Last Reviewed: November 25th, 2024

Best FP&A Software Of 2024

What is FP&A Software?

FP&A software is your financial copilot, navigating the often-choppy waters of business planning and analysis. Imagine having a central hub that streamlines budgeting, forecasting, and scenario planning. It tackles the challenge of limited financial visibility, providing the tools to chart a course for future success. The benefits are significant: improved profitability through better resource allocation, data-driven decision making to avoid financial pitfalls, and the agility to adapt to changing market conditions. Core functionalities include building financial models, running forecasts based on different assumptions (what-if scenarios), and analyzing variances between plans and actual performance. Emerging features leverage artificial intelligence for more accurate predictions and risk assessments. While all businesses can benefit, FP&A software is particularly valuable for companies with complex operations, high growth potential, or facing significant market uncertainty. Costs can be a hurdle, but FP&A software empowers businesses to make data-driven decisions with confidence, ultimately steering them towards a prosperous future. In essence, it's the financial compass that keeps businesses on track for sustainable growth.

What Are The Key Benefits of FP&A Software?

  • Improved Financial Visibility
  • Enhanced Profitability
  • Data-Driven Decision Making
  • Accurate Forecasting & Planning
  • Increased Agility & Flexibility
  • Scenario Planning & Risk Assessment
  • Optimized Resource Allocation
  • Streamlined Budgeting & Reporting
  • Sustainable Business Growth
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Overall

Based on the latest available data collected by SelectHub for 44 solutions, we determined the following solutions are the best FP&A Software overall:

Company Size
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Deployment
Cloud On-Premise
Platform
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Why We Picked Appian

Is Appian the apple of most users' eyes when it comes to Business Process Management? Appian has garnered largely positive reviews from users over the past year, particularly for its intuitive low-code platform that facilitates rapid development and deployment of business process applications. Users rave about the platform's user-friendly interface, which empowers even those with minimal coding experience to build and customize workflows. This ease of use translates to a quicker time to market, a crucial factor in today's fast-paced business environment. Appian's robust process automation and workflow management features have also received high praise, with users highlighting their effectiveness in streamlining complex business operations.

However, some users have pointed out areas where Appian could improve. For instance, a few users have commented that the interface appears somewhat dated compared to newer BPM solutions on the market. Additionally, while Appian offers data integration capabilities, some users feel that this aspect could be enhanced to provide more seamless connectivity with a wider range of third-party systems. Despite these minor drawbacks, Appian remains a powerful and versatile BPM solution.

Overall, Appian is best suited for mid-sized to large enterprises grappling with intricate business processes that demand a high degree of customization. Its comprehensive features, combined with its flexible deployment options (both cloud-based and on-premises), make it a compelling choice for organizations seeking to optimize their operations and enhance efficiency. However, smaller businesses with simpler needs might find Appian's extensive customization options to be excessive and may be better served by more streamlined BPM solutions.

Pros & Cons

  • Fast Development: Appian enables rapid building of applications, which allows businesses to implement solutions quickly.
  • User-Friendly Designs: The platform offers a drag-and-drop interface, simplifying the development process and making it easier for users to design and modify processes.
  • Seamless Integration: Appian can connect with various other systems, ensuring smooth data flow and preventing silos.
  • Cost: Appian can be expensive, potentially limiting its accessibility for smaller businesses or those with tighter budgets.
  • Dated Interface: Some users have reported that certain aspects of Appian's interface feel outdated, which could impact user experience and potentially slow down development.
  • Process Modeling Limitations: There are suggestions for improvement in Appian's process modeling tools, indicating potential limitations in its ability to visually represent and design complex workflows.
  • Integration Challenges: While Appian integrates with many systems, users have suggested that enhancing integration options with other systems could further improve its connectivity and data exchange capabilities.

Key Features

  • Low Code Development: Create engaging, collaborative business apps with low code development tools that require no coding experience and deploy on various channels. Run business on mobile, desktop or any digital platform with ease. Integrate and connect IoT devices to important business applications. 
    • Pre-Built UIs: Enhance customer experience with pre-built UIs. Connect enterprise data with pre-built connectors for RDBMS, Salesforce, and Microsoft without any coding. Break down data silos and view data in a single, personalized interface. Ensure that the important applications run with 0% downtime and Recovery Point Objective in one minute. 
    • Multi-Experience Development: Provide desktop experience on responsive web apps from any device. Boost wearable solution experience with push notifications and custom API integration. Get an uninterrupted workflow by working from one device and continuing on another. 
    • Work Offline: Start work offline and submit it once connected to the internet. Enrich user-specific interactions and boost custom AR/VR experience with integration. Enhance customer experience with virtual assistants, intelligent chatbots, and real-time interaction tools. 
    • Mobile Development: Create fast apps with reusable components and visual design tools that work on any device. Make changes in real-time. Build engaging mobile apps and add images, signatures, voice, pictures, or any other type of file using native device functionalities. 
    • Testing and Compliance: Ensure compliance with third-party audits and certifications. Get comprehensive static and dynamic security testing, penetration testing, and third-party validation. Adhere to AppConfig Community standards and guidelines. Provide secure mobile engagement with Access Department of Defense-approved programs. 
    • Data Integration: Minimize the possibility of errors with the testing capabilities of built-in integration and design tools. Store and reuse properties across integrations. Build custom error handling for each integration and boost integration with over 60+ built-in templates. Break down data silos and improve decision-making. Resolve queries faster with real-time interaction and secure data sync capabilities. 
  • Complete Automation: Create workflows with automation tools and add them to the applications using AI. Send emails and create databases without code. Design user interface, forms and dashboards and embed them into the apps. Bring all the data into a single, actionable platform and empower mobility with no extra development. Minimize technical debt with instant deployment and easy to configure APIs. 
    • Process Execution: Monitor and manage process execution or the status of the performance in real time. Make use of dynamic reporting to gain detailed insights into processes and tasks. Get work done quickly by assigning role-based tasks. Escalate tasks automatically or manually. Strengthen user collaboration with case management capabilities by providing users with access to data and get faster outcomes. 
    • Robotic Process Automation: Create bots with low code design tools and make them up and running with packaged libraries and credentials. Get faster time to value by deploying fully functional bots. Get end-to-end process control and monitor automation activities from request to completion. 
    • AI Recommendation: Boost automation with AI recommendation engine and process compatibility scores. Create unlimited bots and deploy in Windows and Linux for an optimized cost. Engage user experience by creating apps with automation. Manage exceptions and ad hoc capabilities dynamically. Put people in control of application development and data integration. 
    • Artificial Intelligence: Connect data to processes with low code tools and use machine integration to train models. Record data from structured and semi-structured documents and scale AI applications. Extract data from documents with intelligent document processing. Automate regular tasks and determine the next best step with AI. Manage case management by gaining recommendations and sentiment analysis in real time. 
    • Intelligent Document Processing: Auto classify and extract data with the AI without setting up and maintaining templates. Ensure improvement with AI learning from human behavior and patterns. Quickly adapt to document changes without affecting the workflow. Check whether or not the data in the document is compliant with the decision table. 
    • Case Management: Handle the unexpected with predictable, reliable processes. Gain full transparency into the process and solve adverse incidents with incident management. Make quick and well-informed decisions by accessing complete information on a single platform. Ensure immediate action against any problem with automated alerts, and tasks. Keep track of key performance indicators and metrics with real-time analytics and reporting. 
    • Decision Rules: Configure decision tables and create rules based on the open decision model and notation. Ensure that the results are unique by configuring a customized set of rules. Empower collaboration and scale with conditional settings. Check rules overlapping and gaps in real-time. Improve productivity, simplify workflow and manage document processing with robotic process automation.  

