A solid, reliable FP&A solution that most will benefit from
October 07, 2021
A solid, reliable FP&A solution that most will benefit from
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Modules Used
- Planning
- Reporting and Analytics
Overall Satisfaction with Planful (formerly Host Analytics)
As a consulting practise, we advise on Planful and implement it for other companies who wish to use it as an FP&A solution. Alongside Planful, as a department we consult in many other business applications, namely ERP such as Oracle NetSuite and Microsoft Dynamics 365. Planful is great as a specialist FP&A solution, our clients use it for it's reporting, consolidation and budgeting capabilities which are marketing leading.
- Reporting. Once data is correctly imported into the system, a user can slice and dice to create reports outlining anything they can dream. It really is super powerful, even with just the UI, though becomes more powerful when you utilise MDX formulas etc.
- Consolidations. Often consolidation functionality in ERP systems is quite limited and depends on things such as the subsidiary structure, with Planful this restriction is not here and you are able to consolidate in many more ways, depending on needs.
- Training. The Planful training courses are quite basic. It provides factual information, and if you have a photographic memory you might remember it all; though with a lack of real life examples a user can relate to, it's difficult to remember the material in a useful way.
- Reduced time spent on producing reports. With Planful, this is quick and easy!
- Reduced time spent on month-end closing cycles. Its powerful consolidation capabilities means that there is less dependence on slow legacy solutions & workarounds, we get our consolidated numbers much quicker with Planful.
Super easy. This is one of its strengths as I mentioned earlier, once data is correctly set up in Planful (something that itself is not that easy to do and may take a few attempts), actually generating reports is a joy with the system and the level of analysis you can retrieve goes beyond anything else.
Financial professionals will find reporting easy with Planful. Planning is also easy, though depends on how you've set the system up (i.e you can make it easy and simple using Structured Planning, or you can make it super complicated with Dynamic Planning/Spotlight)
Do you think Planful delivers good value for the price?
Yes
Are you happy with Planful's feature set?
Yes
Did Planful live up to sales and marketing promises?
Yes
Did implementation of Planful go as expected?
Yes
Would you buy Planful again?
Yes