Fabric Planning: Is This Microsoft’s Excel Moment for Budgeting and Forecasting?
Session Overview: In March 2026, Microsoft launched Planning in Fabric IQ, bringing budgeting, forecasting, and scenario modeling natively into the Fabric platform. If you own any part of your organization’s planning process, especially in finance, you probably already have questions. Does this replace Anaplan or Adaptive? Where does Excel still win? How does consumption-based pricing change the math for mid-market organizations? And what does “preview” really mean when your CFO asks if this is production-ready?
Learning Objectives:
1. Understand Fabric Planning’s three components (Planning, Power BI, Intelligence) and how they deliver budgeting and forecasting on top of your existing Fabric environment.
2. Evaluate where Fabric Planning fits against traditional FP&A tools and Excel by comparing its current capabilities, pricing model, and maturity.
3. Identify practical next steps for exploring Fabric Planning, including prerequisites, early-fit use cases, and what to watch as the product moves toward general availability.
Speakers: Khaled Chowdhury
Recorded at: Community Summit NA 2026
Type: Education Session
Ability Level: 201 – Intermediate
Primary Product: Microsoft Fabric
Tracks: Artificial Intelligence (AI), Automation, Business Intelligence (BI) & Reporting
Terms: All rights reserved by the speaker, Community Summit NA, and Dynamic Communities and cannot be reproduced or distributed without express written consent by the speaker and Dynamic Communities.
