One of the things that isn’t shut down during the COVID-19 crisis is our imagination — which may have gone into overdrive this week.

Case in point: the picture that formed in our mind when we learned about Microsoft, the gigantic technology company founded in 1975, coming together with Plaid, the fresh-faced fintech that allows users to connect their bank accounts to an app.

We’re picturing a few folks in starched suits stepping out of a black town car for a sit-down with their counterparts in zip-up hoodies. There’s probably a foosball table in the meeting room, and maybe cold brew coffee on tap. Naturally this meeting took place weeks ago because, you know, social distancing. 

Regardless of whether our mental picture is close to real life, what is real is the goal to turn Excel into a fintech app.

The new personal finance tool would allow people to import their bank and credit card account data in order to manage, track, and analyze their finances and keep track of their spending habits. Called Money in Excel, the app would also offer personalized insights and proactive alerts about price changes for recurring payments, bank fees, and overdraft warnings.

On the heels of its acquisition by Visa, we imagine this could be one of several upcoming announcements from Plaid related to expanding its focus — which in the past has primarily been on powering developers at start-ups — to large tech providers with little to no financial services footprint.