Planful vs Botkeeper

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Our analysts compared Planful vs Botkeeper based on data from our 400+ point analysis of Accounting Software, user reviews and our own crowdsourced data from our free software selection platform.

Planful Software Tool
Botkeeper Software Tool

Product Basics

Formerly Host Analytics, Planful is a financial planning and analysis cloud platform. It accelerates end-to-end FP&A. Suitable for midsize to large-scale businesses, it helps by centralizing data and managing financial and operational processes.

It helps users plan and manage reviews, approvals and submissions and generates workflow status reports to check the performance of every department. It helps analyze asset performance by using financial budgeting and forecasting techniques with its capital planning feature. It is a scalable solution that allows companies to check the effect of projects on the overall bottom line.
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Botkeeper is a bookkeeping automation solution that uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to provide bookkeeping and pre-accounting functions to accounting firms and their clients.

It eliminates duplicate entry and manual errors associated with manual bookkeeping. Its human-assisted artificial intelligence functions help accounting professionals make well-informed decisions with meaningful visualizations and analysis of important financial data.
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$1,250 Monthly
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Tailored to your specific needs
$155/Entity, Monthly
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Tailored to your specific needs
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Chromebook
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Knowledge Base
24/7 Live Support
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24/7 Live Support

Product Insights

  • Conduct Ad hoc Analysis: Simplify complex ad hoc analysis by quickly creating financial and operational models while simultaneously checking the impact of these models on the bottom line. 
  • Close Books Faster: Decrease the time it takes to close books by automating data collection, aggregation and validation. Make data secure and compliant with standards and protocols.  
  • Improve Collaboration: Collaborate in a more efficient manner with current data and real-time insights. Get the power to make quick and accurate decisions with more confidence.  
  • Get Insights: Make well-informed decisions by gaining insights from across an organization to drive long-term value and growth. Automate manual processes to gain more time for strategic planning processes, analyzing and collaborating rather than worrying about spreadsheets.  
  • Automate Manual Processes: Save time and reduce errors by automating manual financial processes. Ensure that all financial processes are done with minimum manual effort and run more efficiently.  
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  • Easy Deployment: Flexible platform that comes with a wide range of third-party application integrations that streamline deployment.  
  • High Data Security: Ensures data security by applying 256-bit data encryption, ensuring the user’s data is safe during storage and transmission. 
  • Simplified Reporting: Without restricting any data capabilities, it offers unlimited custom reports to give businesses the freedom to track all financial activities.  
  • Extensive Functions: The ScanBot tool lifts financial data directly from receipt photos. Save, view and customize documents with the document manager and generate reports with the report builder. 
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  • Modern Tools: Combine the need for structured and dynamic planning to empower organizations to make well-informed decisions in a quick and strategic manner.  
  • Financial Consolidation: Accelerate month-end closing cycles with financial consolidation. Enhance financial planning and reporting by leveraging data from a single source of truth. Get pre-built consolidation functionality for currency conversion and reporting, currency translation adjustment calculations and posting. Implement functional, administrative and setup changes without the need for IT experts. Boost teams’ agility when reacting to changes in organization, strategy, regulation and accounting protocol. Ensure trusted and consistent global reporting by automatically mapping financial data. Keep tabs from start to end on balances, and analyze financial data across consolidation activities.  
  • Structured Planning: Save time and reduce errors by automating labor-intensive financial planning activities. Avoid costly and disruptive customization fees, save time and reduce risk of error with predefined planning and reporting templates. Automate integration from any ERP, CRM or HCM. Create a single source of financial truth by automatically collecting, aggregating and validating financial data. Ensure consistency and accuracy by creating and modifying structured financial reports and elevating financial conversations. 
