Planful

Score8.4 out of 10

290 Reviews and Ratings

What is Planful?

Planful is a cloud-based enterprise performance management (EPM) suite. It includes financial applications for modeling, planning, consolidation, reporting and analytics.

Categories & Use Cases

Media

Screenshot of the Planful Planform Dashboard

Screenshot of a Capacity Planning Template

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Screenshot of the Planful Planform Dashboard

Single Sign-On (SSO)
Allows users to use one set of login credentials to access multiple applications
Category average: 8.7
Flat file integration
Integration of flat files like text documents and comma separated files
Category average: 8.4
Direct links to 3rd-party data sources
Integration with external applications like ERP, CRM, HCM
Category average: 7.8

Color-coded scorecards
Track and analyze performances with interactive, color-coded balanced scorecards.
Category average: 7.9
Responsive Design for Web Access
Web design aimed at producing easy-to-read sites across a range of different devices.
Category average: 7.2
Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile
In-app dashboard reports and data visualization.
Category average: 6.8

Most Frequent Users

Top 3 industries using Planful.

Based on HG Insights installation data

View all Reviews

#1 most frequent

Manufacturing

16.9%

126 installations of 745

“No more manual excel consolidations that has saved month end reporting and forececast/budget rollups. approx time saved is 20hour at month end and 8 hours per roll up for budget and forecast”
— Sr Finance Manager, Aspen Surgical Products (Enterprises)

#2 most frequent

Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services

15.3%

114 installations of 745

“Time Savings when it comes to data storage and aggregation.”
— Financial Analyst II, Mission Pet Health (Enterprises)

#3 most frequent

Information

14.6%

109 installations of 745

Pros

Robust financial reporting and customizable report generation
Comprehensive budgeting and forecasting tools for detailed modeling
Efficient financial data consolidation from diverse sources

Cons

Dynamic planning features are perceived as unintuitive and clunky
Limited flexibility and customization for complex reporting
Dashboard features are basic, lacking advanced visualization options

Karthik Sriram Lakshmi Narasimhan View profile

VP FP&A in Finance and Accounting at Parabilis Medicines (51-200 employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Planful for budgeting and forecasting. It is an easy-to-use tool with some good reporting capabilities. It allows us to perform a monthly budget-to-actuals analysis and prepare quarterly reforecasts.

Pros

Easy to import data.
Easy to build reports.
Easy to integrate with Oracle Netsuite.

Cons

Incorporate more of the agentic AI features into base product.

Return on Investment

Saved a lot of time that we used to do manual data entry.

Alternatives Considered

Anaplan, Workday Adaptive Planning and DataRails

Other Software Used

NetSuite ERP, Prendio

Verified User

Consultant in Finance and Accounting (1001-5000 employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Planful is used for group consolidation, management and board reporting. Planful was implemented to provide a one source of truth of company financials as well as customer revenue segmentation and analysis. Prior to Planful group consolidation was performed in Excel which as flexible as is has few financial control options and can easily be corrupted.

Pros

Group consolidation of actuals into a single group Chart of Accounts
Holds multiple scenarios of Forecasts (if required) as well as Budget info which can be locked down with user specific access controls
Can leverage metadata to enhance management reporting and insight
Can connect to multiple source via its Boomi API

Cons

For bespoke management reports data usually has to be taken out of Planful and into a BI or Excel environment to further customise graphs or look and feel
Consolidation scenarios involving detailed or sub-group consolidation processes need additional licences

Return on Investment

Planful has shaved off a few days from the month end reporting providing a single lens of actuals and budget data
Reports are now visible and published to not just finance users but operational and divisional directors allowing for visibility into customer specific revenue analytics and current performance against Budget or Forecast
Drill through capability has allowed the business to review detailed transaction info and supplier cost not previously analysed
ROI is calculated approximately at around 18-24months from start of implementing Planful

Verified User

Manager in Finance and Accounting (51-200 employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We're using Planful for all forecasting and comparisons of actuals against Forecast and Budget. We're using it for (almost) all reporting sent from our Finance departments, including monthly automated report packets to different teams/stakeholders. One of the primary reasons for implementing Planful was to eliminate challenges related to File Access, Versioning, and View vs Write access to Forecast and Budgets that we used to have in Excel. The 2nd primary reason was that we were outgrowing Excel in wanting to Bgt/FCast by Territory/Location. We're still working towards that with Planful, but it's no longer a systems limitation.

