Host Analytics gets the basics done, but has room to grow!
September 15, 2015
Host Analytics gets the basics done, but has room to grow!
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Modules Used
- Budgets, Reports
Overall Satisfaction with Planful (formerly Host Analytics)
My organization uses Host Analytics Cloud EPM Suite to store our budgets, create running forecasts, and report on actual versus budget variances. The service is being used to store the data for the whole organization, though the finance team members are the only users. For reporting to other departments, finance downloads the Host Analytics data to Excel before distributing. The reason for this is to save costs and limit training requirements. Host Analytics makes reporting on budgets and forecasts easier than prior systems used.
- Reporting on multiple dimensions. For example, consolidated reporting based on product or department.
- Inputting estimated HR attributes like taxes, group medical costs, 401k contributions. We setup these at the beginning of the implementation and except for minor tweaks, these are calculated automatically by the system.
- Being able to run a collection of reports at once.
- Host Analytics can improve its HR module. Currently, making mass changes is time consuming or technically complex.
- Host Analytics can improve its actual transaction level detail reporting. Currently a pop-up shows up showing the transaction level details, instead of being included in the same report as the account level sub-totals.
- Host Analytics can improve its reporting on "sublines". Sublines are budgeted/forecast rows that subtotal into the account. Unfortunately, the reporting module in Host Analytics has limited reporting capabilities for these sublines.
- Host Analytics has saved finance countless hours in reporting versus our prior financial system.
- Host Analytics has allowed finance to budget at the most detailed levels, in order to get more accurate forecasts to assist with management decisions.
- Host Analytics has allowed senior management better insight into consolidated reported for the entire company.
I've used Microsoft Forecaster prior to 2013. This software program has received a major update in recent years, but I have not used the new version. Compared to the pre-2013 Microsoft Forecaster, Host Analytic's reporting is much easier to use.