Great product for integrating budgeting and forecasting processes
October 27, 2025

Great product for integrating budgeting and forecasting processes

Matthew Murphy | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Anaplan

So far, we have used Anaplan for both our annual budgeting process and for ongoing medium-to-long-term operational planning. The main business problems Anaplan addresses for us include: 1) excessive time spent by the team preparing budgeting and forecasting components via separate standalone spreadsheets, 2) substantial additional time spent turning around new versions based in revised assumptions 3) inconsistencies in assumptions across different sub-processes, 4) lack of transparency over calculations, input sources and changes to those over time.

Pros

  • Anaplan removes the time consuming process of integrating the results of individual spreadsheets.
  • Anaplan facilitates the standardization of assumptions across all sub-processes
  • Anaplan provides full transparency of the calculations and source inputs
  • Anaplan allows us to automate certain planning processes that would have been impossible when relying on the computational capabilities of an individual computer.

Cons

  • Sometimes the front end UX options do not include the options you require but this is the flipside of the speed of development and new features are continuously being added.
  • Anaplan is a no-code environment with model calculations developed using formulas with similarities to excel. However substantial training is required for staff who will be designing / building new models. While it is possible to start building quickly, extensive training is necessary to ensure models are developed in a robust way with fewer issues down the road.
  • Anaplan has reduced the distracting time associated with preparing the annual budget, freeing up staff to focus on more value-adding activities.
  • Anaplan has greatly increased the transparency and traceability of our budgeting calculations and assumptions.
Once the models and front end screens have been well designed and set up, Anaplan is an easy to use product. While substantial training is required for new users to design models and screens well themselves, it is definitely achievable for a finance/non-IT person.

Do you think Anaplan delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Anaplan's feature set?

Yes

Did Anaplan live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Anaplan go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Anaplan again?

Yes

Anaplan is well suited

Anaplan Feature Ratings

Long-term financial planning
9
Financial budgeting
9
Forecasting
9
Scenario modeling
9
Management reporting
7
Financial data consolidation
Not Rated
Journal entries and reports
Not Rated
Local and consolidated reporting
Not Rated
Detailed Audit Trails
Not Rated
Financial Statement Reporting
Not Rated
Management Reporting
Not Rated
Excel-based Reporting
Not Rated
Personalized dashboards
Not Rated
Color-coded scorecards
Not Rated
Cost and profitability analysis
Not Rated
Key Performance Indicator setting
Not Rated
Flat file integration
9
Excel data integration
9
Direct links to 3rd-party data sources
Not Rated
Customizable dashboards
7
Publish to PDF
Not Rated
Report Versioning
Not Rated
Role-Based Security Model
9
Report-Level Access Control
9
Responsive Design for Web Access
Not Rated
Mobile Application
Not Rated
Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile
Not Rated

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