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Orchesia vs Excel: how far does a spreadsheet take a project?

Excel accepts whatever you put in it: its strength and its ceiling. Orchesia models the project (deliverables, dependencies, critical path) and derives the schedule from it.

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Excel can compute a schedule. You just have to write it, then maintain it

The spreadsheet is still the most widely used project management tool, and that is no accident: it is already installed, everyone can open it, and an empty grid accepts any method at all.

And Excel can do a great deal. A formula such as =MAX(predecessor finish dates)+1 propagates dates correctly, and a critical path can be worked out with earliest-date and latest-date columns. The limit is not what the spreadsheet can compute, it is that you have to write that logic yourself. It does not live in the tool, it lives in your workbook, and it survives exactly as long as someone can maintain it.

Excel vs Orchesia

FeatureExcel (shared file)Excel 365 (co-authoring)Orchesia
Starting pointBlank grid or a template found onlineBlank grid or a template found onlineProject breakdown (WBS)
Seeing the scopeRows indented by handRows indented by handDedicated mind map
Seeing dependenciesA text column, or formulas you writeA text column, or formulas you writeDedicated network diagram (PERT)
Critical pathPossible, if you programme itPossible, if you programme itComputed automatically
Float per taskNoNoTotal float and free float
Recalculation when a duration changesFormulas to maintainFormulas to maintainAutomatic
Gantt chartConditional formattingConditional formattingGenerated from breakdown and dependencies
BaselinesA copy of the fileVersion historyBaselines compared to the live schedule
Working at the same timeNo, one file per personYes, co-authoringYes, with presence cursors
Team workloadRebuild it yourselfRebuild it yourselfDedicated view, time off included
Tracking several projectsOne file per projectOne file per projectConsolidated portfolio
What happens when the author leavesThe formulas do not get picked upThe formulas do not get picked upThe model reads without its author

Is your delivery date already fixed? Orchesia also works backward from it. See backward planning software.

Four limits of a spreadsheet for project work

The project logic sits in your formulas, not in the tool

Excel handles cells, not tasks. Nothing stops it from propagating dates or computing float: you simply have to programme it, column by column. That work is redone whenever the structure changes, and every task you add means checking that the formula ranges followed. The calculation exists, but you are its maintainer.

The file does not outlive its author

The schedule always ends up being "somebody's file". That person knows how the tabs relate, what the formula in column M does, why row 47 is hard-coded. The day they move on, nobody picks the file up: a new one gets built. The project loses its history along with its structure.

Versioning replaces collaboration

Co-authoring exists in Excel 365, but the everyday habit is still sending files around. Everyone works on their copy, and the schedule starts existing in five versions: plan_v3_final_REAL.xlsx. Nobody knows which one counts, and the answer arrives in the meeting, too late.

A table does not show a structure

A grid reads row by row, in one direction. It shows neither the tree of deliverables nor the network of what blocks what. Those are exactly the two things a team needs to look at together to approve a scope. In front of a 200-row table, the scoping meeting turns into reading aloud.

A project model, not a file

What you enter once is used everywhere else.

Break the project down (mind map / WBS)

A tree of deliverables, built with the team on a view made for it. A parent activity's duration is derived from its children: you cannot announce a total that does not match the detail. See the WBS software and the WBS walkthrough.

Declare the dependencies (PERT diagram)

What blocks what, on a graph rather than in a text column. Orchesia detects cycles and redundant links, then computes the critical path and the float. See the PERT chart software and the full calculation.

The Gantt is derived, not drawn

The schedule comes out of the breakdown and the network. Change a duration and everything recalculates: earliest dates, latest dates, float, end date. A baseline freezes so you can compare the promised schedule to the live one.

Everyone on the same version, live

Several people work on the same mind map at the same moment, each cursor visible. There is no copy to merge, so no question about which file counts.

A spreadsheet stays useful for what it does very well: a one-off calculation, a budget, an export. The schedule is better off in a model the team can read without its author.

Three moments when a spreadsheet runs out

The project grows

Twenty rows fit in your head. Two hundred do not. Once dependencies start crossing, recalculating a date by hand becomes a job of its own, redone at every change.

The file changes hands

A departure, a leave, a reorganisation. A project model gets picked up; a workbook with its formulas and unwritten conventions gets rebuilt. That is the cost nobody sees coming.

Several projects need comparing

One file per project means one set of conventions per project. Nothing consolidates, team workload does not add up, and the overview is rebuilt by hand every month.

Is your delivery date already fixed? See the backward planning mode.

Where each one is strongest

Two tools, two uses.

Excel's strengths

  • Already installed, already paid for

    No purchase, no approval to chase. For a three-week project with two people, nothing beats it.

  • Everyone can open it

    No training, no account to create. A file goes to a client without asking them to sign up anywhere.

  • A grid accepts anything

    Budgets, invoicing, pivot tables, one-off calculations: a spreadsheet does things no project tool will ever do.

  • Nothing to leave

    The file will still open in ten years, with no subscription and no dependency on a vendor.

Orchesia's strengths

  • The project is modelled, not typed

    Deliverables, dependencies and durations form a network. The critical path and the float are derived from it, and recalculate on their own.

  • Two views for building together

    A mind map and a dependency diagram, both editable at the same time. A scoping meeting becomes readable.

  • A model that transfers

    The structure is explicit and shared. A successor picks the project up instead of rebuilding it.

  • Portfolio and workload

    Every project in one view, with real load per person and recorded time off.

A third of SMEs use no project management software

And among those that do, the majority want to switch.

  • 35%

    of SMEs use nothing beyond spreadsheets, email or paper

    Capterra 2018, 753 respondents, 250 in SMEs
  • 55%

    of employees equipped with project software are looking to change tool

    Capterra 2018
  • 2 to 15%

    of projects consistently apply a research-backed method

    PMI, Pulse of the Profession 2018

Simple pricing

30-day free trial. Then around €15 incl. VAT per user per month.

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  • Document storage
  • Real-time collaboration
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Frequently asked questions

For the scheduling part, yes. Orchesia replaces the project tracking workbook: breakdown, dependencies, critical path, Gantt chart and team workload. It does not replace Excel for the rest of what a spreadsheet does: detailed budgets, financial modelling, exports.

Because the project logic lives in formulas written by hand and understood by their author alone. Every new input, a task, a contributor, a milestone, means adjusting ranges and checking that nothing slipped. After a few months, maintaining the file costs more than rebuilding it, and that is what happens.

Co-authoring works. What does not work is that a spreadsheet does not know what a task is: several people can edit the same grid, but they are editing cells, and nothing recalculates. And in practice the schedule still travels as an attachment, which recreates the parallel versions.

Yes, and it is worth saying plainly: with earliest-date columns, latest-date columns and a float formula, a spreadsheet does this perfectly well. Budget several hours to build it, a revision every time the project structure changes, and a workbook nobody but you will be able to maintain. In Orchesia the calculation belongs to the tool and updates on every change of duration or dependency.

No. Orchesia offers no data import: not CSV, not Excel, not MS Project. You start from a project template or rebuild the WBS with the team, which usually takes less time than cleaning up an old file, and surfaces what was no longer up to date in it.

Orchesia has a backward planning mode: phases and milestones set from the delivery date, MoSCoW prioritisation, then workload spread cycle by cycle. See the backward planning software.

Yes. The trial runs for 30 days, no credit card, with every feature included.

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