Overview
What is Planful?
Planful is a cloud-based enterprise performance management (EPM) suite. It includes financial applications for modeling, planning, consolidation, reporting and analytics.
Review of Planful
Planful's no slouch
Great platform for a growing business
Great EPM Tool for the Mid-Enterprise
A cloud based EPM solution your FP&A team can grow with!
Wonderful Customer Service and Evolving Product
Planful System is a powerful and Comprehensive Financial Planning & Reporting System
Powerful tool for short and long-term financial planning and real-time financial and operational analysis.
Planful is NOT painful
A budget and forecast tool that makes financial planning easy!
Planful, a good tool if you have the time and skillset to properly implement
Short summary of my Planful experience.
Flexible FP&A tool to streamline reporting and budget preparations
Stressed out about budgeting?
How Planful Differs From Its Competitors
Collaboration with Planful
Suite of Capabilities
Collaboration with Planful
Suite of Capabilities
Collaboration with Planful
Suite of Capabilities
Having the unified suite of …
Real-Time Data
Data Accuracy
Collaboration with Planful
Suite of Capabilities
Real-Time Data
Data Accuracy
Collaboration with Planful
Suite of Capabilities
Collaboration with Planful
Suite of Capabilities
Real-Time Data
Data Accuracy
Collaboration with Planful
Suite of Capabilities
Collaboration with Planful
Suite of Capabilities
Real-Time Data
Data Accuracy
Collaboration with Planful
Suite of Capabilities
Collaboration with Planful
Suite of Capabilities
Automation
Ease of Reporting
Finance Self-Service
Real-Time Data
Data Accuracy
Collaboration with Planful
Suite of Capabilities
Automation
Ease of Reporting
Finance Self-Service
Real-Time Data
Data Accuracy
Collaboration with Planful
Collaboration with Planful
Suite of Capabilities
Collaboration with Planful
Suite of Capabilities
Collaboration with Planful
Suite of Capabilities
Automation
Ease of Reporting
Finance Self-Service
Real-Time Data
Data Accuracy
Collaboration with Planful
Suite of Capabilities
Collaboration with Planful
Suite of Capabilities
Collaboration with Planful
Suite of Capabilities
Collaboration with Planful
Suite of Capabilities
Collaboration with Planful
Suite of Capabilities
Collaboration with Planful
Suite of Capabilities
Collaboration with Planful
Suite of Capabilities
Collaboration with Planful
Suite of Capabilities
Collaboration with Planful
Suite of Capabilities
Automation
Ease of Reporting
Finance Self-Service
Real-Time Data
Data Accuracy
Collaboration with Planful
Suite of Capabilities
Awards
Products that are considered exceptional by their customers based on a variety of criteria win TrustRadius awards. Learn more about the types of TrustRadius awards to make the best purchase decision. More about TrustRadius Awards
Popular Features
- Financial budgeting (106)8.282%
- Management Reporting (100)8.080%
- Forecasting (99)8.080%
- Management reporting (103)7.979%
Reviewer Pros & Cons
Pricing
What is Planful?
Planful is a cloud-based enterprise performance management (EPM) suite. It includes financial applications for modeling, planning, consolidation, reporting and analytics.
Entry-level set up fee?
- No setup fee
Offerings
- Free Trial
- Free/Freemium Version
- Premium Consulting/Integration Services
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Alternatives Pricing
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What is PlanGuru?
PlanGuru is budgeting, forecasting and financial analytics software for SMB's, Nonprofits and the Accountants/ Advisors that work with them.
Features
BI Standard Reporting
Standard reporting means pre-built or canned reports available to users without having to create them.
- 6.7Pixel Perfect reports(15) Ratings
Pixel Perfect reports are highly-formatted reports with graphics and ability to preview the report before printing.
- 6.7Customizable dashboards(29) Ratings
Customizable dashboards are dashboards providing the builder some degree of control over the look and feel and display options.
