Planful is a complex product for complex businesses
We use Planful for FP&A and annual budgeting, across several entities as well as functions. In my role as Head of HR, I use the Workforce …
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What is Planful?
Planful is a cloud-based enterprise performance management (EPM) suite. It includes financial applications for modeling, planning, consolidation, reporting and analytics.
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Popular Features
- Financial budgeting (106)8.282%
- Management Reporting (100)8.080%
- Forecasting (99)8.080%
- Management reporting (103)8.080%
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What is Planful?
Planful is a cloud-based enterprise performance management (EPM) suite. It includes financial applications for modeling, planning, consolidation, reporting and analytics.
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- 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 is a cloud-based enterprise performance management (EPM) suite. It includes financial applications for modeling, planning, consolidation, reporting and analytics.
Reviewers rate Single Sign-On (SSO) highest, with a score of 9.2.
The most common users of Planful are from Enterprises (1,001+ employees).
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
Reviews
(1-5 of 5)Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
February 19, 2024
Planful's no slouch
HomeServices uses Planful primarily as a consolidation tool, we are a decentralized organization where our subsidiaries use several different general ledger vendors and each of them has a unique chart of accounts. We have translation tables setup for each subsidiary, so as each sub loads their financials we can easily translate the information to get a company-by-company or consolidated view of the organization. We are also are able to use assign attributes within the hierarchy to view results in a non-traditional format, which involves allocating results between business segments. We also use Planful as a forecasting tool, the Structured Planning module has made this process very simple as the templates are very easy to setup and complete. We also use the Structured Planning module to assist with our 10-year plan, which the templates are very easy to complete. Before Planful, we were using Oracle Hyperion, which was at the end of life, the Oracle replacement was not cost-effective for us so we chose Planful from a handful of vendors that were brought in.
- Planful is integral in our month-end close process as we are able to use the software to consolidate our financials
- Financial reporting is easy to use and once there is an understanding of column and row sets, building custom reports is a breeze
- Forecasting via the Structured Planning module is easy to setup and once completed, the templates can be updated very easily
- User setup can be confusing, security attributes can be tricky to get correct
- Password reset does not work, we now have single sign on setup though so this is no longer an issue
92%
9.2
80%
8.0
97.5%
9.8
54%
5.4
66.66666666666667%
6.7
66.66666666666667%
6.7
93.33333333333334%
9.3
72.5%
7.3
N/A
N/A
92%
9.2
N/A
N/A
- Before Planful, we were using excel for our forecasting and 10 year plans, so implementing the Structured Planning module was a key benefit for us. It didn't take us long to realize that this was a huge benefit.
- The ease of reporting in Planful was such an upgrade from our previous tool, where you needed to be an expert to learn how to build reports. Planful is intuitive in the report building process and very easy to understand.
Most of our companies were using their local GL's for their internal financial reporting. Once we showed them how to use report collections, where one report can be run for many different variables, such as department, business segment, etc, our subsidiaries started using Planful for their internal reporting. We also have each of our subsidiaries update their forecast on a monthly basis, we can easily compare this to our own internal forecast so we can collaborate together to see how things will shape up for the future months.
Previously to using Planful, we were not doing a subsidiary level forecast on a monthly basis. Planful has allowed us to add this level of detail to our forecast process so we can get a much more accurate view of how we are performing on a company-by-company basis.
Having the unified suite of tools all in one platform has been a huge win for us.
Having the unified suite of tools all in one platform has been a huge win for us.
Very well, the Hyperion module we were using was rather old, but the reporting capabilities of Planful were far ahead of anything in that version of Hyperion. Spotlight would be the one tool that would lag behind Hyperion as the excel report building in Hyperion was very easy as Spotlight can be a little tricky to learn.
We only load data on a monthly basis to Planful, so real-time financial data isn't an option that we've looked to use this product for at this time.
One of our biggest pain points in our prior software was eliminations, we were able to build dynamic journals which automated the process and always assured that the entries balanced. Setting up the journals is fairly straight-forward and the dynamic journals are breeze to use and maintain.
