ScaleFactor vs IBM Planning Analytics

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

ScaleFactor Software Tool
IBM Planning Analytics Software Tool

Product Basics

ScaleFactor provides an intuitive module that runs accounting, tax and finance tasks to provide accurate data to businesses and make strategic decisions. Accounting and finance solve how modern companies operate by automating complex accounting tasks and converting financial information into valuable data. It allows capturing expense details and categorizing them. It tracks regular cash flow and keeps a tab on the patterns to identify any abnormalities and notifies the accountants of the same. It seamlessly integrates and syncs information across applications in real time and keeps a tab on the entry to avoid any duplication.
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IBM Planning Analytics is a multidimensional in-memory database for analytics and planning. Part of the IBM Analytics Suite and powered by TM1, it provides forecasting, budgeting and reporting at an enterprise scale through data compression. With all data connected to a central hub, it enables collaborative planning with workflow approvals and review protocols in place. Enterprises perform OLAP analysis faster through in-memory technology.

Integrating with Microsoft Excel, it gives businesses the ease and familiarity of working with spreadsheets with the power of an enterprise database. With automated time-series modeling, it enables self-service predictive analysis. The vendor offers a 30-day free trial.
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$399 Monthly
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Tailored to your specific needs
$825 Monthly
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Tailored to your specific needs
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Product Insights

  • Tax Season Ready: Avoid mismatched transactions and forgotten expenses with books updated in real time. Keep the businesses ready for the tax season. 
  • Better Accuracy: Ensure all data is accurate and the bookkeeping process gets done in a secure and reliable manner with the help of certified accounting experts. 
  • Comprehensive Management: Manage back-office operations like reviewing the team’s expenses, paying bills and double-checking payrolls to ensure everything runs smoothly. 
  • Live Dashboard: Access information that the business needs regarding bookkeeping, be it classifying transactions, updating a general ledger or seeing mobile alerts and notifications via a live dashboard. 
  • Reports: Recognize revenue and account transactions accurately. Use data to help make the right decisions for profit and loss statements, journal entries and balance sheets. 
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  • Maximize ROI: Save time for analysis of trends, business performance and results by creating project plans faster. Reallocate budget and resources by leveraging deep insights into business performance and market trends. Collaborate with others on a single, unified platform with total transparency and visibility into business data, available for all plans. 
  • Boost Sales: Win more business opportunities – boost annual sales quotas and deal sizes through end-to-end sales workflows. Grow revenue and reduce time to insight with robust sales analytics. Track campaigns for performance monitoring in real time and deep dive into data for buying behavior and customer churn analysis. 
  • Financial Planning and Analysis: Optimize the business’ performance through valuable financial insights. Ensure the business is on track by creating and managing plans, budgets and forecasts. Simplifies the budgeting process through real-time calculations with automatic application of business rules. 
  • Optimize Supply Chain: Create more accurate demand forecasts, get a clearer view of the resources and budget required to fulfill projected demand and update production plans accordingly. View historical data and drill down into summaries for deep-dive analysis and add visuals to spot key KPI trends. 
  • Workforce Planning: Increase the workforce’s efficiency by acquiring and retaining skilled employees at the right time. Effectively manage staff schedules, task assignment and performance tracking through workforce analytics and HR planning tools. 
  • Deploy Anywhere: Access the same data from everywhere with the flexibility to deploy on-premise, in the cloud or as a combination of both. 
  • Scalable: Build and change plans flexibly in real time to match business requirements. Scales with increasing data volumes, number of users and planning models, without impacting existing workflows and performance. 
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  • Seamless Integration: Integrates with QuickBooks Online and Xero to significantly reduce the time spent on accounting. Give the business time to spend on tasks that matter by eliminating financial bottlenecks. 
  • Virtual Bookkeeping Software: Categorize transactions across the account that are awaiting review or approval. Send them to the designated recipient so the business is up to date with the accounting tasks. 
  • Dashboard: Help the company understand where the money is coming from and where it’s going with an easy-to-navigate dashboard. Give a quick overview of the business’s financial health to devise effective strategies to steer ahead. 
  • Payroll: Leverage Gusto, a full-service payroll processor that runs operations on the same page where the books get managed. Set multiple pay schedules and add all types of employees. Adjust payroll where needed. 
  • Bill Payment: Simplify paying the bills. Forgo entering all details in the payment system. Powered by bill.com, it efficiently manages all payments from the same place where the book gets processed. 
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  • Architecture: Leverage a three-tier client-server architecture that includes a database, application server and front end, with data stored centrally in the OLAP server. 
    • TM1: Employs an efficient data compression algorithm to enable faster planning and analytics. Create business models by combining multiple data sources with manual input for effective decision-making. 
  • Workspace: Create and access all plans and forecasts through its web-based interface. Grant role-based access to team members down to cell-level granularity. Collaborate on plans through chats and cell comments in the workspace. 
    • Data Visualizations: Choose from a rich library of visualizations to apply that includes bullet charts, waterfall charts, treemaps, word clouds and more. Input data intuitively to specific slots through drag-and-drop actions, and customize fonts and styles for personalized branding. 
    • Books and Views: Access related data in the form of web sheets, scorecards, videos and embedded web pages from a single interface. Leverage defined selections of a data cube — views — for analysis and data exploration, and export as an Excel worksheet. 
  • Performance Tracking: Compare targets with actual results, and with actual performance over time. Quickly find the desired metrics and create visually compelling scorecards such as impact diagrams, strategy maps and custom diagrams. Add existing scorecards to books and analyze data over different periods, metrics and dimensions. 
  • Data Modeling: Autonomously build a financial model by converting business requirements into cubes, dimensions, hierarchies and calculations. Transform and load data easily into a financial model, without the need to code. 
  • Sandbox Environments: Work in a sandbox to manipulate data as needed in real time without impacting actual data. Compare different scenarios and test assumptions to see the impact of potential decisions. 
  • Microsoft Excel Integration: Go beyond what spreadsheets can do – perform multi-dimensional analysis and big data exploration within the Excel interface, retaining its full functionality and formatting. Find answers to business questions by creating reports from Cognos TM1 through interactive drag-and-drop actions. 
  • AI-Based Automation: Speed up planning cycles and get more reliable results. Create plans, forecasts and budgets through automated model creation, natural language processing and cognitive analytics. 
  • On-Demand Module: Generate dynamic dashboards from existing Excel spreadsheets through autonomous data exploration. Move from annual planning to rolling forecasts based on real-time information by identifying variances in plans caused by external data. 
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Product Ranking