    Limitations

    At the time of this review, these are the limitations according to user feedback:

    •  Can’t customize set features. 
    •  Complex process models. 
    •  Poor scalability. 
    •  Basic monitoring capabilities. 
    •  Lack of documentation. 
    •  Costly for small and medium enterprises. 

    Suite Support

    mail_outlineEmail:[email protected].
    phonePhone:(703) 442-8844.
    schoolTraining:Access info on various system topics from the Resource Center and the Learn section.
    local_offerTickets:Submit tickets by opening a new case in the support section.

Start Price
$20,000
Annually
Company Size
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Deployment
Cloud On-Premise
Platform
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Why We Picked Anaplan

Anaplan has garnered a reputation for its robust modeling capabilities, allowing users to create intricate financial models with ease. Reviewers frequently praise its flexibility and ability to handle complex calculations, making it a powerful tool for forecasting, budgeting, and scenario planning. The platform's "Connected Planning" approach, which links various planning processes across an organization, is seen as a major advantage, enabling better collaboration and alignment between departments. However, some users find the interface to be less intuitive than other performance management systems, requiring a steeper learning curve. Additionally, the platform's extensive customization options, while powerful, can sometimes lead to complexity and require specialized knowledge to manage effectively.

Compared to competitors like Oracle Hyperion and SAP BPC, Anaplan stands out for its cloud-based architecture and user-friendly interface. Reviewers often highlight its ease of use and accessibility from any device, making it a popular choice for organizations with distributed teams. While Anaplan may not have the same level of industry-specific functionality as some of its competitors, its flexibility and ability to integrate with other systems make it a versatile solution for a wide range of planning needs. The platform's scalability is also a significant advantage, allowing organizations to easily adjust their usage as their needs evolve.

Anaplan is best suited for mid-sized to large organizations with complex planning requirements and a need for collaboration across departments. Its ability to handle large data sets and perform sophisticated calculations makes it ideal for financial planning, sales forecasting, and supply chain management. However, smaller organizations or those with simpler planning needs may find the platform's capabilities to be excessive and the learning curve to be a barrier to adoption.

Pros & Cons

  • Connected Planning: Anaplan's platform allows users to connect operational plans across various departments, such as finance, sales, and supply chain. This interconnectedness enables a holistic view of the business, facilitating better decision-making and alignment.
  • Scenario Modeling: Users appreciate the ability to create and compare multiple what-if scenarios, enabling them to assess potential outcomes and make informed choices based on real-time data. This feature is particularly valuable for risk management and strategic planning.
  • Flexibility and Customization: Anaplan offers a high degree of flexibility, allowing users to tailor the platform to their specific needs and processes. This adaptability ensures that the system can evolve alongside the organization's changing requirements.
  • Cloud-Based: As a cloud-based solution, Anaplan eliminates the need for on-premises infrastructure and maintenance, reducing IT overhead and providing accessibility from anywhere with an internet connection.
  • Steep Learning Curve: Anaplan's robust functionality comes at the cost of complexity, often requiring extensive training and practice to achieve proficiency. Users familiar with traditional spreadsheet software may find the transition challenging due to the platform's unique modeling language and interface.
  • Performance Issues: Large or complex models can suffer from slow loading times and sluggish responsiveness, hindering user productivity and causing frustration, especially when dealing with tight deadlines or real-time data analysis.
  • Limited Data Visualization: While Anaplan offers basic charting capabilities, users often find them insufficient for creating compelling visual representations of data. The platform's strength lies in its calculation engine, not its visualization tools, which can leave users wanting more when it comes to communicating insights effectively.

Key Features

  • Finance: Use current information to analyze production rates, craft accurate market predictions and make better business choices. Develop profitability and pricing models, automate cost management procedures and make infinite bookkeeping use cases. 
  • Sales: Fill up workflows with practical and achievable possibilities while boosting precise sales and revenue projections. 
  • Supply Chain: Aim for a real-time line of sight and guarantee improved supply estimates to align with demand expectations. Initiate thorough collaborative sales and operation planning practices for applicable KPIs and predictions. 
  • HR and Workforce: Detect recruitment gaps, test "what-if" plans, review financial impacts to streamline the workforce, supervise risks and push results. Draft payment plans and infrastructures to highlight talent purchases, retention, equity, diversity, inclusion, performance and outcomes. 
  • Marketing: Integrate sales numbers, marketing accomplishments and financial insights to construct reliable plans and forecast profitability effects. Transform reactive choices into proactive ones with real-time client information and buyer goals. 
Company Size
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Cloud On-Premise
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Why We Picked Pega

Pega's workflow automation and AI decision-making capabilities have garnered praise, particularly for their ability to streamline complex business processes. Users highlight Pega's scalability and reusability, enabling efficient management of multiple teams and rapid development through reusable code. The platform's quick deployment capabilities allow for swift implementation of changes, while its collaborative approach, involving business teams in development phases, ensures alignment with business needs. Pega's real-time optimization, powered by AI, enables data-driven decision-making and adaptation.

