--- title: Planful Reviews meta_title: 'Planful Reviews 2026: Details, Pricing, & Features | G2' meta_description: Filter 507 reviews by the users' company size, role or industry to find out how Planful works for a business like yours. aggregate_rating: rating_value: 4.3 review_count: 507 scale: '5' date_modified: '2026-08-05' parent_category: name: Accounting & Finance url: https://www.g2.com/categories/accounting-finance --- # Planful Reviews **Vendor:** Planful **Category:** [Budgeting and Forecasting Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/budgeting-and-forecasting) **Average Rating:** 4.3/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 507 ## About Planful Planful is the pioneer of financial performance management cloud software. The Planful platform, which helps businesses drive peak financial performance, is used around the globe to streamline business-wide planning, budgeting, consolidations, reporting, and analytics. Planful’s award-winning AI capabilities accelerate decision-making, helping Planful users in over 100 countries to close faster, accelerate cycle times, increase productivity, and improve accuracy. Planful is a private company with more than 1,500 customers, including Bose, Boston Red Sox, Five Guys, Grafton Plc, Gousto, and Specialized, and is backed by Vector Capital, a leading global private equity firm. Learn more at Planful.com. ## Planful Pros & Cons **What users like:** - Users praise the **ease of use** of Planful, highlighting its intuitive design and minimal reliance on IT support. (48 reviews) - Users value the **streamlined reporting capabilities** of Planful, enhancing efficiency and enabling strategic analysis. (29 reviews) - Users appreciate the **streamlined reporting efficiency** of Planful, enhancing focus on strategic analysis and operational effectiveness. (21 reviews) - Users value the **automation capabilities** of Planful, streamlining data management and enhancing financial analysis efficiency. (20 reviews) - Users value Planful for its **centralized data management** and ease of use, enhancing integration and team collaboration. (19 reviews) - Users value the **dynamism and flexibility** in Planful's planning model, enhancing their budgeting and reporting processes. (18 reviews) - Reporting Quality (17 reviews) - Efficiency (15 reviews) - Forecasting Efficiency (15 reviews) - Integrations (15 reviews) **What users dislike:** - Users face a **steep learning curve** with Planful, making initial implementation and understanding quite challenging. (17 reviews) - Users face a **steep learning curve** with Planful, complicating initial setup and understanding for new adopters. (17 reviews) - Users note a lack of **reporting and dashboard features** , hindering their ability to effectively manage data storage and access. (13 reviews) - Users find Planful to be **not intuitive** , struggling with its complex setup and steep learning curve. (12 reviews) - Users note a need for **improvements in planning modules** and clearer documentation to enhance the overall experience. (10 reviews) - Users find the **slow performance** of Planful frustrating, impacting their ability to efficiently manage complex tasks and reports. (10 reviews) - Users find the **complexity of implementation** and learning curve of Planful to be daunting and challenging. (9 reviews) - Users face challenges due to **limitations in data structure and formula customization** , affecting complex calculations and usability. (8 reviews) - Performance Issues (8 reviews) - Dashboard Issues (7 reviews) ## Planful Reviews ### 1. Upgrade from Excel and has increased speed and accruacy in reporting. **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Online Media | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 22, 2018 **What do you like best about Planful?** Workforce reporting has been great at managing headcount especially as the company has grown and continues to grow. **What do you dislike about Planful?** Workforce reporting is very confusing to get dimensions correct. Formulas on reports don't stay after refreshing data. Dashboards crashed after rebuilding multiple times. **Recommendations to others considering Planful:** Small to mid size growing companies **What problems is Planful solving and how is that benefiting you?** Financial planning and reporting Headcount management Budgetting Scenario planning ### 2. Best way to consolidate data for analysis **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** William N. | Director of Finance, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 23, 2018 **What do you like best about Planful?** I like how you can consolidate multiple data sources from different ERP’s into one. We’ve had multiple acquisitions and it’s made analysis a breeze **What do you dislike about Planful?** It does take up quite a bit of time, definitely a full time job maintaining the site and making sure everything flows through correctly **Recommendations to others considering Planful:** Make sure to have plenty of redun **What problems is Planful solving and how is that benefiting you?** We have 5 different accounting data software so implementing this has made consolidating easier as well as month end, budgeting and forecasting ### 3. Host has increased team collaboration and efficiency **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Monica S. | Finance, Internet, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 19, 2018 **What do you like best about Planful?