Anyone using Excel professionally on Mac via Parallels? (VBA, Power BI, large financial models)

Hi everyone,

I’m a financial controller working with heavy Excel models (FP&A, financial infrastructure, large datasets, pivot tables, VBA, etc.).

Right now I’m using a MacBook Air M4 with 24GB RAM, but Excel for Mac has some serious limitations for my workflow. I often deal with:

• Large spreadsheets
• Complex formulas
• Pivot tables
• VBA/macros
• Power BI
• SQL integrations

Because of that, I’m considering running Windows through Parallels so I can use the full Windows version of Excel and Power BI.

However, before investing in a new machine (possibly a MacBook Pro with more RAM), I wanted to hear from people who actually work like this.

For those using Mac + Parallels for professional Excel work:

• Does Excel run smoothly?
• Any performance issues with large financial models?
• How much RAM do you allocate to the VM?
• Does VBA run without issues?
• Can you comfortably run Power BI in the Windows VM?
• Any noticeable slowdown compared to a native Windows machine?

My workload is pretty Excel-heavy (financial modeling, dashboards, large datasets), so stability and performance are critical.

Would really appreciate hearing about real-world setups and experiences.

Thanks!