5 Truths Why Excel Still Beats Qlik Sense in Meetings

If users export data from Qlik Sense, the issue isn’t Excel. It’s trust, speed, and explanation.

Author

Glenda Carnate
March 05, 2026

Read time: 2.5 minutes

The dashboard is loaded and the visuals look trimmed up quite nicely. A manager has leaned in and asked, "What happened to our revenue last month?"

There are some clicks through filters, the selections change, and the graphics all refresh. After doing this for almost a minute, we've all heard the BI response, "Can we get this into an Excel file?"

Five minutes later, we finally received the pivot table, and the conversation moved forward once again. The data was never the problem... it was conveying it promptly.

5 Harsh Realities: The Advantage of Excel Over Qlik Sense (and Solutions)

1️⃣ User Export = User Does Not Trust The Application.
Exporting is a synonym for validating something.
Solution: Establish standard KPIs with Master Measures and only publish Use Managed Spaces to publish one version of each metric.

2️⃣ Numbers Without Drivers Mean Nothing
Qlik displays data as totals, while Excel allows you to illustrate how those totals came to be.
Solution: Develop a Root Cause Analysis Sheet that includes how Variance against Plan, how Drivers of Results contributed to that result, and use Set Analysis + TOTAL to display that result with a Waterfall chart.

3️⃣ If Application Is Slow... Excel Wins
If there is a delay in obtaining data, there is no confidence in the application's integrity.
Solution: Implement QVD Layered Architecture, Pre-aggregate large Fact Tables, remove high cardinality Fields, Simplify Set Analysis.

4️⃣ Restrictions In Exploration Will Cause Users To Export
The desire to explore your findings drives a user to export when they feel they have no alternatives.
Solution: Create an Exploration Sheet using Alternate States, Bookmarks, and Curated Filters.

5️⃣ If No One Owns BI There Will Be Shadow Analytics.
If no one has an ownership interest in the application, then Excel will be used as an alternative.
Solution: Display the Owner of the Application, Refresh Status of the Application, and Support Contact for the Application on each application display.

💡Key Takeaway: 

Excel isn’t a competitor of dashboards... the main competitors are trust, speed and understanding.  

Users will always export data when they don't understand the reason “why” in Qlik Sense.

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