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The Perfect Budget Consolidation Tool
October 18, 2019

The Perfect Budget Consolidation Tool

Paul Boerema | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Modules Used

  • Planning
  • Consolidation
  • Reporting and Analytics

Overall Satisfaction with Planful (formerly Host Analytics)

We are using it across our entire organization for our budgeting process to effectively create our consolidated budget with dynamic budget templates that we have built. We also use it for financial reporting throughout the year, bringing in our financial data from Microsoft GP (both at the summary and transaction level).
  • Familiar Excel-style interface for entering data into budget templates
  • The capabilities provided by the budget templates allow for a dynamic, consolidated budget that can be easily be put together and verified.
  • Being able to integrate with the accounting system makes Host the perfect resource for Budget vs Actual reporting and tracking during the year.
  • The tables and other visuals in dashboards are pretty stagnant and not flexible in terms of formatting (we have moved to Tableau for visual reporting).
  • It would be helpful to be able to edit budget templates even if there is data entered (having to un-map and re-map new templates that may need to be tweaked after budget data has been entered can become time-consuming).
  • There could be a mobile-friendly version.
  • We are able to do budget analysis and have greater clarity with our spending than ever before.
  • Consolidating our budget across all departments has become a much more efficient process.
  • Increased budget clarity has created a new desire for budget owners to actually put some more thought into more appropriate spending habits in line with reality.
Host Analytics is perfect for any organization where the dynamic budget is put together by several budget owners across the organization, as the budget templates (which can be customized to your organization's needs), are perfect for budget consolidation. This budget data can then easily be used in financial reports within the application. Host would be less appropriate for a smaller organization with a straightforward budget that is only owned by a single person or entity. I also would not recommend strictly Host for an organization that is more reliant on visual reporting, but it serves as a great complement.

Planful Feature Ratings

8.3
Long-term financial planning
7
Financial budgeting
10
Forecasting
7
Scenario modeling
Not Rated
Management reporting
9
9.3
Financial data consolidation
10
Journal entries and reports
10
Multi-currency management
Not Rated
Intercompany Eliminations
Not Rated
Minority Ownership
Not Rated
Local and consolidated reporting
10
Detailed Audit Trails
7
8.5
Financial Statement Reporting
10
Management Reporting
7
Excel-based Reporting
10
Automated board and financial reporting
7
XBRL support for regulatory filing
Not Rated
5.0
Personalized dashboards
5
Color-coded scorecards
5
KPIs
5
Cost and profitability analysis
Not Rated
Key Performance Indicator setting
Not Rated
Benchmarking with external data
Not Rated
8.0
Flat file integration
Not Rated
Excel data integration
Not Rated
Direct links to 3rd-party data sources
8
5.0
Pixel Perfect reports
5
Customizable dashboards
5
Report Formatting Templates
Not Rated
7.3
Drill-down analysis
10
Formatting capabilities
6
Report sharing and collaboration
6
8.5
Publish to Web
Not Rated
Publish to PDF
7
Report Versioning
10
Report Delivery Scheduling
Not Rated
7.0
Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)
7
8.7
Multi-User Support (named login)
9
Role-Based Security Model
8
Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)
9
Single Sign-On (SSO)
Not Rated
2.0
Responsive Design for Web Access
2
Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile
2