** Cloud based platform enabling team members across various locations to observe changes in real time **What do you dislike about Planful?** Inability to do calculations within the modeling cloud **What problems is Planful solving and how is that benefiting you?** Helps to consolidate all data across finance team in one system to create one source of truth. ### 4. Powerful tool with many capabilities. **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Building Materials | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 23, 2018 **What do you like best about Planful?** Host has allowed our company to reduce the amount of hours worked on consolidation, reporting and budgeting/planning by a considerable amount. **What do you dislike about Planful?** Many functionalities for Host prove difficult in our business environment due to the structure of our business. Additionally, at times Host can be very slow to respond. **What problems is Planful solving and how is that benefiting you?** Budgeting, planning, reporting and consolidation. ### 5. Great customer service and easy to use solution **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Pharmaceuticals | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 23, 2018 **What do you like best about Planful?** customer service: Host listens and cares about their customer's success, which builds confidence in a long term solution. **What do you dislike about Planful?** some functionality which seems basic isn't yet available (i.e. pull function to ppt) **What problems is Planful solving and how is that benefiting you?** manual excel spreadsheet risks, which takes lots of time and doesn't allow for efforts to be more focused on value added activities ### 6. We love rolling forecasts **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Higher Education | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 22, 2018 **What do you like best about Planful?** I like how easy the product is to use. Looks and feels like excel. Non finance people can use it. **What do you dislike about Planful?** Some funky things with the system that will probably updated with future releases. Workforce planning is a must update. **Recommendations to others considering Planful:** Great product, ease of use, affordable, adaptable **What problems is Planful solving and how is that benefiting you?** Forecasting, collaboration, efficiency, accuracy, time savings ### 7. Host Analytics Review **Rating:** 3.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Sean O. | Director, Financial Planning & Analysis - E-Commerce, Retail, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 21, 2018 **What do you like best about Planful?** Customer support and continuous improvement. **What do you dislike about Planful?** Implementation with current business needs. **What problems is Planful solving and how is that benefiting you?** Consolidation as well reporting. ### 8. Director of Finance **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Computer Software | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 22, 2018 **What do you like best about Planful?** Ease of use. Reporting capabilities. Integration from other applications. **What do you dislike about Planful?** Headcount templates are cumbersome to update **Recommendations to others considering Planful:** Ensure you have the right governance and processes in place prior to going live with the solution. **What problems is Planful solving and how is that benefiting you?** Reduce manual work. Allow FP&A team to spend more time on value-add activities supporting the business vs compiling data. ### 9. Well-organized, informative conference **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Computer Hardware | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 23, 2018 **What do you like best about Planful?** Guest speaker Bert Jacobs was fantastic! **What do you dislike about Planful?** Most of the breakout sessions were geared towards prospective new customers and/or users with minimal Host experience. **Recommendations to others considering Planful:** Excellent product for small to mid-sized companies who cannot afford larger FP&A tools. **What problems is Planful solving and how is that benefiting you?** All of our financial modeling is handled in the application, including contingency analysis. ### 10. Host helped us herd cats **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Insurance | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 22, 2018 **What do you like best about Planful?** one source of the truth and minimizes errors and allows us to scale as we are a very acquisitive company **What do you dislike about Planful?** too much maintenance and hidden features **Recommendations to others considering Planful:** great software. find a good implementation partner and life will be good **What problems is Planful solving and how is that benefiting you?** consolidation of over 35 different profit centers and general ledger systems ### 11. First Year User **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Pharmaceuticals | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 22, 2018 **What do you like best about Planful?** Consolidation and Eliminations. Currency conversions automated. 3 ERP's translated into a standard COA and Structure. Reports in multiple currencies. Multiple roll-ups of reports and formats **What do you dislike about Planful?