However, Pega's complexity is a double-edged sword. While it empowers robust solutions, it demands significant technical expertise for setup and management. Some users have reported discrepancies between the platform's theoretical descriptions and practical implementation, especially regarding its RPA features, leading to documentation issues. Additionally, the user experience, particularly the search function and front-end interface, has been criticized as less intuitive compared to some competing solutions. For instance, users have found the menu structure and decisioning portal to be cumbersome.

Pega's strength lies in its ability to handle intricate workflows and leverage AI for real-time optimization, making it a suitable choice for large enterprises with complex operational needs and ample technical resources. However, its complexity and resource requirements might pose challenges for smaller businesses seeking simpler solutions.

Pros & Cons

  • Fast Rollout: Pega allows companies to implement process changes quickly, reducing the time it takes to go from idea to execution.
  • Built-in Collaboration: Pega bridges the gap between IT and business teams by providing a shared platform to design solutions that directly address business needs.
  • Handles Large Volumes: Pega is built to manage large-scale operations, making it suitable for enterprises dealing with high volumes of data and transactions.
  • Smart Decisions with AI: Pega integrates AI to automate decision-making within workflows, leading to more efficient operations and better outcomes. For example, AI can be used to automatically route service requests to the appropriate team.
  • Steep Learning Curve: Pega's complexity makes it difficult to learn, especially for those without extensive coding experience, leading to longer onboarding periods.
  • Technical Support Challenges: Users frequently report difficulties reaching Pega's support team and receiving timely assistance, potentially causing delays in resolving critical issues.
  • Subpar User Experience: The platform's user interface is often criticized for being unintuitive and difficult to navigate, impacting user productivity and satisfaction.

Key Features

  • BPM and Case Management: Optimize the agency’s business process management (BPM) and case management systems with customizable workflows, robotic automation, AI and work orchestration strategies. Monitor work status across multiple business units in real time. 
    • Compliance: Automatically maintain records and prepare an audit trail of all activities. Comply with global regulations such as GDPR. 
  • Chatbots and Virtual Assistants (VAs): Leverage intelligent VAs and conversational UI to offer best-in-class self-service aid. Understand conversational intent and human speech regardless of the channel or practice area. Access multiple means of communication, including Facebook Messenger, Amazon Alexa, email, SMS/text messages and more. Scan emails for important information and prepare personalized responses. 
    • VA Optimization: Utilize existing data to prevent duplicate tech silos. Collaborate with bots and automated processes to interpret contextual data from client service, sales, automation and marketing. 
    • Test Deployment: Run simulations to test the virtual assistant’s performance on different channels. Configure, manage and update the VA without code or downtime. 
  • DevOps and Testing: Vastly decrease time to market with one-click DevOps, CI/CD pipeline and complete automation. Third-party integrations include Agile Workbench, Agile Studio, App Studio and DevOps tools such as Artifactory and Jenkins. 
  • Real-time Intelligence: Search for patterns, hidden opportunities and insights within streaming cross-channel data and client interactions with the real-time AI engine and digital automation tools. 
    • Responsible AI: Built-in Value Finder and Ethical Bias Check modules safeguard the agency against unintentional discrimination and help form empathetic connections with customers. 
  • Robotic Process Automation (RPA): Implement RPA to speed up business processes, remove redundancies and eliminate errors and omissions (E&O). Work in tandem with bots to optimize resources, balance investments, self-heal automation and measure business impact. 
    • Email Bot: Automatically respond to emails with natural language processing (NLP). Use AI to decide on triage and rerouting measures. 
  • UX Design: Choose the best application design from a range of preconfigured best practice templates. Seamlessly synchronize with multiple API endpoints. 
  • Workforce Intelligence: Run reports on essential processes, agent productivity and more. Use data visualization tools to understand the impact of automation and see the true intent behind customer interactions. 
Start Price
$5,000
Monthly
Company Size
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Deployment
Cloud On-Premise
Platform
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Why We Picked Adaptive Insights

Prior to being acquired, Adaptive Insights' robust planning and budgeting capabilities have earned high praise from users, who appreciate its intuitive interface and flexible reporting options. The ability to create custom dashboards and drill down into data for granular analysis is particularly valuable for finance teams. However, some users have reported challenges with data integration and slow performance when working with large datasets.

Compared to competitors like Oracle Hyperion and SAP BPC, Adaptive Insights stands out for its ease of use and faster implementation times. Its cloud-based deployment model makes it accessible to businesses of all sizes, while its integration with other Salesforce products provides seamless data sharing. However, Oracle Hyperion offers more advanced features for complex financial planning and analysis, and SAP BPC has a stronger track record in large enterprise deployments.

Overall, Adaptive Insights is a solid choice for mid-sized businesses seeking a user-friendly and affordable EPM solution. Its strengths in planning, budgeting, and reporting make it a valuable tool for finance teams, while its cloud-based deployment and Salesforce integration offer flexibility and ease of use.

Pros & Cons

  • Real-time Reporting: Adaptive Insights provides real-time access to financial data, enabling users to make informed decisions based on up-to-date information.
  • Collaborative Planning: The platform facilitates collaborative planning across teams, allowing users to share insights and align on financial goals.
  • Scenario Modeling: Adaptive Insights enables users to create and compare multiple financial scenarios, allowing them to explore different options and make data-driven decisions.
  • Intuitive Interface: The software's intuitive interface makes it easy for users to navigate and access relevant data, even for those with limited financial experience.
  • Scalability: Adaptive Insights can scale to meet the needs of organizations of all sizes, from small businesses to large enterprises.
  • Limited Customization Options: Users report that Adaptive Insights' pre-built templates and dashboards can be inflexible, making it difficult to tailor the software to their specific business needs.
  • Steep Learning Curve: Many users find Adaptive Insights' interface and functionality to be complex and challenging to navigate, requiring significant training and support.
  • Limited Data Integration Capabilities: Users express concerns about the software's ability to seamlessly integrate with other enterprise systems, leading to data silos and inefficiencies.
  • Costly Implementation: Adaptive Insights' implementation costs are often perceived as high, especially for small and mid-sized businesses with limited budgets.
  • Lack of Real-Time Reporting: Some users report that Adaptive Insights' reporting capabilities lack real-time data updates, making it difficult to make informed decisions based on the most current information.