This was a few years ago, but our cyber team wanted us to get single sign-on(SSO) setup for Planful and they wanted it done in a rush. We submitted a ticket as normal, but in addition since there was a demand to get this done ASAP, we also reached out to our client manager. Our client manager was able to get the ticket the appropriate support so that we could get SSO implemented in a very short time period.
100
For some background on us, we are a holding company that operates and manages 35+ real estate companies across the country. We use Planful as our primary reporting tool for financials and highlights/metrics. We have report collections built in Planful so that it's easy to run office level financials with the click of one button and any ad-hoc reporting as needed.
4
The in-house support group is made up primarily of financial and business analyst positions. The administration of Planful is fairly simple, the reporting can take a bit longer to understand but there are some great online courses in the online Planful Academy that can help users go from a beginner to intermediate/expert user in no time.
- Financial Analysis
- Financial Reporting
- Budgeting
- Forecasting
- Dynamic journals to assist with elimination entries
- Human Capital Management
Yes
Prior to Planful, we used Oracle Hyperion as our financial reporting software. The version we were on was no longer supported by Oracle and the replacement was not a cost-effective option for us. Planful was a significantly more affordable option and we felt was a better fit for our company.
- Cloud Solutions
- Scalability
- Ease of Use
- Other
We were looking for a cloud solution product, that was intuitive and the reporting could be customized to fit each of our business segments. We were also acquiring several companies a year at this time, so we wanted a product where adding new companies to the hierarchy was fairly simple.
We have two instances of Planful and we would have preferred to keep it as one, if we could go back we would have pushed for one instance.
We purchased the premium support, mainly as our timelines for month-end reporting are very short, so we wanted to be certain that if we have issues, they can be addressed immediately. Looking back, we've hardly ever had any issues, but it is comforting knowing that if we need it, we have it.
No
- User Administration
- Scenario Adminstration
- User Administration
- Scenario Administration
- Data Loads
No
December 13, 2023
Planful is NOT painful
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Planful is currently used by our Technology Group, an overhead department in the company. Additionally, Kiewit Business Services, another overhead department utilizes the tool. We have other departments that have observed how easy Planful is to use and how successful we have been with meeting our budget, and they have asked for information on how to utilize it as well. We use Planful for workforce planning, budgeting, forecasting, and reporting. Kiewit's use of this program is unique in the sense that we do not use Planful for income statements and balance sheets or for any manufacturing or international currency needs. As an overhead department, we do not utilize all of its features.
- 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.
80%
8.0
57.142857142857146%
5.7
75%
7.5
N/A
N/A
33.333333333333336%
3.3
33.333333333333336%
3.3
100%
10.0
50%
5.0
N/A
N/A
75%
7.5
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.
I was able to set up our hierarchies to mirror what our home office accounting department requires/uses. This gave me the ability to easily export a dynamic report that I created and literally email it to accounting when they request forecast updates from our department. Also, having the ability to push financials and workforce planning out to our managers on a regular basis, pushing them to review variances, etc. without the need for excel side spreadsheets has made my job as IT Controller so much easier and has also given our users a peace of mind when using the tool.
Unfortunately, the tool doesn't make it up to our CFO office, as we are just an overhead department using it to track our operational expenses. But I will add that our department has been UNDER budget every year since using Planful, and being an overhead department, it is essential that we are under budget and not at risk of reducing revenue by creating additional overhead.
We have automated reports we use weekly, bi-weekly, and monthly. We do not use Planful it is the truest and fullest ability for financial planning holistically for income statements, balance sheets, etc. as we are an Overhead department. We also use Planful for all Workforce planning in structured planning. This has helped us tremendously and allows us to budget and forecast using actual payroll numbers.
Dynamic reports are so easy to create. When we first began using Planful it was challenging, but now that we've used the program for a few years, Planful continually improves the capabilities and it has enabled us to continue to do better and better. Dynamic reports are very easy. I think dashboards could improve some. I think it would be helpful to have the ability to set up an enterprise dashboard that all users can view, allowing them to see how we are trending budget vs actuals and how we are progressing through the year on an enterprise level, rather than just the security level they have access to see. Read-only with no drill-through capabilities would be desired.
