LivePlan vs. Planful

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
LivePlan
Score 8.8 out of 10
Small Businesses (1-50 employees)
LivePlan is business plan software for entrepreneurs. Features include the pitch creation, sample plans, financial assessments, and performance dashboards.
$15
Monthly & Annual billing options available
Planful
Score 7.8 out of 10
Enterprise companies (1,001+ employees)
Planful is a cloud-based enterprise performance management (EPM) suite. It includes financial applications for modeling, planning, consolidation, reporting and analytics.N/A
Pricing
LivePlanPlanful
Editions & Modules
LivePlan Premium
Starting at $30/month
Monthly & Annual billing options available
LivePlan Standard
Starting at $15/month
Monthly & Annual billing options available
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
LivePlanPlanful
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesYes
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsLivePlan Standard Includes: - Step-By-Step Instructions - Automatic Financial Statements - Full Financial Forecast - One-Page Pitch Builder - 500+ Sample Plans LivePlan Premium includes everything in Standard, plus: - Industry Benchmark Data - Financial Forecast Scenarios - Performance Dashboards - Milestone Planner - LiveForecast - Syncs with Xero & QuickBooks All subscriptions come with a 60-day money-back guarantee and access to expert customer support.
More Pricing Information
Features
LivePlanPlanful
BI Standard Reporting
Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of Product A and Product B
LivePlan
-
Ratings
Planful
5.2
45 Ratings
38% below category average
Pixel Perfect reports00 Ratings4.922 Ratings
Customizable dashboards00 Ratings5.540 Ratings
Report Formatting Templates00 Ratings5.337 Ratings
Ad-hoc Reporting
Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of Product A and Product B
LivePlan
-
Ratings
Planful
6.7
75 Ratings
20% below category average
Drill-down analysis00 Ratings7.673 Ratings
Formatting capabilities00 Ratings6.374 Ratings
Report sharing and collaboration00 Ratings6.469 Ratings
Report Output and Scheduling
Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of Product A and Product B
LivePlan
-
Ratings
Planful
6.1
63 Ratings
29% below category average
Publish to Web00 Ratings7.922 Ratings
Publish to PDF00 Ratings6.057 Ratings
Report Versioning00 Ratings5.339 Ratings
Report Delivery Scheduling00 Ratings5.244 Ratings
Data Discovery and Visualization
Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of Product A and Product B
LivePlan
-
Ratings
Planful
6.1
35 Ratings
21% below category average
Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)00 Ratings6.026 Ratings
Predictive Analytics00 Ratings6.230 Ratings
Access Control and Security
Comparison of Access Control and Security features of Product A and Product B
LivePlan
-
Ratings
Planful
8.3
75 Ratings
5% below category average
Multi-User Support (named login)00 Ratings8.569 Ratings
Role-Based Security Model00 Ratings8.067 Ratings
Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)00 Ratings8.468 Ratings
Report-Level Access Control00 Ratings8.027 Ratings
Single Sign-On (SSO)00 Ratings8.659 Ratings
Mobile Capabilities
Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of Product A and Product B
LivePlan
-
Ratings
Planful
7.3
31 Ratings
7% below category average
Responsive Design for Web Access00 Ratings7.229 Ratings
Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile00 Ratings7.321 Ratings
Budgeting, Planning, and Forecasting
Comparison of Budgeting, Planning, and Forecasting features of Product A and Product B
LivePlan
-
Ratings
Planful
7.2
123 Ratings
14% below category average
Long-term financial planning00 Ratings8.0110 Ratings
Financial budgeting00 Ratings7.4122 Ratings
Forecasting00 Ratings7.3113 Ratings
Scenario modeling00 Ratings6.5102 Ratings
Management reporting00 Ratings6.6119 Ratings
Consolidation and Close
Comparison of Consolidation and Close features of Product A and Product B
LivePlan
-
Ratings
Planful
5.6
92 Ratings
35% below category average
Financial data consolidation00 Ratings7.481 Ratings
Journal entries and reports00 Ratings5.264 Ratings
Multi-currency management00 Ratings5.155 Ratings
Intercompany Eliminations00 Ratings5.556 Ratings
Minority Ownership00 Ratings4.927 Ratings
Local and consolidated reporting00 Ratings5.766 Ratings
Detailed Audit Trails00 Ratings5.868 Ratings
Financial Reporting and Compliance
Comparison of Financial Reporting and Compliance features of Product A and Product B
LivePlan
-
Ratings
Planful
6.7
123 Ratings
19% below category average
Financial Statement Reporting00 Ratings7.1105 Ratings
Management Reporting00 Ratings6.9115 Ratings
Excel-based Reporting00 Ratings7.2115 Ratings
Automated board and financial reporting00 Ratings5.288 Ratings
XBRL support for regulatory filing00 Ratings7.13 Ratings
Analytics and Reporting
Comparison of Analytics and Reporting features of Product A and Product B
LivePlan
-
Ratings
Planful
5.0
77 Ratings
47% below category average
Personalized dashboards00 Ratings6.068 Ratings
Color-coded scorecards00 Ratings5.544 Ratings
KPIs00 Ratings6.056 Ratings
Cost and profitability analysis00 Ratings5.153 Ratings
Key Performance Indicator setting00 Ratings4.344 Ratings
Benchmarking with external data00 Ratings3.18 Ratings