Key Features

  • Modeling: Anticipate the future with a wide variety of planning and forecasting tools. Perform fiscal modeling using business milestones such as the fiscal calendar, funding schedules, academic calendars and revenue recognition schedules. Some of the supported models include forecasting revenue, workforce planning, budgeting expenses, sales planning, SaaS account modeling and capital planning. Employs Elastic Hypercube Technology, which uses model dependencies to determine whether results need to be recalculated or not when information changes or stays the same.
  • Active Planning: Connects the finance department with other intercompany workflows to increase transparency and rates of success while also reducing communication errors and inefficiencies. Active planning itself is a method of continuously planning and updating plans using shared and updated data that’s visible across an organization. Enables active planning via a Process Tracker, which provides real-time visibility of individual tasks and planning processes within a company. Develop step-by-step guides for specific user roles, along with links to the location in the system where input is needed.
  • Dashboards and Analytics: Explore data through interactive and personalizable visualizations and dashboards. Within the financial dashboard, conduct period-over-period analysis, find variances from waterfall charts, look at how the budget compares to actual spending and analyze performance trends. Visualize KPIs and share dashboards to help ensure that goals are met.
  • Management and Financial Reporting: Gain deeper understanding through advanced financial and sales technology. Pivot dimensions, select parameters and report on variances. Add annotations and create “point-in-time” snapshot reports so that information can be shared and retained. Drill-down capabilities are available for transactional reports and planning sheets.
  • Board and External Reporting: Connects to business tools such as Microsoft Excel, Word and PowerPoint to help format data in one click. Create income statements, balance sheets, P&Ls, board packs, narrative reports and presentations. Automatically uses refreshed data in existing calculations and formatting as changes are made. Designate static and dynamic elements. The Cell Explorer tool provides visualization of source data and formulas that are used to calculate any given metric in a report.
  • Cloud Integration: Automates data flows so that source data from a company’s various software systems are easily accessible. Work with data that comes directly from the source, with less worry about typos or other accidental manipulations of data that could alter calculations. More than 2,000 integrations are possible with vendors such as Oracle, SAP, MS Dynamics, Salesforce, Plex, Epicor and Workday. 
  • Financial Consolidation: Automates processes such as currency translations, reporting and reclassifications. Define and automatically calculate ownership percentages and minority interest. Conducts financial consolidation in real time and with no long-running processes and no batch jobs, granting full visibility. 
Start Price
$8
Monthly
Company Size
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Deployment
Cloud On-Premise
Platform
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Why We Picked OneStream

OneStream has garnered significant praise for its ability to unify various financial processes, such as financial close, consolidation, reporting, planning, and analysis, into a single platform. Users appreciate the software's flexibility and scalability, allowing them to adapt it to their specific needs and grow with their organization. The platform's Extensible Dimensionality® feature enables users to incorporate additional dimensions and attributes without impacting performance, providing a level of customization that sets it apart from competitors like Oracle Hyperion and SAP BPC. This is particularly beneficial for complex organizations with diverse reporting requirements.

While OneStream offers a robust set of features, some users find the initial learning curve to be steeper compared to other EPM solutions. The software's extensive capabilities and flexibility require a deeper understanding to fully leverage its potential. Additionally, implementing OneStream often necessitates a significant investment in time and resources, particularly for larger organizations with complex financial processes. However, many users believe that the long-term benefits outweigh the initial challenges, citing improved data accuracy, increased efficiency, and better decision-making as key advantages.

OneStream appears to be most suitable for mid-sized to large enterprises with complex financial consolidation and reporting needs. Its ability to handle large data volumes, support multiple currencies and entities, and provide granular reporting capabilities makes it an ideal choice for organizations operating in multiple countries or with diverse business units. The platform's unified approach also benefits organizations seeking to break down silos between finance and operations, fostering collaboration and providing a single source of truth for financial data.

Pros & Cons

  • Unified Platform: Instead of a patchwork of different tools, OneStream offers a single platform for financial consolidation, reporting, planning, and analysis. This can simplify data management and improve data integrity, as users highlight experiencing fewer errors and inconsistencies.
  • Extensible Dimensionality®: Users appreciate the flexibility of OneStream's Extensible Dimensionality®, which allows them to add custom dimensions to their data models without impacting performance. This is particularly helpful for complex organizations with unique reporting requirements, such as those with multiple business units or product lines.
  • Drill-Down Capabilities: The ability to drill down into data is a key feature for many users, and OneStream excels in this area. Users can easily trace data back to its source, which helps them understand the drivers behind their results and identify potential issues. This granular level of detail is often praised in user reviews.
  • Marketplace Solutions: OneStream's Marketplace offers a variety of pre-built solutions that can be easily integrated into the platform. This can save users time and effort, as they don't have to develop custom solutions from scratch. The Marketplace is frequently mentioned as a valuable resource by users.
  • Steep Learning Curve: OneStream's extensive functionality can be overwhelming for new users, often requiring significant training and practice to achieve proficiency. The platform's complexity can lead to a longer implementation time compared to simpler EPM solutions.
  • Cost: OneStream's licensing and implementation costs can be higher than other EPM options, especially for smaller organizations or those with less complex needs. The total cost of ownership should be carefully considered, including software, infrastructure, and ongoing support.
  • Customization Challenges: While OneStream offers extensive customization options, tailoring the platform to specific requirements can be complex and may require specialized skills or external consultants. This can impact the agility and speed of implementation for unique business needs.

