DealRoom over Excel

Vs.

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A head-to-head comparison of DealRoom’s purpose-built M&A software vs. Excel’s generic spreadsheets.

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Why M&A Teams Choose DealRoom Over Excel

Purpose-Built for M&A Workflows

Built from the ground up for M&A teams, DealRoom comes complete with workflows for pipeline tracking, due diligence, and integration planning. DealRoom helps deal teams focus on executing deals instead of using generic spreadsheets as catch-all documents.

Automate Your Deal Process

DealRoom automates tasks, tracking, requests, reminders, and reporting so your deal process can scale without adding spreadsheets, manual tasks, or operational overhead.

Centralized Platform, Not Siloed Spreadsheets

Excel consists of individual files and workbooks. DealRoom centralizes pipeline tracking, due diligence, secure data rooms, collaboration, and integration planning into a single platform. Say goodbye to countless spreadsheets, scattered trackers, and endless email threads.

DealRoom vs Excel: The Breakdown

Features
Winner
User Limit
Unlimited Users
Varies by plan (individual to enterprise; multiple collaborators supported, including real-time co-authoring)
Tie
Pricing
Clear and fair value-based pricing based on deal volume
Detailed Pricing
Free online basic version; advanced features available through Microsoft 365 subscription (Excel Personal/Business)
Interface
User-friendly; platform is easy to understand and use
Familiar spreadsheet layout; customizable views
Tie
Deal Sourcing
Enhances pipeline data with native target intelligence + Pitchbook Integration available
No native deal sourcing capabilities
Technical Stability
No technical issues
Stable with regular performance improvements (fast calculations, dynamic arrays, etc.)
Tie
Mobile Experience
Available
Available (iOS & Android via Excel mobile)
Tie
Diligence Management
Allows users to create requests which automatically link to data room and streamline seller’s workflow
Users can organize and structure their data with templates, but no diligence workflow built in
Integration Management
Plan your integration with customizable fields for integration planning. Track synergies/cost savings and manage integration milestones. Collaborate with multiple teams inside a single deal.
Can track integration tasks with spreadsheets and templates, but no native workflows or tools built into Excel for integration planning.
Customer Support & Resources
Known for white-glove support with a dedicated customer success manager. Resource library includes tutorials, deal insights, and webinars.
Support through Microsoft docs. Training is available through support and product learning centers. Copilot assistance within the Excel app.
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Multi-Project Automation
Make multiple updates across different deals at once
Supports macros, Power Query automation, and formulas for multi-sheet workflows
Playbooks
Expert-built playbooks available for free
Not specifically playbook-driven (templates available, but not deal playbooks)
Data Room
Easy-to-use VDR that connects directly to diligence with in-text search, redacting capabilities.
Not a VDR; stores files in sheet/workbook form
Permissions
Granular and easy-to-set-up permissions
Excel supports sharing permissions via OneDrive/SharePoint
Reports
BI Reporting through Looker, easy to build, download, and auto-schedule report delivery. Also, get an In-house BI specialist to assist in report creation
Built-in charts, pivot tables, Power BI integration, and dynamic reporting, but requires knowledge and setup
AI Capabilities
Build custom deal playbooks and extract key insights from contracts with DealRoom AI
Copilot in Excel assists formulas, insights, summarization, and analysis; Python integration & dynamic arrays
Multi-Language Support
Available
Supports multiple languages and regional formats
Tie
Task/document review workflows
Assign assignees, reviewers, and external stakeholders
Can track tasks via spreadsheet templates; no built-in workflow
Synergy Tracker
Available with custom fields
Not native; can build trackers manually with fields

What This Means for You

  • Excel is a tool. DealRoom is a platform built for Buyer-Led M&A™. Excel is just a tool that you can use to help you do deal work. But Excel wasn’t designed for managing M&A transactions. DealRoom is an end-to-end M&A platform designed specifically for pipeline management, diligence, workflows, and reporting. It allows your team to automate and streamline your deal processes without having to cobble custom workflows together using spreadsheets.
  • DealRoom has built-in deal workflows, not spliced together templates. Replace spreadsheets, trackers, and manual to-do lists with dynamic diligence workflows, embedded playbooks, reviewer assignments, and automation that saves you time manually coordinating and follow-up.
  • You can update dozens of deals at once, not rewrite macros and formulas. DealRoom’s multi-project automation updates multiple deals at once. Doing it in Excel requires custom macros, formulas, or a Power Query setup that you need a developer to build and maintain.
  • Teams collaborate with the right people and security, not cumbersome manual sharing. With advanced permissions, role-based access, and integrated VDR, teams can share only what they need to. There’s no trying to manage version control and permissions for dozens of people on a spreadsheet.
  • Reports can be generated quickly and operationalized. Looker-powered BI reporting, on-demand or scheduled reporting, and access to an in-house BI specialist mean DealRoom makes insights simple to create and share. No need for Excel mastery or full-time Power BI professionals.
  • Build AI workflows for deal activities and documents. DealRoom’s AI was trained on M&A deal activities like contract analysis, diligence, and playbooks. It’s not trying to be a jack-of-all-trades productivity AI.
  • You have access to deal experts. DealRoom’s customer success managers are experts at helping teams work faster and avoid expensive errors. When was the last time Microsoft Office helped you close a deal?

See DealRoom In Action

Say goodbye to spreadsheet chaos and reduce friction on your deals. Learn how DealRoom can streamline your deals in under 3 minutes.

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What Real Users Say

Don’t just take our word for it. Here’s how deal teams, advisors, and corporate development professionals rate the experience across platforms. 