Planful is so easy to manipulate. Even when we have new money managers request access, it takes very little training to run through their responsibilities in the program and how to utilize all of the tools they need. I've stated it before, the improvements over the years have been impeccable, continually getting better and easier to use.
We have only used custom-built Excel interfaces for our financials and workforce planning in the past. As stated earlier in my review, Planful has grouped all of this into a fantastic program that is easy to use, easily manipulated to match our needs and we have been very happy with all of our experience with Planful.
This feature was the final deciding factor for us to purchase Planful. It is a priceless feature to have financials at all of our money manager's fingertips daily (and even hourly). It has helped us streamline so many processes. With the built-in access security, we are able to use real salary numbers for budgeting and forecasting, whereas in the past we didn't have security features in our custom-built tool, so we were constantly experiencing variances due to the use of blended rates.
Our data accuracy has definitely been impacted by the use of Planful. In the past, it was very difficult to reconcile our processes in our custom-built tool to the "one source of the truth" data that comes out of SAP. Moving onto the Planful platform, I have been asked multiple times if I believed in the data in Planful. Multiple times I was able to pull up EXACT numbers from our SAP systems to prove the data, and the more and more I've performed that task over the years, our Money Manager's confidence in Planful's data has grown!
This one is easy! We recently wanted to map an account to a line in our Opex Template so that when Capex items were built in the Capex template, it would fill those amounts into the depreciation line of the Opex Template, to gain awareness for our Money Managers that there were Capex items in their forecast. I reached out to Planful, thinking it could possibly take weeks to create and test in the sandbox environment, only to have it done within 30 minutes. They were so absolutely helpful, and what I loved most about that particular challenge was they didn't just do it for me, they were willing to SHOW ME how to do it so I might make enhancements to our environment on my own in the future.
66
Business Functions (department that supports our jobsites/districts)
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.
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.
2
There's not a lot to add as comments to this. I am one of 2 subject matter experts at our company that supports Planful.
- 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
Yes
Planful replaced a custom-built excel tool that we used for years. It did not replace another financial software.
- Price
- Product Features
I don't think I would have changed the evaluation process. Although I was not part of the group that did the evaluation, I have been the subject matter expert and essentially "owned" the tool in my organization since the day they made the decision. This was an easy decision when we compared other tools and their cost as well as the flexibility Planful provides.
- Third-party professional services
We used RSM for our implementation.
No
Change management was minimal
- 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
I really don't have any specific recommendations for this area simply because we have internal IT folks that typically handle configurations of our systems. I do know that Planful has been very helpful throughout the years we have been using the system each and every time we look to improve upon our use of the software.
Some - we have done small customizations to the interface
I don't want to downplay this and make it sound like it's EASY to do, but when you work with Planful, they are always happy to help. They are attentive to your needs, and are very quick to let you know best practices when trying to achieve what you are trying to do. As stated throughout my review, they are easy to work with.
No - we have not done any custom code
I do not have any additional configuration or customizations that I wish to include in this survey
No, we currently have a contract with a 3rd party company that is owned by a previous Planful employee that we built a relationship with before Planful offered their premium support.
No
- 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.
Yes, but I don't use it
- SAP
We currently have SAP integrated with Planful using Boomi. Unfortunately, I do not have a great deal of knowledge about this integration, as our IT department worked with the Planful professionals to get this set up. My team does have the ability to view errors when they occur between SAP and Planful, and ensure that we are reporting the most up-to-date, accurate data we can within the tool.
- At this time, there are no additional systems
At this time, there are no additional systems we wish to integrate with Planful.
- Single Signon
Unfortunately I cannot fully answer this question as I do not know if we have used API, Javascript, etc., but I do know that we have implemented single sign-on within our company when using the Planful software.
