Updated: December 17, 2023 |

The 10 best FP&A software tools: a guide for 2024

By

Jake Ballinger
Jake Ballinger

Jake Ballinger is an experienced SEO and content manager with deep expertise in FP&A and finance topics. He speaks 9 languages and lives in NYC.

The 10 best FP&A software tools: a guide for 2024

FP&A software helps CFOs, finance leaders, and Financial Planning and Analysis (FP&A) professionals ensure their organization's financial health.

It helps them report, analyze, plan, and forecast.

But there's a lot of FP&A software out there. Which is the best for you? How do you begin to compare them?

That's why we put together the top 10 FP&A software tools to help you make the best decision. 

So if you're looking for FP&A software, you'll love this guide.

Jake Ballinger

Jake Ballinger

FP&A Writer, Cube Software

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What is financial planning and analysis (FP&A)?

FP&A is the budgeting, financial forecasting, and financial analysis & decision-making that support every company's financial health and strategy. This team is responsible for various activities, including:

(Among plenty of other responsibilities.)

It’s the job of the FP&A team to understand the financial performance of the company—past, present, and future. They apply context and narrative to what is happening in the business and why. Their comprehensive financial lens allows them to spot new opportunities and anticipate unexpected threats to position the company for success.

This puts FP&A at the strategic center of the organization, with business leaders all over the company looking to them to provide critical insights and recommendations on how to navigate the business forward.

How do you do financial planning and analysis?

FP&A coordinates and collaborates with the entire business to collect financial and operational data, analyze financial performance, model potential plans and decisions, create periodic financial reports, provide strategic recommendations to business leaders, and more. This team is responsible for keeping the organization in good financial health and making sound financial decisions. 

FP&A typically has two key roles: managing the periodic financial close and consolidation, and financial planning, forecasting, and analysis to facilitate better organizational decision-making. To achieve those ends, FP&A does the following:

  1. Works across the business to collect, aggregate, understand, and analyze financial data. 
  2. Collaborates with the business and executives to develop plans, budgets, and forecasts and explain variances.
  3. Analyzes corporate activities and periodic performance to publish financial reports and communicate the organization’s financial health.
  4. Provides detailed financial performance analysis and decision guidance to the business, executives, the board of directors, and others. 
  5. Projects future business performance with financial, sales, and performance forecasts and scenario plans.
  6. Analyzes and guides the allocation of assets and investments to achieve corporate financial goals and business objectives.

The 10 best FP&A software tools

FP&A has traditionally been executed using large, complex, interconnected offline spreadsheets. Perhaps no other business team has a more entrenched relationship with Microsoft Excel than FP&A.

While in some ways Excel is a match made in heaven for finance professionals (easy to use, naturally designed for financial data and calculations, flexible for any financial model, etc.), it also comes with some significant flaws that create big problems and inefficiencies at scale (highly manual, stale data, not easy to share and collaborate, few controls, etc.).

To help solve these ubiquitous challenges, several software providers set out to build new solutions to help FP&A teams do their jobs better, faster, easier, and more confidently.

Very robust and capable solutions come from software startups and prominent enterprise software vendors. However, each FP&A solution vendor is focused on different market segments and takes a different approach to how they help FP&A teams.

Some are best for larger enterprises with big IT budgets, others are suited for existing customers of a software provider, and others are ideally suited for those that want more flexibility in their software strategy. All you need to do is find the right one! 

These are the top 10 FP&A software providers, with their key features, benefits, pricing, and more details.

1. Cube

cube fp&a software

Cube is a powerful and intuitive FP&A tool and our #1 choice for FP&A software. Here's a quick overview of Cube:

  1. The first spreadsheet-native FP&A software that empowers teams to drive better planning and performance without changing how they work.
  2. Eliminates manual work and provides the real-time insights finance needs to strategize with speed and agility. 
  3. Pairs the flexibility and familiarity of your spreadsheets with the control and power of enterprise software. 
  4. Implements quickly. Cube gets you up and running in days, not months, which means faster time to value at a lower cost.
  5. Connects with any source system, browser, and sheet in moments, so you don't have to change your work. 
  6. Access to an award-winning customer team with deep FP&A experience. 

