Planful Reviews

Planful Overview Review

Comments: Great experience, very friendly staff, and everyone wants you to succeed. The software does not require extensive coding knowledge and can be picked up pretty seamlessly with the proper training if you have a background in Excel.

Pros:

Very user friendly & similar syntax to excel

Cons:

I feel the training is basic and outdated at this point. Considering all the time and effort they have put into developing the product, they should spend more time having live sessions showing individuals how to use the product better. This would also enable customers to find out about some of the great features they created.

Planful Review

Comments: It has been good. Our [sensitive content hidden] of FP&A likes the tools. The FP&A [sensitive content hidden] prefers Adaptive Insights.

Pros:

The ability to use third-party software to integrate other systems. The Reporting in the browser is clean.

Cons:

Saving HC to finance and HR cubes requires many additional steps. I used Adaptive Insights, and saving to the database was much more efficient. Also, the model for our vendor spend is in Spotlight. That has led to incorrectly saving data to other scenarios.

Alternatives Considered: Cube

Switched From: Workday Adaptive Planning

Reasons for Switching to Planful: Planful has more robust features. Other tools seemed much lighter. The alternatives seemed to be used by much smaller customers.

Unfortunately Planful never worked let alone met the expectations from the sales pitch

Pros:

- That the licence was only three years long

Cons:

- The planning feature was almost impossible to use - Any new features were always only available at a price never as part of what we already were paying for - The integrators were oversold and never worked despite being paid for - The consolidation functionality roll over made January month end more painful than our annual audit process, and take almost as long

Alternatives Considered: CCH Tagetik

Reasons for Switching to Planful: Pricing, and the support offered from the onboarding team, as well as out of the box integrations.

Great FP&A Product

Comments: We've reduced the use of excel spreadsheets for budgeting/forecasting by using this tool. It's simplified our budget and forecasting process and it keeps getting easier each year.

Pros:

They listen to their customers and are always making improvements to the product. It's easy to use and they have so many resources (support chat, community, training, etc).

Cons:

The support was not great when we first implemented the tool. They've come a long way and are truly supportive of all questions I have.

We had a quick implementation, and find that the environment is very flexible. All end users :-)

Comments: Monthly operational reporting time reduced from 3 days to 3 hours. We built alternative hierarchies for our chart of accounts and entities, so that operations can see their relevant data in the format they prefer, whereas accounting can see it based on GAAP. Modeling transformed our budget process from Excel spreadsheets to a cloud-based solution accessible to all end users, so budget creation migrated from FP&A to the process owners. Budget consolidation process was reduced from 2 days to 2 minutes. We have also transformed to a rolling forecast using modeling, so that the annual budgets required by lenders comes from the forecasts, and is no longer a time-consuming annual task. We have also since identified other uses for modeling, including complex calculations for our formula pricing that is based on external data imported into tables. We are also importing non-financial data to enhance our asset management deferred maintenance program.

Pros:

There are no limits to the types and volume of data that you interface within Host Analytics, as long as you maintain a common field. Implementation went well (with a consulting partner), and it enabled our budget manager to trim his reporting time from 3 days to 3 hours. The modeling module uses an Excel add-in, so the feel and use of Excel is still available, but the results are stored centralized, so when any end user retrieves data, there is one version of the truth. Customer service is second to none. In my 30+ years in planning and analysis, I have never found a team so dedicated to ensuring their customer's success. Feature updates are either monthly or quarterly, and are focused on what the customers have expressed are their needs or wishes.

Cons:

It required that we use a partner consultant to implement. This may be due mostly to the fact that as a small company, we do not have the internal IT resources; the initial implementation without a partner stalled due to resource and communication issues.

Planful: Modern FP&A Solution

Comments: My overall experience with Planful has been overwhelmingly positive. Their team is frequently engaged to ensure that we're utilizing the solution to our maximum benefit. Planful's help desk team knowledgeable and very quick and responsive addressing issues as quickly as possible.

Pros:

Administering the system is very smooth and adaptable. Our prior system would take 110% of my time to keep it running and troubleshooting issues. With Planful, now that we're live and stable on the platform, it takes < 50% of my time, so I'm able to focus on other value-add activities: process improvement and automation, personal skill development and growth, and future product enhancements. Reporting is extremely user friendly both within platform and Spotlight, so users have been able to create and admin their own reports .

Cons:

Loading actual wage data by employee is seems more complicated than it needs to be. Prepping the file to load this data takes ~1 hour/month when all other data load rules take < 5 minutes. We also had issues in the past with Workforce data input/locking between users, but it's been much easier for our team to use with the extensive Workforce UI redesign in 2020.