** Need more time to add functionality with our use **Recommendations to others considering Planful:** Resources needed. SME's on staff would have helped **What problems is Planful solving and how is that benefiting you?** Reporting, Consolidation but planning to add more ### 12. Inovation **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Pharmaceuticals | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 23, 2018 **What do you like best about Planful?** How is easy to work with the tool, and navigate **What do you dislike about Planful?** The complexity to implement , we expect to finish in 3 months and it took 7 **What problems is Planful solving and how is that benefiting you?** We are going to have the same tool to budget process fro two different legal entity and consolidated on the region level ### 13. End spreadsheet nightmare **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Biotechnology | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 22, 2018 **What do you like best about Planful?** Taking 10s of spreadsheets and all those errors into a system that ends the connection issues. The support is outstanding and responsive **What do you dislike about Planful?** It is a little more complex than I thought but understand why **What problems is Planful solving and how is that benefiting you?** Bringing together so many departmental budgets togther without trying to do it in excel ### 14. We are still in middle of implementation. Can't provide a proper review **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Biotechnology | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 22, 2018 **What do you like best about Planful?** Spotlight reporting, custom templates, ability for business to use in the app or with off-line templates **What do you dislike about Planful?** Hard to say since we have not really used the tool yet **What problems is Planful solving and how is that benefiting you?** Standardize templates, engage business, we are still implementing so many benefits have not been realized yet ### 15. Finance and Business Partners Unite **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Non-Profit Organization Management | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 23, 2018 **What do you like best about Planful?** Ease of use; Flexibility and customization of the Project **What do you dislike about Planful?** Training is a bit confusing and overwhelming (lots of options, hard to navigate) **Recommendations to others considering Planful:** keep implemenation simple; take it step by step and be involved in every step. DOCUMENT and TRAIN **What problems is Planful solving and how is that benefiting you?** Additional visbility into forecasting ### 16. Reduced close time, headcount somewhat difficult **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in E-Learning | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 23, 2018 **What do you like best about Planful?** The reporting capabilities (burst, etc.) cut down close time significantly. **What do you dislike about Planful?** Headcount is pretty cumbersome and impractical. We don't use headcount because it doesnt seem like it's worth the time put in. **What problems is Planful solving and how is that benefiting you?** Version control for planning as well as scenario over scenario comparisons ### 17. On the verge of changing process **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Computer Software | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 23, 2018 **What do you like best about Planful?** Ease and efficiency of reporting. General workflow intuitive **What do you dislike about Planful?** Learning curve to MDX, overcoming general learning curve to best practives to template setup to avoice restructuring. **Recommendations to others considering Planful:** Really engage in your implementation and have a defined process and end goal determined **What problems is Planful solving and how is that benefiting you?** Speed of reporting ### 18. Foundational implementation but looking to expand beyond just reporting and workforce planning **Rating:** 3.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Information Technology and Services | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 23, 2018 **What do you like best about Planful?** Robust reporting functionality and new product development **What do you dislike about Planful?** Still a bit nascent in terms of adoption and various use cases implemented by other customers **What problems is Planful solving and how is that benefiting you?** Targeting to solve reporting and planning. Have been able to streamline financial reporting and G&A budgeting. ### 19. Very good **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Accounting | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 22, 2018 **What do you like best about Planful?** Able to work in excel and pull data into Core. Reporting is easy **What do you dislike about Planful?** So much functionality that I don't believe we are utilizing everything **What problems is Planful solving and how is that benefiting you?** We haven't been doing forecast and I believe Host will be able to solve this. ### 20. Very informative **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Building Materials | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 23, 2018 **What do you like best about Planful?