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One coherent Python workspace
Microsoft =PY()
Python is authored as formulas in worksheet cells.
Boardflare notebook
Code, Markdown, intermediate results, diagnostics, charts, and controls live together in one reactive notebook.
Python for Excel
A reactive notebook integrated with your workbook
A different approach to Python in Excel
Microsoft puts Python in cells. Boardflare puts Python in a notebook.
Microsoft Python in Excel uses =PY() formulas in worksheet cells. That is a natural fit when you want native Microsoft integration and the Python calculation belongs in the grid.
Boardflare uses a reactive notebook as the primary Python surface. That model is useful when the Python work benefits from being developed and understood as one coherent program.
Neither model is universally better. They organize the Python work differently.2
Excel can consume the notebook
Microsoft =PY()
A Python formula returns its result to the worksheet cell that contains it.
Boardflare notebook
The notebook can publish selected results to Excel and expose centralized Python logic through BF.FUNCTION().
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The notebook can be the interface
Microsoft =PY()
Python is authored and invoked through the worksheet cell model.
Boardflare notebook
The same notebook can contain controls, charts, tables, and explanations, then be presented more simply in App Mode.
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Portable Python source
Microsoft =PY()
Python code is represented through the workbook's Python-cell model.
Boardflare notebook
The notebook is represented as Python source, so the code can participate in normal review, diff, backup, and version-control workflows when you use them.
Portable source describes the notebook architecture. Boardflare does not currently claim a complete built-in Git synchronization workflow.
Where the notebook model helps
Use one notebook when the Python work has multiple moving parts.
These examples are useful because the analysis is easier to build, inspect, explain, and reuse as a coherent notebook—not simply because they use Python.
See all examples and templates →Revenue Forecasting
Keep a multi-step forecasting model, diagnostics, simulation, charts, and reusable projection logic together instead of spreading the Python across worksheet locations.
View example →Close Reconciliation
Use one reactive notebook for cleanup, control checks, exception logic, review outputs, and workbook-facing results.
View example →Inventory Planning
Combine constraints, scenarios, controls, optimization logic, and explanations in a notebook that stays connected to workbook inputs.
View example →One implementation, worksheet-wide reuse
Write the complex calculation once in Python. Call it from Excel.
BF.FUNCTION() lets the notebook own the implementation while worksheet users call that implementation where they need it. The Python does not have to be repeated across the cells that use it.
Notebook source
bf.publish(functions={'project_arr': project_arr})
Worksheet use:
=BF.FUNCTION("project_arr", A1, B1)Other Boardflare products
Focused tools for other spreadsheet workflows.
Try the notebook approach in Excel.
Open the notebook beside a workbook, connect live Excel data, and see whether a notebook is the better home for your Python work.