# Excel: how AI models rank it, September 2026

Finance AI Recommendation Index, September 2026 Edition. Named in 16 judge labels across 5 categories by 8 of 12 models. Page: https://finance-ai-index.com/vendors/excel/

## Standing by category

| Category | Share | Rank | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Corporate tax provision | 0% | 98 | 86% | 7 |
| Fixed asset accounting | 0% | 93 | 100% | 4 |
| FP&A platforms | 0% | 25 | 0% | 2 |
| Revenue recognition | 0% | 76 | 100% | 2 |
| Financial close management | 0% | 21 | 0% | 1 |

## What the models said for it

- "Excel or Google Sheets can be a good starting point before moving to a more specialized tool" (Mistral Small, FP&A platforms)
- "Use Excel/Smartsheet if your budget is extremely tight and your close process is simple." (Qwen 3.7 Flash, Financial close manageme)

## And against it

- "Many companies rely upon Excel for calculating their provision for income taxes, but many limitations exist when trying to use Excel to accurately calculate income taxes under ASC 740." (Claude Haiku 4.5, Corporate tax provision)
- "Excel-only / manual provision processes: Bloomberg Tax warns that manual methods and spreadsheet-heavy processes create key-person dependency" (Perplexity Sonar, Corporate tax provision)
- "Spreadsheets (Excel, Google Sheets, etc.) | Prone to formula errors, no built-in audit trail, hard to reconcile, poor compliance" (MiniMax M2.5, Fixed asset accounting)
- "Standalone Spreadsheets (Excel) ... spreadsheets are widely considered the highest risk for revenue recognition errors." (Qwen 3.7 Flash, Revenue recognition)

## Record

- Method: https://finance-ai-index.com/methodology/
- Raw judge labels and full responses: https://finance-ai-index.com/data/
- License: CC BY 4.0. Cite as Finance AI Recommendation Index, September 2026 Edition, finance-ai-index.com.