Key Features

  • Extensible Dimensionality: Provide a way to manage metadata at different levels of detail for various solutions. Give the business the power to build platforms for the organization at any level without disrupting the accuracy of the consolidation process. 
  • XF Marketplace: Organizations get an opportunity to extend their system’s functionality with a plethora of downloadable and configurable solutions. Add value to the deployment with account reconciliation, task manager, tax provisioning, capital planning. Allow users to search for actions and add them to the platform when needed. Users can add over 30+ apps additionally to the platform. 
  • Customer Reference Ability: Provide organizations with a list of contacts who have replaced old software and implemented the solution. 
  • Financial Closing and Consolidation: Automate data loading and reconciliation. Identify errors both pre- and post-load data validation, resolve issues quickly and close faster. 
  • Account Reconciliation: Get a statistical view of the financial statements, which includes a risk-adjusted datasheet. Acquire a complete audit trail of the reconciliation approvals. Submit account reconciliations without having to wait for the corporation to close the deal. 
  • Planning, Budgeting and Forecasting: Seed budgets and forecast future financials with a powerful interactive tool and no technical knowledge. Boost profitability and build future strategic plans by analyzing sales, production, taxes and insurance. 
  • Reporting and Analytics: Capitalize on marketing opportunities, minimize risk by gaining key insights into monetary and management reporting. Get all the financial and operational data at one place without having to gather information from fragmented tools and sources. Accelerate reporting and decision-making with self-service reporting and ad hoc analysis tools. 
  • Transaction Matching: Accelerate account reconciliations and speed up the financial close by matching transaction data from multiple sources. Use the unified platform to reduce data latency and cost. Improve the accuracy of financial statements. 
  • Compliance Solutions: Get global reporting requirement support such as US, GAAP, IFRS and other local standards with a built-in financial intelligence tool. Stay ahead of the new guidelines by capturing required details. Perform accurate calculations and reporting for new requirements. 
  • Financial Signaling: Capture, map and load millions of rows of weekly data from various sources such as CRMs and ERPs without third-party involvement. Ensure security and governance with a flexible unified data model for users across the Office of Finance and Line of Business. Get self-service visualizations and use a dashboard to see all sources of data. 
  • Financial Data Quality: Directly integrate to any open GL/ERP system with pre-built integration connectors. Ensure the certification process is done correctly with pre and post-loading data validations and confirmations. Get complete visibility from data to source with 100% transparency and audit trails for data, metadata and process change. 
  • Tax Provision: Reduce risk and ensure consistency in tax calculation by automating and streamlining tax data collection and validation. Generate footnotes, management reporting, report consolidated and statutory effective tax rates. Minimize reconciliation by automating reporting and exporting data to tax compliance systems. 
  • People Planning: Use pre-built global drivers for salary, benefits and payroll taxes for real-time dynamic planning. Build extended planning analysis by empowering managers to plan for new hires and implement changes for compensation, benefit, tax, travel and more. Boost collaboration by sharing insights using built-in reports and visualizations. Ensure critical analysis and well-informed decision-making. 
  • Sales Planning: Drive performance by managing territories and setting quotas and sales targets. Create dynamic sales plans by extending financial goals with pre-built drivers based on regional and territory financial targets. Boost collaboration and communication using pre-made reports. 
  • Capital Planning: Provide a better-controlled environment by enabling departmental level asset capital planning and accountability. Standardize life assumptions and depreciation calculations by using pre-built global drivers by asset class. Enhance dialogue with partners by sharing insights and collaborating using built-in reports and visualizations. 
  • Profitability Analysis: Manage allocation by eliminating spreadsheets and offline processes with a unified solution. Create model plans to determine the impact of pricing, new products and mix changes on customers. Get insights into different dimensions like profitability by products, customers and channels and empower managers to make informed decisions. 
  • Predictive Analysis: Minimize reliance on spreadsheets, disparate systems and non-finance resources by automatically generating forecasts from over 10 built-in predictive analysis models. Increase collaboration by sharing insights using reports and visualization tools. Remove bias by creating predictive models for forecast validation. 
Start Price
$124.95
Company Size
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Deployment
Cloud On-Premise
Platform
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Key Features

  • , "What If" Scenarios
  • Access Controls/Permissions
  • Activity Dashboard
  • Asset Lifecycle Management
  • Budget Control
  • Budgeting/Forecasting
  • Cash Flow Management
  • Cash Management
  • Chart of accounts
  • Customizable Branding
  • Customizable Reports
  • Customizable Templates
  • Data Import/Export
  • Data Visualization
  • Electronic Payments
  • Expense Management
  • Financial Analysis
  • Financial Reporting
  • General Ledger
  • Income & Balance Sheet
  • Mobile Access
  • Planning Tools
  • Projections
  • Real Time Analytics
  • Real Time Data
  • Real-time Updates
  • Role-Based Permissions
  • Scenario Planning
  • Strategic Planning
  • Stress Tests
  • Third Party Integrations
  • Visual Analytics
Company Size
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Deployment
Cloud On-Premise
Platform
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Why We Picked Kissflow

Can Kissflow help your business operations flow smoothly like a well-choreographed dance? User reviews from the past year suggest that for many, the answer is a resounding yes. Kissflow consistently earns praise for its user-friendly interface, which empowers even non-technical users to build custom applications and automate workflows with ease. This accessibility is a key differentiator, as it reduces reliance on IT departments and empowers business users to directly address their needs.

However, this ease of use comes with a caveat: some users find the learning curve steep, particularly when exploring the platform's extensive customization options. While Kissflow excels at simplifying app development, mastering its full potential may require a significant time investment. Furthermore, while the platform generally receives high marks for its functionality, some users express room for improvement in customer support. Despite these challenges, Kissflow's strengths in user-friendliness, customization, and integration make it a compelling choice for businesses seeking to streamline operations and embrace digital transformation. Its ability to empower citizen developers and automate tasks makes it particularly well-suited for organizations looking to improve efficiency and reduce their dependence on traditional IT development cycles.

Pros & Cons

  • Easy to Use: Kissflow is known for its user-friendly interface, which allows even those with minimal coding experience to easily create and manage workflows.
  • Customization: The platform offers a high degree of customization, enabling businesses to tailor applications to their specific requirements.
  • Integration: Kissflow integrates seamlessly with popular business tools, such as Google Workspace applications, enhancing its versatility and usefulness in various business environments.
  • Automation: A key strength of Kissflow is its robust automation capabilities, allowing businesses to automate tasks like approvals and notifications, thereby improving efficiency and reducing manual effort.
  • Steep Learning Curve: Users transitioning from no-code platforms might find Kissflow's extensive customization options challenging to master quickly.
  • Limited API Integration: Businesses heavily reliant on integrating with a diverse range of software might find Kissflow's API support restrictive.
  • Inefficient Search Function: Locating specific documents can be cumbersome as the search function requires precise inputs for accurate results.
  • Occasional Dashboard Glitches: Some users have reported experiencing occasional glitches and instability with the platform's dashboard, impacting workflow visibility.