“The process with the Excel tracker would probably take me forty-five minutes to an hour. Once we switched over to DealRoom, fifteen to twenty minutes, so it's a significant time-saver."
Tyler Rodewald
VP Mergers and Acquisitions, EIS Holdings LLC
“Normally we would work through data room preparation by exchanging an excel tracker back and forth with our client management team. With DealRoom, we haven’t had to exchange an excel tracker even once."
G2 Review
Verify >
“The less noise there is, the easier it is for people to engage in the process."
Harrison Thomas
Chief Growth Officer at Beacon Specialized Living Services
“There are a lot of cool features for Excel, but it takes a lot of time and effort to learn how to use some of those features or get to know all of the formulas. It gets complicated quickly if you go past the basics."
G2 Review
Verify >
“Compared to using Excel, it's a night and day difference. You have everyone's work in front of you, even ahead of the meetings, so you can prepare adequately and make the deal status calls much more productive."
Jim Ackerman
Vice President, Corporate Development at Flex
“Excel can have a steep learning curve for some users, particularly those who are not familiar with spreadsheet software. Moreover, it can also slow down or crash when working with particular complex spreadsheets."
Capterra Review
Verify >

Features Loved by 250+ M&A Teams

Purpose-built features designed to replace spreadsheet madness with a deal process that’s faster, cleaner and more collaborative.

Complete Deal Lifecycle

Manage your complete deal lifecycle, from sourcing to diligence to post-close integration, without juggling disjointed tools or awkward workflows.

Built-in Intelligence

Eliminate tedious manual tasks with AI that can auto-assign tasks, extract data from docs, and highlight your next steps—all so you can move your deals forward faster.

Check DealRoom AI in Action

Layered Permissions

Set permissions by room, folder or request level to ensure sensitive data is always shared with appropriate stakeholders and nothing more.

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Centralized Communication

Keep all of your docs, tasks, comments, and conversations in one central location so your team never has version confusion or loses track of who said what.

Automate Manual Work to Save Time

Automate the spreadsheets, maintenance of trackers, and manual follow-ups with workflows that save your team time throughout the deal process.

Custom Reporting & Dashboards

Gain visibility into deal progress, activity and risk with live dashboards and automatic reports that you can schedule to deliver on time, every time.

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Switching from Excel to DealRoom? Here’s What You Gain

  • Multiple spreadsheets, folders, and email threads are replaced by one complete platform
  • Granular controls and permissions with unlimited users
  • Accelerate your diligence process with automated request lists and real-time task tracking
  • Gain visibility into integration and execution of projected synergies post-close
  • Workflows are built around deals, and pricing is transparent, not hidden in endless modules and upgrades

You’ve Compared. Ready to See It in Action?

Already compared tools? Meet with us to see why deal teams love DealRoom. Schedule your personalized demo.

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Frequently asked questions

Is Excel good enough for managing an M&A pipeline?

Excel is good enough for an M&A pipeline while deal volume is low and one person owns the file. Problems start when several deals run at once: copies drift, stage changes have no timestamp and leadership asks for status by email. DealRoom's Pipeline gives each deal a card with customizable phases, custom fields and a timestamp on every stage move, which feeds BI Reporting automatically. Outlook and Gmail add-ins log emails to the deal and the AI suggests field values from them.

What are the risks of running due diligence in Excel?

The main risks of running due diligence in Excel are version conflicts, lost context and weak control over who sees what. A request tracker passed between buyer, seller and advisors shows status as of the last save, documents live somewhere else and sharing is managed through OneDrive or SharePoint links. DealRoom keeps requests, documents, comments and findings in one room with permission groups, a view-as-seller check and an audit log of every upload, so the record holds up months later.

How much does DealRoom cost compared with Excel?

Excel is included with a Microsoft 365 subscription and a basic version is free online, so the licence cost is low; the cost of Excel in M&A is the manual tracking, re-keying and follow-up that fall on the deal team. DealRoom is priced by project rooms opened, with unlimited users, unlimited pipeline usage and no per-page or overage charges; AI is an add-on. DealRoom reports a 50 percent reduction in people hours per deal for its customers. Packages are at https://dealroom.net/products/pricing.

Can I export DealRoom data back to Excel?

Yes, DealRoom exports to Excel. BI Reporting, built on Google Looker, lets you export any dashboard or report to Excel and schedule delivery by email to internal or external recipients, so board packs and lender updates keep their existing format. Out-of-the-box dashboards cover pipeline by phase, funnel, durations and productivity; a DealRoom BI specialist can build custom dashboards at no extra cost. An open API is available for teams that want to pull data into other systems.

Does Copilot in Excel do what DealRoom AI does?

Copilot in Excel helps with formulas, formatting, summaries and analysis of the data already in a workbook. DealRoom AI works on the deal documents themselves: summary templates pull the same fields from many contracts at once with a link to the page, chat across the data room returns cited answers and says when the documents do not contain one and the AI Document Organizer files bulk seller uploads. It only analyzes documents the user is permitted to see and DealRoom does not train on customer data.

When should a corporate development team move off Excel?

A corporate development team should move off Excel when it runs three or more deals a year, often concurrently, while senior dealmakers spend most of their time coordinating rather than deciding. Other signs: institutional knowledge left with a departed colleague; headcount stayed flat while deal targets rose. DealRoom is built for repeat acquirers: request lists, permission groups and integration plans become templates; every deal adds to a record of playbooks, risk tolerances and lessons learned.