- 6.4Report Formatting Templates(27) Ratings
Ad-hoc Reporting
Ad-Hoc Reports are reports built by the user to meet highly specific requirements.
- 7.9Drill-down analysis(58) Ratings
Drill down analysis is the ability to get to a further level of detail by going deeper into the hierarchy.
- 6.8Formatting capabilities(59) Ratings
Ability to format output e.g. conditional formatting, lines, headers, footers.
- 7.2Report sharing and collaboration(55) Ratings
Report sharing and collaboration is the ability to easily share reports with others.
Report Output and Scheduling
Ability to schedule and manager report output.
- 7Publish to Web(12) Ratings
- 7.1Publish to PDF(44) Ratings
- 5.4Report Versioning(28) Ratings
Report versioning is the assignment of version numbers to each version of a report to help in tracking.
- 7Report Delivery Scheduling(31) Ratings
Report Delivery Schedule is the ability to have reports delivered to a destination at a specific data and time.
Data Discovery and Visualization
Data Discovery and Visualization is the analysis of multiple data sources in a search for patterns and outliers and the ability to represent the data visually.
- 6.1Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)(15) Ratings
Pre-built visualization formats are canned visualization types that can be selected to visualize different kinds of data.
- 6.4Predictive Analytics(18) Ratings
Predictive Analytics is the ability to build forecasting models based on existing data sets.
Access Control and Security
Access control means being able to determine who has access to which data.
- 8.9Multi-User Support (named login)(53) Ratings
Named model access means that users have access based on name and password.
- 8.1Role-Based Security Model(51) Ratings
Role-based access means that access to data is determined by job or position in the corporation.
- 8.3Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)(52) Ratings
Multiple access permission levels means that different levels of users have different rights.
- 7.9Report-Level Access Control(10) Ratings
Report-level access control means that the type of report determines who has access to it.
- 9.2Single Sign-On (SSO)(44) Ratings
Allows users to use one set of login credentials to access multiple applications
Mobile Capabilities
Support for mobile devices like smartphones and tablets.
- 7.2Responsive Design for Web Access(23) Ratings
Web design aimed at producing easy-to-read sites across a range of different devices.
- 7.5Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile(15) Ratings
In-app dashboard reports and data visualization.
Budgeting, Planning, and Forecasting
These activities are designed to assist with both data-driven operational, short-term planning and strategic long term planning
- 8.3Long-term financial planning(94) Ratings
3-5 year financial plan with cashflow.
- 8.2Financial budgeting(106) Ratings
Annual budget for revenue and operating expenses, headcount/compensation, capital expenses, projects, etc.
- 8Forecasting(99) Ratings
Combining actuals and budgets, rolling forecasts, driver-based models.
- 7.3Scenario modeling(86) Ratings
Financial or operational modeling of alternate future states and planning for each.
- 7.9Management reporting(103) Ratings
Budget vs. actual or forecast, P&L’s, performance over time, between products etc.
Consolidation and Close
Consolidation of data from multiple entities with currency management, reporting and audit trails.
- 8.5Financial data consolidation(72) Ratings
Consolidating data from several entities into a single statement using US GAAP, IFRS or other standards.
- 6.8Journal entries and reports(55) Ratings
Ability to enter journal entry adjustments and produce reports showing all journal entries for a specific period.
- 6.6Multi-currency management(48) Ratings
Ability to handle foreign currency conversions during consolidation.
- 6.6Intercompany Eliminations(47) Ratings
Matching and elimination of intercompany revenue, expenses, and balance sheet accounts.
- 4.6Minority Ownership(24) Ratings
Consolidate financials full or partial ownership of subsidiaries, equity pick-up.
- 6.6Local and consolidated reporting(58) Ratings
Ability to report against individual business entities and the consolidated umbrella entity.
- 6.6Detailed Audit Trails(57) Ratings
Tracing changes to data and processes that were run.