Key Features

  • Business Process Mapping: Use flowcharts, graphs and symbols to visualize how the business is performing from beginning to end. Help stakeholders understand how it’s functioning. 
  • Automation: Automate rule-based repetitive steps with cloud-based operation automation. Eliminate manual tasks and boost visibility and tracking. Keep all automated workflows in a single platform. 
  • Real-time Notification: Alert teams about the new tasks with customizable, automated notification and send reminders about upcoming operations and approvals. Personalize alerts for email and mobile as well. 
  • Security: Get premium grade Google-cloud environment security and encrypt the entire data using SSL over HTTPS. Ensure data prevention loss by storing data in multiple geographies for enhanced backup and recovery. 
  • Predefined App Templates: Install ready-made applications from the marketplace. Avoid redundant work by using ready-to-go templates and customizing them per business demands. 
  • Single Sign-On: Login with a single set of credentials across multiple independent platforms. Allow the IT department to grant permission and track activities. 
  • Role-Based Access Control: Customize which operations and tasks can be viewed and edited depending upon a team’s organizational role. Approve requests without making any changes to the history of permissions granted or rejected. 
  • Cross-Platform Integration: Connect business apps to other systems with web nooks and open APIs. Integrate with more than 400 cloud-based service providers with Zapier end point.  
  • Reporting and Analytics: Analyze, view and process workflow information from the built-in reporting. Keep tabs on progress to determine the estimated completion time. Export report data, configure ad hoc reports and view KPIs. 
  • SLA Status Indicators: Prioritize the important tasks with color-coding. Highlight to-do items that need immediate attention.  
  • Drag-and-Drop Interface: Simplifies the process of building applications by allowing users to visually design workflows and forms without writing code.
  • Customizable Workflows: Enables users to create tailored workflows that fit specific business processes, from simple approval chains to complex multi-step procedures.
  • Integration Capabilities: Supports seamless integration with a variety of third-party applications and services, such as Google Workspace, Microsoft Office 365, and Slack.
  • Real-Time Analytics: Provides actionable insights through real-time data analytics and reporting, helping users make informed decisions based on up-to-date information.
  • Role-Based Access Control: Ensures data security and compliance by allowing administrators to define user roles and permissions, restricting access to sensitive information.
  • Mobile Accessibility: Offers a mobile-friendly interface, enabling users to access and manage workflows on-the-go via smartphones and tablets.
  • Pre-Built Templates: Includes a library of pre-built templates for common business processes, such as employee onboarding, expense management, and leave requests, to accelerate application development.
  • Collaboration Tools: Facilitates team collaboration with features like task assignments, comments, and notifications, ensuring everyone stays on the same page.
  • Form Builder: Allows users to create custom forms with various field types, validation rules, and conditional logic to capture and process data efficiently.
  • Automated Notifications: Keeps stakeholders informed with automated email and in-app notifications triggered by specific events or actions within the workflow.
  • API Access: Provides robust API access for developers to extend the functionality of Kissflow and integrate it with other systems and applications.
  • Document Management: Offers document storage and management capabilities, allowing users to attach, share, and collaborate on documents within workflows.
  • Audit Trails: Maintains detailed audit logs of all actions and changes within the system, ensuring transparency and accountability for compliance purposes.
  • Custom Reports: Enables users to create custom reports and dashboards to visualize key metrics and track the performance of workflows and processes.
  • Multi-Language Support: Supports multiple languages, making it accessible to users in different regions and enhancing global collaboration.
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Key Features

  • Application Server V9.0.5: Deploy and manage websites and on-demand solutions with the Java platform, enterprise edition and web-based application server. Gain visibility of applications across traditional and container-based deployments. Centralize logins and keep track of the WAS environment.  
  • Application Evaluation: Analyze applications and create detailed reports using the administrative console. Create personalized customer-driven marketing and serve consumers better with accurate data. 
  • Real-time Collaboration: Ensure task optimization by monitoring and recording processes as they progress with every second and get real-time data. Give the team the freedom to view and access the updated version in a unified, model-driven environment. 
  • Mobile Enablement: Make products or services available anywhere and increase revenue by enabling convenience and boosting customer experience. Create growth opportunities and mobilize the workforce by taking advantage of mobile devices.  
  • Integrate With A Third Party: Easily integrate social media functionalities such as like and share buttons in the application with its smooth third party integration. 
Start Price
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Why We Picked Planful

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.

Pros & Cons

  • 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.
  • 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.

Key Features

  • 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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Why We Picked Bizagi

Bizagi is praised for its user-friendly interface, robust modeling capabilities, and seamless integration with various systems. Users highlight its ease of use, enabling business analysts and developers to collaborate effectively. Bizagi's comprehensive feature set, including process mapping, simulation, and automation, empowers organizations to streamline their processes and enhance efficiency.

In comparison to competitors like IBM BPM and Oracle BPM, users appreciate Bizagi's affordability and flexibility. Its cloud-based architecture provides scalability and accessibility, while its open-source nature allows for customization. Bizagi's differentiating factor lies in its low-code approach, which simplifies process modeling and reduces development time. This makes it an ideal choice for organizations seeking a cost-effective and agile BPM solution.

Bizagi is best suited for organizations seeking to improve operational efficiency, reduce costs, and enhance collaboration. Its intuitive interface and powerful features empower businesses to optimize their processes, making it a valuable tool for organizations of all sizes.

Pros & Cons

  • Process Modeling Simplicity: Bizagi's intuitive drag-and-drop interface simplifies process modeling, allowing users to quickly create and modify workflows without technical expertise.
  • Robust Collaboration Features: Real-time collaboration capabilities enable multiple stakeholders to work on processes simultaneously, ensuring alignment and reducing bottlenecks.
  • Comprehensive Reporting and Analytics: Advanced reporting tools provide deep insights into process performance, allowing users to identify bottlenecks, optimize workflows, and make data-driven decisions.
  • Seamless Integration: Bizagi seamlessly integrates with existing systems and applications, streamlining data exchange and eliminating manual data entry.
  • Low-Code/No-Code Approach: Bizagi's low-code/no-code platform empowers business users to create and manage processes without relying heavily on IT support.
  • Mobile-Friendly Interface: Bizagi's mobile app allows users to access and manage processes on the go, ensuring business continuity and remote collaboration.
  • Limited Customizability: While Bizagi provides pre-built templates, some users find it challenging to tailor processes to their specific requirements, leading to frustrations and potential compatibility issues.
  • Steep Learning Curve: The complexity of Bizagi's features can create a steep learning curve for new users, especially those unfamiliar with BPM concepts or the software's unique interface.
  • Performance Issues: Users have reported occasional performance bottlenecks, particularly when dealing with large or complex process models, impacting the overall efficiency of the tool.
  • Limited Integration Options: While Bizagi offers some integration capabilities, users have expressed concerns about its compatibility with certain third-party systems and applications, limiting the seamless flow of data and automation.
  • Costly Licensing: Bizagi's pricing model can be perceived as expensive compared to other BPM software tools, potentially deterring organizations with limited budgets or those seeking a cost-effective solution.

