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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Planful

    Score8.4 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

    Azure SQL Database

    Score8.5 out of 10
    N/AAzure SQL Database is Microsoft's relational database as a service (DBaaS).

    $0.50

    Per Hour

    Pricing
    PlanfulAzure SQL Database
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    2 vCORE
    $0.5044
    Per Hour
    6 vCORE
    $1.5131
    Per Hour
    10 vCORE
    $2.52
    Per Hour
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    PlanfulAzure SQL Database
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeRequiredNo setup fee
    Additional DetailsPricing is highly dependent on the complexity and scope of the implementation.—
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    PlanfulAzure SQL Database
    Considered Both Products
    Planful
    No answer on this topic
    Microsoft
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    97%
    Would buy again
    101 Answers
    100%
    Would buy again
    17 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    99%
    Delivers good value for the price
    90 Answers
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    16 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    98%
    Happy with the feature set
    102 Answers
    94%
    Happy with the feature set
    16 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    90%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    60 Answers
    93%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    14 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    84%
    Implementation went as expected
    67 Answers
    94%
    Implementation went as expected
    16 Answers
    Features
    PlanfulAzure SQL Database
    BI Standard Reporting
    Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of Planful and Azure SQL Database
    Feature
    Planful
    6.1
    64 Ratings
    21% below category average
    Azure SQL Database
    -
    Ratings
    Pixel Perfect reports6.933 Ratings00 Ratings
    Customizable dashboards5.057 Ratings00 Ratings
    Report Formatting Templates6.555 Ratings00 Ratings
    Ad-hoc Reporting
    Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of Planful and Azure SQL Database
    Feature
    Planful
    7.5
    104 Ratings
    3% below category average
    Azure SQL Database
    -
    Ratings
    Drill-down analysis8.4103 Ratings00 Ratings
    Formatting capabilities7.0104 Ratings00 Ratings
    Report sharing and collaboration7.197 Ratings00 Ratings
    Report Output and Scheduling
    Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of Planful and Azure SQL Database
    Feature
    Planful
    7.4
    86 Ratings
    7% below category average
    Azure SQL Database
    -
    Ratings
    Publish to Web8.433 Ratings00 Ratings
    Publish to PDF6.477 Ratings00 Ratings
    Report Versioning6.555 Ratings00 Ratings
    Report Delivery Scheduling8.566 Ratings00 Ratings
    Data Discovery and Visualization
    Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of Planful and Azure SQL Database
    Feature
    Planful
    6.1
    51 Ratings
    19% below category average
    Azure SQL Database
    -
    Ratings
    Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)5.040 Ratings00 Ratings
    Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization6.42 Ratings00 Ratings
    Predictive Analytics6.044 Ratings00 Ratings
    Pattern Recognition and Data Mining7.33 Ratings00 Ratings
    Access Control and Security
    Comparison of Access Control and Security features of Planful and Azure SQL Database
    Feature
    Planful
    8.9
    103 Ratings
    6% above category average
    Azure SQL Database
    -
    Ratings
    Multi-User Support (named login)8.496 Ratings00 Ratings
    Role-Based Security Model8.894 Ratings00 Ratings
    Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)8.595 Ratings00 Ratings
    Report-Level Access Control8.855 Ratings00 Ratings
    Single Sign-On (SSO)9.778 Ratings00 Ratings
    Mobile Capabilities
    Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of Planful and Azure SQL Database
    Feature
    Planful
    2.3
    42 Ratings
    104% below category average
    Azure SQL Database
    -
    Ratings
    Responsive Design for Web Access2.540 Ratings00 Ratings
    Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile2.230 Ratings00 Ratings
    Budgeting, Planning, and Forecasting
    Comparison of Budgeting, Planning, and Forecasting features of Planful and Azure SQL Database
    Feature
    Planful
    8.7
    156 Ratings
    8% above category average
    Azure SQL Database
    -
    Ratings
    Long-term financial planning8.7139 Ratings00 Ratings
    Financial budgeting9.0155 Ratings00 Ratings
    Forecasting9.0146 Ratings00 Ratings
    Scenario modeling7.8131 Ratings00 Ratings
    Management reporting9.0149 Ratings00 Ratings
    Consolidation and Close
    Comparison of Consolidation and Close features of Planful and Azure SQL Database
    Feature
    Planful
    8.0
    118 Ratings
    3% above category average
    Azure SQL Database
    -
    Ratings
    Financial data consolidation9.3107 Ratings00 Ratings
    Journal entries and reports7.886 Ratings00 Ratings
    Multi-currency management7.470 Ratings00 Ratings
    Intercompany Eliminations7.673 Ratings00 Ratings
    Minority Ownership6.939 Ratings00 Ratings
    Local and consolidated reporting7.789 Ratings00 Ratings
