When we sat down with Christophe Wagner, Principal and Fractional CFO at torq.partners, the first thing he told us was simple but revealing:
“I'm an interim fractional CFO. I work together in the finance departments with CEOs and with finance teams that are very hands-on, shoulder to shoulder, even sitting next to each other at the desks.”
This is the vantage point from which torq.partners operates. Not external consultants looking in, but embedded operators who live the day-to-day pressures of scaling finance teams. Together, torq.partners and Abacum have been observing a clear shift: companies want to modernize their FP&A stack, but they fear breaking the workflows that have sustained them until now.
This piece reflects torq.partners and Abacum’s shared point of view on how to move from Excel to an AI-native FP&A system without losing flexibility, transparency, or control.
Listen to the full interview:
1. Why Excel Stops Scaling: The 3 Cs
Christophe frames the limitations of Excel using a simple but accurate structure:
Cadence
“People have to do faster closes, migrate to continuous planning, do rapid refocusing. And Excel is not really meant for that kind of pace.”
Finance now operates in weeks, not months. Continuous planning and high-frequency reporting stretch Excel beyond its structural limits.
Complexity
“You start with one product and one billing cycle, then annual payments, then a second product, a second customer group and all of a sudden it becomes super difficult to manage inside of Excel.”
The model grows, the business evolves, and Excel becomes increasingly fragile.
Collaboration
“Excel is kind of a single-player tool, but we live in a multiplayer world. People expect dashboards, and Excel does not do dashboards.”
As organizations become more data-driven, finance must enable (not gatekeep) insights.
2. The Real Cost of Staying in Excel Too Long
The issue with Excel isn’t philosophical, it’s operational. torq.partners sees the same pattern across companies:
Time Tax
“If you take 15 days to prepare the data and give the board their numbers 10 days after month-end, that data is already outdated by 15 days.”
Manual work directly erodes decision quality.
Structural Fragility
“You end up with a monolithic ecosystem of Excel files. If you change one thing, it breaks somewhere else.”
Minor edits become risky. New business logic becomes nearly impossible to add.
Key Person Dependency
“What ends up happening is that you have some sort of hacked-together Excel sheet that nobody besides the creator can understand and debug.”
This is one of the biggest risks torq.partners sees, both for continuity and trust.
3. A Shared Principle: Don’t Replace Excel, Reposition It
Both Abacum and torq.partners emphasize this:
A modern FP&A system is not an Excel replacement.
Christophe echoes this directly:
“Excel lives really well at the edge of your data stack. It’s still very good for modeling, a scratch pad, ad hoc sharing.”
The goal is to elevate Excel to its ideal role:
exploratory modeling
sandbox thinking
quick calculations
ad-hoc data exports
Not as:
a database
a reporting engine
the company’s system of record
This shift is subtle but transformative.
4. What Needs to Be Preserved When You Move to a Modern Stack
When torq.partners advises companies, there are non-negotiables:
Transparency
“Black boxes are bad in finance.”
AI can assist, but it cannot replace explainability.
Every number needs to be traceable to its drivers and sources.
Ad-Hoc Flexibility
“You want to be able to do quick pivots and quick slices and dices without needing a PhD to drive it.”
A modern FP&A system should feel familiar, not foreign.
Rows and Columns Still Matter
Christophe uses Jacob’s Law from UX:
“People prefer new things that work similar to the old stuff. There’s a reason why people like spreadsheets and tables.”
A modern interface shouldn’t reinvent how finance thinks. It should extend what already works.
5. How to Avoid the 12-Month Implementation Trap
One of the biggest pain points torq.partners sees is the temptation to migrate everything at once.
“Finance tends to see things in terms of outcomes, but you should really try to migrate one thing at a time so your time to value is super short.”
torq.partners recommended approach:
Start with one use case (usually actuals).
Even quick-and-dirty is fine at the beginning.
“Take your GL or trial balances. Put them in a Google Sheet and then connect it.”
Build initial dashboards fast to give teams something tangible.
Iterate and layer new processes gradually.
And the key insight:
“Even if it takes 12 months to migrate everything, you already benefit from the system in week one.”
Fast wins beat perfect migrations.
6. What “AI-Native” Actually Means (and What It Doesn’t)
Torq draws a clear distinction between tools that have AI and tools that are AI-native.
“AI native means sometimes I don’t even notice I’m interacting with AI because it’s so deeply embedded in the workflows.”
This is the difference:
Not AI-Native | AI-Native |
|---|---|
A chatbot bolted on the side | AI built directly into planning workflows |
Black-box forecasting | Transparent, guided insights |
Manual reconciliations | Automated mapping, matching, suggestions |
“AI as a feature” | AI as part of the design |
This aligns tightly with Abacum’s product philosophy — AI that enhances work without replacing expertise.
7. Why torq.partners Often Recommends Abacum
When torq.partners evaluates FP&A tools, the criteria are clear:
Integrations to eliminate manual updates
Collaboration features to strengthen finance’s role
Low total cost of ownership (no six-figure implementations)
Intuitive UX
AI integrated into real workflows
Christophe summarized the Abacum experience this way:
“I jumped in without any onboarding and was able to get it up and running. It feels like a love child between SQL and Excel in the best possible way.”
That balance — structure + flexibility — is exactly what torq.partners looks for.
Conclusion: The Real Advantage of Moving Beyond Excel
What torq.partners sees across companies of all sizes is consistent:
Moving from Excel to a modern FP&A stack isn’t about transformation for its own sake.
It’s about enabling finance teams to finally work the way they’ve always wanted to.
As Christophe puts it:
“It’s more insights, it’s less manual work. You finally have the infrastructure to do the job you want to do, not the job you have to do because your systems are lagging behind.”
That’s the shared mission of torq.partners and Abacum:
To upgrade the finance stack without compromising what already makes finance teams effective.