Financial Reporting and Compliance
Financial statements and regulatory filings
- 7.6Financial Statement Reporting(90) Ratings
Creation and production of balance sheets, income statements, cash flows, other schedules
- 8Management Reporting(100) Ratings
Tools facilitating creation of internal ad hoc or standard reports.
- 7.6Excel-based Reporting(99) Ratings
Ad hoc or formatted reports using MS Excel.
- 6.4Automated board and financial reporting(73) Ratings
Tools to help automate creation of regulatory reports such as SEC filings and board books.
- 7.1XBRL support for regulatory filing(3) Ratings
Support for the XBRL standard reporting format for exchanging financial data.
Analytics and Reporting
Dashboards and scorecards for KPI monitoring and benchmarking
- 7Personalized dashboards(54) Ratings
Create custom dashboards and reports without the help of IT or administrators.
- 6.4Color-coded scorecards(32) Ratings
Track and analyze performances with interactive, color-coded balanced scorecards.
- 7KPIs(41) Ratings
Select from a library of more than 6,000 key performance indicators, and incorporate KPIs into your planning process.
- 6.8Cost and profitability analysis(42) Ratings
Cost and profitability analysis provides data for business decision making.
- 6.1Key Performance Indicator setting(32) Ratings
Ability to set key performance indicators for measuring progress towards goals.
- 3.1Benchmarking with external data(8) Ratings
CPI, daily exchange rates, industry KPIs. with scheduled data refreshes.
Integration
Ability to integrate with external applications.
- 8.3Flat file integration(70) Ratings
Integration of flat files like text documents and comma separated files
- 6.9Excel data integration(90) Ratings
Ability to integrate directly with Excel data.
- 5.2Direct links to 3rd-party data sources(65) Ratings
Integration with external applications like ERP, CRM, HCM
Product Details
- About
- Integrations
- Competitors
- Tech Details
- Downloadables
- FAQs
What is Planful?
Planful offers end-to-end financial close, consolidation, and financial planning & analysis (FP&A) cloud software. The Planful platform is used by the Office of the CFO around the globe to streamline business-wide planning, budgeting, consolidations, reporting, and visual analytics. The vendor states Planful's more than 1,000 customers, including Boston Red Sox, Del Monte, TGI Friday’s, and 23andMe, rely on Planful to accelerate cycle times, increase productivity, and improve accuracy across the end-to-end FP&A process. Planful is a private company backed by Vector Capital, a leading global private equity firm. Learn more at www.planful.com.
STRUCTURED PLANNING Structured Planning with Planful automates labor-intensive planning activities in a cloud-based platform – to give the finance team control, consistency, and confidence in corporate financial plans, budgets, and forecasts.
DYNAMIC PLANNING Dynamic Planning with Planful enables flexible, high-frequency, data-driven planning, modeling, and decision-making so users in every corner of the organization can analyze, plan, and make confident decisions at the speed of business.
FINANCIAL CLOSE & CONSOLIDATION Financial Close & Consolidation with Planful empowers finance to accelerate month-end close and reporting cycles by automating data aggregation, journal entries, intercompany eliminations, minority interest, entity consolidation, currency conversion, and financial reporting.
FINANCIAL REPORTING Reporting with Planful provides a library of reporting formats and delivery options, enabling finance and business users to produce a wide range of interactive financial and management reports leveraging one source of truth.
WORKFORCE PLANNING Planful helps users to tackle workforce planning using accurate and current data from across the business. By simplifying and automating time-consuming tasks and building alignment across departments, users have more time to create a stronger people strategy.
PLANFUL FOR MARKETING Planful’s marketing solution, formerly known as Plannuh, is used to measure marketing at every level of the plan for full visibility and team efficiency. To protect the marketing budget, Planful for Marketing helps marketers build, measure, execute and improve with clarity.
