vs Excel & spreadsheets
Competitive pageYour job P&L should not live in a fragile workbook.
Excel is great for estimates. It breaks as a system of record for live costs, commitments, and change orders across jobs, PMs, and accounting.
- No credit card
- Company + admin in minutes
- Head-to-head vs Excel
The feature fight
Live job profitability — not last week’s tab
The feature fight is simple: can the whole team see budget vs actual by cost code today, without emailing a master file?
What Excel actually does
One PM owns the file. Formulas drift. Versions multiply. Commitments and COs live in email. Month-end is a rebuild, not a report.
What Marji does instead
Every job has shared budgets, cost entries, commitments, and approved COs. Portfolio margin is live — no “who has the latest file?”
Side-by-side
Marji vs Excel
Capability-focused comparison for contractors evaluating tools — not a full vendor review. Rows marked win are Marji advantages for mid-market job profitability.
| Capability | Excel | Marji |
|---|---|---|
| Budget vs actual by cost codeWin | Manual formulas per sheet | Built-in per job, always current |
| Multi-user, no version conflictsWin | File copies & “final_v7” | One tenant, role-based access |
| Commitments (POs / subs)Win | Separate tabs or email | Tied to job + cost code |
| Change orders revise budgetWin | Hope someone updates the sheet | Approve CO → revised budget moves |
| Field cost entry on phoneWin | Photo of paper / later data entry | Field app for PMs (/m) |
| Owner-facing progress reportWin | Custom workbook each time | One-click owner report, print-ready |
| Ad-hoc analysis / pivot | Excellent | Export + keep Excel for analysis |
| Cost to startWin | Already paid for Office | Free to start; minutes to first job |
Fair-use comparison for sales conversations. Features change; verify against current vendor docs for a purchase decision.
Why teams pick Marji
Outcomes that matter on real jobs
One source of truth
Office, field, and accounting look at the same job numbers — not three workbooks.
Margin before month-end
See overruns when costs post, not when the controller reconciles a dump.
Keep Excel for estimating
Use spreadsheets to bid. Use Marji to run the job.
Ready to stop rebuilding job cost in Excel every month?
Create a free company, add a job and budget, post a cost — and see live margin in minutes.
Create your free account