    Detailed Audit Trails9.187 Ratings00 Ratings
    Financial Reporting and Compliance
    Comparison of Financial Reporting and Compliance features of Planful and Azure SQL Database
    Feature
    Planful
    7.6
    152 Ratings
    7% below category average
    Azure SQL Database
    -
    Ratings
    Financial Statement Reporting8.8133 Ratings00 Ratings
    Management Reporting8.8143 Ratings00 Ratings
    Excel-based Reporting7.0141 Ratings00 Ratings
    Automated board and financial reporting6.5114 Ratings00 Ratings
    XBRL support for regulatory filing7.13 Ratings00 Ratings
    Analytics and Reporting
    Comparison of Analytics and Reporting features of Planful and Azure SQL Database
    Feature
    Planful
    5.9
    104 Ratings
    24% below category average
    Azure SQL Database
    -
    Ratings
    Personalized dashboards5.191 Ratings00 Ratings
    Color-coded scorecards2.555 Ratings00 Ratings
    KPIs7.476 Ratings00 Ratings
    Cost and profitability analysis6.975 Ratings00 Ratings
    Key Performance Indicator setting6.963 Ratings00 Ratings
    Benchmarking with external data6.410 Ratings00 Ratings
    Integration
    Comparison of Integration features of Planful and Azure SQL Database
    Feature
    Planful
    8.9
    140 Ratings
    10% above category average
    Azure SQL Database
    -
    Ratings
    Flat file integration9.5105 Ratings00 Ratings
    Excel data integration7.8130 Ratings00 Ratings
    Direct links to 3rd-party data sources9.596 Ratings00 Ratings
    Database-as-a-Service
    Comparison of Database-as-a-Service features of Planful and Azure SQL Database
    Feature
    Planful
    -
    Ratings
    Azure SQL Database
    7.2
    32 Ratings
    16% below category average
    Automatic software patching00 Ratings6.330 Ratings
    Database scalability00 Ratings7.832 Ratings
    Automated backups00 Ratings7.832 Ratings
    Database security provisions00 Ratings8.832 Ratings
    Monitoring and metrics00 Ratings6.831 Ratings
    Automatic host deployment00 Ratings6.127 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    PlanfulAzure SQL Database
    Small Businesses
    No answers on this topic
    MongoDB Atlas
    Score7.8 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    IBM Planning Analytics
    Score8.5 out of 10
    Azure Database
    Score8.8 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Oracle Fusion Cloud Enterprise Performance Management
    Score7.2 out of 10
    Google Cloud SQL
    Score8.7 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    PlanfulAzure SQL Database
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.8
    (164 ratings)
    8.0
    (32 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    8.7
    (23 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    Usability
    8.2
    (21 ratings)
    8.5
    (5 ratings)
    Availability
    8.2
    (4 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Performance
    9.1
    (3 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    9.0
    (22 ratings)
    9.0
    (5 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    9.1
    (3 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Online Training
    9.1
    (3 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    7.3
    (9 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Configurability
    8.2
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    CPA Rating
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    5.3
    (4 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    8.2
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    7.4
    (4 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    9.1
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    PlanfulAzure SQL Database
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Planful
    Planful is initially easy to setup and if a company is already using a mid layer to transform and standardise GL data, management reports can be set up in days, not weeks or months. Budgeting template setup does get some getting used to but the training provided by Planful is sufficient to get going and learn along the way. Building custom reports is straightforward and the interface is user-friendly, therefore the accounting team can get going without the need for technical specialists getting involved. Budget and forecasting is flexible and drivers of revenue and cost can be created in Planful and customised by Unit or Geography.
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    We have found it's a great alternative for making older legacy applications work with online databases instead of only on-premises databases. We've converted over a dozen applications this way, and it has allowed our clients to have a distributed workforce using their applications without incurring the expense of a complete application rewrite.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Planful
    • It aggregates data from different sources well, allowing me to report on a wide variety of metrics that interrelate.
    • I can build detailed reports so that my monthly and weekly reporting is done more efficiently
    • I like the tools that I am using to create dedicated models for forecasting and budgeting purposes
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • Maintenance is always an issue, so using a cloud solution saves a lot of trouble.