Integration
Comparison of Integration features of Product A and Product B
LivePlan
-
Ratings
Planful
6.2
113 Ratings
30% below category average
Flat file integration00 Ratings7.383 Ratings
Excel data integration00 Ratings6.3105 Ratings
Direct links to 3rd-party data sources00 Ratings5.177 Ratings
Best Alternatives
LivePlanPlanful
Small Businesses
MIP Fund Accounting
MIP Fund Accounting
Score 8.7 out of 10
IBM Planning Analytics
IBM Planning Analytics
Score 8.3 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Centage
Centage
Score 9.5 out of 10
Centage
Centage
Score 9.5 out of 10
Enterprises
Prophix
Prophix
Score 8.8 out of 10
Prophix
Prophix
Score 8.8 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
LivePlanPlanful
Likelihood to Recommend
9.6
(6 ratings)
7.3
(132 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
8.4
(20 ratings)
Usability
-
(0 ratings)
8.4
(20 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
8.2
(4 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(3 ratings)
Support Rating
-
(0 ratings)
7.9
(21 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
6.4
(2 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
8.7
(2 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
7.0
(9 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
8.2
(2 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
6.6
(4 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
8.2
(2 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
8.3
(4 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(2 ratings)
User Testimonials
LivePlanPlanful
Likelihood to Recommend
Palo Alto Software
All businesses require solutions and tools for organization and control of expenses, spreadsheets were always the first option, but since the arrival of LivePlan, all work is easier and more automated. With LivePlan we have charts and graphs that are automatically created based on our data, this is a great time and money saver. LivePlan is a tool that has worked from day one and has met our expectations in creating the total budget.
Read full review
Planful
Planful has become a key tool for all our financial processes, from reporting and budgeting to handling ad-hoc requests. It provides a centralized solution for our company. We've spent some time building dashboards in Planful, however, we already have a strong PowerBI presence at our company. So we've found that PowerBI is the more flexible & advanced tool for visualizations.
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Pros
Palo Alto Software
  • It makes it easy and simple to plan and budget the business.
  • It allows creating of accurate business forecasts.
  • It has detailed yet easy to use and customize built-in templates to help you get along with business planning easily.
  • It integrates and works perfectly well woth accounting tools like QuickBooks such that it is easy to import the accounting data.
Read full review
Planful
  • Creating forecasts for the month, quarter, and year
  • Creating new variables by using variables pre-defined and that are new in the system
  • Having a very simple setup in the reports section - not straying away from the old Excel model which most people are used to. I can speak for a lot of people when I say that tools that look new can easily be frightening! 😅
Read full review
Cons
Palo Alto Software
  • UX: It's beyond time for an overhaul, especially on mobile. It can make the app seem dated.
  • The accounting software integration has been prone to break and need to be re-setup, though that seems to have improved.
Read full review
Planful
  • Multiple currency calculations/ consolidations support IFRS accounting
  • Ability to inactivate old data dimensions
  • Reporting - Need ability to expand all/collapse all lines easily
  • Reporting - Formula exceptions added to a report do not update when information is revised.
  • Automatic Sandbox refreshes initiated by Planful - When Planful does an automatic refresh of the sandbox environment, it copies any Boomi/integration connections.
  • Limited to 8 data dimensions in core application
  • Add more API connectors to make data integration easier
  • ability to transfer sandbox tests to production environment
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Likelihood to Renew
Palo Alto Software
No answers on this topic
Planful
Our new Comptroller understands the value of Planful, and we plan to utilize it further in the organization to enhance external reporting. Strangely enough, Planful had not previously been embraced by the former CFO, who argued that we were running two sets of books (of course, we were not). Fortunately, the before mentioned reconciliation of EBITDA to Net Income demonstrated that to the banks.
Read full review
Usability
Palo Alto Software
No answers on this topic
Planful
The tool is extremely adaptable, and it enables very quick querying to give us opportunity to gain live insights into the business. Given its adaptability, we are also able to create scenario analyses very quickly in rapidly changing environments. The formatting also enables us to provide this information in a very consumable manner.
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Reliability and Availability
Palo Alto Software
No answers on this topic
Planful