  • Dynamic Planning: Analyze, plan and make confident decisions with dynamic planning. Build custom-tailored financial models. Leverage customization across processes, functions and use cases. Configure planning experiences and give users the flexibility to plan for anything. Connect data sources from separate systems in one unified, cloud-based platform. Boost financial decision making with a single source of truth. Get insights and make course corrections with real-time data refreshing. Inculcate companywide collaboration culture by providing the right data at the right level to the right person.  
  • Integration: Automate data integration to reduce manual intervention and easily transform data with over 200 pre-built connectors. Adjust to automatic data processing with a growing integration platform. Check status and activity of deployed integrations from a centralized place. Ensure data integration process flows are repeatable, automated and secure, and provide audit trails required by internal and external auditors. Understand changes in data with multiple validation points across integration workflows. 
  • Reporting: Leverage reporting formats and delivery options to meet financial, management and ad hoc needs. Ensure data accuracy and transparency with self-service reporting and automated report distribution. Automate collection and aggregation of financial and business data into a single cloud-based platform. Ensure everyone is working with current and accurate information derived from a single source of truth. Boost financial IQ with self-service reporting capabilities. Create a more agile environment with impactful financial decision making. 
  • Annual Operating Plan: Build collaborative financial plans that align with business objectives. Turn annual plans into quarterly or monthly rolling forecasts, and check models for different scenarios to determine how to realign and adjust strategies.  
  • Workforce Planning: Plan accordingly for workforces by connecting HR, finance and operational data together. Create a headcount plan that can be adjusted to changing marketing requirements. Gain insight to build winning strategies and utilize employees as strategic assets. Boost financial IQ to understand and influence impacts on the financial health of workforce costs.  
  • Cash Flow Forecasting: Assess the impact of decisions by gaining complete control and visibility over finances. Reallocate cash by identifying trends and understanding levers. Mitigate cash flow risk by adjusting investment opportunities.  
  • Scenario Analysis: Analyze every option by planning across multiple case scenarios and assessing key drivers. Bring agility by optimizing current period results. Gain the flexibility to discover deeper insights across a broad range of models. Align executives and business partners with data-driven decisions. Check the impact of plan changes from every level with immediate results. 
  • Rolling Forecasts: Adjust to sudden changes, keep forecasts current and business agile with continually rolling planning periods. Automatically keep tabs on the impact of actuals on forecasted trends. Improve risk analysis by quickly identifying opportunities and risks as business landscapes evolve. Align rolling forecasts by collaborating across different departments. Gain real-time insights to redirect resources and priorities and align them with business objectives.  
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  • Integration: Securely connect financial and non-financial data with one click. Saves time, reduces cost and eliminates the possibility of errors. 
  • Bank Authorization: Get real-time access to bank feeds for complete transparency into bank and credit accounts. No more pestering clients for authentication.  
  • Invoice Management: ScanBot streamlines and simplifies invoice management with automation. Scan and upload receipts, invoices, expenses and sales contracts to sync them directly with the client’s books.  
  • Automated Transaction Categorization: Based on the client’s historical data, it automatically categorizes data with machine learning.  
  • Customizable Dashboard: The customizable dashboard provides helpful financial and non-financial data insights on a single centralized platform. Create a report with data visually tailored to the client’s needs. 
  • Fixed Asset Management: Track and monitor fixed assets to lower maintenance costs and boost operational efficiency.  
  • Spend Management: Gain visibility into cash flows, reduce procurement costs, regulate compliance and boost operational efficiency.  
  • Expense Tracking: Manage and report business expenses, travel requests and reimbursements.  
  • Cash Management: Ensure optimum utilization of the organization’s liquid resources by collecting, handling and controlling where the cash is coming from.  
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Product Ranking

