizon. But you can’t have a meaningful ICFP conversation if staffing data lives in fifteen different spreadsheets.

Quick win:

• Pull all teaching and support FTEs, pay scales and key ICFP metrics (e.g. pupil:teacher ratio) into one consolidated staffing view – ideally in your budgeting platform, but a simple centralised model is a start.

• Use that single view in SLT and trustee meetings to talk about curriculum and structure, not just costs.

• Capture two or three “what if” scenarios for September (e.g. class re-organisation, targeted support in SEND).

For CFOs looking to build their profile as forward-thinking leaders, this is a powerful way to shift the conversation from “Can we afford it?” to “How do we deploy staff to best meet our priorities?”

4. Co-create the change with your finance team and SBMs

The technology you’re using is only half the story. Change sticks when people feel it’s happening with them, not to them. That matters particularly in trusts where some staff are wary of new systems or feel bruised by previous implementations.

This term, you can:

• Nominate a small “future finance” working group (e.g. for a larger trust, you could invite one or two SBMs, a finance manager and a central finance lead).

• Give them ownership of testing a new budgeting or ICFP tool on a small pilot (e.g. two schools), with clear success criteria: time saved, error reduction, clarity of reports.

• Involve your vendor as a partner – ask for targeted training, quick support routes and user groups where your team can learn from other trusts.

This approach shows that change doesn’t mean relinquishing control – but can also help build the legacy of a more empowered, modern finance function.

Farewell to Excel?

Moving your trust beyond spreadsheets doesn’t have to mean a multi-year transformation programme. With a handful of focused actions this term, you can reduce risk, free up capacity and show trustees and school leaders what modern, MAT-wide budgeting really looks like.

If you’d like some help making those first quick wins real, you can book a short walk-through of Anago to see how other trusts are consolidating budgets, ICFP metrics and dashboards in one place – without overwhelming staff.