A great all round FP&A solution that is competitively priced

Comments: I honestly think it's great, particular for users whose current ERP systems are lacking in the core FP&A functionalities Planful provides. Its attractive pricing and feature rich functionality and great support make it a solid offering to prospective users.

Pros:

We used Planful's Reporting and Consolidation functionality, and are current in the process of setting up Dynamic Reporting/Spotlight for the purposes of revamping an internal budgeting and forecasting process. In my opinion the best thing about the system is that once you perform the initial set up and get the hierarchies and data loads correct, it is super easy to use with minimal training required, whilst also being massively powerful and flexible. It is also very competitively priced, and the support staff and implementation consultants are excellent.

Cons:

The biggest and most obvious drawback of the solution is the training materials that accompany it. Because it is a relatively new platform, there is not currently a huge amount of training resources and materials out there with which end users can learn the platform. This means there is a greater dependency on the materials Planful provide, and in my own personal opinion, the training courses do not do a great job in bringing a Planful user up to speed. Thankfully, it seems Planful is investing and promoting in a new Engage forum which will no doubt help new users of the system.

helpful tool for data management

Comments: I had a very good experience with planful I will recommend it

Pros:

what i like about planful is that the data is transmitted in real time.the application is easy to handle.reliable and accurate details and it has very good features.

Cons:

planful works very well for me and I haven't found any complication with this application yet

High Quality Financial Reporting Platform

Comments: Used this software to simplify reporting from 8 companies with varying charts of accounts and 10,000 accounts to a single, comparable reporting structure. Greatly reduced effort and time spent on consolidating and preparing financial reports.

Pros:

Dynamic reports and the ability to get the precise financial information you need, with drill down capabilities is a huge plus. Can include links to images of transaction source documents, providing great transparency in reporting. Spotlight for Excel add in to develop custom, refreshable reports is a great help. Forecasting and budgeting tools are good as well.

Cons:

Learning curve of implementing a new software for financial reporting is always going to be somewhat significant, but there are several quirks in data loads and reporting cube processing that make things harder than they should be.

It's a life saver for reporting

Pros:

Ease of reporting and planning. The reports are fast to make and can very easily be taught to other users. Also since it is in the cloud, there are many tiers of security features for customization.

Cons:

New features and cross browser supporting don't function the best. The new row sets are difficult to get to the exact detail and adjusting cold width can't be done in a cluster in chrome.

Solid tool that will help you manage your budget with ease!

Comments: It was rocky at first, but has been absolutely fantastic in the past 2 years. We have gone from being 10-13% under budget to about 1/2% under budget last year, and it's truly because this tool allows all of our managers to view everything with ease.

Pros:

All the features we needed in one tool: Workforce planning, budgeting, forecasting, financial reporting and easy creation of management reporting.

Cons:

There are several enhancements that I intend to discuss with our customer success manager BUT I have no doubt, with the release schedule Planful is on, these items will be easy to incorporate into our environment. If I had to choose one that that I least like about the software, it's simply that I would suggest that your implementation partners completely understand your structure and what any reports you need to gain/create in the software. Years ago when we implemented (which I'm sure it has improved since then) there were features and items that weren't even discussed that we discovered later.

Robust financial reporting software.

Comments: Planful is smooth, powerful and reliable. Also gets noticeably better every few months. If you need them, support is hard working, responsive, and thorough.

Pros:

Workforce Planning is my favorite feature. Data loads and updates are fast and there are lots of options for modeling and allocating compensation items. Training our budget preparers is easy, and they get most of it right and don't complain often which is more than can be said than my past experiences with other budget processes. Reporting is also very good with many options for creating data within Planful or externally. Also, the site rarely goes down. Maybe one short interruption in two years?

Cons:

Training documentation should be expanded, richer in some areas for a more user friendly admin experience.

Solid Choice

Pros:

I like that most of this software is tight and reasonable in size. On the surface anything can be intimidating to a new user but we have a small team that has been able to manage this across many hospitals and types of users. We have put in a lot of work but without much IT support which makes this valuable.

Cons:

Processes and building infrastructure around raw data can be tricky. We do not have a data warehouse which makes things difficult with connecting data. For me this software is a mid tier product in some ways so it seemed logical that they would realize companies may not have solid infrastructure to support fast and elaborate functions provided. In a perfect world the system could be more of a one stop shop or help get us there.

Review of Planful

Pros:

We use this software for our month-end close process to consolidate financials and publish our monthly financial package to management and other various internal/external partners. The software is easy to navigate and helps us quickly consolidate financial data for all of our entities each month.

