Here’s how to power up your Pigment experience with Sheet View

Pigment’s Sheet View feature seamlessly blends the planning platform with spreadsheets. Here are all the ways you can get started.

Névine Ismael

Topic

Pigment news

Published

January 31, 2023

Read time

6 minutes

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Reflect on the nature of business planning. What are some words that come to mind?

  • Collaboration
  • Flexibility
  • Integration
  • Timely and confident decisions
  • Better and faster results

I'm Névine, Product Marketing Manager. And I work for the best business planning platform in the world, Pigment.

Pigment gives our customers the super powers mentioned above and more. To add to the experience, we just enhanced it with our new feature, Sheet View.

Read on to learn all the ways Sheet View powers up Pigment with a familiar spreadsheet environment to supercharge integrated business planning like never before.

A fully editable spreadsheet version of all your data

Sheet View lets you access a spreadsheet experience on-demand where you can format and restructure your data, perform side calculations, and use the ever-familiar formulas you love — all within Pigment.

In other words, this feature is a fully functional spreadsheet within a powerful business planning platform.

It’s not an add-in or a third party app. It’s not a workaround of any kind. It’s a spreadsheet sandbox environment.

With the click of a button, you can convert any chart, data table, or model component into a spreadsheet view. You can then:

  1. Do as many side calculations on your data as you like
  2. Use your favorite Excel formulas on the data with cell-level inputs
  3. Feed the results of your calculations back into your Pigment model

Sheet View is a game changer for Pigment's users, making it the first ever business planning platform that integrates a fully editable spreadsheet. This feature gives you the ability to quickly and easily process data, perform side calculations, use excel formulas, and more - all within the same platform.

A space to let your ideas breathe without fear of judgment

If you’re like me, you have at least two versions of all your calculations.

One version you present to the world, cross-checked, tidied up, and accurate. And the other version where you unleash your wildest ideas!

This freedom to let ideas come to life is one of the reasons why Finance and Revenue teams love spreadsheets so much. Now, you can experience this flexibility and freedom without compromising on the many benefits of integrated business planning platforms, such as:

  • Increased efficiency by streamlining business processes
  • Improved communication and collaboration among teams
  • Automation of mundane tasks to free up time for more complex work
  • Integrated analytics to gain valuable insights into operations and performance
  • Accurate forecasting and projections for more informed decision-making

The flexibility of a spreadsheet with the safety of enterprise-grade security

Let’s talk data security.

Before I discovered Pigment (and significantly improved my life 😉), I had endless versions of the same spreadsheet on my computer’s desktop.

Apart from how confusing this system tends to get, it’s also a terrible practice for data security.

Sheet View comes with the advantage of being embedded within Pigment — and that means all our enterprise-grade data security applies to this feature, too.

If you’re not already familiar, we’re SOC 2 Type 2, SOC 1 Type 1, and SOC 3 compliant. We conduct regular audits to identify and address any vulnerabilities and encrypt data both at rest and in transit, only allowing access to authorized personnel.

We comply with all applicable laws and regulations related to data protection such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). 

In the case of any potential security breaches, we have an effective incident response plan that is immediately enacted, notifying relevant authorities and our customers at once. Moreover, strong access controls are enforced and employees receive regular training on data security matters so they understand its importance as well as how to recognize potential threats.

We are constantly reviewing and updating our security measures in order to stay ahead of those threats and ensure that our customers always benefit from maximum protection.

In short, you can focus on building the models of your dreams while we protect your data with utmost scrutiny.

Preserve your flow mindset with seamless data flow

Have you ever experienced the zen-like state of flow?

The flow mindset is a way of thinking that encourages us to focus on our actions, rather than the outcome. It's about doing things for the joy of the experience itself, and not worrying too much about succeeding or failing.

I personally love to draw, but I used to be so caught up in trying to make perfect illustrations that I would start hating it after a while. Once I started letting go of my expectations and just focused on the process of drawing without worrying about perfection, the whole experience got more enjoyable again.

Sheet View helps you preserve a similar state of mind. You no longer need to tweak your view, export the data just for side calculations, and import it back into Pigment.

Everything — ad hoc calculations, conditional formatting, cross-checks, last mile reporting — can happen in the same platform where you build your strategic plans.

Dos and don'ts of Pigment Sheet View for the best experience

Dos Don’ts
Carrying out quick, ad hoc calculations Performing main, complex calculations
Cross-checking your work Switching back to spreadsheet models
Brainstorming Making your model dependant on a Sheet View calculation

Remember, Sheet View is a personal scratchpad to complement your Pigment models. Pigment is far more capable and powerful compared to spreadsheets.

However, it doesn’t hurt using Sheet View as a change management tool, especially when transitioning your executive team to viewing reports in Pigment.

Three ways the FP&A team can use Pigment’s Sheet View

Business users and executive leadership: cross-check or quickly calculate a figure in a familiar environment. See the raw data behind charts or tables in a spreadsheet environment.

Head of Finance or CFO: leverage forecasting flexibility and granularity while staying in their comfort zone for on-the-fly calculations and data checks.

FP&A manager: blend a financial modeling system with a spreadsheet to accelerate reporting and win buy-in from the analyst team.

This feature is built for you. Its main purpose is to make your life easier and give you what you need to deliver results and make faster, more confident decisions.

Learn more about Pigment’s Sheet View.

Also, my team would love to chat with you about Sheet View and Pigment’s other outstanding features — just shoot us a message and one of our experts will reach out to you ASAP. 

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