** Guest speaker was phenomenal and the breakout sessions were very informative. **What do you dislike about Planful?** Better communication from support team in regards to new features. **What problems is Planful solving and how is that benefiting you?** Right now we use Host for reporting, consolidating, and forecasting. Definitely see benefits from adding features. ### 21. Good learning and exploratory session. **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Pharmaceuticals | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 23, 2018 **What do you like best about Planful?** Socializing with current customers to learn best practices and recomendations. **What do you dislike about Planful?** Some customer presentations were not has informative as I would have liked. **What problems is Planful solving and how is that benefiting you?** We are in pre-implementation stage and hoping to solve our planning issues in excel. ### 22. Implementing a Rolling Forecasting Model **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Higher Education | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 22, 2018 **What do you like best about Planful?** Running reports and updating budget amounts each month **What do you dislike about Planful?** Nothing, it is a great system. Maybe more training models for end users. **What problems is Planful solving and how is that benefiting you?** A dynamic financial planning system that allows us to be more responsive to business operations. ### 23. Great experience **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Consumer Electronics | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 22, 2018 **What do you like best about Planful?** Hearing about the evolution of the product and how I can help drive change using the Host system & partners **What do you dislike about Planful?** opening ceremony session didn't love the poker concept less mingling **What problems is Planful solving and how is that benefiting you?** streamlining the rolling forcast process ### 24. Hostess with the Mostest **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Lauren M. | Financial Analyst, Building Materials, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 16, 2017 **What do you like best about Planful?** We use the reporting and planning modules daily and they have helped a great deal. **What do you dislike about Planful?** Its hard to change the way you do things once you've gotten used to them. Host deprecates past functionality that they can improve. They did this with report books but got many complaints from report sets so caved and did not deprecate, **Recommendations to others considering Planful:** Teach as many people reporting as you can so they can be self sufficient. It's very easy to use but cumbersome if only 3 people are making reports for the entire company. **What problems is Planful solving and how is that benefiting you?** We solve many reporting issues in a breeze and we save a lot of time reporting. ### 25. Great to Organize Data and Forecast **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Jamie E. | Financial Analyst, Internet, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 24, 2017 **What do you like best about Planful?** Host is great for organizing a large amount of financial data. It is highly adaptable for growing and every changing companies like ours. Helps streamline our forecasting process and eliminates human error. **What do you dislike about Planful?** Somewhat difficult to get set up for more complex features. We needed some outside help to get us started and for new asks **What problems is Planful solving and how is that benefiting you?** Flexibility and automation of reporting and forecasting. ### 26. Working good so far **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Justin J. | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 10, 2018 **What do you like best about Planful?** I like how it formats the reports in the app. **What do you dislike about Planful?** I do not like sometimes it is too slow in responding. **What problems is Planful solving and how is that benefiting you?** cleaner reporting ### 27. modeling **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Pharmaceuticals | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 21, 2018 **What do you like best about Planful?** I like to use HOST Analytics to get access to knowledge that is otherwise unavailable **What do you dislike about Planful?** classes where people are behind is really annoying because they are always behind **What problems is Planful solving and how is that benefiting you?** reporting in SAP is awful ### 28. Generally happy **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Computer Hardware | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 23, 2018 **What do you like best about Planful?** The communication/response with customers is very good **What do you dislike about Planful?** Seems like lots of attention on new products that are neat, but not very applicable for us. **What problems is Planful solving and how is that benefiting you?** Greatly benefits our ability to Budget and Forecast ### 29. Host Analytics Reporting Tool **Rating:** 3.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Computer Software | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 19, 2017 **What do you like best about Planful?