When we negotiated with Planful, we discussed cost as well as renewal of licenses. We also discussed what we needed to do when we required additional licenses, or we were not using all of the licenses we had purchased. Their business model is very flexible and again, their staff is just super easy to work with.
The only tip I can think of that will help customers more effectively deal with Planful is don't be afraid to speak up. My team has created a "wish list" of features that would enhance our experience and usability with Planful, and we meet regularly with our Customer Success Manager to discuss this list. One of our wish list items just became a new feature with a recent release, and we couldn't be happier!
No
- We haven't upgraded recently
- Unknown
No
No
December 12, 2023
A budget and forecast tool that makes financial planning easy!
We use Planful ) at a department level here for budgeting and forecasting our department costs. It is helping us manage our workforce as well as stay on budget for the year. We have been able to complete a rolling forecast and allows our money managers to budget better than they ever have in the past. Because we are doing so
well managing our finances, we’ve recognized ways that we can help other home
office depts be more successful in their workforce planning and financials. In
2021, had Kiewit Technology Group not used Planful, we may not have been under
budget. So, our dept being under budget resulted in All Overhead Depts coming
in under budget.
- 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
90%
9.0
38.57142857142857%
3.9
67.5%
6.8
40%
4.0
90%
9.0
40%
4.0
90%
9.0
32.5%
3.3
35%
3.5
90%
9.0
N/A
N/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.
The reporting capabilities allow us to share data
with multiple departments. We have bi-weekly management meetings where almost
all reporting is pulled from Planful (forecast updates, headcount trends,
workforce changes, budget updates, etc). We also can run reports for other
departments based on the attributes we use in Planful (i.e. Employee work
location report, YTD travel expenses, etc).
I support all 25 Money Managers that we have using Planful. Because the tool is so easy to use, it allows me to provide data to Money Managers in minutes. They can access their financials in real time at the click of a button. It's incredibly easy to use and makes life easier for our Technology Dept.
Prior to Planful we used a
custom-built tool with an excel interface called Projects Utility. It was very
painful because when multiple money managers were in it at the same time, it would
bog down the program. To get new financials to populate, it would take 20
minutes or more of spinning for the data to process. We relied on this
tool and spreadsheets out of SAP (our ERP system) to manage our financials.
There were so many side spreadsheets. Now everything is available at the click of our mouse.
Reporting is great. There's so many filter options that it makes creating the report you want super easy. You can choose what you want, run it, then make changes if needed. Then you save it when you're done. It's that quick.
Our money managers have some challenges navigating the tool when they aren't in it for awhile. But they can view their cost centers with ease and pull our standard reports and create off those as needed. I have monthly variance
meetings with our money managers where we discuss their previous month’s budget
vs their actuals making sure they are accurately forecasting their cost. Then
we review their HR templates for people changes (pay rates, transfers, new
hires, terminations, etc). We’ve streamlined processes by having it all in one
system and it is updated in real time.
I was not part of the process of choosing Planful), but I can tell you it is much better than what we were using--macro and spreadsheets.
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 are collaborating with Money Managers on a daily basis. We interact with the tool constantly and can make changes any time we need. Looking forward to using the new Planful Predict feature to help even more with data accuracy.
I was actually at the Planful Perform conference in 2019 and they had a Tech Support Area. I came with a list of issues I was having and the Planful Employee sat down with me and went through every single issue. I was amazed at the time they spent and devoted to me.
55
Super Admins, Budget Preparers, & Budget Administrators. We have Money Managers, C- Level Directors, and our CFO all using Planful.
6
I myself am a Super Admin for Planful supporting all our users in our Dept. Then we have 2 more Super Admins in our dept. I review the Monthly Releases, have Quarterly Meetings with our CSM, and attend the Planful Perform Conference every year.
- 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
Yes
Prior to Planful we used a
custom-built tool with an excel interface called Projects Utility. It was very
painful because when multiple money managers were in it at the same time, it would
bog down the program. To get new financials to populate, it would take 20
minutes or more of spinning for the data to process. We relied on this
tool and spreadsheets out of SAP (our ERP system) to manage our financials.