Key Features

  • Low Code Development: Automate and process applications from any web browser using Live Processes or any device. Automatically publish the process to the required departments with one-click deployment. Manage multiple activities directly from Work Portal with the plans feature. Connect with enterprise systems using ready-to-use connectors. Develop applications without coding specialists or an IT team at a faster rate and significantly lower costs. 
  • Intelligent Process Automation: Ensure efficiency by processing significant amounts of data in a shorter time frame, reducing overall operational costs. With staff spending less time on tedious work, they can concentrate on core business objectives, and the tasks that matter and affect the bottom line. Make sure that data processing and storage maintenance comply with the regulatory standards. 
  • Digital Process Automation: Provide personalized customer experience by accessing data that gives context to the customers. Collaborate business and IT teams effectively on a single platform. Prevent risks and ensure that privacy is protected with enhanced connectivity. 
  • Robotic Process Automation: Eliminate the possibility of human error by instructing native bots to complete the tasks. Orchestrate information to the bots by providing logic to the unstructured data. Determine new areas which could benefit from bots by mapping. 
  • SAP Integration: Request advanced business application programming function by integrating with SAP. Access the SAP system through HTTPS or HTTP using standardized communication protocols. Manage all accounts, managed services and functions from a centralized repository. Keep track of the status and manage SAP through Cockpit. Customize the actions in the project without affecting the SAP system. 
  • Process Automation: Boost efficiency by minimizing manual effort and reducing operational costs with dynamic automation. Enable faster deployment by making processes the common language and meet the businesses’ requirements. Maintain a competitive edge by promptly responding to changes in the market. Check on the business performance with real-time and historical reports. Become cloud-native and enhance scalability depending on the business needs. Gain a centralized view of the data by integrating different business systems.  

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Price Guide

See the Price/User for the top FP&A software… plus the most important considerations and questions to ask when shopping.

Buyer's Guide

FP&A Software Is All About Making Data-Driven Business and Financial Decisions

FP and A Software BG Intro

Making business and financial decisions sounds easy, but it's a nightmare without the tools to gather all the data or make better predictions. FP&A software offers in-depth budgeting, planning, forecasting and analytical modules to garner better insights.

This in-depth buyer's guide will cover key benefits, primary features, how to choose the right solution, the best market platforms and more.

Executive Summary

  • FP&A software helps businesses assess, forecast, plan and make well-informed financial decisions.
  • Key features include customizable reports, data importing, analytics and forecasting.
  • Ask potential vendors any questions you have about the software before making a purchase.
What This Guide Covers:

What Is FP&A Software?

Financial planning and analysis (FP&A) software is a system that centralizes budgeting, forecasting, analytics and planning in one hub to help you make better economic and company choices.

This solution is part of the enterprise performance management (EPM) software family tree.

Primary Benefits

FP&A software offers numerous perks to streamline your business practices, from strengthening data accuracy and flexibility to raising visibility.

FP and A Software Benefits

Improve Accuracy

Integrating financial planning and analysis software with an ERP system allows you to access and work with real-time data to increase accuracy and reduce errors. You'll know and relay updated data across numerous departments, even if one number changes.

For example, you may receive your quarterly expense report and notice two minor errors. You can revise your numbers once, and they will automatically change across your company instead of department leaders inputting them several times.

Increase Flexibility

Flexible, in-depth planning and what-if analyses allow you to test and perform different financial and business choices for better evaluation. You can test ideas and review their impact in real time.

Let's say you want to perform a budget increase. Input your numbers and review the outcome quickly. The software may say the budget increase could work if you cut unnecessary expenses.

Oppositely, you may want to eliminate a department, but you need to check if that's the right move. Perform what-if analyses and determine how the elimination affects your bottom line on weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly bases.

Streamline Communication and Collaboration

Like ERP software, this system can increase team and company-wide collaboration and communication to keep everyone on the same page.

For example, you may need to share your budget with your financial and marketing leaders to plot new marketing initiatives, such as paid advertisements on social media, billboards and publications.

Your accountant can determine how much the company can invest in ads (maybe one or two methods now and more tactics in the next quarter) or if you need to pick a cheaper way to market your brand.

Boost Productivity

Increase efficiency by implementing automated processes. This system can perform automatic reporting and KPI tracking to ensure you create the proper budgets while focusing on customer-facing responsibilities.

For example, you need manufacturing and supply chain budgets for the holiday season. The financial planning and accounting solution can automate forecast reports while you discuss options across your supply chain, from manufacturers and engineers to vendors and distributors.

Key Features & Functionality

Customizable Reports

Deliberate and draft customizable reports with company logos, colors and other branding methods. Craft profit and loss statements, invoices, budget sheets, bank reconciliation sheets and more.

Data Importing

Upload data from balance sheets, monthly profit and loss reports, general ledgers and more in a centralized hub for better evaluation and storage. Access data in one place instead of several programs.

Analytics/Scenario Planning

Perform deep-dive analyses on data for detailed outcomes. Initiate scenario planning to test numerous situations, including budget increases, department or employee cuts, adding new resources and more.

Forecasting and Planning

Create better predictions with thorough reviews of historical accounting and budgeting information from any period. Compare the estimates with your current financial state and make more-informed choices.

Software Comparison Strategy

While many FP&A solutions have similar capabilities, choosing the system that meets your company's needs can be difficult.

