Planful Software Reviews

“Positive, Discovery, Trial & Error

Pros

Having centralized data storage ensures consistent reporting from month to month, eliminating errors often caused by external excel file linking. The customer service provided is exceptional.

Cons

The PCR functionality can be finicky, and occasional freezing can occur in the modeling process. To ensure accurate and up-to-date reporting, there needs to be better coordination between modeling and PCR, which is expected to be addressed in an upcoming update.

“2+ Year User of Host Analytics EPM Platform

Pros

I can quickly consolidate all our agency financials at the end of the month and close the books promptly.

Cons

I enjoy most aspects of this software; however, I wish that the Spotlight Excel add-in offered by Host could be directly connected to the Core Application. This would eliminate the need to maintain and update a separate model in Excel to ensure accurate data in the Spotlight Excel reports.

“HA is really an efficient tool which made our FP&A activities automated to certain exten

Pros

The reusable formats in Reports make reporting easier, and the customer support typically responds within hours, making our job much more convenient.

Cons

It would be beneficialto have more tutorials available on their Training website.

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

Pros

Similar to Oracle Hyperion but in the cloud, it has lower overhead compared to on-premise tools. The platform is robust, offering more advanced features than other cloud tools. The excel integration is solid, and the product team actively listens to feedback. The pricing is fair, and there is no limit on model size.

Cons

The attractiveness of the user interface, template speed, visualizations, speed of new development, and implementation took longer than expected.

“Host Analytics. An upgrade to our budgeting and reporting software.

Pros

Host Analytics is user-friendly. It helped me organize a large amount of product data for my business. I can generate several financial reports with just a push of a button each month. It also simplifies budgeting and makes month-end tasks easier. The customer service team is excellent and always available when help is needed.

Cons

Setting up a report template can be challenging, as not all modules have the same reporting tools. The functionality in the HR module and capital module needs improvement.

“Use Host for financial planning

Pros

I appreciate the cloud-based model and its speed. It proves to be very useful for scenario planning and collaborative work with my team.

Cons

I find it frustrating that I can't perform calculations in the report without creating a new template. Additionally, as a Mac user, I can't utilize spotlight in Mac Excel.

“It's user friendly

Pros

Making reports is effortless with its user-friendly interface, and it offers numerous excellent features such as drag and drop functionality and templates.

Cons

I hope they add the capability to use workforce reporting for budget vs. actual HR data and provide a dashboard within the next year or so.

“It's a life saver for reporting

Pros

The ease of reporting and planning is remarkable. Reports can be created quickly and easily taught to other users. Being in the cloud, it provides multiple layers of security features for customization.

Cons

The new features and cross-browser support don't work optimally. It's challenging to adjust the row sets precisely, and changing column width is cumbersome in Chrome.

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

Pros

Host Analytics allows interfacing with various types and volumes of data without limitations, as long as a common field is maintained. The implementation process went smoothly with the assistance of a consulting partner, and it significantly reduced our budget manager's reporting time from 3 days to 3 hours. The modeling module utilizes an Excel add-in, maintaining the familiarity and usability of Excel while storing the results centrally, ensuring there is one version of the truth when retrieving data. The customer service is unparalleled, with a dedicated team focused on ensuring their customers' success. Feature updates are frequent and align with customer needs and requests.

Cons

We had to rely on a partner consultant for implementation, mainly because our small company lacks internal IT resources. The initial implementation without a partner encountered delays due to resource and communication issues.

“Great experience for me. We have a dedicated business systems resource on our team who helps a lot.

Pros

I appreciate the flexibility and fluidity of working in the cloud, eliminating the need for versioning excel files and waiting for input from others.

Cons

Setting up input templates and reports requires some initial effort. However, once I have a layout I like, it becomes much easier to work with.

“Host took a lot of data and made it usable.

Pros

Once I set up Host, it becomes effortless to use. It has helped me organize a large amount of product data for my business, and I can easily generate several financial reports each month with just a click. It continues to simplify my month-end tasks, and I even use it for budgeting. Initially, I started using Host for budgeting, but I've discovered its usefulness for many other purposes. I also appreciate its scalability, as I realize there are more capabilities I can explore with the software. The Host customers for life team is always available to assist me when I delve into these possibilities.

Cons

Creating a report template can be challenging, but once it's set up, it works well, and there's always support available at Host to assist me.

“Using Host has been much more user friendly than our previous reporting and planning software.

Pros

I appreciate its user-friendly nature, and the drag and drop feature makes running ad hoc reports a breeze. The templates with line item detail and notes feature are fantastic.

Cons

It would be great if I could use workforce reporting to compare budget vs. actual HR data. I'm also looking forward to having a dashboard within the next year or so.

“Host has helped reduce the amount of time previously spent manually keying into Excel.

Pros

The best thing about Host, in my opinion, is that it eliminates the need for manually entering data in Excel spreadsheets. We can connect to our financial system and upload the necessary data, significantly reducing human errors.

Cons

The interface feels outdated, and as a Chrome user, I experience lag when scrolling through a template, which can be frustrating.

“Good planning tool that integrates well with excel

Pros

This tool allows us to plan with great detail, and the flexibility of the modeling cloud is excellent.

Cons

This tool is decent, but we had to customize it extensively for CAPEX, BS, and cash flow forecasting, which consumed a significant amount of time.

“Great for automating reporting and forecasting

Pros

I love that Host is cloud-based and offers extensive customization options with numerous templates. It also allows multiple users to access it simultaneously.

Cons

The software can be a bit cumbersome at times, resulting in slow performance. It also requires learning certain nuances, which is to be expected.

“Closest cloud experience to excel

Pros

It offers a similar experience to Excel functionalities in the cloud. It takes a native and intuitive approach to solve traditional budgeting and forecasting tasks. The best part is that it doesn't require on-premises development support.

Cons

The initial setup of the environment and templates took a considerable amount of time. If we were to do it again, I would be better positioned to execute the process faster and more efficiently.

“As a first timer with any EPM system it was easy to configure and learn.

Pros

Host seems to have minimal limitations in terms of what it can do. As someone who started with nothing, I appreciate its reporting capabilities the most.

Cons

I'm not a fan of the new currency exchange rate page setup. I preferred being able to see all the rates at once, as we could prior to that release.

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

Pros

The application makes reporting effortless with automated distribution. The planning tool helped us standardize our budgeting process, and we were highly impressed with the workforce planning module, which made managing our headcount and compensation estimates easy.

Cons

The application is not the most user-friendly for budgeting purposes. While the access was made easy with the SSO solution, the timeout issue has caused some customer complaints.

“Easy to use, customer service has not been the greatest in terms of solving our issues

Pros

I value the ability to customize the reporting to extract the necessary data and automatically send reports to other users.

Cons

I don't have many complaints about the software based on my limited usage in my role. However, customer service was not very responsive in addressing an issue we had with the software, and we ended up resolving it internally.

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

Pros

The ease of use and accessibility are remarkable! I can use the mobile application and access it online from anywhere, home, office, hotel, or even another office while traveling abroad with utmost convenience.

Cons

Setting up new accounts and entities is somewhat intuitive, but since I don't do it often, I have to go back and review the process each time.