4 reasons to move from MS Excel® to addactis® IBNRS®

20/09/2023

Everyday life for a Reserving actuary consists of juggling data, set up calculations, adjusting formulas using Excel spreadsheets that have been used for years as a primary tool to assist in the execution of actuarial tasks.

However, the use of Excel® basic features can sometimes be time-consuming, complex, cumbersome and carry risks of generating data errors.

That’s why switching from an Excel spreadsheet to addactis® IBNRS® is no longer something that should be considered, but something your actuaries need.

For this reason, we are going to talk about 4 key reasons why implementing addactis® IBNRS® will benefit your business and automate your reserving process.

1. Optimize Time Management

The nature of actuarial tasks that is constantly evolving due to the combination of tasks such as advanced mathematics, data analysis and the need to communicate these results in an effective way, makes time-saving complex. The use of some tools such as Excel and its repetitive manual tasks does not help actuaries to save valuable time, especially while using the basic features of Excel and not the advanced version.

That is why the fast pace of the actuarial world demands fast and efficient solutions that help you automate the tasks and gain time.

New advanced solutions that allow you to optimize your loss runs reservings tasks, such as addactis® IBNRS®, a non-life reserving software, which incorporates a full range of deterministic and stochastic actuarial methods that can help actuaries save time.

2. Increase your Level of Automation

Adjusting manually formulas and calculations can be prone to errors, such as broken formulas, misplaced data etc.

Additionally, as the complexity of calculations increases, so does the difficulty of managing and updating the formulas. This manual process in Excel can be time-consuming and hinder productivity for actuaries.

By using our software, actuaries save valuable time by automating complex calculation tasks and reducing potential errors.

Instead of spending time and effort dealing with Excel and the risks associated with it, actuaries can focus their energy on analyzing the results, thereby enhancing efficiency and productivity.

3. Enhance Reliability and Efficiency

The use of Excel® may lead to errors and inaccuracies, making it a less reliable tool for actuaries through its manual process.

For example, adding a new project with different calculation methods or an extended development period involves tedious tasks like reformatting result tables and adjusting formulas.

These manual interventions increase the likelihood of errors and inconsistencies creeping into the adjusts all result tables, eliminating the potential for human error and ensuring seamless integration of the new project’s geometry.

addactis® IBNRS® simplifies project consolidation while offering increased reliability, enhanced security, and compliance with regulatory standards. This software eliminates the potential for human error and ensures seamless integration of the new project’s geometry.

4. Track changes and Increase your Data Security

By using Excel’s track changes feature, you can see which person added which content on which date and at what time but you need to enable revision tracking to begin tracking the evolution of your worksheet. If it is not invoked, the changes made by you to the sheet will blend in with the initial content and all the figures and calculation updates will not be well tracked.

As a result, tracking changes made by multiple users may have missing information, which automatically makes reviewing the spreadsheet quite difficult with incomplete history. So, that is why it’s impossible to meet your supervisor requirement of secured audit trail.

On the contrary, addactis® IBNRS® offers advanced tracking, audit trail and version management tools that can facilitate traceability and improve efficiency and security.

So, another reason that you should move from Excel® to an advanced Reserving solution is to be able to track changes and strengthen security in your actuarial tasks.

There are other limits while using the advanced features of Excel:

Even while using the advanced features of Excel, actuaries can also face sometimes some limits such as maintaining the code if the actuary leaves, the possibility of completely breaking the run of the macro if another user modifies the sheets, performance according to the level of optimization of the code, anticipating not only the scalability of the dimensions of the triangle but also the dynamicity of the amount of segments/nature of the flows…

In this case, our software can also be an alternative solution for advanced Excel by resolving other limitations, mentioned above, that we will talk about it later in our blog… Stay tuned.

Do you want to modernize your Reserving process with Addactis?

The use of Excel is not sufficient and efficient to meet all the needs in terms of reserving. The use of several excel spreadsheets to manage, track and monitor can become very complex and slow you down.

So, you need to rethink your manual reserving practices and what you can achieve with a more powerful, accurate and robust software.

The use of addactis® IBNRS® is key to keep your calculations efficient and your reserving robust and risk management optimal as well as cover future financial commitments.

addactis® IBNRS® is a tool developed specifically to offer an efficient, fast and accurate solution for performing all reserving calculations. It enables the implementation of Solvency II and IFRS 17 standards, thus guaranteeing compliance with regulatory requirements.

By using this software, you will benefit from advanced features such as stochastic reserving method, sensitivity analysis and projection of future reserves, Solvency 2 and IFRS 17 specific modules, IBNR calculation, and even an individual claims reserving method… 

Contact us today and get a free demo!