** It is straight forward for reporting numbers. Easy to learn, simple user interface. Easy to run numbers and export reports to Excel. Easy to schedule reporting jobs and create reporting packages to send out on a scheduled basis. **What do you dislike about Planful?** It is slow to load reports, and not aesthetically appealing. It has a Excel look and feel, which makes it easier to learn. **What problems is Planful solving and how is that benefiting you?** Reporting of financials. Easy to use and download reports. ### 30. Host review **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Chemicals | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 22, 2018 **What do you like best about Planful?** Ease of access for field staff and ease of consolidated reports. **What do you dislike about Planful?** While consolidating is easy, going back through the hierarchy is often cumbersome. **What problems is Planful solving and how is that benefiting you?** Budget efficiency and financial statement reporting efficiency. ### 31. Host Mid Implementation Review **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Consumer Goods | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 22, 2018 **What do you like best about Planful?** Advanced Reporting and Modeling capabilities. Excel based functions and MDX language. **What do you dislike about Planful?** High Implementation rates without specialized industry knowledge in CPG from the team. **What problems is Planful solving and how is that benefiting you?** Replacement of FRx and outdated reporting tools. ### 32. Customizable and easy interface for end users **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Information Technology and Services | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 22, 2018 **What do you like best about Planful?** Simple and low infrastruture to manage. **What do you dislike about Planful?** late integration of spotlightxl. hoping to achieve a better understanding with consultion help **Recommendations to others considering Planful:** use of CFO solutions. **What problems is Planful solving and how is that benefiting you?** Faster, dynamic and more seemless reporting ### 33. Impressed with organization and level of participation **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Pharmaceuticals | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 23, 2018 **What do you like best about Planful?** Life is good presentation, CEO, Product pipeline **What do you dislike about Planful?** Some topics too high level and generic in nature (e.g. automation workshop) **What problems is Planful solving and how is that benefiting you?** Budgeting efficiencies, consolidation process with forecasting, reporting capabilities ### 34. Good use for people that love excel **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Consumer Electronics | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 23, 2018 **What do you like best about Planful?** Copy and pasting functionality is easy to use **What do you dislike about Planful?** Slowness of the product on our systems **Recommendations to others considering Planful:** Do not do any org changes **What problems is Planful solving and how is that benefiting you?** moving to a rolling forecast process ### 35. Experience **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Hospital & Health Care | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 22, 2018 **What do you like best about Planful?** Ease of having source of truth for all historical periods **What do you dislike about Planful?** Manual input of forecast and budget process using templates developed by implementation team **What problems is Planful solving and how is that benefiting you?** Budget and forecast ### 36. So far so good **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Electrical/Electronic Manufacturing | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 23, 2018 **What do you like best about Planful?** rolling forecast feature with different budget owners **What do you dislike about Planful?** capex model the monthly amortization amount is pretty confusing at the beginning **What problems is Planful solving and how is that benefiting you?** forecast & budget with business partners ### 37. Sr. Financial Analyst **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Computer Software | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 22, 2018 **What do you like best about Planful?** Automation of reporting, cloud based, new products **What do you dislike about Planful?** web traffic - slows down running of reports **Recommendations to others considering Planful:** great solution for price quality and features **What problems is Planful solving and how is that benefiting you?** Automation of reporting ### 38. Newbee **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Aviation & Aerospace | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 23, 2018 **What do you like best about Planful?** I like the structure, the online training available and the fleiblility **What do you dislike about Planful?** I've not used the product long enough to determine dislikes **What problems is Planful solving and how is that benefiting you?** Budgeting and Planning ### 39. Excellent solution to help a business scale **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Venture Capital & Private Equity | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 22, 2018 **What do you like best about Planful?** Ease of use and simplicity of implementation **What do you dislike about Planful?