Tasked with creating the budgets, forecasts and analysis that support major corporate decisions, financial planning & analysis (FP&A) teams have a lot on their plates right now. Forecasts aren’t easy to nail down, economic and global uncertainty still lingers in the air, business costs are rising and persistent issues like labor constraints are all making good planning, forecasting and predicting more difficult than ever.
Spreadsheets and manual processes don’t make FP&A any easier. In fact, these age-old methods can greatly inhibit efficiency and reduce a team’s contribution to sustainable corporate growth. Instead of helping their companies make strategic growth decisions, for example, FP&A teams wind up buried under the weight of paper, spreadsheets and manual tasks.
The good news is that technology has evolved to the point where it’s become a true enabler of FP&A success. Split across two different software categories—FP&A itself and corporate performance management (CPM)—these applications consolidate accurate data in one place and streamline the end-to-end FP&A process, from budgeting and forecasting to reporting and analysis.
“With greater pressure to run lean finance teams, organizations are turning to Corporate Performance Management (CPM) technology to enhance their planning and forecasting capabilities,” Nucleus Research points out in its recent CPM Technology Value Matrix. “In addition to modern analytic capabilities that help businesses better manage budget variances and protect their cash positions, organizations also prioritize financial close and consolidation and account reconciliation functionality to drive value for accountants.”
From Spreadsheets to Streamlined Systems
Financial planning and analysis have historically been handled manually using a lot of spreadsheet calculations and disconnected software systems. These approaches often led to reporting delays, unreliable forecasts and inflexible business models that couldn’t adapt to changing conditions. The number of companies that are dealing with these issues is vast. In fact, Nucleus noted in its report that most organizations deploying a CPM solution were “first-time buyers still relying on Excel for FP&A functions.”
Today, specialized finance packages are being used to streamline FP&A and help companies integrate these activities with their broader enterprise systems. Once integrated, CPM and FP&A software help companies reduce errors, tighten up their forecasts, get everyone working from the same data playbook and ultimately improve strategic decision-making.
These advanced software packages also help companies adapt and flex in an unpredictable business environment, where everything from supply chain disruptions to labor shortages to geopolitical events are impacting organizational success, longevity and profitability. With the right software in place, companies can more proactively assess their financial strengths and weaknesses, and then proactively leverage new opportunities or mitigate challenges.
Who’s Leading the FP&A Pack?
Over the last few years, a number of different software vendors have thrown their hats into the FP&A ring. According to Nucleus, the leaders in the CPM space right now are Vena Solutions, Oracle Fusion Cloud EPM, Planful, Prophix, OneStream Software and Board International. Other companies that have built FP&A platforms include NetSuite Planning & Budgeting, Planful, Anaplan, Adaptive Planning and Datarails.
Among these various platform options that integrate with NetSuite, ScaleNorth views Vena, NetSuite Planning & Budgeting, Planful, Anaplan, Adaptive Planning and Datarails as the solutions that are in the conversation during the software evaluation process. They all integrate directly with NetSuite and each solution has its own specific strengths. Here’s a synopsis of each and some details you can use to get started in your FP&A or CPM evaluation.
Vena
Vena is a CPM suite developed to help finance and operations teams streamline their financial planning, budgeting, forecasting and reporting processes. The software uses a combination of workflow management, reporting automation and predictive analytics to help organizations increase visibility into their finances, develop more accurate and responsive planning cycles and improve strategic decision making.
According to Nucleus Research, the solution leverages Excel’s calculations, formulas and formatting connected to a central database and collaborative workflows providing high user adoption, flexible modeling and strong analytical and audit capabilities. Vena Complete Planning helps users make data- driven decisions, uncover actionable insights and drive growth across their businesses.
Vena is best suited for companies working in Excel that want to automate their financial reporting processes and would like to have the choice of leveraging pre-built reporting templates or want the flexibility to create more complex customized reports.
NetSuite Planning & Budgeting (NSPB)
NetSuite Planning and Budgeting automates labor-intensive planning and budgeting processes so finance teams can quickly and easily produce budgets and forecasts, model what-if scenarios and generate reports — all within one collaborative, scalable solution.
With less time spent on manual consolidation, troubleshooting, reporting and data loading, finance staff can reallocate time from data entry and formula maintenance to strategic analysis activities that have a greater impact on the company’s financial position.
One of NetSuite Planning and Budgeting’s biggest strengths is rooted in the fact that data is entered in one centralized place, creating a single, agreed-upon version of information. Any changes made to numbers in the system are automatically reflected in reports and dashboards, so the current business situation is always clear.
As a point solution for planning, budgeting and reporting, NSPB doesn’t offer extended planning capabilities like workforce planning. Also, SmartView the application’s Excel interface is lacking in full Excel capabilities and can be challenging to use.