- Price
- Product Features
- Product Usability
We wanted to eliminate the use of side spreadsheets
and have a tool where we can discuss financials and workforce planning all in
one place.
Not sure that we would've. But now that we are a satisfied customer, we meet with customer prospects to tell them why we love the tool. I wish we could've done that prior to our Implementation.
- Third-party professional services
RSM
Change management was a minor issue with the implementation
- 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
The best thing I can say is ask ALL the questions. Don't think you know it, ask.
I wasn't part of this process so I can't really speak to the custom code or customized user interface.
We did not. We actually use a Third Party Consultant (Top Down) for additional support.
Yes
Yes, I've never had an issue that Planful support has not been able to solve or guide me to solve on my own.
- 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.
No
- Our ERP System SAP
Wasn't part of the integration process
- Our Workforce data is something I'm working on right now
Yes, they're already supporting it as we're working through the process now.
- File import/export
- Single Signon
- API (e.g. SOAP or REST)
Nothing I can think of.
Just make sure you understand the process and know how to fix issues as they arise.
I was not involved in that.
No tips because we have a great relationship with the vendor.
Yes
Yes, we were provided training, had meetings with our CSM, there's been online videos about it, etc.
- Less manual work
- More Accurate reporting
- Less manual work
- More accurate reporting
Yes
We are already paid, not free.
No
May 17, 2016
Host Analytics Review
Four years ago, we started out using Host Analytics as a tool to get our finance team out of Excel hell. We just had our forecasting team (4 individuals) using the system to prepare the annual budget and quarterly forecasts. It was also used to generate monthly variance reports. Since that time, others have seen the powerful reporting capabilities within the tool and have requested access. We now have 50 users in the system from across almost all departments in the organization. For us, we primarily use Host Analytics to disseminate financial information to management in a quick, efficient fashion and allow analysts within each department to create ad-hoc reports as needed.
- Strong reporting capabilities. We like to view our financials in several different ways, and the reporting module is intuitive to get almost any thing we are looking for rather quickly.
- The budget module allows you to document all of your assumptions, so there's no guesswork on what was used for a budget vs. a forecast.
- User security can be determined in several stages, so everyone can see what they are supposed to see and nothing more!
- The workflow in the budget module doesn't quite work for our organization, as there's no way to forward individual budget templates. The entire entity must be forwarded for approval, which includes allocation templates that don't need to be seen anyway.
84%
8.4
80%
8.0
77.5%
7.8
40%
4.0
100%
10.0
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- It has sped up our time to report
- Allows for more agile variance analysis
I used Prophix at a previous company, although more as a user than an administrator. Budget expense templates in Host Analytics can mirror what we used in Prophix. Better than that, though, we use "drivers" to move expenses based on revenue, headcount, etc., which I don't know that we could have in Prophix. The Workforce Planning module in Host Analytics is miles above what Prophix had at the time. We managed all personnel assumptions in an Access database and imported the expenses to Prophix. Workforce Planning is seamless in Host Analytics.
They are currently working with Dell to reduce the time it take our Boomi integration to load actuals.
50
Our 50 users are a mixture from all across the organization. Finance represents the larger user group, as many use it for ad-hoc reporting and variance analysis. Marketing is the next largest group as they are the first group outside of Finance to use the Budget capabilities - all field marketing managers input their program estimates in Host Analytics. Other groups include Sales Ops, Product Management, and our Services organization.
3
Our budget and forecasting team provides all support to internal users. Since they use every facet of the product, they are able to train and troubleshoot most problems, which are typically how to configure internet settings when getting started and how to create their own reports. These individuals are analysts by day, so they naturally have problem solving skills.
- Robust reporting
- Organized forecasting
- Easy to maintain
- We have used statistical accounts to capture headcount by location and then used those accounts to determine allocations for our forecast.
- We use 6 different scenario substitution variables for different reporting purposes, and a time substitution variable to identify the budget year (for use when we are working on next year's budget).
