Strong Customization and High Use-Case Potential
October 31, 2022
Strong Customization and High Use-Case Potential
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Modules Used
- Structured Planning
- Reporting
- Dashboards
Overall Satisfaction with Planful
We like to use Planful for as many use cases for it as we can find and are continuing to leverage it for automation of our existing manual reports. Primarily, we use it to setup and manage our annual budget process, budget to variance analysis, executive reporting, dashboards, and are continuing to develop and migrate our routine reporting from Excel to Planful.
- Automation and self-service of reporting for non-finance/non-administrator teams
- Complex financial model building whether it is an annual budget, Pro Forma, forecast, run-rates, etc.
- Customization through calculated/custom members, templates, and loading data via the Simulation Engine and Data Load Rules
- The self-help database could stand to be updated/improved for clarity and potentially with additional screenshots
- Additional support on MDX if possible as it is frequently used in reporting and calculated members
- Additional customization and manipulation within dashboards
- We have saved a large amount of time on reports that we previously manually compiled in Excel via MS Dynamics. Planful was linked to Dynamics through automatically scheduled DLR's, reports were created, and now our manual processes are as simple as accessing and refreshing a report.
- Dashboards have improved our budgeting process specifically with our production leaders as they can visualize their P&L's, their current actuals, current budget, and see where they are forecasting with their proposed budget for the next year
- With the use of templates, structured planning, and the Simulation Engine, it has added a lot of value and automation to our annual budget process, allowing for plug-and-play type data loading and viewing various scenarios easily
Planful has helped our FP&A function work much more closely with our accounting teams and verifying data across various financial statements, balance sheets, etc. and where our reporting is showing through Planful. It helps keeps our finance teams on the same page and up to date in real time as data is loaded and reports are created.
I specifically work within the FP&A function - our CFO and/or CAO would be better able to answer this question
Planful is the first FP&A specific software I have used. However, the dashboard module can be compared to PowerBI as I use both - with regard to dashboards, PowerBI offers much more control and customization not only with data manipulation, but also with visualizations and formatting. Planful has a strong selection to visualize most needs, but there can be some complications and road blocks when trying to replicate and/or replace existing dashboards in PowerBI
Do you think Planful delivers good value for the price?
Not sure
Are you happy with Planful's feature set?
Yes
Did Planful live up to sales and marketing promises?
I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process
Did implementation of Planful go as expected?
I wasn't involved with the implementation phase
Would you buy Planful again?
Yes