Planful
Planful is a cloud-based financial performance management platform that streamlines and improves financial processes. Overall, Planful software aims to improve financial performance by enhancing planning, budgeting, forecasting, collaboration, and reporting across various departments within an organization.
Planful’s core capabilities include planning, budgeting, forecasting, collaboration and visibility. It also streamlines the financial close process and automates report generation; assists HR departments in building and managing workforce plans; and helps marketing teams plan and track marketing activities and their impact on business goals.
On the downside, Planful’s database architecture is complicated and uses dynamic planning and structured planning. Users have to move data back and forth between databases which, in turn, requires more maintenance and increases the likelihood of errors. Also, Planful Predict projections and signals are basically just anomaly detection and forecasting. Finally, the platform currently doesn’t use best-of-breed AI, ML or natural language processing (NLP).
Anaplan
Anaplan is used for CPM and provides enterprise-grade collaborative business planning and business intelligence. By connecting planning and analytics, the software is often useful to improve operational performance. Enterprise customers can upload data to the Anaplan cloud, which team members can use to organize and analyze disparate sets of enterprise data from finance, human resources, sales and other business units.
Anaplan can be used for collaborative planning across these different organizational functions:
- Sales. It can help with quota planning, sales forecasting and incentive compensation.
- Information technology (IT). It can be used for Agile implementation and planning, IT financial management and cost transparency, and facilities management.
- Finance. It can assist with CAPEX planning, financial consolidation, tax and treasury, and reporting and analysis.
- Supply chain management. It can be used for predictive analytics, trade promotions planning and distribution requirements planning.
Some of Anaplan’s key selling points include ease of use; a calculation and modeling engine that provides insights into past performance and models for the future; a reliable audit trail; and real-time collaboration features that allow remote teams to work together.
Anaplan can be complex to implement and requires ongoing maintenance plus much time and money for user training. The platform’s pricing can also be high given that pricing is based on allocated space.
Workday Adaptive Planning
Workday Adaptive Planning is an FP&A tool that helps businesses plan and report their numbers differently to break down complex planning to make them simpler. It uses adaptive insights as part of an active planning process to help build business resilience, Tristan Ovington explains in What is Workday Adaptive Planning?
The platform offers powerful business modeling, strategic workforce planning and efficient operational planning. Its flexible, scalable financial planning suite was designed for large enterprises and divisions. Once in place, the solution helps companies automate planning and execution functions; adapt to changing business conditions; improve decision-making; and minimize friction between different departments.
Workday Adaptive Planning also embeds AI and machine learning (ML) at its core, so your organization can make better decisions faster, and adapt as things change. “We are the only cloud vendor with 6,000+ planning customers,” the company states, “delivering a planning platform that is the easiest to use in the industry with the scale and performance required by some of the world’s largest enterprises to create virtually unlimited versions, dimensions, and drivers for flexible, insightful plans.”
With Workday, users must learn the platform’s formula language and adaptive syntax. There may also be challenges with data integration, and moving beyond finance integrating with other operational systems like HRIS and Salesforce.
Datarails
Datarails lets FP&A departments keep using the Excel spreadsheets they’ve been working with for years, empowering them with all the features modern financial professionals need, from automation to dynamic dashboards.
The solution leverages the power of AI with its FP&A Genius tool, which responds directly to text inputs. According to Datarails, FP&A Genius returns accurate and trustworthy answers supported by custom-made graphs from the data.
Datarails connects to various data sources, including spreadsheets, ERP systems like NetSuite and cloud applications, automatically collecting and consolidating data. This eliminates the need for manual data entry and reduces the risk of errors. The software also allows users to build and maintain financial models directly within the familiar Excel environment, automates calculations and simplifies scenario planning.
Datarails can only support basic planning use cases and the platform lacks the depth of planning support beyond basic budgeting, planning and reporting. Also missing in Datarails are the robust workflow and collaboration capabilities—particularly when in multi-user planning cycles—that platforms like Vena offer.
Expert FP&A Evaluation Tips
After you’ve evaluated your Financial Planning & Analysis software options, take the next steps to ensure you make the right selection for your organization. Be sure to confirm the following:
- NetSuite Integration. How well does the solution integrate with NetSuite? NetSuite is your source of truth for the data you’ll model out. For best results, you’ll want a reliable, fast connection. If data is also pulled from other systems like your CRM or marketing platform, be sure to confirm your integration options.
- Adoption and User Interface. Most FP&A teams are experts at Excel and have a library of models already built. Consider tools that leverage the Excel interface and formulas that ensure an easy transition and long-term adoption to a modern FP&A solution.
- Discovery and Demos. Pull together your requirements and long-term needs before getting a demo. That way, you’ll be able to review use cases that are most important to your FP&A tool of choice. Make sure the demo covers your industry needs and expected analysis models.
ScaleNorth is a long-time NetSuite Solution Provide and BPO Partner of the Year. When you’re exploring your FP&A options, contact ScaleNorth to facilitate your needs and help with the selection process.