I only give a 9 rating rather than a 10 rating because it seems that every day around 2pm we see a slowdown in the use of Planful. I have requested our internal IT department verify that it is not an internal issue and have been assured it is the tool. We have not yet reached out to Planful to do extensive research to solve this issue.
Read full review
Performance
Palo Alto Software
No answers on this topic
Planful
Again, the system is very reliable and, for the most part, runs very quick and smooth. When running larger queries, it does take some time, and during budgeting season our users experienced slower loading times, but nothing that raises concerns outside of normal network issues. Occasionally, as with any software we use, it will crash and you have to restart, but that does not happen very often.
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Support Rating
Palo Alto Software
No answers on this topic
Planful
Sometimes we get great help when using Planful's support team and other times we don't. In particular, there is one person that often responds to our support tickets who is less than helpful, hence the reason for the 5 out of 10 rating. As a result, most of the time we reach out to our Planful consulting group as they provide faster and better support
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In-Person Training
Palo Alto Software
No answers on this topic
Planful
My team has attended training offered several times before/during the Planful Perform conference. This training has been extremely useful and we always learn something we didn't know prior to the training. The trainers are always very knowledgeable and more than willing to help each and every user after the training with specific questions regarding their environment.
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Online Training
Palo Alto Software
No answers on this topic
Planful
This training is much more robust now than it was when we first implemented our Planful environment. Many times we can do a little research in the "help" portal and do not even need to reach out to support. They are continuously improving the training and information available to users.
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Implementation Rating
Palo Alto Software
No answers on this topic
Planful
After going through the initial implementation with Host Analytics and a re-implementation with Cervello (due to an ERP change, not due to a poor initial implementation), I've learned that you really must rely on your internal staff to bear most of the implementation burden. Use the vendor or partners for ideas and best-practice suggestions, and some of the easy-but-time-consuming work. Since you will ultimately be using and maintaining the application, you should be able to do most of it yourself.
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Alternatives Considered
Palo Alto Software
We did not really find a similar solution. All other solutions are focused on project management, [there's] nothing on generating a business plan. There is nothing on this level that helps people without any business experience write the plan. They have samples, instructions what to write where, how to prepare for pitching, and generate dashboards. Nothing in this market gets anywhere close to this solution.
Read full review
Planful
Workforce Planning in Planful is a plus compared to Adaptive Insights. Reporting in Planful is a plus compared to Adaptive Insights. Similarity to Excel is a plus compared to Adaptive Insights. Adaptive Insights can budget/forecast weekly or daily rather easily, which is a huge undertaking in Planful. Adaptive Insights has a larger user base and can more easily find talents in Consulting or general users.
Read full review
Scalability
Palo Alto Software
No answers on this topic
Planful
From our experience, Planful is only used in 2 overhead departments in our organization. We easily added another overhead department, but they decided against using Planful for their workforce and financial planning. Removing them from our environment was extremely easy.
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Return on Investment
Palo Alto Software
  • It has made it easy to create sensible budgets and run our business within the proposed budgets to avoid overspending.
  • It allows us to keenly follow up and keep track of how the business is performing thus getting to know on which ares we should improve.
  • It helps us have accurate future insights of the position of our business thanks to its forecasting functionality.
  • It helps us to create outstanding business plans and fund the plans which help us grow our business by improving its productivity.
Read full review
Planful
  • Has allowed users to view a real-time P&L in a way they weren't able to do with Qlik.
  • Budget to Actual analysis has become much more streamlined and actionable
  • Long-range plan process has been significantly streamlined and a lot of time has been cut out of the process.
Read full review
ScreenShots

LivePlan Screenshots

Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of

Planful Screenshots

Screenshot of the Planful Planform DashboardScreenshot of Planful for FinanceScreenshot of Planful for MarketingScreenshot of ReportsScreenshot of a Capacity Planning TemplateScreenshot of Integrations