Cons:

There aren't any specific features that I dislike about the software at the moment, however the Planful support portal/team hasn't always been the most helpful when it comes to troubleshooting issues in a timely manner.

User friendly product. Great customer support

Comments: We generate our reporting package quicker and with less errors. Our planning process runs more smoothly and efficiently again with less errors. We are able to consolidate our plans quicker.

Pros:

How easy it is to create basic reporting and customize and scheduled distribution. Interface that is scheduled nightly to automatically populate Host with data from our G/L. Consolidation of our plan is more efficient and timely so changes aren't such a nightmare to make.

Cons:

Quarterly releases are great, but they don't give you enough time to test them before they are automatically put into production.

OVerall is a great tool for the ease of standardizing and managing our reports.

Comments: Our reporting process became easier for end users. The Support and CFL team from Host also helped us tremendously for our users from day to day basis!!

Pros:

The application made reporting a piece of cake with automated distribution. The planning tool helped us standardize our budgeting process and we're very impressed with the workforce planning module that helped us easily managing our headcount and compensation estimate.

Cons:

Not the most user friendly application for budgeting purpose. The access was made easy with SSO solution, but the timeout issue causing customers to complain.

Training review

Comments: Great, easy to set up and use, flexible enough

Pros:

Planful is very user friendly and it is easy to become a self-sufficient user of this application as a lot of help resources availiable for use. Searcg engine within Planful is very good as well as it makes it easy to navigate application.

Cons:

I dont like that to complete certificaiton, all users have to attend real life class. Those classes are not convinient for UK users and they dont usually add much more informaiton that cannot be found in written guides.

2+ Year User of Host Analytics EPM Platform

Pros:

The ability to quickly consolidate all of our agency financials at month end and close the books in a timely manner.

Cons:

I enjoy most things about this software, however I would have to say that I wish the Spotlight Excel add-in that Host offers would be directly connected to the Core Application, eliminating the need to maintain and update a separate model in excel so that they data comes through the Spotlight Excel reports accurately.

Host has helped us scale from ~200 employees to over 1k!

Pros:

- Similar to Oracle Hyperion, but in the cloud - Lower overhead than on premise tools - Robust platform with more advanced feature set then other cloud tools - Solid excel integration - Product team responds to feedback - Fair pricing - No limit on size of model

Cons:

- Attractiveness of user interface - Template speed - Visualizations - Speed of new development - Implementation took longer than expected

Host Analytics has decreased our dependency on excel and has allowed us to forecast concurrently.

Pros:

We love the ease and flexibility of the tool. The monthly releases mean that the product is constantly making improvements. Administration of the core app and spotlight is straightforward and not time consuming. We can now complete a forecast in 4 hours versus a week+ that it look using excel.

Cons:

We would love to see more data visualization features added to the core app along with a Mac compatible spotlight extension.

Very slow, but highly customizable

Comments: Implemented this software solution at my office. It was less expensive than some of the other providers, and we expected the product to perform as such. There are some drawbacks to the product, but I think these are in-line with the price.

Pros:

Very deep database and highly flexible integration with our disparate data feed.

Cons:

Slow. A data pull is not immediate and can cause some frustration if data is not pulled 100% accurately the first time. Collaboration can also be difficult, as the individual models are fragile and must be updated online.

Planful great value for the money

Comments: Postive experience, good customer support after implementation

Pros:

Ease of reporting, creating and distributing and ability to schedule distribution even to non users

Cons:

consolidation module could be improved, tracking reconciliations etc

Positive, Discovery, Trial & Error

Pros:

Centralized data storage helps ensure we have consistent reporting on a month-to-month basis. This also eliminates many minor mistakes prevalent with externally linking excel files. Customer service is phenomenal

Cons:

PCR can be finnicky. Modeling occasionally freezes. Modeling and PCR needs to be in touch to ensure accurate up-to-date reporting (supposed to be coming out in an update soon)

Good planning tool that integrates well with excel

Comments: Scale for team!

Pros:

We plan by detail and this tool allows us to do that. Modeling cloud is nice as it is more flexible.

Cons:

This tool is good but we did a lot of customization for CAPEX, BS, cash flow forecasting which requires a lot of time.

The software was in place when I got here, so I have never had any formal education on it. Good!

Comments: Visibility to all of our entities around the world in a timely manner!

Pros:

Ease of use and access! I use my mobile application and access on line from home, office, hotel and other office when traveling abroad with ease.

Cons:

New account and entity set up is only somewhat intuitive. I do this so rarely, i really have to go back and read to set up new accounts and other entities.