Planful Features
Budgeting, Planning, and Forecasting Features
- Supported: Long-term financial planning
- Supported: Financial budgeting
- Supported: Forecasting
- Supported: Scenario modeling
- Supported: Management reporting
Consolidation and Close Features
- Supported: Financial data consolidation
- Supported: Journal entries and reports
- Supported: Multi-currency management
- Supported: Intercompany Eliminations
- Supported: Minority Ownership
- Supported: Local and consolidated reporting
- Supported: Detailed Audit Trails
Financial Reporting and Compliance Features
- Supported: Financial Statement Reporting
- Supported: Management Reporting
- Supported: Excel-based Reporting
- Supported: Automated board and financial reporting
Analytics and Reporting Features
- Supported: Personalized dashboards
- Supported: Color-coded scorecards
- Supported: KPIs
- Supported: Cost and profitability analysis
- Supported: Key Performance Indicator setting
Integration Features
- Supported: Flat file integration
- Supported: Excel data integration
- Supported: Direct links to 3rd-party data sources
BI Standard Reporting Features
- Supported: Pixel Perfect reports
- Supported: Customizable dashboards
- Supported: Report Formatting Templates
Ad-hoc Reporting Features
- Supported: Drill-down analysis
- Supported: Formatting capabilities
- Supported: Predictive modeling
- Supported: Report sharing and collaboration
Report Output and Scheduling Features
- Supported: Publish to Web
- Supported: Publish to PDF
- Supported: Report Versioning
- Supported: Report Delivery Scheduling
Data Discovery and Visualization Features
- Supported: Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)
- Supported: Predictive Analytics
Access Control and Security Features
- Supported: Multi-User Support (named login)
- Supported: Role-Based Security Model
- Supported: Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)
- Supported: Report-Level Access Control
- Supported: Single Sign-On (SSO)
Mobile Capabilities Features
- Supported: Responsive Design for Web Access
- Supported: Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile
Planful Screenshots
Planful Videos
Watch Annual Operational Planning
Watch Cash Flow Forecasting
Watch Workforce Planning
Watch Financial Reporting
Watch Monthly Close and Consolidation
Watch Plan, Budget & Forecast
Watch Rolling Forecasts
Watch Dynamic Planning
Watch Planful for Marketing
Watch Planful Consolidations
Watch Planful Predict
Planful Integrations
Planful Competitors
Planful Technical Details
Deployment Types | Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based |
---|---|
Operating Systems | Unspecified |
Mobile Application | No |
Supported Countries | We have customers in 90 countries |
Supported Languages | English |
Planful Downloadables
Frequently Asked Questions
Planful Customer Size Distribution
Consumers | 0% |
---|---|
Small Businesses (1-50 employees) | 10% |
Mid-Size Companies (51-500 employees) | 25% |
Enterprises (more than 500 employees) | 65% |
Comparisons
Compare with
Reviews and Ratings
(204)Attribute Ratings
- 8.3Likelihood to Renew18 ratings
- 8.2Availability4 ratings
- 7.7Performance2 ratings
- 8.2Usability17 ratings
- 7.8Support Rating18 ratings
- 8.2Online Training1 rating
- 6.4In-Person Training2 ratings
- 2.3Implementation Rating7 ratings
- 8.2Configurability2 ratings
- 8.2Product Scalability2 ratings
- 5.5Ease of integration1 rating
- 9.1Vendor pre-sale1 rating
- 7.8Vendor post-sale3 ratings
- 9.1CPA Rating1 rating
Reviews
(1-4 of 4)Planful is NOT painful
- Workforce planning is amazing. We can personalize each record, and updating is very simple.
- The ability to have a rolling forecast is very useful for us in an overhead department. It enables us to pull up information on what we are forecasting for company IT costs for the upcoming years.
- The flexibility of the program and the reporting has been extremely helpful for us.
- They customer service is 2nd to NONE!
- Their willingness to improve their tool based on feedback from business user groups, customer advisory boards and their planful engage program is absolutely amazing.
- Dashboards need improvements. It would be nice to have a VIEW ONLY ability to push a dashboard to select users at the top level of finances for the group.
- Dated Hierarchies are cumbersome and not as helpful as they could be. There is so much opportunity with dated hierarchies, especially during re-organizations and budgeting.
