Microsoft And Plaid Team Up On Financial Management Solution

Microsoft and Plaid have teamed up on the company’s new financial management offering, Money in Excel, the companies announced Monday (March 30).

“One of the earliest forms of ‘FinTech’ is a budgeting spreadsheet,” Plaid said in a blog post. “For years, people have relied on Microsoft Excel to budget and track expenses for their personal finances or businesses, typically copying data over from multiple sources. Money in Excel features a Plaid integration, and the new capabilities essentially turn the spreadsheet software into a FinTech app. It allows users to securely connect their financial accounts, import the data within them, sync balances and transactions over time, and, ultimately, gain greater insights into their financial health.”

The platform’s worldwide network coupled with its approachable API suite is meant to simplify the process of making new financial products and services for any company, regardless of the industry.

“Plaid has always focused on powering innovators,” said Plaid Chief Operating Officer Eric Sager in a separate blog post. “To date that has consisted primarily of developers at startups like Venmo, Square, Acorns, Blend, Dave and others. However, it might surprise people to learn that we are talking to more than 25 percent of Fortune 100 companies about serious FinTech initiatives. Like Microsoft, many of these larger, tech-forward companies have little to no role in financial services today but will likely help shape our FinTech reality for decades to come given their consumer footprint.”

The collaboration works by providing Plaid with a permissioned connection to financial accounts from the Plaid Link inside the Microsoft Money in Excel system.

Once the accounts are linked up, there will be access to transaction and balance history to help show an updated and whole financial picture.

There’s a Monthly Snapshot as well which will have personalized graphs and charts to help users better understand spending behaviors.

“Since the beginning, Plaid’s mission has been to make money easier for everyone, and that mission isn’t reserved for just financial services,” the post stated. “Money in Excel is a really interesting example of the type of experience we can expect to see more of in the future. Money in Excel will start to become available in the U.S. in the coming months.”