- We use an attribute on our Account segment to identify GAAP vs Non-GAAP differences for internal reporting.
- We hope to use the Financial Package Publisher to create Board reports.
- We are looking to use the Cloud Schedule to automate sending out our variance reports each month.
- We hope to integrate Workforce Planning with Workday to streamline staff planning.
Yes
Prior to Host Analytics, we were using Budget Maestro for staff planning and personnel related expenses. Everything else was done in Excel.
- Price
- Product Usability
We needed a tool that requires very little resources from IT. The only involvement IT has with the Host Analytics application is with regards to our Boomi integration with Microsoft Dynamics AX, which is just to monitor the connection in case it goes down. Everything else is managed by 3-4 people in Finance.
We were very focused on the budgeting aspect of the tool and we didn't spend as much time looking at the reporting capabilities. In the end, it worked out for us as we have been blown away with the improvements in reporting over the last four years.
- Vendor implemented
- Professional services company
We have actually had two implementations. We used Host Analytics to implement the first time around and Cervello on the second implementation.
No
Change management was minimal
Change management was not a big issue for us as it was initially only used by a very small team.
- Going from Excel-based budgeting to using a system caused issues because we still weren't quite sure how our process needed to change. We were basically trying to do everything that we were doing in Excel, just in Host Analytics. That caused a few setbacks.
- As great as our partners were during the implementation, nothing could substitute the knowledge that we had of our company. We initially relied too heavily on partners to create reports for us and we had to go back to correct them ourselves.
- Overall, Host Analytics is a versatile tool, but you really need to understand how things work and what best practices are before hand. You can't just go in without a plan and implement the system ad-hoc. That will create a lot of re-work.
Yes
Having premium support allows allows us to have four admin users instead of two, which is helpful when considering people take vacations and are not always available. Having 4 admin (on a Host Analytics admin distribution list) means that if anyone has issues (such as getting locked out of the system), there is always someone to help out.
No
- Reports are easy to learn - they work very similar to a pivot table in Excel
- Budget templates are easy to create and manipulate. They are very Excel-like, so it doesn't take long to train new users.
- Segment Hierarchies allow you too roll up accounts quickly and easily, which aides in report creation.
- Data Loads can be cumbersome as you must make sure the column settings have been adjusted for each forecast. For example, a budget will often have 12 columns of values and the next quarterly forecast will only have 9 columns of values.
- Setting up new users with unique security requirements can be difficult. It's much easier when you can mirror someone else's settings, however.
- Unused budget entities remain in the admin's view, which can cause a bit of clutter after multiple re-organizations.
Yes, but I don't use it
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We are using Host Analytics to generate our 18 month rolling forecasts which we update each quarter. We also use Host to build our annual 12 month budget. The FP&A department is the main user of the product, solicting input from business partners in order to build up either the forecast or the budget. We make use of the Business Analytics module to do workforce planning in conjunction with the forecasting/budgeting process. Use of the system from Host Analytics has allowed us to standardize our forecasting and budgeting processes across the globe and removed the issues we had with an Excel based approach.
- The product from Host Analytics has given us an easy tool to generate our periodic forecasts. Since it is based on Excel, our users came up to speed on it quickly and we've been able to shorten down our forecasting cycle time to 2- 3 weeks each quarter.
- The Business Analytics module has been very useful to us in our workforce planning. We are able to load, plan and analyze our labor expense company wide. This has been vital since labor is a major component of our overall expenses and we have focused considerable attention on trying to ensure that it is right sized for our business.
- Host Analytics provides great support to their products. They are always soliciting feedback from their users and frequently use this feedback to guide future product enhancements. We've always had quick response when we've had a question or an issue and always have had a positive resolution.
- It would be nice if the data base updated automatically when changes are made to a template. At the moment, a separate button must be clicked to run an update.
- Working in the cloud was definitely new to us and we were surprised at the slight transactional delay that seems to come with a cloud based solution. Fortunately, Host Analytics has been helpful in analyzing our usage and optimizing response time.