Best For:

Cube’s simple and intuitive experience makes it an excellent choice for mid-market companies that want to start fast with scalable, enterprise-grade technology at a reasonable price.

Essential functionality from Cube includes: 

  • Automated data consolidation
  • Sharable planning templates
  • Customizable dashboards and reports
  • Scenario planning and analysis
  • Bidirectional Excel and Google Sheets integration
  • Approval workflow
  • Drill-throughs and audit trails
  • User-based controls
  • Centralized formulas and KPI

These FP&A software features translate to easier reporting and KPIs, more accurate forecasting and budgeting, faster close and consolidation cycles, and collaborative teamwork for more control and fewer mistakes.

Integrations:

Cube is built to work directly with most finance and business systems including ERP, CRM, HRIS, Business Intelligence systems, and more. Cube has bi-directional integration with Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel, which gives customers an incredible amount of versatility to choose the user experience that is right for them and their business teams.

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Pricing:

Cube offers multiple pricing tiers based on company and size, FP&A needs, and advanced integrations.

Most teams onboard in 2 weeks—no consultants required.

Pricing tiers include:

  • Essential capabilities for small finance teams looking to improve speed, accuracy, and scalability.
  • Premium capabilities for growth-stage companies looking to scale reporting, planning, and performance.
  • Advanced capabilities for large, pre-IPO, and public companies needing enterprise-grade features for best-in-class performance.

Cube vs. Anaplan:

Cube offers a simple and intuitive experience designed expressly for mid-market companies. Anaplan is designed for large enterprise customers that have a strong IT team. If you’re part of a small but growing FP&A team and don’t have a huge team of IT and project management resources to spare, Cube is the better choice over Anaplan.

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2. Workday Adaptive Planning

workday adaptive planning fp&a software

Workday Adaptive Planning, formerly Adaptive Insights, provides enterprise planning software to upgrade planning, modeling, budgeting, and forecasting. Their solutions cover financial, workforce, and sales planning to promote collaboration across the enterprise without manual spreadsheets or clunky legacy systems. Workday Adaptive Planning is a financial management solution.

Workday Adaptive Planning for finance provides explicitly flexible, scalable financial planning and analytics for large enterprises; powerful modeling for any size business; reporting that’s easy to use and always up to date, and real-time financial consolidation that accelerates your financial close. The solution also covers FP&A solution needs for modeling, collaboration, analytics, management reporting, board reporting, scenario planning, and financial consolidation.

Best For:

Their strong capabilities outside of Finance and FP&A make Adaptive Planning a good choice for large enterprises seeking a transformational, company-wide FP&A solution.

Integrations:

The Workday Adaptive Planning integration framework works seamlessly with cloud-based, on-premise, and file-based applications.

Pricing:

Workday Adaptive Planning offers pricing packages considering package and features, company size, and seat types. Prices are not listed on their website.

Adaptive Planning vs. Anaplan:

Anaplan and Adaptive Planning are both tailored toward large enterprises with significant resources. For teams seeking to transform how the entire enterprise approaches financial planning, Anaplan is a good choice. Those looking for a solution that goes far beyond just FP&A might do well to consider Adaptive Planning.

3. Anaplan

anaplan fp&a software

Anaplan lets you mobilize complex scenario planning to the smallest detail, intelligently forecast the biggest picture, and empower teams to make decisions faster. Their enterprise-wide solutions connect your strategy to your outcomes and layers of accountability connected to a single source of truth

For Finance, Anaplan specifically provides FP&A solutions to connect your people, data and plans across your organization to empower the right decisions quickly. Capabilities include planning, budgeting, and forecasting; specialty finance planning; operational planning, which delivers better and faster decision-making; automated cost management practices; and connected financial and operational plans.