#116

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Accounting Software

#134

among all
Accounting Software

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User Sentiment Summary

Great User Sentiment 82 reviews
Great User Sentiment 135 reviews
86%
of users recommend this product

Planful has a 'great' User Satisfaction Rating of 86% when considering 82 user reviews from 2 recognized software review sites.

88%
of users recommend this product

Botkeeper has a 'great' User Satisfaction Rating of 88% when considering 135 user reviews from 2 recognized software review sites.

4.29 (41)
4.44 (68)
4.3 (41)
4.4 (67)

Synopsis of User Ratings and Reviews

Streamlined Financial Close: Planful helps automate routine tasks like data consolidation and report generation, which can significantly reduce the time it takes to close the books each month. This efficiency is often praised by users in fast-paced environments.
Improved Forecasting Accuracy: The platform's forecasting tools leverage historical data and predictive analytics to generate more accurate forecasts. Users appreciate this feature as it allows for better-informed decision-making and resource allocation.
Enhanced Collaboration: Planful provides a centralized platform for finance teams to collaborate on budgeting, forecasting, and reporting. This feature improves communication and transparency within the department, leading to more cohesive financial strategies.
Customizable Reporting: Users frequently highlight the ability to create custom reports tailored to their specific needs. This flexibility allows finance teams to analyze data from multiple angles and gain deeper insights into their financial performance.
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Ease of Use: Users praise Botkeeper's intuitive design and straightforward interface, making it easy to navigate and manage financial tasks, even for those without a strong accounting background.
Affordability: Botkeeper's pricing is often cited as a major advantage, offering a cost-effective solution compared to traditional bookkeeping services or hiring in-house staff.
Reliability: Users appreciate Botkeeper's consistent performance and accuracy in handling financial data, ensuring that their books are up-to-date and reliable.
Security: Botkeeper's robust security measures provide users with peace of mind, knowing that their sensitive financial information is protected from unauthorized access and cyber threats.
Scalability: Botkeeper's ability to adapt to the changing needs of businesses as they grow is a significant benefit, allowing users to easily scale their accounting processes without outgrowing the platform.
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Steep Learning Curve: Many users find Planful's interface to be complex and unintuitive, requiring significant time investment to learn the system's intricacies. The abundance of features can be overwhelming for new users, leading to frustration and a slow adoption rate within organizations.
Customization Challenges: While Planful offers customization options, implementing them often requires advanced technical skills or reliance on the vendor's professional services, which can be costly. This limitation can hinder organizations with unique workflows or reporting needs from fully tailoring the software to their specific requirements.
Reporting Limitations: Some users report that generating specific or ad-hoc reports can be cumbersome in Planful. The system's pre-built reports may not always cater to every organization's needs, and creating custom reports may require technical expertise or additional support.
Performance Issues: A segment of users has mentioned experiencing slow loading times and occasional system lags, particularly when working with large datasets or complex reports. This can impact productivity and user satisfaction, especially for organizations with high data volumes or demanding reporting requirements.
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Limited Functionality for Accounting: Some users have noted that Botkeeper's features are not as comprehensive as other accounting software, particularly for tasks like managing accounts payable and receivable.
Cost Concerns: Botkeeper's pricing structure, which is often subscription-based, has been cited as a drawback for some businesses, especially smaller ones with limited budgets.
Learning Curve: Despite being marketed as user-friendly, some users have reported a steep learning curve when initially navigating and utilizing Botkeeper's platform.
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Planful has garnered a reputation for its robust financial reporting and analysis capabilities, particularly excelling in budgeting, forecasting, and consolidation. Users appreciate the software's ability to handle complex financial models and its flexibility in generating custom reports. The platform's intuitive interface and user-friendly design have also been praised, making it accessible to both finance professionals and non-financial users. However, some users have noted that the initial setup and implementation process can be time-consuming and may require significant support from Planful's team. Additionally, while Planful offers a wide range of features, some users have expressed a desire for more advanced functionality in areas such as workforce planning and project accounting. Compared to competitors like Adaptive Insights and Vena Solutions, Planful stands out for its comprehensive financial consolidation capabilities and its ability to handle large volumes of data. Its reporting and analytics tools are also considered to be more user-friendly and customizable. However, Adaptive Insights may be a better choice for organizations seeking a more cloud-based solution with stronger integrations with other business applications. Vena Solutions, on the other hand, may be more suitable for companies with complex financial modeling needs due to its Excel-based interface. Overall, Planful is best suited for mid-sized to large enterprises with complex financial reporting and analysis requirements. Its strengths lie in its budgeting, forecasting, consolidation, and reporting capabilities, making it an ideal choice for organizations looking to streamline their financial processes and gain deeper insights into their financial performance. However, companies with limited IT resources or those seeking a more cloud-based solution may want to consider alternative options.

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Is Botkeeper the keeper of your business's financial sanity? Last year, users gave Botkeeper mixed reviews. Some users found Botkeeper's automated bookkeeping features, like invoice processing and expense tracking, to be a major time-saver, freeing them up to focus on other aspects of their business. They also appreciated the software's user-friendly interface and integrations with popular accounting software. However, other users reported experiencing technical glitches and inconsistencies in the software's performance. Some users felt that Botkeeper's customer support was lacking, with slow response times and difficulty getting issues resolved. A key differentiating factor for Botkeeper is its use of artificial intelligence (AI) to automate bookkeeping tasks. This AI-powered approach is designed to improve accuracy and efficiency, but some users found that the AI was not always reliable and required manual intervention. Overall, Botkeeper seems best suited for small business owners who are comfortable with technology and looking for a way to automate basic bookkeeping tasks. However, businesses with more complex accounting needs or those who require highly responsive customer support may want to consider other options.

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