Planful Reviews & Product Details

What I like most about Planful is how easy it is to use while still offering strong, flexible budgeting and reporting capabilities. The platform supports detailed, line-item budgeting, yet it maintains a clean, intuitive interface that works well for both finance and non-finance users. It also serves as a reliable single source of truth, improves transparency for budget owners, and greatly reduces the manual effort required for budgeting and reporting. As a result, the finance team can spend less time on repetitive tasks and more time on analysis and strategic support. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The coding required to add accounts into reports can come with a steep learning curve. Instead of simply using our account number, we have to use a specific Planful code that corresponds to that account. When a new account is created, it can take extra time to figure out which code is needed. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I like the clean and easy-to-use user interface, especially as a financially minded person. The continuous improvements are definitely a plus, and I really appreciate the customization options that allow formatting like an Excel workbook without being stuck to static workbooks. The customization of hierarchies with attributes and roll-up nodes is another feature I like, which isn't available in our current accounting software. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The support team requires lots of back and forth like you are dealing with a robot rather than an individual that wants to help and make workable solutions with you. The setup was tedious but also a great learning curve. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

We utilize Planful mainly as a consolidation tool, as well as a budgeting tool. Once set up, it is very easy to use. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

At times, it get a little technical in order to build the reports that you want. However, the Bakerfield consultants are there to help us bridge the gap. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The thing I like most about planful is that it provides a platform to centralize and store data from many different sources. It also has a n ease of use when I need to access and manipulate that data which makes it easy to share and teach new users. I also like planful templates. They provide the ability to automate some of our more structured budget and forecast processes. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

At the moment we are having an issue with the amount of time it takes planful to process data and run through template processing. It is making it difficult to update our forecast/budgets in a timely manner as well as making the process to update and make changes long and arduous. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I really enjoy the reporting capabilities. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Security and internal controls could be a bit better. Planful is more finance and FP&A focused and it would helpful to have more attention to be given to more accounting functions. I am not sure if that is an impact of our implementation or if it is a limitation of Planful though. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I like being able to use workforce planning within Planful for budgeting, along with consolidations. It’s helpful to have these capabilities in one place when I’m working through the budgeting process. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The Spotlight reports within Excel can be confusing, since the formulas are often long and difficult to trace. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

This is an easy to use platform that allows us to create and manage budgets, utilize rolling forecasts and manage our workforce. They are always listening to what their users have to say and continually improving! Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The ability to easily archive old scenarios for access again in the future. We run an annual clean up process, so there are ways of archiving the information, but to have a folder storage system in Planful (rather than exporting and saving somewhere else) would be so much easier.

I also think there needs to be a method of allowing ALL users (by selection) to view dashboards at the higher entity level, while NOT allowing them drill through of these dashboards. It would be extremely helpful for us if every user could see how the department is trending budget vs actuals, and not just the portion of our hierarchy that manager manages. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

There a lot of features out of the box which are easy to configure. This includes Fx and consolidations. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Honestly sometimes it feels like you're boxed in. Another thing which I think is true for them is that the development cycle is way too slow. There are plenty of features that are pushed to product which the customers definitely want but are pushed back. I believe our company alone has pushed a few things to product which are really basic.

Another thing I noticed is that there are inconsistencies in the platform. Some features in some windows are available whilst in others not, giving the customer a feel that intra-platform synchronization/thought isn't done with diligence. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I use Planful for forecasting, budgeting, reporting, and consolidating multiple entity financials. I appreciate that it streamlines reporting needs, enabling quick querying and letting our team focus on strategic future analysis. The customer experience is phenomenal, making them true partners, and they adapt their product to customer needs. They have training modules and videos now, which have expanded significantly over the years. I find language familiarity and ease of use great because anyone who understands simple mapping and retrieval can use it. I also like that most formulas are common to the MS Excel framework, allowing me to create reports and planning templates with minimal recreation. The integration with Dynamic 365 is direct and works well for me. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Workforce planning has been taking major strides, which used to be a weakness. I know Dynamic Planning was a tool that provided immense customization options, but was very difficult to use. It sounds like they have made strides to improve it, but I don't have experience using that since they've enhanced it. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I like the ease of use of Planful. It's a very intuitive tool. HC planning and forecasting are very simple, and entering details for reporting is straightforward as well. The initial setup was very simple. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Some features like proration do not work. We need to calculate proration manually. For example, if someone is given a salary increase of 10% for the full year and is eligible for only 5% based on joining dates, we need to calculate this manually. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.