Best For:

Anaplan is good for large enterprise customers with a strong IT team ready to lead an enterprise-scale transformation initiative.

Pricing:

Anaplan offers basic, professional, and enterprise packages with a complex array of included features, integrations, and capabilities. Prices are not listed on their website.

Anaplan vs. Planful:

Anaplan and Planful both focus on larger organizations, with Anaplan aimed at large enterprises and Planful suited for large companies and smaller enterprises. Both are suited to big FP&A teams, but Anaplan also requires more IT support. Those with an appetite for a comprehensive deployment project would do well to consider both Anaplan and Planful.

4. Planful

planful fp&a software

Planful offers a cloud FP&A software platform focused on continuous planning. Their solution covers structured and dynamic planning, consolidation, and reporting. Planful’s continuous planning platform marries finance’s need for structured planning with the business’s need for dynamic planning, elevating the financial conversation and helping you make better decisions more quickly, confidently, and strategically.

For Finance, Planful highlights use cases for managing cash flow, workforce reporting, financial reporting, annual operating planning, monthly close and consolidation, and multi-dimensional analysis. Previously known as Host Analytics, the company rebranded in early 2020 and is focused on mid-market customers.

Best For:

Planful is ideal for larger companies with big FP&A teams that want to expand their scope of influence beyond Finance.

Pricing:

Pricing tiers and details are not listed on their website.

Planful vs Adaptive Planning:

Planful and Adaptive Planning are both tailored toward bigger companies and enterprises with available IT and project management resources, plus the ability to engage implementation consultants and support. Adaptive Planning can help support larger digital transformations, while Planful is better for FP&A teams looking to expand their influence.

5. Vena

vena fp&a software

Vena offers a complete planning platform to unite people, processes, and systems. They offer pre-built solutions to automate time-consuming tasks so you can spend less time checking your data's accuracy.

Specific capabilities include financial planning and analysis, integrated business planning, financial reporting, regulatory compliance reporting, and financial close management. Vena focuses on helping companies support overall growth and refers to its platform as a “growth engine.”

For Finance, Vena offers “pre-configured” FP&A software that provides a prescriptive approach to corporate performance management but can be customized to meet specific business needs and industry requirements.

Best For:

Vena is ideal for companies that need the fixed process and planning guidance of pre-built FP&A solutions or that have the resources to uniquely customize those pre-built solutions for their own needs.

Pricing:

Pricing tiers and details are not listed on their website.

Vena vs. Cube:

Cube enables FP&A to continue working as always, boosting efficiency and effectiveness through more intelligent and straightforward planning, analysis, and reporting. Vena enables a template-driven approach to standardize and add structure to FP&A. Cube is the better choice for FP&A teams who know what they’re doing and want to be better, faster, and more accurate in those efforts.

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6. Prophix

prophix fp&a software

Prophix offers Corporate Performance Management (CPM) software to improve profitability and minimize risk by automating repetitive tasks so FP&A can focus on what matters. Their solutions help teams budget, plan, consolidate, and report automatically. They also offer cloud or on-premise solution options.

For Finance, Prophix provides solutions for automating repetitive budgeting tasks and business processes, such as data imports, report generation, and allocations. Prophix also offers the ability to detect and surface unusual transactions with text or voice.

Best For:

Prophix is best for companies with slow, manual, repeatable FP&A processes that can be easily automated and replicated using the solution’s pre-built functionality.

Pricing:

Pricing tiers and details are not listed on their website.

Cube vs. Prophix:

Prophix offers automation of structured, repetitive tasks, such as data imports and report generation. For FP&A teams who want to expand, improve, and accelerate their strategic efforts, Cube is the better choice for offering more FP&A capabilities and the power to automate tasks that consume valuable time.