FP and A Lean Selection Methodology

We've created a nine-step software selection methodology named Lean Selection to streamline the selection process. Here's a brief discussion of each step:

  1. Establish: Ask yourself why you need new software. What's wrong with your current operations?
  2. Collaborate: Create an internal software selection committee with a project manager, department leaders, internal and external stakeholders, end users and more.
  3. Define: Draft a complete requirements list with your software selection committee.
  4. Distribute: Compare potential vendors with your requirements list and shortlist matches.
  5. Justify: Ask your committee if you need new software, add-on modules for your existing system or to end the hunt.
  6. Prove: Ask your shortlist vendors to demonstrate their products with demos, use cases or proofs-of-concept (POCs)
  7. Rank: Score and rank software vendors on their demonstrations and total cost of ownership (TCO). You should have at least two to three potential vendors that match your company's needs.
  8. Negotiate: Discuss agreements and contracts with your top-rated software provider. Seek additional legal help if necessary. Repeat this step with the next vendor on your list if you can't reach a compromise with the current one.
  9. Sign: Review and sign your software provider's contract. Establish an effective implementation plan.

You can also compare vendors with extensive research, such as online reviews or talking with some of their recent clients for more insight.

Cost & Pricing Considerations

Several factors affect software TCO, from company size and deployment options to capabilities and more.

How Big Is Your Company?

Do you run a multi-million dollar global enterprise, a mid-sized conglomerate or a small business in your basement? Most business systems provide scalability to grow as you add more resources and assets.

There are also solutions dedicated to specific company sizes, like enterprises, small businesses and more. This option is for those who want a reasonably-priced system without unnecessary modules.

What's Your Preferred Deployment Option?

You can choose on-premise, cloud or hybrid deployment options to meet your needs. Each comes with pros and cons.

Vendors run cloud systems on their personal or third-party servers. In other words, the program is accessible online, and you don't run it on your company hardware. Access the solution on any mobile device and obtain real-time information.

However, the cloud system may only operate on strong Wi-Fi signals. This system usually offers subscription-based pricing for better affordability.

On-premise systems mean you access the solution on your company computers and hard drives. This option is ideal if you only have one business location. However, pricing is more expensive because of licensing fees and tiered customer support levels.

Hybrid deployment merges the best of cloud and on-premise capabilities. Unfortunately, this option varies among different vendors. It's best to discuss this option with your ideal provider in more detail for full capabilities, pricing and limitations.

Do You Need New Software or Add-on Modules?

This principle applies to business software. Your current system may offer the best CRM, accounting and BI tools but needs inventory management modules. You can search for vendors that provide inventory management tools that merge with your current solution.

Ultimately, you'll get what you need without spending much money.

Best FP&A Software

Now that you know what FP&A software can do, here are three popular solutions to jumpstart your search.

Prophix

With a spreadsheet-like interface, this cloud-based financial planning and analysis solution streamlines budgeting, forecasting, planning and reporting tasks. It serves all company sizes and suits Linux, Mac and Windows systems.

Top features include planning, scenario planning, mapping, forecasts, workflow automation, financial consolidation and more.

Prophix

An example of Prophix's interface. Source

Tagetik

This FP&A software offers numerous modules to simplify budgeting, planning and forecasting duties. It operates on a centralized system that merges finances, operations, consolidations, closes, scheduling and more in one hub.

This program serves all company sizes, offers cloud and on-premise deployment, and operates on Mac systems. Top features include rolling forecasts, communications, consolidation cockpit, intelligent reporting and analytics, and more.

Tagetik

A preview of Tagetik's interface.

Planful

Formerly known as Host Analytics, this financial planning and analytics software expedites planning and analysis operations. Plan and manage reviews, approvals and submissions easily while generating workflow status reports and checking department statuses.

This cloud-based system aligns with all business sizes and operates on Windows and Mac systems. Full capabilities include financial consolidation, planning, reporting, cash flow forecasting, scenario analysis and so on.

Planful

A preview of the revenue planning module. Source

 

 

Questions To Ask

Ask yourself these guiding questions for a better understanding of your company's software requirements:

  • How many employees will use the software?
  • What current pain points do we want this system to solve?
  • Do we need new software or add-on modules?
  • What's wrong with our current financial planning protocols?
  • Which deployment option is our best choice?

FP and A Key Questions

Here are a few questions to ask vendors as you browse different products:

  • How many years of expertise do you have in our industry?
  • What customer support and training do you offer?
  • How many successful implementations have you had in the past year?
  • Do you submit customizable reports, data importing, forecasting and planning features?
  • How can your software boost data accuracy and improve our productivity?

Next Steps

FP&A software can strengthen the quality and speed of your everyday budgeting and financial planning and help you gain valuable insight into your KPIs to make better business choices.

Choosing the best financial planning and analysis software for your needs is similar to Frodo's quest in Lord of the Rings — long and arduous if you don't know where you're going.

We hope this buyer's guide gave you more insight into your software selection process.

Ready to take the next step? Get started today with our free, in-depth comparison report for a better understanding of the top software leaders.

Product Comparisons

Additional Resources

About The Contributors

The following expert team members are responsible for creating, reviewing, and fact checking the accuracy of this content.

Technical Content Writer
Khaleel Hayes is a Technical Content Writer for SelectHub, with over 4 years of experience crafting content for manufacturing, PLM, ERP and technology selection audiences. He's also a freelance writer in his spare time. His body of work includes poetry, short plays, feature articles and film reviews either self-published or in Denver publications. He graduated with a B.A. in Journalism and an English minor from Metropolitan State University of Denver in May 2018. When not writing, he enjoys classic movies and music, tasty burgers, tasteful bookstores, and breathtaking art and photography.
Technical Research By Rohit Dutta Mazumder
Senior Analyst
Hailing from the serene landscapes of Assam, India, Rohit is a seasoned professional with diverse expertise in several software categories. Armed with a Bachelor of Technology in Mechanical Engineering and an MBA in Operations Management, he brings a unique blend of technical acumen and strategic thinking to the table. His proficiency extends across dynamic fields such as Product Lifecycle Management, Hotel Management, Ecommerce, Accounting and Finance.
Technical Review By Shashank K K
Principal Analyst
After graduating with a Masters in Finance from Trinity College Dublin, K K Shashank's research and detail-oriented skills led them to SelectHub. He has diverse knowledge across various software categories like Accounting, Financial Planning and Analysis, Ecommerce, Risk Management, PLM, Insurance and more since 2020.
Edited By Hunter Lowe
Content Editor
Hunter Lowe is a Content Editor, Writer and Market Analyst at SelectHub. His team covers categories that range from ERP and business intelligence to transportation and supply chain management. Hunter is an avid reader and Dungeons and Dragons addict who studied English and Creative Writing through college. In his free time, you'll likely find him devising new dungeons for his players to explore, checking out the latest video games, writing his next horror story or running around with his daughter.