** Hard to do a bottoms up cash flow model. **What problems is Planful solving and how is that benefiting you?** Multi-ERP consolidation. Forecasting. Benefits: audit trail, numbers integrity ### 40. Hostanalytics, a easy way to get out of excel. **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Nikola O. | Corporate Finance at Pinterest, Internet, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 17, 2017 **What do you like best about Planful?** a large amount of financial and statistical data that Host has helped me organize into something I trust to and manipulate fast. **What do you dislike about Planful?** Can be a challenging to set up a new template + initial system set up. **Recommendations to others considering Planful:** Put more time in implementation time than what Host team says. **What problems is Planful solving and how is that benefiting you?** Team speed, fidelity, flexibility, and automation. ### 41. budgeting made easier **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Computer Software | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 22, 2018 **What do you like best about Planful?** easy access compared to using spreadsheets for budgeting **What do you dislike about Planful?** setting up and implementation takes a long time **What problems is Planful solving and how is that benefiting you?** Excel-based budgeting, version control ### 42. Relatively simple to use forecast tool at a decent cost **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Internet | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 02, 2018 **What do you like best about Planful?** Ability to Forecast at a detailed level all in one place Slice and dice Forecast data - build custom reports **What do you dislike about Planful?** Unable to build a complex cohort model using Host Analytics due to limited amount of historical information that can be displayed at one time **What problems is Planful solving and how is that benefiting you?** Departmental budgeting, headcount forecasting (calculating health insurance, payroll taxes, etc), and consolidations at the total company level. ### 43. Great product! **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Computer Software | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 27, 2017 **What do you like best about Planful?** I love the ad-hoc reporting that Host provides. **What do you dislike about Planful?** I am just an occasional user but have not found anything I do not like about the product. **What problems is Planful solving and how is that benefiting you?** I have found that Host allows me to easily report on actual data in a manner that other systems do not. ### 44. Great since we have a dedicated resource on our team to help **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Internet | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 25, 2017 **What do you like best about Planful?** Flexibility/fluidity of working within the cloud **What do you dislike about Planful?** Upfront legwork to get reports and input templates correct and in a place where you'd like. It's time-consuming but worth it once you have things you like. **Recommendations to others considering Planful:** invest in a super-user either on your team already or outside so you can feel really comfortable with an in-house resource **What problems is Planful solving and how is that benefiting you?** Real-time updates, have gotten rid of "version-ing" of offline excel modeling ### 45. Host Rocks! **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Computer Software | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 25, 2017 **What do you like best about Planful?** Host Analytics makes reporting extremely easy **What do you dislike about Planful?** It can be difficult to navigate what is required **What problems is Planful solving and how is that benefiting you?** Reporting is the biggest benefit that we use. ### 46. Host Review **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Telecommunications | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 23, 2017 **What do you like best about Planful?** I like that they help finance teams drive performance standards. **What do you dislike about Planful?** I do not dislike anything about the software. **What problems is Planful solving and how is that benefiting you?** I am solving complex financial problems and experience the benefits of organization and efficiency. ### 47. Host Analytics is proving to be a tool we can grow with. **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Lee S. | Accounting Manager, Apparel & Fashion, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 10, 2016 **What do you like best about Planful?** We are new users but I am already finding ways to leverage the ease of report writing. On several occasions, i have been asked to build a report or provide an answer within 10 minutes. Host has meet the challenge each time. I like the ability to take report layouts and reuse them for other reports that pull different data points. We are also using the planning tool and workforce planning tool. These have freed up our time by pushing out the budget entry task to the departments who own the data. This also reduces the opportunity for keying errors. The strongest feature I like about Host is the support. The community of users willing to help you with questions, the Customers for Life team available to show you how to work through a problem, and the support staff with quick responses. **What do you dislike about Planful?