7. Oracle Essbase

essabase fp&a software

Oracle Essbase allows organizations to rapidly generate insights from multidimensional data sets using what-if analysis and data visualization tools. It is a business analytics solution for analysis, reporting, and collaboration across all lines of business within your organization. You can interact with Essbase through a web or Microsoft Office interface to analyze, model, collaborate, and report.

Oracle Essbase would complement existing FP&A tools for Finance with deeper analytics and modeling capabilities. It is not a Finance-focused solution.

Best For:

Oracle Essbase is ideal for large enterprises with deep IT resources that already have a robust FP&A solution, have analysis teams seeking targeted analytics and modeling tools, and are already invested in Oracle back-office solutions.

Pricing:

September 2020 Pricing for Oracle Essbase starts at $2,900 per named user, plus $630 for updates and support, plus $138,000 for a processor license, plus $30,360 for processor license and support.

8. Oracle Hyperion

oracle hyperion fp&a software

Oracle Hyperion Planning is a centralized planning, budgeting, and forecasting solution that integrates financial and operational planning processes and improves business predictability. It supports

enterprise-wide planning, budgeting, and forecasting using desktop, mobile, and Microsoft Office interfaces. It also provides a robust modeling framework

that helps develop reliable financial forecasts based on sales and operational assumptions to produce cost-effective enterprise alignment.

For Finance, Oracle Hyperion Planning allows you to align financial plans, models, and forecasts across cost centers and lines of business for faster decision-making. Oracle Hyperion Planning is a component of Oracle’s broader solution for Enterprise Business Planning.

Best For: 

Oracle Hyperion Planning is ideal for large enterprises with strong IT teams seeking a broad performance planning management solution integrated into existing Oracle enterprise solutions.

Pricing:

Oracle Hyperion pricing is based on named users plus updates and support. Additional processor licensing, updates, and support begin at nearly $50,000.

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9. Oracle PBCS

Oracle Enterprise Planning and Budgeting Cloud Service (PBCS) empowers operational planners with the flexibility, scalability, and ownership to plan how they want while offering the transparency and control required for corporate finance. This solution combines built-in best practices with high configurability by providing an innovative configuration framework that can be used out-of-the-box or further enriched for your unique requirements.

For Finance, Oracle PCBS includes business process frameworks that can be used to address your planning needs: strategic modeling, financials, workforce, projects, and capital. Each can be used entirely or mashed up with configured processes to quickly deliver value to your planning.

Best For:

Oracle PCBS is ideal for large enterprises seeking financial and operational planning solutions, which have already invested in Oracle back-office infrastructures.

Pricing:

Pricing tiers and details are not listed on their website.

10. Netsuite Planning and Budgeting

Oracle Netsuite

NetSuite Planning and Budgeting enables organizations of all sizes to quickly adopt a world-class planning and budgeting application offering market-leading functionality across lines of businesses. Planning and Budgeting automate labor-intensive planning and budgeting processes and centralize company financial and operational data. Finance teams can quickly and easily produce budgets and forecasts, model what-if scenarios, and generate reports within one collaborative scalable solution.

For Finance, NetSuite Planning and Budgeting standard edition can facilitate company-wide and departmental budgeting with pre-built reports, templates, and capabilities. A premium edition offers a planning and budgeting solution developed for a handful of specific industries, such as nonprofits, software, agencies, and services. Expert NetSuite Services consultants must implement the premium edition.

Best For:

NetSuite Planning and Budgeting is best for large companies and enterprises in limited industries with NetSuite solutions already deployed in other business areas.

Pricing:

Pricing tiers and details are not listed on their website.

Conclusion: choose the best FP&A software

So which FP&A software solution and vendor should you choose? That depends on your needs, size, and the software already deployed in your back office.

For mid-market companies looking for an intuitive and feature-filled FP&A software that combines the spreadsheet user experience with the power and scale of a cloud platform should consider Cube.

Cube’s simple and intuitive experience makes it an excellent choice for modern, progressive Finance leaders at companies of all sizes that want to accelerate their FP&A and keep using the spreadsheets they know and love.

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