1. Home
  2. Corporate Performance Management (CPM) Software
  3. Planful Reviews
  4. User Review of Planful
Righting the ship with Host Analytics
July 15, 2016

Righting the ship with Host Analytics

Lee Starr | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Modules Used

  • Planning
  • Reporting and Analytics

Overall Satisfaction with Planful (formerly Host Analytics)

We are new users to Host. We implemented the reporting tool then the planning tool. Our intention is to use it across the entire organization. We brought Host in to give non-financial users an easy self-service tool to manage their department. Non-financial users will participate in the planning phase by entering forecast into templates and reviewing reports. They are pulling reports on monthly activity also in order to provide commentary to Board members on results. Finance department is moving the numerous spreadsheets over to Host in order to shorten close time and reduce redundancy in labor. We are currently building our 2017 plan in Host.
  • Host reporting has already proven to be a time saver. Even in the early stages of use, I was able to build a report for management that compared actual to forecast and then report on various departments.
  • One of the biggest challenges we had was managers taking ownership of their budgets. In the past, they would pass off the data to Finance and then cast blame when the results were not favorable. This year, they are in charge in entering and approving data. VPs now have to approve and all of this is completed in Host. Elimination of extra steps for Finance to rekey and potential errors.
  • I really love the community feature. This allows you the ability to ask other users how they are handling an issue. We have solved a great many problems with this.
  • As with all software packages, we would love to have an undo button.
  • One of the best features is also a feature that is hard to adjust to at the beginning. The Row sets and Column sets make building new reports quick but when your Column contain various formulas, you have to add exceptions. Exception formulas within cells are not very forgiving. They do not let you make changes to your report once you create them. This is making us rethink how our old reports are designed.
  • Too new of users to know
Vena was a close second in our selection process. We liked the smaller price tag and faster start up time. It s use of Excel was attractive. However, we did not feel that it would be able to grow with us. It was only good for the short run.
Adaptive had some good features. Where Host won was in the reporting features. We felt more ease in the building of reports and connecting to data.

Planful Feature Ratings

10.0
Long-term financial planning
10
Financial budgeting
10
Forecasting
10
Scenario modeling
Not Rated
Management reporting
10
Not Rated
Financial data consolidation
Not Rated
Journal entries and reports
Not Rated
Multi-currency management
Not Rated
Intercompany Eliminations
Not Rated
Minority Ownership
Not Rated
Local and consolidated reporting
Not Rated
Detailed Audit Trails
Not Rated
9.0
Financial Statement Reporting
8
Management Reporting
9
Excel-based Reporting
9
Automated board and financial reporting
10
XBRL support for regulatory filing
Not Rated
Not Rated
Personalized dashboards
Not Rated
Color-coded scorecards
Not Rated
KPIs
Not Rated
Cost and profitability analysis
Not Rated
Key Performance Indicator setting
Not Rated
Benchmarking with external data
Not Rated
10.0
Flat file integration
10
Excel data integration
10
Direct links to 3rd-party data sources
Not Rated
BI Standard Reporting ()
Not Rated
Ad-hoc Reporting ()
Not Rated
Report Output and Scheduling ()
Not Rated
Data Discovery and Visualization ()
Not Rated
Access Control and Security ()
Not Rated
Mobile Capabilities ()
Not Rated

Planful Features and Attributes

Everyone is very responsive and is willing to jump on a call to help. We set up weekly calls with our CFL representative during the first month of Go-Live. This really helped us solve problems before they got out of hand. When using the Community, I also see representatives on there answering questions.

Planful (formerly Host Analytics) Implementation

  1. The more time your staff has to participate, the better suited you are for success.
  • Professional services company
Cross Country Consulting
Yes - Reporting then Planning
Change management was minimal - We learned that everyone is afraid of change. If you approach it in small pieces and provided adequate training and documentation, you will survive.
  • Our Chart of accounts is not typical so we had to build the Hierarchy to handle this.
  • Half way through implementation of reporting, our management had a change of strategy for handling certain items. This required some retooling of Host.
  • Time management of our staff.

Planful (formerly Host Analytics) Support

ProsCons
Quick Resolution
Good followup
Knowledgeable team
Problems get solved
No escalation required
Immediate help available
Support understands my problem
Support cares about my success
Quick Initial Response
None
Yes - As part of our initial subscription, we have premium support. It was deemed important for us to have swift resolution to problems during the initial years so that adoption would be higher.