** It is difficult to point out something we do not like about Host. Most areas of frustration are self-inflicted. Our General Ledger was designed around using multiple dimensions to track cost. Host is best used when your GL is more straight forward. An example is the account employee health insurance. We use the same account in Indirects as we use in SG&A. The Department determines where the entry shows up on the Income Statement. Host is capable of handling this distinction but we lose the drill down feature. To work around this while we redesign our GL, we built specific reports for each department. **Recommendations to others considering Planful:** As you match Host against the other products, consider how well the product will hold up in the future. This was the deciding factor for us. There was a product we liked about as well as Host. It was less expensive and looked a little less involved to get set up. But it did not meet our test for future growth. Host is continuing to improve its product through interaction with it's user community. That is a product that I can put my trust into. **What problems is Planful solving and how is that benefiting you?** Prior to Host, it took us a week to close the books and provide management with reliable reports. That left us little time to analyze the results. As stated above, we are still new to the product, but we are already seeing some benefits. We have moved excel schedules to Host and allow the system to populate the data. This cut down on manual task and additional verification. On the planning side, we use Excel to capture and report budget numbers. As the budget evolves, these numbers and schedules have to be updated. Version control is nightmare. This budget season, we used Host to replace most of these excel schedules. Now the Dept. Managers are responsible for entering their budgets into templates. ### 48. A Partnership. Not Just Another Software Vendor **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Lee J. | Senior Director, Financial Planning & Analysis, Apparel & Fashion, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 08, 2016 **What do you like best about Planful?** After completing a very thorough vendor review process, I ultimately decided on Host because I believed in their partnership philosophy. I felt that several applications could have met my company's business needs but they would have been just another vendor. Host Analytics provided me with confidence that if I partnered with them, I would not fail in this endeavor. What I like best about Host Analytics is that they, along with my implementation partner, Bright Point Consulting, have met or exceeded every expectation I had in this regard. Both companies continue to offer unparalleled support. True partners indeed. **What do you dislike about Planful?** Host was originally constructed for Internet Explorer (as opposed to Chrome, IOS, etc.) and is continuously working toward becoming "browser agnostic". Some of the functionality does not translate across all browsers currently and as someone who prefers to use Chrome for everything, this can be frustrating at times. With that said, each new release offers improvements so I'm confident that the issue will be unnoticeable in the very near future (within the next 6 months based on my understanding). **What problems is Planful solving and how is that benefiting you?** Host Analytics has dramatically reduced the time it takes to produce a forecast. Before we implemented HA, we struggled to complete a single mid-year forecast each year that was already outdated by the time it was published. We are now completing quarterly forecasts and higher level monthly "flashcasts". By 2017 we will be on a monthly rolling forecast schedule. ### 49. Host Analytics Delivers! **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Derek B. H. | Financial Analyst, Computer Software, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 14, 2016 **What do you like best about Planful?** I am very impressed with Host Analytics' commitment to improvements. Every new release provides substantial gains in functionality, compatibility, and user experience. The Cloud Scheduler enables the analyst to automate the compilation and delivery of recurring reports to decision-makers across the business. This allows us more time available for process improvement and business partnership. Scenario management makes it easy to create and maintain multiple scenarios at one time and pivot between them easily in reporting. Easy deployment and user management has allowed us to circumvent IT for most support and allows us to quickly roll out the solution to new users across the business. **What do you dislike about Planful?** I would like a bit more compatibility on Chrome, but I know this is something Host Analytics is working hard towards doing. Also, the advanced reporting capabilities can be a bit difficult to understand in the beginning. I would like to see more user-friendly nomenclature which would allow for more self-service for our users across the business. Currently most users rely on us to create advanced row and column sets for them, due the difficulty in creating them. I would imagine IT departments are relied upon as well for report creation. **Recommendations to others considering Planful:** We believe that Host Analytics is the best CPM solution on the market. They are committed to excellence and customer service. **What problems is Planful solving and how is that benefiting you?