#147

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Accounting Software

#335

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Accounting Software

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User Sentiment Summary

Great User Sentiment 17 reviews
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84%
of users recommend this product

ScaleFactor has a 'great' User Satisfaction Rating of 84% when considering 17 user reviews from 1 recognized software review sites.

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4.18 (17)
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Synopsis of User Ratings and Reviews

Automated Bookkeeping: ScaleFactor can automatically categorize transactions, reconcile accounts, and generate financial reports, saving businesses time and reducing the risk of errors.
Real-Time Insights: The platform provides real-time financial data, allowing businesses to track their performance and make informed decisions.
Bill Pay: ScaleFactor offers a bill pay feature that allows businesses to easily pay bills electronically, streamlining the accounts payable process.
Tax Compliance: The platform helps businesses stay compliant with tax regulations by automatically calculating and filing sales tax returns.
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Flexible Modeling: Users praise the software's ability to handle complex planning scenarios with ease, such as building detailed driver-based models for budgeting and forecasting.
Improved Collaboration: The platform facilitates better communication and data sharing among teams, streamlining the budgeting and forecasting process.
Powerful Reporting and Analytics: Users appreciate the robust reporting features, allowing them to generate insightful reports and dashboards for data visualization and analysis.
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Inaccurate Data: Some users have reported that ScaleFactor sometimes pulls in inaccurate data, leading to incorrect financial reports.
Limited Functionality: ScaleFactor may not have all the features that some businesses need, such as advanced inventory management or project accounting.
Customer Support Issues: Some users have expressed frustration with ScaleFactor's customer support, citing slow response times and difficulty getting issues resolved.
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Steep Learning Curve: Users have reported that IBM Planning Analytics can be difficult to learn, especially for those without prior experience with similar tools. Its interface and terminology can feel overwhelming initially.
Limited Reporting Capabilities: Some users have expressed frustration with the reporting functionality within Planning Analytics, finding it less intuitive and flexible compared to dedicated reporting tools. They desire more advanced formatting and customization options for presenting financial data.
Performance Issues: Users have occasionally encountered performance issues, particularly when dealing with large datasets or complex calculations. This can slow down budgeting and forecasting processes, impacting overall productivity.
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Is ScaleFactor a major player or small fry in the accounting software game? Based on user reviews from the past year, ScaleFactor seems to be a bit of a mixed bag. Users appreciate its user-friendly interface, making it a breeze for those without an accounting background to navigate. The software's flexibility is another plus, as it can be tailored to fit the needs of businesses of all shapes and sizes. However, ScaleFactor's price tag is a major drawback, with many users finding it pricier than its competitors. Additionally, the software's limited integration with other business tools can be a dealbreaker for those who rely on a connected ecosystem of applications. ScaleFactor appears to be best suited for small to medium-sized businesses that prioritize ease of use and flexibility in their accounting software and are willing to pay a premium for these features. However, for businesses on a tight budget or those that require seamless integration with other software, ScaleFactor may not be the best fit. Ultimately, the decision of whether or not to use ScaleFactor comes down to weighing its strengths and weaknesses against your specific business needs and budget.

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User reviews from the past year suggest IBM Planning Analytics is a powerful tool for businesses seeking to streamline their financial planning and analysis processes. Users praise its robust features, particularly its budgeting, forecasting, and reporting capabilities. One standout feature is its ability to handle complex "what-if" scenarios, allowing businesses to model different outcomes based on various factors, which is crucial for making informed decisions in a volatile market. However, users also point out some drawbacks. The learning curve can be steep, especially for those unfamiliar with similar software. Some users find the interface less intuitive than competitors like Anaplan or Cube, and the pricing can be a significant investment for smaller businesses. Despite these weaknesses, users generally agree that IBM Planning Analytics offers a comprehensive solution for businesses needing advanced planning and analysis capabilities. Its ability to integrate with other IBM products and handle large datasets makes it particularly well-suited for larger enterprises with complex financial operations.

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