Optimizing Excel and OneDrive for Modano Models

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Michael Hutchens A+ 189
Optimizing Excel and OneDrive for Modano Models

Hi Guys,

It's come to our attention that recent changes to OneDrive and Excel's AutoSave functionality negatively impact the performance of Modano, so we wanted to post our recommended workarounds.

The 2 main things which impact performance are:

  1. OneDrive File Collaboration; and
  2. Excel AutoSave.

Both these things are designed to create a Google Sheets-like experience in the desktop version of Microsoft Excel, but for financial models can be extremely annoying.

This is especially the case with Modano workbooks, as Modano needs to save a bunch of information into the file during each save, which makes the save process longer than for more basic small spreadsheets.

Here's how to optimize each of these things:

Turn Off OneDrive File Collaboration

Turn off OneDrive file collaboration unless you have a good reason to have it turned on.

To do this, you need to go to OneDrive Settings, which is done differently depending on whether you're using the latest version of OneDrive.

Pre-September 2022

  1. Click or tap the OneDrive icon (cloud) in the taskbar or notification area.
  2. Select the Office tab within the Microsoft OneDrive dialog.
  3. Uncheck the Use Office applications to sync Office files that I open check box, as shown below:

From September 2022

  1. Click or tap the OneDrive icon (cloud) in the taskbar or notification area.
  2. Select the Sync and back up tab within the OneDrive Settings dialog.
  3. In Advanced settings turn off file collaboration.

We haven't seen this dialog yet within Modano but below is what it looks like. You can learn more by clicking this link.

OneDrive settings screen

Turn Off Excel AutoSave

When AutoSave is on in the latest versions of Microsoft Excel, your workbooks are saved every few seconds to facilitate real-time collaboration. You can learn more about it by clicking this link.

This functionality is annoying when building and using financial models without Modano, but more annoying when using Modano because Modano adds a second save step to store information about the dynamic parts of your financial model.

Hence, we recommend turning off AutoSave.

To do this, simply click on the AutoSave button in the top left of the Excel window, as shown below.

We also recommend turning off AutoRecover within the Save tab of the Excel Options dialog, which you can access via the File tab, Options button, as shown below.

Note that if Excel crashes, you can always try recovering your Modano models using the Modano Recover Files tool, which can be accessed via the Modano tab, Help menu, Recover Files.

We hope this helps, but please let us know if any of you experience any other performance hits as a result of changes to Windows, OneDrive and Office, and we'll keep the conversation going.

Best regards,

Michael Hutchens
Head of Software | Modano