- Long-term financial planning
- 100%10.0
- Financial budgeting
- 100%10.0
- Forecasting
- 100%10.0
- Scenario modeling
- N/AN/A
- Management reporting
- 100%10.0
- Financial data consolidation
- 100%10.0
- Journal entries and reports
- 100%10.0
- Multi-currency management
- N/AN/A
- Intercompany Eliminations
- N/AN/A
- Minority Ownership
- N/AN/A
- Local and consolidated reporting
- 100%10.0
- Detailed Audit Trails
- 100%10.0
- Financial Statement Reporting
- N/AN/A
- Management Reporting
- 100%10.0
- Excel-based Reporting
- 100%10.0
- Automated board and financial reporting
- 100%10.0
- Personalized dashboards
- N/AN/A
- Color-coded scorecards
- N/AN/A
- KPIs
- N/AN/A
- Cost and profitability analysis
- N/AN/A
- Key Performance Indicator setting
- N/AN/A
- Flat file integration
- N/AN/A
- Excel data integration
- N/AN/A
- Direct links to 3rd-party data sources
- 100%10.0
- Pixel Perfect reports
- N/AN/A
- Customizable dashboards
- N/AN/A
- Report Formatting Templates
- 100%10.0
- Drill-down analysis
- 100%10.0
- Formatting capabilities
- 100%10.0
- Report sharing and collaboration
- 100%10.0
- Publish to Web
- N/AN/A
- Publish to PDF
- N/AN/A
- Report Versioning
- 100%10.0
- Report Delivery Scheduling
- 100%10.0
- Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)
- N/AN/A
- Predictive Analytics
- N/AN/A
- Multi-User Support (named login)
- N/AN/A
- Role-Based Security Model
- 100%10.0
- Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)
- 100%10.0
- Single Sign-On (SSO)
- 100%10.0
- Responsive Design for Web Access
- 100%10.0
- Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile
- 100%10.0
- Planful has enabled us to come in closer to our budget number than ever before.
- The first year we used Planful (then Host Analytics), we were approximately 7.5% under budget. We were able to close out 2020 within .01% of our budget.
- Planful gives our money managers all of their budgeting, forecasting, and workforce planning needs right at their finger tips.
- Planful enables our managers to manage their financials closer and better than ever before.
Technology Finance professionals
I am also looking to bring other overhead departments onto the Planful platform, it has just been a little challenging 1) finding the time during budgeting season and year-end and 2) their financials are handled slightly different than our overhead department, so it has taken some time to ensure the system can accommodate the needs.
- Easy, daily visibility to actuals, forecasts and workforce
- Management Reporting out of Planful is a breeze
- Constant enhancements to the system to continuously improve features
- We have created reporting attributes to help track additional information needed when planning our workforce such as interns, college-grad positions, etc.
- This year we reached out for assistance with creation of an accrual template. This enables our managers to enter their own year-end accruals into a template, rather than my team manually tracking.
- I think eventually we will be able to use Predict, we are not quite that sophisticated yet
- I also believe we will be able to set up multi-currency. We currently use a field in SAP that converts other currencies to USD
- By the end of Q1 2023, I want to be using Planful to track workforce actuals. This will be a huge value add to our organization
- Price
- Product Features
- Third-party professional services
- The company we used did not do enough discovery, therefore we were forced to make updates throughout the first 3 years to optimize it for us
- Online Training
- In-Person Training
- Dynamic Reports are very easy to use
- Workforce Planning, when set up correctly, makes workforce planning in our department so much easier than spreadsheets, blended rates, etc.
- Dated hierarchies do not function as we need them to. We have brought this up to Planful and they are constantly working to improve the system and usability.
- SAP
- At this time, there are no additional systems
- Single Signon
- We haven't upgraded recently
- Unknown
A budget and forecast tool that makes financial planning easy!
- Workforce Planning Enhancements have been huge for our dept.