** The most poignant issue Host Analytics has resolved for us is collaboration. It has allowed us to collaborate with business users all over the globe. These users are able to input the most up-to-date data into the system and have access to real-time reporting to see the effects of those changes. We have also been able to automate many processes using the Cloud Scheduler, which has freed us up to focus on process improvements and allowed us to be better partners to the business. ### 50. Great planning and reporting tool for any business **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Jarrod L. | Team Lead, Budgeting & Forecasting, Computer Software, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 19, 2016 **What do you like best about Planful?** Creating and distributing high-quality reports is easy in Host Analytics. The reporting tool is intuitive to learn and functions much like a pivot table in Excel. Common report sets can be created to be used in multiple reports, so you don't have to recreate the wheel for each one. Using the cloud scheduler, reports can be emailed automatically, greatly improving our team's efficiency. **What do you dislike about Planful?** The workflow doesn't quite work for our budget cycle. Every budget template must be complete before anything can be forwarded for approval. Our process steps are completed at different times, so this just doesn't work for us. Reporting on statistical items like headcount can be difficult. **What problems is Planful solving and how is that benefiting you?** Using this tool, we can have several different forecast scenarios within the same time period, so we can compare them and make informed decisions. ## Planful Discussions - [How can I use the database from Planful direct to Power Bi? Is there this possibility, today?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/30800-how-can-i-use-the-database-from-planful-direct-to-power-bi-is-there-this-possibility-today) - 2 comments, 1 upvote - [View Planful pricing details and edition comparison](https://www.g2.com/products/planful/reviews?page=10§ion=pricing&secure%5Bexpires_at%5D=2026-08-05+01%3A29%3A49+-0500&secure%5Bsession_id%5D=60889db2-0e92-42b2-9ca4-c3a09f1c6242&secure%5Btoken%5D=ece21ddab53fff5d437bb441d544e0771737c03e3852269dd51c35f1056c1044&format=llm_user) ## Planful Integrations - [Agentforce Sales (formerly Salesforce Sales Cloud)](https://www.g2.com/products/agentforce-sales-formerly-salesforce-sales-cloud/reviews) - [Boomi](https://www.g2.com/products/boomi/reviews) - [Boomi Data Integration](https://www.g2.com/products/boomi-data-integration/reviews) - [Campfire](https://www.g2.com/products/campfire-2026-02-16/reviews) - [Epicor CPQ](https://www.g2.com/products/epicor-cpq/reviews) - [Infor CloudSuite SyteLine](https://www.g2.com/products/infor-cloudsuite-syteline/reviews) - [Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central](https://www.g2.com/products/microsoft-microsoft-dynamics-365-business-central/reviews) - [Microsoft Excel](https://www.g2.com/products/microsoft-excel/reviews) - [NetSuite](https://www.g2.com/products/oracle-netsuite/reviews) - [Plex](https://www.g2.com/products/plex-plex/reviews) - [Plex Smart Manufacturing Platform](https://www.g2.com/products/plex-smart-manufacturing-platform/reviews) - [QuickBooks Online](https://www.g2.com/products/quickbooks-online/reviews) - [Sage Intacct](https://www.g2.com/products/sage-intacct/reviews) - [SAP Cloud ERP (SAP S/4HANA Cloud)](https://www.g2.com/products/sap-cloud-erp-sap-s-4hana-cloud/reviews) - [Spotlight Reporting](https://www.g2.com/products/spotlight-reporting/reviews) - [Workday Financial Management](https://www.g2.com/products/workday-financial-management/reviews) ## Planful Features **Budget Creation** - Data Import - Budget Hierarchies - Versioning - Formulas - What-If - Budget Periods **Reconciliation** - Consolidation - Management - Accounting **Financial Planning** - Extended Planning - Reporting - Integration **Agentic AI - Marketing Resource Management** - Autonomous Task Execution - Multi-step Planning - Cross-system Integration **Agentic AI - Accounting & Finance** - Autonomous Task Execution **Agentic AI - FP&A (Financial Planning & Analysis) ** - Proactive Assistance - Decision Making **Financial Insight** - Budgeting - Forecasting - Planning **Budget Management** - Consolidation - Adjustments - Workflows **Reporting** - Report Types - Standard - Custom **Data** - Data Visualization - Data Analysis - Custom Reporting - Reporting Templates **Forecasting** - Historical Data - Reforecast - Forecast Types - Rolling Forecasts - AI **Closing Process** - Audit - Journal Entries - Distribution **Status Communication** - Collaboration - Version Control - Real-Time Data Updates - Scorecards **Analytics** - Variance Analysis - Forecasts Comparison - Forward Looking **Agentic AI - Budgeting and Forecasting** - Natural Language Interaction - Proactive Assistance - Decision Making **AI - Financial Close** - Autonomous Task Execution - Compliance - Reconciliation - Data Collection - Analysis ## Top Planful Alternatives - [Vena](https://www.g2.com/products/vena/reviews) - 4.5/5.0 (472 reviews) - [Anaplan](https://www.g2.com/products/anaplan/reviews) - 4.6/5.0 (396 reviews) - [Datarails](https://www.g2.com/products/datarails/reviews) - 4.6/5.0 (369 reviews)