    • On premise solutions always suffer from fragmented implementations here and there, where several "dba's" keep track of security and maintenance. With a cloud database it's much easier to keep a central overview.
    • Security options in SQL database are next level... data masking, hiding sensitive data where always neglected on premise, whereas you'll get this automatically in the cloud.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Planful
    • Dashboarding could be more flexible and easier to use.
    • Dynamic Reporting has room for flexibility with nesting, dimension names showing up instead of “All,” and overall flexibility.
    • Make Analyze view in Spotlight more intuitive.
    • A high-level onboarding guide to understanding the different components of Planful, data flows, and tips & tricks.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • One needs to be aware that some T-SQL features are simply not available.
    • The programmatic access to server, trace flags, hardware from within Azure SQL Database is taken away (for a good reason).
    • No SQL Agent so your jobs need to be orchestrated differently.
    • The maximum concurrent logins maybe an unexpected problem.
    • Sudden disconnects.
    • The developers and admin must study the capacity and tier usage limits https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-subscription-service-limits otherwise some errors or even transaction aborts never seen before can occur.
    • Only one Latin Collation choice.
    • There is no way to debug T-SQL ( a big drawback in my point of view).
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    This is best solution as a DBA one could expect from a service provider and as a cloud service, it removes all your hassles.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    The interfaces are intuitive once you are familiar with all the functions. The ability to use different tools to interact with the platform, such as directly via a browser or code editors such as VS Code or Visual Studio is a great option and allows for integrating withn the project and other testing and developing tools.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    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
    Microsoft
    No answers on this topic
    Performance
    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.
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    No answers on this topic
    Support Rating
    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
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    We give the support a high rating simply because every time we've had issues or questions, representatives were in contact with us quickly. Without fail, our issues/questions were handled in a timely matter. That kind of response is integral when client data integrity and availability is in question. There is also a wealth of documentation for resolving issues on your own.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    In-Person Training
    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. Planful also offers training and certifications on their training hub. I have completed a couple of the certifications. The courses are easy to follow along with and very informative. Additionally, Planful schedules webinars pretty regularly. They'll email their customers and allow you to register to participate live. They also record these sessions so you can refer back to them at a later date or if you are unable to attend at the time the webinar is offered, you can register anyway and get access to the recording. Their training has improved year over year!
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    No answers on this topic
    Online Training
    Planful
    Planful provides a lot of online training support. There's so many options for training. Admin Learning Courses, User Learning Courses. Plus they have several webinars devoted to the tool and the new features they release. New Releases can be practiced in a Sandbox Environment prior to going live in Production
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation Rating
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    Planful
    Prior to joining the company, we tried to implement Vena but were unsuccessful. There we're a few reasons it didn't work out, but a lot of it related to the implementation team they provided. In just the first week with Planful, we achieved more progress than we did in several months with Vena.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    We moved away from Oracle and NoSQL because we had been so reliant on them for the last 25 years, the pricing was too much and we were looking for a way to cut the cord. Snowflake is just too up in the air, feels like it is soon to be just another line item to add to your Azure subscription. Azure was just priced right, easy to migrate to and plenty of resources to hire to support/maintain it. Very easy to learn, too.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scalability
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    No answers on this topic
    Return on Investment
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • Perfect for small and medium databases, being very cost effective.
    • As a Platform as a Service, there is no concern about patches, upgrades and end of life.
    • Be aware of security and network capabilities. The service cannot run in the VNET as Azure Virtual Machines do.
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    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