- We would like to automate our monthly data download from SAP into Host so that we can expand our usage of the product during our monthly closing process. It would be great if Host had a pre-built connector that will link to SAP. Unfortunately that is not the case. Our understand is that most SAP installations have enough uniqueness that standardization is not possible.
74%
7.4
14.285714285714286%
1.4
58%
5.8
15%
1.5
66.66666666666667%
6.7
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- We have been able to implement quick, regular forecasts. When building a forecast, time is of the essence. We want our forecasting efforts to take up at most only two weeks of time each quarter. Using Host has allowed us to achieve this goal.
- Use of Host has shortened our budgeting process and increased the accuracy of the figures as we consolidate our global budget. Errors due to bad or varying assumptions, FX rates, broken spreadsheet links or bad data have been eliminated.
- We've eliminated the down time that comes with implementing system upgrades to a non-cloud based solution. We have not had to shut down for days while upgrades were tested and approved. Enhancements show up automatically and we can take advantage of them immediately.
- Adaptive Planning, Prophix and SAP
Host Analytics was more robust than Adaptive Planning. Since it is built around Excel, our users did not have to learn a new "language" as they would have with Prophix and it is more nimble and easier to support than SAP.
We had a Friday a few years ago when our system response time slowed way down, making the software unusable. We entered a ticket with Host and marked it critical since we were working on a forecast. The issue was escalated by Host to the executive level and Host personnel worked the weekend to figure out the problem and implement a fix. On Monday morning when we came in, our system work response time was even better than before. We were thrilled.
The product is used within Financial Planning & Analysis. When we develop a forecast or a budget, the FP&A staff reaches out to the business for inputs and then loads the figures into the system from Host Analytics. We also have 5 "View Only" licenses but these have not been pushed out to the business just yet.
We support our use of Host Analytics with existing FP&A staff. We had a team of three people implement the software and now have two who act as subject matter experts, all within Finance. This was very important to us since all of our IT is outsourced to and outside vendor.
- We needed a tool to take our quarterly 18 month rolling forecasts to the next level.
- We also needed a tool to streamline our global budget process and make it more manageable.
- As it turns out, Host Analytics has provided a great tool to do the bulk of our monthly management reporting.
- We have used this tool to improve our headcount reporting and workforce planning.
- We have also used this tool to expand our internal reporting
- Implementing this tool forced us to organize and standardize our treatment of accounts, account groupings and cost centers across our global operation.
- We hope to automate data loads into Host. Loading data quickly and on demand will allow us to use Host for analytics while we close each month.
- We hope to use Host Analytics to expand our headcount reporting, both for actuals and forecast.
- We may ultimately decide to use the Consolidation module from Host
No
Change management was a minor issue with the implementation
One of the attractions for Host Analytics is that it has the look and feel of Excel. This greatly facilitated the roll out to users.
- Our implementation team of three worked with Host Analytics to configure the software. The biggest issue we had was that the three of us had to maintain our regular duties while also handling the implementation. It slowed us down a bit but Host kept us on track.
Yes
We pay for 24/7 support. We do this, and recommend others to it, because Finance is a critical area within the company. If we are in the middle of a close, we cannot have a system down. The cost was not great but the peace of mind is tremendous. Well worth the expense.
Yes
Yes. They seem to take reports of bugs very seriously and respond very quickly with a high level of support. If memory serves me correctly, I think the majority of bug issues were resolved overnight with the remaining ones being fixed in just a few days. We always get followup explaining the fix and indicating when the fix will move to production.
- Very easy to come up to speed when loading revenue or expense data into either forecasting or budget templates. Everything has the look and feel of Excel.
- Easy to generate new templates.
- Loading data, including headcount data is very straightforward and easy.
- Creating specialty reports based on attributes in Business Analytics and be a little tricky until one learns the system.
- Processing a large number of changes in headcount can be tedious unless the data is reloaded.
- Setting up row and column sets for reports takes some advanced knowledge and training.
No