For many organisations, project management doesn't start with specialised software.
It starts with a spreadsheet.
Across universities, research institutes, hospitals, SMEs and consulting firms, countless Horizon Europe projects are still managed using carefully crafted Excel workbooks.
Some have evolved over many years.
Some contain dozens of worksheets.
Some have become indispensable.
So is it still worth moving to dedicated project management software?
The answer depends less on Excel itself than on the complexity of the projects you manage.
At a Glance
Feature
Excel
Grant Planner
Fully flexible
✅
Structured
Work packages
Manual
✅
Tasks
Manual
✅
Deliverables
Manual
✅
Milestones
Manual
✅
Budget tracking
✅
✅
Progress dashboards
Manual
✅
Collaboration
Limited
Built-in
Reporting
Manual
Assisted
Project lifecycle guidance
❌
✅
Why So Many Organisations Still Use Excel
Excel remains one of the world's most powerful productivity tools.
It is available almost everywhere.
Most people already know how to use it.
It can be adapted to almost any workflow.
For these reasons, many organisations have developed their own project management spreadsheets over the years.
These workbooks often include:
- work package tracking;
- task lists;
- deliverable schedules;
- milestone calendars;
- budget monitoring;
- partner information;
- reporting tables.
For small projects, they can work remarkably well.
The Hidden Cost of Custom Spreadsheets
As projects become larger, spreadsheets often grow with them.
New worksheets are added.
Formulas become more complex.
Conditional formatting multiplies.
Links between tabs increase.
Eventually, only one or two people fully understand how everything works.
When those people leave the organisation, the spreadsheet often remains—but its logic gradually becomes harder to maintain.
The challenge is rarely Excel itself.
The challenge is that the spreadsheet has slowly become a software application without being designed as one.
From Spreadsheet to Project Workspace
Grant Planner was designed specifically for collaborative European projects.
Instead of recreating project management through interconnected worksheets, it provides dedicated tools for each component of the project.
Work packages.
Tasks.
Deliverables.
Milestones.
Partners.
Budgets.
Governance.
Reporting.
Each element exists as its own object while remaining connected to the rest of the project.
This reduces duplication and helps maintain consistency as the project evolves.
Following the Natural Lifecycle of a Project
One of the main differences between Excel and Grant Planner is not functionality.
It is workflow.
In a spreadsheet, everything is typically available from the beginning.
Grant Planner follows the sequence in which projects naturally develop.
First, define the project.
Then add the consortium.
Then build the work package structure.
Then define tasks, deliverables and milestones.
Then prepare the budget.
Finally, monitor implementation, governance and reporting.
The software evolves alongside the project rather than presenting every possibility at once.
Collaboration
Excel files are often shared through email, cloud storage or network folders.
While this approach works for small teams, it can become increasingly difficult as more contributors join the project.
Version management, conflicting edits and duplicated files are familiar challenges.
Grant Planner is designed as a shared project workspace where everyone works on the same project rather than exchanging multiple versions of the same spreadsheet.
Reporting
Producing periodic reports is one of the most time-consuming parts of project management.
With spreadsheets, reports often require copying information from multiple worksheets, verifying calculations and checking that every table remains consistent.
Grant Planner keeps project information organised throughout the project lifecycle, making reporting a natural continuation of day-to-day project management rather than a separate exercise.
Beyond Project Management
Grant Planner is part of the wider Grant 360 ecosystem.
Funding opportunities can be identified through Grant Radar.
Proposals are prepared in Grant Genius.
Projects are managed in Grant Planner.
Project documentation is organised in Grant Hub.
This continuity reduces the need to move information manually between different tools.
Which Solution Should You Choose?
Choose Excel if:
- you manage a small number of relatively simple projects;
- your existing spreadsheets already meet your needs;
- collaboration remains limited.
Choose Grant Planner if:
- you coordinate collaborative European projects;
- multiple partners contribute to project management;
- reporting and governance require increasing amounts of time;
- you want software designed specifically for Horizon Europe project workflows.
Final Verdict
Excel has earned its place as one of the most widely used project management tools in research organisations.
Its flexibility explains why so many institutions have built their own project management systems around it.
However, as projects become larger and collaboration becomes more complex, maintaining those custom spreadsheets often requires as much effort as managing the project itself.
Grant Planner takes a different approach.
Rather than asking every organisation to build its own project management system from scratch, it provides a workspace already organised around the way European collaborative projects naturally evolve.
For many teams, the question is no longer whether Excel is capable.
It is whether the time spent maintaining increasingly complex spreadsheets could be better invested in delivering successful projects.