--- title: "Macabacus Reviews, Pros and Cons - 2026 Software Advice" description: "Reviews of Macabacus. Learn how real users rate this software's ease-of-use, functionality, overall quality and customer support. Talk to our advisors to see if Macabacus is a good fit for you!" source_url: "https://www.softwareadvice.com/accounting/macabacus-profile/reviews/" page_type: "reviews" language: "en" --- 1 million+ businesses helped. Get advice Get Free Advice [Home](https://www.softwareadvice.com/) / [Budgeting Software](https://www.softwareadvice.com/accounting/budgeting-forecasting-software-comparison/) / [Macabacus](https://www.softwareadvice.com/accounting/macabacus-profile/) / Macabacus Reviews Software Advice offers objective insights based on verified user reviews and independent product and market research. When our advisors match you to a software provider, we may earn a referral fee. [Overview](https://www.softwareadvice.com/accounting/macabacus-profile/) Reviews [Alternatives](https://www.softwareadvice.com/accounting/macabacus-profile/alternatives/) # Macabacus User Reviews ## Reviews summary - Overall rating: 4.7/5 - Total reviews: 85 ### Secondary ratings - Ease of use: 4.5/5 - Customer support: 4.3/5 - Value for money: 4.6/5 - Functionality: 4.7/5 ### Rating distribution - 5 stars: 60 reviews (71%) - 4 stars: 24 reviews (28%) - 3 stars: 1 reviews (1%) - 2 stars: 0 reviews (0%) - 1 star: 0 reviews (0%) ### Most mentioned pros - The key bindings make my workflow so much faster when modelling, and having the ability to link data into presentations and word docs has already made me thousands of dollars for minutes of work, add in the financials and click refresh, and investor updates are done! - Its model checking feature is also a game changer and gives greater conficence in one's created models (if you have the time to run it). - Macabacus saves me lots of time formatting, model auditing, and general navigating in Excel. ### Most mentioned cons - at times when the files are huge using Macabacus could delay the speed and at times the model will hang. - You have to be careful when performing certain actions as it can slow down/crash your workbook if you give it too much to do. - In macabacus, this is not the case and makes trace precedent for index matches almost useless. ## Macabacus customer reviews Showing reviews 1-25 of 85 (page 1). ### Good time saver for routine tasks - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Sergej S. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Financial Services - Company size: 51-200 employees - Product usage: Used daily for less than 12 months - Reviewed: August 2023 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros The features I use the most in day-to-day work are the library with corporate templates for slides/pictures (PowerPoint) and a corporate colour palette. #### Cons Sometimes I experience technical problems (e.g. linking tables in PowerPoint to Excel spreadsheets) --- ### Macabacus Review - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Jason W. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Banking - Company size: 5001-10000 employees - Product usage: Used daily for less than 2 years - Reviewed: February 2025 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by the software vendor to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. Good overall experience. Macabacus saves me time on Excel and PPT by providing shortcuts to functions that otherwise would take up a large amount of time, #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros Timesaving shortcuts such as autocolour, quick CAGR and align across table for PPT #### Cons Excel sometimes not being able to load because of the Macabacus add-on taking time to load --- ### Review of Macabacus - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Edward C. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Financial Services - Company size: 51-200 employees - Product usage: Used daily for more than 2 years - Reviewed: August 2023 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 3/5 - Value for money: 3/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros Macabacus has extremely comprehensive Excel functions (Tracing dependents, 'super' search, keyboard shortcuts) and in PPT is just as helpful (Copying format, shape sizes, aligning sizes, importing pictures from Excel) #### Cons I find Macabacus slower in large workbooks, especially relative to other Excel plugins, which render it sometimes almost unusable and frustrating --- ### Macabacus and CFI rock. - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Aerock H. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Financial Services - Company size: Self-Employed - Product usage: Used daily for more than 2 years - Reviewed: December 2024 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by the software vendor to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. 10/10 in all things. They have a website and a YouTube channel where you can go and learn new ways to do things faster amd more efficiently. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 4/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros The key bindings make my workflow so much faster when modelling, and having the ability to link data into presentations and word docs has already made me thousands of dollars for minutes of work, add in the financials and click refresh, and investor updates are done! #### Cons I wish more features were available an a single license. They would be very useful for building my brand. --- ### The Definition of a Sticky Service - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Investment Management - Company size: 201-500 employees - Product usage: Used daily for more than 2 years - Reviewed: August 2023 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. If my company stopped paying for Macabacus, I would pay for it out of pocket. I can not use excel without it anymore. It is the most useful and powerful tool I have and I use it literally all day every day. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 4/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros The excel functionality, shortcuts, formatting tools, exporting, literally everything in excel. This is the most powerful and intuitive tool I've ever used. It is a must have for modeling and data analysis. It enables you to audit complex sheets while building new ones with ease. #### Cons The worst thing about macabacus is the name! Other than a slightly difficult name to say, it is amazing. I do wish building some of the content libraries and graphics in ppt were a bit easier to do, but its a very small nit on what is otherwise an easy and powerful tool. --- ### The absolute go-to tool for excel modeling in high finance jobs - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Financial Services - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: Used daily for less than 2 years - Reviewed: August 2023 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. We use this daily in my job in private equity and it makes my entire job and ability so much quicker and smoother. I wouldn't be able to work as efficiently without it. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 4/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros Macabacus's key strength is that it allows you to very quickly format your data and enhance excel's native tools. While this doesn't sound like much, it's a game changer. I don't have to spend time thinking whether or not my data is presentable, and I know that if I have to track through an advanced model, I'll be able to easily do it. There's no way I could do my job as quickly or efficiently without it. #### Cons The only thing that I don't like is that some of hte native features take a bit of getting used to, and the learning curve is pretty steep, but after that, it's smooth sailing. --- ### Best plugin for modeling - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Computer Software - Company size: 51-200 employees - Product usage: Used daily for more than 2 years - Reviewed: August 2023 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. It saves me time and helps me make my final product look better. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros The shortcuts available save me an incredible amount of time. It takes a bit of time to get everything set up but it is well worth it on the backend. #### Cons Nothing. I think everything works well across MS Office --- ### Financial Modeling Comment - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Investment Management - Company size: 51-200 employees - Product usage: Used daily for more than 2 years - Reviewed: August 2023 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. Macabacus is amazing when you learn how to use it, however the learning process is long and sometimes too difficult to junior people. I'll recommend to give some video tutorials to begineer and new users. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 3/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 4/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros quick formulas such as CAGR, common errors detections, charts template, #### Cons How to standardize slide on templates, how to quickly link textboxes on ppt and excel --- ### Thoughts Around Macabacus After 2 Years of Use - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Electrical/ Electronic Manufacturing - Company size: 11-50 employees - Product usage: Used daily for more than 2 years - Reviewed: August 2023 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. My overall experience has been great and Macabacus has improved my productivity. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Value for money: 4/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros For powerpoint, I utilize the formatting shortcuts daily and find it to be the most useful tool. For excel, I mainly use macabacus for precedent and dependent tracking. However, there are other good tools such as shortcuts for formatting. #### Cons The interaction between powerpoint and excel through Macabacus can be unreliable and I believe the excel functionalities via Macabacus can be advertised better and have clearer use cases. --- ### Very positive user experience - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Luca S. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Investment Management - Company size: 51-200 employees - Product usage: Used daily for less than 6 months - Reviewed: August 2023 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. Very positive experience, which I would recommend to anyone from intern to associate at IBs or PEs #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros Very easy to use, extremely powerful to save time while using excel for modelling purposes and allowing for very useful functionalities #### Cons Sometimes makes my laptop a bit slow, but only with large files #### Reasons for switching to Macabacus Macabacus was provided by my new company --- ### Good Platform Tool - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Manav S. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Financial Services - Company size: 51-200 employees - Product usage: Used daily for more than 2 years - Reviewed: August 2023 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. Overall a super helpful tool #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros Helps a ton with formatting data in excel and outputting #### Cons Some of the features can be glitchy or not work with other plug ins --- ### Great Product For Financial Modelling - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Tomaso G. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Real Estate - Company size: 11-50 employees - Product usage: Used daily for more than 2 years - Reviewed: August 2023 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. Very good experience. Cannot model without #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros Shortcuts and programmable macros are great. Track precedents and dependents is also essential for my work. #### Cons Nothing in particular comes to mind. I think I use macabacus much less than I should for some things but haven't had time to learn --- ### Helpful for Data Production, Clean-up, and Visualization - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Renee Z. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Financial Services - Company size: 501-1000 employees - Product usage: Used daily for less than 12 months - Reviewed: August 2023 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. I overall am a fan of the tools and plan to continue using them in the future #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 3/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros The ability to create a clean and professional presentation is significantly augmented by my use of these tools #### Cons There is a little bit of a learning curve with Macabacus. It's not the easiest to use initially, but once you get the hang of it, it's hard to go without it. --- ### Best suite of excel addins - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Jack O. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Real Estate - Company size: 11-50 employees - Product usage: Used daily for more than 2 years - Reviewed: August 2023 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. Awesome experience. Couldn’t imagine using excel without it #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros Precedent tracking and shortcut re-assignment. Can’t use excel without it! #### Cons Sometimes breaks and needs to be reinstalled --- ### No 1 Productivity Tool for Financial Modelers - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: John S. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Transportation/ Trucking/ Railroad - Company size: 51-200 employees - Product usage: Used daily for more than 2 years - Reviewed: August 2023 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered Simple and pleasant to use #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 4/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros Improved shortcuts, improved formula management and auditing #### Cons Support to create VBA code would be a fantastic addition --- ### Great product - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Jeff H. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Investment Management - Company size: Self-Employed - Product usage: Used daily for more than 2 years - Reviewed: August 2023 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros Macabacus is easy to download and integrate into my workflow. As a financial analyst, I require customization and ease of use in my excel shortcut plug-ins and Macabacus has always been a reliable resource for me. #### Cons It would be great to have more affordable pricing for individual users like myself. --- ### Essential Tool - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Diego L. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Oil & Energy - Company size: 10000+ employees - Product usage: Used daily for less than 12 months - Reviewed: August 2023 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros My favorite feature is the link tracing feature which is multilayered. Makes data integrity review seamless. #### Cons There can be bugs or times that it is for some reason not functioning correctly and I have to reset my computer or start a new file. Also, it has some interference with the Cap IQ plugin. --- ### Great Product for Financial Modeling - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Bobby W. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Financial Services - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: Used daily for less than 12 months - Reviewed: August 2023 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros Customization of hotkeys and shortcuts. Able to have multiple libraries. #### Cons Settings sometimes don't save when I add a new shortcut or edit one. --- ### Extremely helpful for navigating between office - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Idan E. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Financial Services - Company size: 51-200 employees - Product usage: Used daily for less than 2 years - Reviewed: August 2023 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 4/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros Live presentation linking to .ppt from .xlsx and formula tracing are unrivaled features in the market #### Cons Occasionally plug-in simply disappears and needs to be restarted --- ### Macabacus Feedback from IB Analyst - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Ritik M. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Financial Services - Company size: 201-500 employees - Product usage: Used daily for less than 2 years - Reviewed: August 2023 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. Fairly positive #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 2/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros Ease of use and pasting into PPT has made using Macabacus great #### Cons Incapable of use with S&P Capital IQ is the worst part with Macabacus --- ### Macabacus - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Juan G. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Logistics and Supply Chain - Company size: 501-1000 employees - Product usage: Used daily for more than 2 years - Reviewed: August 2023 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Value for money: 2/5 - Customer support: 4/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros For tracing dependents and precedents is great and for importing charts to PPT #### Cons Very frequent updates where I have to close all Office windows --- ### Great software with lots of functionality - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Ni L. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Investment Management - Company size: 201-500 employees - Product usage: Used daily for less than 2 years - Reviewed: September 2023 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Value for money: 4/5 - Customer support: 4/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros Lots of helpful functionalities that substantially increases efficiency. Allows for many keyboard shortcut customizations including autocolouring, tracing, number formatting, etc. #### Cons There were difficulties with billing/integration with enterprise accounts and personal accounts. --- ### Must have for excel modeling - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Shaan B. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Real Estate - Company size: 51-200 employees - Product usage: Used daily for more than 2 years - Reviewed: August 2023 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros Saves several hours a week of formatting / formula tracing #### Cons Nothing of note, the only thing missing is some customizability --- ### Fantastic productivity tool - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Alberto E. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Investment Management - Company size: 11-50 employees - Product usage: Used daily for more than 2 years - Reviewed: August 2023 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros The keyboard shortcuts accelerate my Excel work at least 5x. #### Cons It would be great to get similar productivity tools for Powerpoint. --- ### Marc's Review - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Marc D. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Real Estate - Company size: 1001-5000 employees - Product usage: Used daily for less than 12 months - Reviewed: August 2023 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. Very good. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros I really like the formula clean up functionality. #### Cons I have one very big complaint comparing Macabacus to factset in regards to tracing precedents. In factset, the final trace is always the actual result of the cell (e.g. in an indirect or an index match it will go to the cell that is the value pulled). In macabacus, this is not the case and makes trace precedent for index matches almost useless. ## More reviews [Next reviews](https://www.softwareadvice.com/accounting/macabacus-profile/reviews/?page=2) --- Macabacus Reviews, Pros and Cons - 2026 Software Advice