- Support has increased significantly since we started four years ago
- They are able to be used on Cloud
- Providing customers monthly releases of enhanced/new products
- Always working with their customers on how they can better the tool
- Need to make some manual processes automatic
- Would like to allow hierarchies to be scenario specific
- Would like a PowerBI integration
- Long-term financial planning
- 90%9.0
- Financial budgeting
- 90%9.0
- Forecasting
- 90%9.0
- Management reporting
- 90%9.0
- Financial data consolidation
- 90%9.0
- Journal entries and reports
- N/AN/A
- Multi-currency management
- N/AN/A
- Intercompany Eliminations
- N/AN/A
- Minority Ownership
- N/AN/A
- Local and consolidated reporting
- 90%9.0
- Detailed Audit Trails
- 90%9.0
- Financial Statement Reporting
- N/AN/A
- Management Reporting
- 90%9.0
- Excel-based Reporting
- 90%9.0
- Automated board and financial reporting
- 90%9.0
- Personalized dashboards
- 80%8.0
- Color-coded scorecards
- N/AN/A
- KPIs
- 30%3.0
- Cost and profitability analysis
- 90%9.0
- Key Performance Indicator setting
- N/AN/A
- Flat file integration
- 90%9.0
- Excel data integration
- 90%9.0
- Direct links to 3rd-party data sources
- 90%9.0
- Pixel Perfect reports
- N/AN/A
- Customizable dashboards
- 80%8.0
- Report Formatting Templates
- 40%4.0
- Drill-down analysis
- 90%9.0
- Formatting capabilities
- 90%9.0
- Report sharing and collaboration
- 90%9.0
- Publish to Web
- 40%4.0
- Publish to PDF
- 90%9.0
- Report Versioning
- N/AN/A
- Report Delivery Scheduling
- N/AN/A
- Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)
- N/AN/A
- Predictive Analytics
- 70%7.0
- Multi-User Support (named login)
- 90%9.0
- Role-Based Security Model
- 90%9.0
- Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)
- 90%9.0
- Report-Level Access Control
- 90%9.0
- Single Sign-On (SSO)
- 90%9.0
- Responsive Design for Web Access
- N/AN/A
- Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile
- N/AN/A
- Increased awareness of financials by our money managers
- Coming under budget last year was a huge accomplishment for us and made us look like rockstars to all overhead depts.
- Reporting is quick and easy to use
- REPORTING! At the click of a button, we have Actuals for our entire dept. Our managers can update their forecast and in seconds, all their reports are up to date.
- We’ve created a solid Month End Process & Financial Calendar for our money managers that lays out all important dates (month end close, variance meetings, projections due, etc).
- We also created additional GL’s (PTO Taken/Attrition) in our Opex Template. We specifically broke those out so that our money managers could see them, and they weren't all bundled up in one compensation item.
- Simplifying Reporting
- Automating Workforce Planning
- Allocations Usage
- We can run reports for other departments based on the attributes we use in Planful (i.e. Employee work location report, YTD travel expenses, etc).
- This year we added a group where their employees/contractors primarily bill their cost to other jobsites/districts. To accurately forecast Kiewit Technology Group’s portion of this cost, we started using the allocation dimension, allowing money managers to easily see the allocations breakout.
- We also created additional GL’s (PTO Taken/Attrition) in our Opex Template. We specifically broke those out so that our money managers could see them, and they weren't all bundled up in one compensation item.
- Dashboards is something we'd like to look into in the future
- Price
- Product Features
- Product Usability
- Third-party professional services
- We should've asked more questions during implementation
- They should've asked more about what we wanted out of the tool
- Online Training
- In-Person Training
- Reporting
- Structured Planning
- Task Manager
- Consolidation is a little tedious, but it's just because we're still trying to figure out how to get it to work properly for us.
