Spreadsheets vs. Dryrun

This month’s School for SaaS tools article features are spreadsheets.
No big deal, right? Used by everyone from your history teacher for grading purposes to your accountant, to nurses, Microsoft Excel and its freeware sisters (we’re looking at you, OpenOffice, Google Sheets, and Libre Office) have shaped the conversation around modern accounting in many ways. However, spreadsheets aren’t a great forecasting solution.
We’re continually learning something about user’s perspectives on business intelligence and operational finance when writing these comparative articles! Potential customers and users also benefit from the data we gather into an easy to understand format.
If strategic business intelligence via forecasting is something you’re considering for this year, ask:
what should forecasting business cashflow look like?
What can cloud software do for my cash flow?
How will I increase cash coming in my business?
Be sure you review our other articles for software app comparisons across the industry.
First two steps to operative business intel: avoid risks and fix leaks. Click To TweetA global focus on forecasting and business intelligence tools is necessary in today’s economic climate. Cash flow management, financial intelligence and collaborative work helps every business work more efficiently.
Therefore, reading about other software solutions helps every apps offer is never a bad thing – it’s important that businesses and their accountants stay on top of software solutions that could reveal growth opportunities and lower risk.
Debuting below: Spreadsheets vs. Dryrun!
Spreadsheets vs. Dryrun
Excel is the granddaddy of the modern spreadsheet, however it has an even earlier predecessor. Born basically by accident at Harvard, the first spreadsheet was 5 columns wide and 20 rows long. It allowed the user to scroll rapidly through numeric data and calculate both laterally and vertically.
Ideally suited for businesses that need to trap a lot of raw data, spreadsheets have grown increasingly complex with a myriad of functions that can enhance their usefulness – there’s also no true size limitations to a spreadsheet as many a user has determined. On the other hand, Dryrun’s simple and efficient structure helps users record and visualize cash flow, budget and sales forecasts with the intent to extract meaningful business intelligence for operative next-steps.
Spreadsheet Overview
Every spreadsheet has a host of formulas and add-ons that increase the functionality of the program. They can be used together or independently to automate an almost unlimited number of processes and outputs. While Excel’s price-point and positioning has varied greatly over the years, you’d have to go a long way to find a business person, from start-up to enterprise, who hasn’t worked with the software. Increasingly, free options have the functionality of Excel but cloud options like Google Sheets push advanced sharing through the cloud.
Dryrun App Overview
Dryrun’s quick and simple – so what’s the catch? How about the quick modelling of either manually built or automatically imported data that can be as full or minimal as business owners require. Simple to build and iterate basically forever with no tweaking, you can overlay unlimited scenarios in order to get a visual sense of where risks or opportunities may be waiting along the timeline.
Dryrun’s daily imports from Xero and QuickBooks Online are easy and important time-savers for some users, while others import won and potential deals from Pipedrive to help your business development team shape sales outreach over the upcoming months.
Businesses and advisors who work in industries like agriculture, IT, manufacturing and other businesses with highly variable cash flow find Dryrun exceeds their requirements for forecasting software. Collaboratively or independently, stakeholders assess, monitor and update cash flow and sales forecasts to shape operative strategy.
Excel
Dryrun
Excel
Founded in 1987
Head office in USA
Desktop, Web, Android, iOS
Strength: Spreadsheet software to help track business data, highly customisable
Strength: Users gain business intel about their near-term operations by modelling sales and cash flow scenarios on a timeline
Forecast: Can be calculated using advanced functions
Budget: Can be calculated
Entry price: $59 USD
Premier Plan: $399+ USD; bundled
Free Trial with Office 365 annual subscription
Forecast: Strategic business intelligence using cash flow, budget & sales projections
Budget: Custom built budget
Standard of $59 USD/month
Business Pro price of $99 USD/month
Advanced: Advanced Collaboration for Advisors and Teams
$199 USD/month
30-Day Free Trial
Discount for billing annually
Integrations:
*Numerous
Integrations:
Xero
QuickBooks Online
Pipedrive
Blog
Video
Extensive knowledge base
Classroom and virtual learning
Customer support via forum
Live online support during extended business hours
Knowledge base, Training docs, 1:1 training
Unlimited phone and email contact during business hours
Features: Data entry, calculation, analysis, profit/loss, average value, max/min of data set, graphing, data format for ease of reporting, filter/sort, forecasting, sharing
Features: Map strategic next-moves, powerful and flexible “What If” scenarios for business insight, cash flow management and forecasting, build easy recurring budgets, track expenses, automatic data imports, billing and invoicing, multi-company, multi-project, prospectives and hypotheticals, business intelligence, version control, PDF/Excel export, easily collaboration.
Google Sheets
Dryrun
Strength: Cloud-based spreadsheet software to track raw data, highly customizable
Strength: Gain comprehensive business intel via cash flow, focus is on business health
Forecast: Can be calculated using advanced functions
Budget: Can be calculated
Entry price: Free
Forecast: Strategic business intelligence using cash flow, sales projections, and budget
Budget: Custom, flexible budget
Entry price of $19 USD/month
Premier Plan: Advanced Collaboration for Advisors and Teams
$59 USD/month
30-Day Free Trial
Discount for billing annually
Integrations:
*Numerous – quality varies
Integrations:
Xero
QuickBooks Online
Pipedrive
Blog
Video
Knowledge base
Some virtual learning
Forum
Live online support during extended business hours
Knowledge base, Training documents, videos, free 1:1 or team training
Unlimited phone and email contact during business hours
Features: Data entry, calculation, analysis, profit/loss, average value, max/min of data set, graphing, data format for ease of reporting, filter/sort, forecasting, sharing
Features: Map and forecast operations, powerful and flexible “What If” scenarios for business insight, cash flow management and forecasting, build easy recurring budgets, track expenses, automatic data imports, billing and invoicing, multi-company, multi-project, prospectives and hypotheticals, business intelligence, version control, image/Excel export, easily collaboration.
It’s easy to mistake business intelligence for data collection at first – while raw data has its place in business, planning operative strategy to ensure an accurate picture of future risks and growth opportunities is even more important.
Equipping everyone with spreadsheet capabilities like Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel in the age of bespoke cloud computing solutions can be a pricey and personnel-intensive move. By contrast, if you or your team are looking to supercharge your forward-looking strategy in an easy and secure manner (i.e. no cascading data entry mistakes) try Dryrun! We offer a no-hassle free trial.
Want to read other articles in our School for SaaS Tools Comparison Series? Find them here:
Spotlight Reporting vs. Dryrun
Next up in our series:
Tagetik vs. Dryrun