Pros

Dynamic Reporting is powerful and cloud scheduler saves time.
The ability to use Report and Column sets to build a report once, save versions of it with different RS/CS's applied for different audiences.
Calc Accounts and Custom Members for repeated use

Cons

WFP seems to have limitations, even after having WFP PRO, in how you can report on data, Salary Increases as an example and how the DLR works (we have been burned multiple times and no longer use DLR for WFP). There isn't a way to set/save a filter, sorting by Employee Name and making a change, required you to sort by Employee Name again...
Many of our reports lose data as we close months. We've explored this with both Bakerfield and PAM team and are told it's just 'how it works' which is baffling for a solution this robust.
Dashboards have some frustrating/limitations. You can't do a trend line on a graph. You can't include Dashboards in Report Collection/Packets and send them via CloudScheduler.

Return on Investment

One of the main ROIs is just the increased OML level of our Finance Department, and how Planful has eliminated bottlenecks and limitations of our previously used Budget/Forecast spreadsheets and reports. The Finance Team feels like they're "leading the way" and have eliminated (or are on the path to eliminate) obstacles before we have them.

Alternatives Considered

Phocas Business Intelligence and Budgyt

Other Software Used

BILL, BILL Spend & Expense, Avalara, ConnectBooster, a Kaseya company, ConnectWise PSA

Verified User

Analyst in Finance and Accounting (51-200 employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Planful to automate our reporting, make reports dynamic, and speed up month- and year-end processing. We also value having a centralized database for all information. I use it daily to create report sets for various users and help them use the site.

Pros

Make reports dynamic so only need to make a set once.
Allow for drilling down to understand why a number is that amount.
Substitution variables to use same template and change ranges used.
Can have multiple people in one ERP.

Cons

When a report has over 300 rows of data, it is very slow i lose time just waiting.
Format will be changed and when i save and re-open report, format is gone.
Small issues: no formula bar, can't make larger changes at the same time by holding Control, and missing many easy features Excel had.
Would like the ability to edit any cell non custom too.

Return on Investment

First year using, can't comment on financial implications.
Time saved, efficiency improvements, (less certain lag times).
Increased visibility and data capabilities.

Other Software Used

Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Power BI, Tableau Server

Verified User

Analyst in Finance and Accounting (501-1000 employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Our organization uses Planful (formerly Host Analytics) to consolidate 60+ entities Trial Balances on a monthly basis. We also use the system to complete our Annual Operating Budget.

Pros

Consolidation
Planning
Reporting

Cons

Spotlight XL can be glitchy/finicky
Our users never seem to be able to reset their passwords using the Forgot Password link, so a system admin has to send the reset e-mails
Planning seems to run slowly in Microsoft Explorer vs. Google Chrome

Return on Investment

Positive impact

Alternatives Considered

Oracle Hyperion Enterprise Performance Management and Workday Adaptive Planning

Other Software Used

Microsoft Office 2016 (discontinued), Polycom Trio, QuickBooks Online

Planful

What is Planful?

Categories & Use Cases

Media

Planful Key Features

Top Performing Features

Single Sign-On (SSO)

Flat file integration

Direct links to 3rd-party data sources

Areas for Improvement

Color-coded scorecards

Responsive Design for Web Access

Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile

Who Buys & Uses Planful

Most Frequent Users

Manufacturing

Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services

Information

Most Frequent Users

Small Businesses

Mid-sized Companies

Enterprises

Most Frequent Users

United States of America

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Canada

Most Frequent Users

Finance

Engineering

IT

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