- Our ERP System SAP
- Our Workforce data is something I'm working on right now
- File import/export
- Single Signon
- API (e.g. SOAP or REST)
- Less manual work
- More Accurate reporting
- Less manual work
- More accurate reporting
The Good, the Bad and the not so Ugly
- Strong reporting tool. Able to run ad-hoc reports as needed as well as build standard reports we can use on a recurring basis.
- Good budgeting/forecasting (with the exception of limited time span). Budgeting has good features such as allowing note fields and good headcount template with various cost calculations (ie taxes, benefit, etc).
- Customer feedback is incorporated into product development and improvements
- Customers for Life group strives to address customer issues to satisfaction
- Some product features aren't fully tested before release. For example, report collections idea is great, but if a parameter is setup incorrectly, rather than returning an error message, the reports are distributed to the wrong people (causes the distribution list to scramble). Also when removing a department from the report list, this also causes the distribution list to scramble. Another example is under Template Setup. There was a bug with the filter feature that deleted mapped departments when that was not the intention.
- Their special projects process could use improvement. We had a need to edit our nightly load data and the quote process seemed somewhat random. We were quoted for work that did not need to be done as well for time that we as a customer would have been responsible for. Additionally, there was little oversight to ensure the project ran on time and smoothly. Our 1-month project took 5 months to complete. Additionally, we've had challenges with our nightly data loads while testing for this project where things that worked before no longer work, loads that pointed to a test database were forgotten to be repointed back to production, edits to the load script caused errors, etc...
- Some areas are not the most intuitive to understand. For example, understanding that data loads do not always overwrite the previous data loads but that zeroes need to be loaded.
- Rolling forecasts were promised as a product feature that would be available soon, but we have yet to see it or anything with this feature.
- Increased employee efficiency enabling us to spend more time analyzing the data than creating reports. Some up-front investments in report creation results in huge time savings on the back end.
- Improved forecasting due to the ability to update forecasts at any time over multiple periods enables us to have the most up to date information. Plus we can plan further out which saves time during budgeting season.
- Better customer service as we can address questions relatively quickly either through reporting or accessing the budget templates.
- We are able to provide personnel down to each store and department, along with budgeting changes (new hires, terminations and raises) as well as costs related to benefits. We can load all of this in from an HR file, as well as have the budget owner review and make changes. We have even been able to change raise guidance during the budgeting process depending on needs.
- We are also able to plan capital spending (down to the department and store or at a project level) and use the plan to allocate depreciation costs and review those planned costs during the year as they are incurred against actual. The plus for us is that we can see that spending and costs and adjust it as we are still doing the plan.
- We provide a projection by product and operating segment that provides the budget owner a view of what we realistically expect, but we can and have worked with the budget owners to modify and adjust that on a larger scale or allow them to adjust a month or store, too. This creates the conversation during the budgeting process that is a back and forth between the executive team and the operators, so that when the plan is done it is more of a collaboration.
- Host has been working on improving it's reporting capabilities and (since we have been a customer since 2005) we have seen the strides they have made and more platforms, software capabilities and everyone's expectations have grown and changed. They are very receptive to hearing what and how their customers use the product and what they need. Their SaaS and online system allows updates frequently and the changes or idea requested by customers can be seen as the make it into the product. Everyone benefits and it does not take purchasing a newer version or upgrade. They are working on improving and making it even easier to provide the "polished" looking reports everyone now demands.
- Our budgeting process used to entail about 3 months of assembling data, creating projections and trying to review with our operators. Changes were not easily possible with spreadsheets (even the sophisticated ones were had developed) and reviewing the big picture was time consuming and labor intensive. We are now able to provide the same projections, but work with the operators and department managers to make the budget result a more collaborative and reviewed product in less time. ROI is harder for us to measure when we now have a better end product that everyone is more comfortable with and can easily go to for the details during the year.
- We are beginning to work with increasing the data elements (non-financial) we load into Host to be able to provide even more information with the same financial information our users are already using from other systems. All of this will allow less time to be spent looking at multiple reports or systems and collating the information each user needs. That will result in more time for customers, employees and ideas.