Deckary for PowerPoint
Create and edit slides with AI. Describe your topic, attach data, and get polished slides — automatically using your brand fonts, colors, and layout.
See what every formula actually depends on.
Click a cell. The Deckary tracer tokenizes the formula, color-codes every input, shows the live value of each one, and lets you drill into nested chains — without arrows cluttering your sheet.
Start for Free
14-day free trial. No credit card required.
Our users work at companies like
Deckary helps consulting & industry firms to build better presentations
Bidirectional binding
A debugger for spreadsheets, not a set of arrows
Excel's native tracer draws lines on top of the grid. Deckary turns the formula itself into the inspection surface — every input is a colored chip wired to a numbered row, with its live value next to it.
Numbered chips
Every input is a colored chip in the formula
Live aggregates
See each input's contribution in tabular numbers
Drill 3 levels
Walk nested chains, breadcrumb keeps you oriented
Inline diagnostics
Volatiles, errors, external refs flagged in place
Sheet1!D14
$10,634,400
=SUM(1B2:B6) + 2Sheet2!C10 * 1.2
Depends on 2
Used by 1
1
Sheet1!B2:B65×1
Feeds Sheet1!D14
- Total
- 8,860,000
- Type
- 5-cell range
Sum of 5 numeric
2
Sheet2!C10formula
Feeds Sheet1!D14
- Value
- 1,478,667
- Formula
- = COUNTIF(Leads, "won") * AvgDeal
- Type
- Formula cell
Click a chip to jump · trace dependencies 3 levels deep
Risk surfacing
What you reach for it for
The tracer earns its keep on the workbooks you didn't build, the formulas that don't add up, and the audits you have to ship — surfacing every risky pattern in the formula card itself.
Inherit a model
Learn an unfamiliar workbook in minutes
Debug a wrong number
Spot the input that's off at a glance
Pre-ship audit
Catch hardcodes and volatiles before you send
Read a long expression
Tokenized formulas beat the formula bar
Sheet1!E26
#REF!
= IFERROR(INDIRECT("A1") * 1.085, [Q3.xlsx]Sales!B2)
#REF! error — referenced cell was deleted
Volatile · INDIRECT — recalculates on every change
Hardcoded constant · 1.085 — buried in the formula
External link · Q3.xlsx — breaks if file moves
Tracer vs. arrows vs. dedicated audit suites
Excel ships with arrows. Inquire and Macabacus ship with audit panels. Deckary ships with the binding between formula and data.
| Feature | Deckary Formula Tracer | Excel Trace Arrows | Excel Inquire Add-in | Macabacus Pro Audit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Inspection | ||||
| Tokenized formula with chips per input | Yes | No | No | No |
| Live aggregate value next to each input | Yes | No | No | No |
| Click an input to drill into its precedents | Yes | Limited | Limited | Yes |
| Drill up to 3 levels deep without losing context | Yes | No | No | Limited |
| Highlights volatile functions inline | Yes | No | Limited | Yes |
| Flags external workbook refs in the formula | Yes | No | Limited | Yes |
| Surfaces formula errors as red chips | Yes | No | No | Limited |
| Keeps the grid clean — no arrows on the sheet | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
Try it on the model nobody wants to inherit
Install the Deckary add-in, click any cell, and the tracer is open. Read-only — safe on production workbooks.
What our users are saying
Consultants, finance teams, and operators use Deckary to finish PowerPoint and Excel work faster.
Deckary feels like AI built for PowerPoint, not another presentation app I have to export from.
James
Senior Consultant
I can go from Excel analysis to a client-ready chart slide without rebuilding everything by hand.
Edwin
FP&A Manager
Deckary gives me the AI speed I want, with the native PowerPoint output my clients expect.
Carla
Management Consultant
Deckary replaced three separate tools for me: AI slides, charts, and PowerPoint productivity.
Alvin
Corporate Strategy Lead
For recurring board updates, I can clean the model, create the chart, and polish the slide in one workflow.
Ruben
Finance Director
It is the first slide AI tool that also helps with the last mile of deck production.
Jen
Independent Consultant
One add-in for the whole workbook
The same Deckary subscription that runs the formula tracer ships the agentic AI Excel agent, AI slide editing for PowerPoint, brand control, and consulting-grade charts.
Deckary for Excel & Word
Build and edit financial models with AI directly inside Excel. Generate formulas, analyze ranges, and audit workbook logic.
Consulting Charts
Create customizable waterfall, bar, and Mekko charts. Add growth arrows, delta indicators, reference lines, and more.
Timelines
Turn project data into editable Gantt charts and timelines. Customize time scales, milestones, colors, and sizing.
Icons & Images
2,000+ icons auto-suggested by AI based on your slide content. Country flags and AI-generated images included.
Shortcuts
Align, distribute, swap, and resize — keyboard shortcuts used by top consulting firms.
Frequently Asked Questions
How the Excel formula tracer works
A formula tracer is a tool that visualizes the relationship between a cell's formula and the cells that feed into it (precedents) or depend on it (dependents). Excel ships with a built-in version that draws blue and red arrows on the grid. Deckary's tracer lives in a side pane: it tokenizes the formula, color-codes every range reference, shows the live aggregate value of each input next to its address, and lets you drill down through nested formulas without losing your place.
Excel's native tracer draws arrows on top of the grid. The arrows show direction, but they hide the values, clutter the view, and only work one cell at a time. Deckary keeps the inspection in a pane next to your sheet: you see the formula tokenized with each input as a colored chip, the live value of every input listed next to its address, and you can click any chip to jump to that input or expand it to see its own precedents — up to three levels deep. The grid stays clean.
That's the main use case. Click any cell in a workbook someone else built, and you immediately see what it depends on, what depends on it, what hardcoded constants are sitting inside the formula, whether it uses volatile functions like INDIRECT or OFFSET, and whether it pulls from external workbooks. Drilling through the precedent tree is how you learn an unfamiliar model in minutes instead of hours.
Volatile functions (CELL, INDIRECT, NOW, OFFSET, RAND, RANDBETWEEN, TODAY, INFO) — recalculate on every change and hurt performance. External workbook references — break when the linked file moves. Formula errors (#REF!, #VALUE!, #N/A, etc.) — surfaced inline in the formula text. Hardcoded constants are extracted and counted so you can spot magic numbers buried in long formulas.
Three levels of nested precedents or dependents. That covers almost every model you'll encounter without overwhelming the pane. For deeper exploration, click any input to make it the active cell — the tracer follows you, and a back link lets you return to where you started.
Yes. For any multi-cell input that fits in a reasonable budget, the pane shows a live aggregate — sum, count of numerics, count of text values, count of errors — right next to the input's address. You don't have to click into the range to see what it's contributing.
No. It's read-only. It loads ranges, formulas, and number formats; it never writes back. Safe to use on production models, client deliverables, or workbooks you don't own.
Excel for Windows, macOS, and Excel on the web — anywhere the Deckary add-in runs. Direct precedents need ExcelApi 1.12; direct dependents need 1.13. Both are in current Microsoft 365. Older perpetual versions of Excel will see a one-line message indicating the host is out of date.
Yes. The formula tracer and the AI Excel Agent ship in the same Deckary add-in. One install, one subscription, both tabs in the same task pane.