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Choosing the right FP&A software can feel overwhelming, especially with the sheer number of options on the market. But here’s the thing: the 'best' FP&A tool depends entirely on where your company is right now. Different tools excel depending on company size, complexity, and growth trajectory.
In this post, we’ll explore the best FP&A tools for startups, SMBs, middle-market/PE-backed companies, and large enterprises. Whether you’re looking for forecasting software, financial modeling tools, or a complete FP&A transformation, we’ve got you covered.
Before we jump in, I've personally tried a lot of these tools or sat through demos of them after over a decade in FP&A (see my personal context on many of them below in italics).
Let's go!
Best FP&A Software for Startups
Challenges Facing Startups: Startups face unique challenges such as limited resources, the need for speed, and balancing cost-efficiency with essential functionality. Finding the right FP&A tools is crucial for getting a solid handle on financial planning without breaking the bank.
Key Features to Look For: Cash flow visibility, easy integration, intuitive user experience.
Recommended Tools:
Google Sheets / Excel: The classic starting point; Google Sheets and Excel work well for flexibility and affordability, making them great financial modeling software options. These tools are highly customizable, allowing startups to quickly build models that adapt to changing business needs. However, they require manual inputs and lack automation, which can become a burden as the company grows. With the amount of flexibility you get from features like PowerQuery, the life of Excel as the world's most popular financial modeling software keeps getting longer.
XPNA: An intuitive and cost-effective FP&A tool that helps startups create streamlined financial models, forecast cash flow, and plan effectively while integrating seamlessly with existing financial data sources. XPNA is known for its easy-to-use interface, making it a great choice for those who need a step up from basic spreadsheets but aren't ready for the complexity of enterprise-level tools. Personally, this one is a favorite of mine based on the simplicity and price.
Causal: Perfect for startups looking to create dynamic financial models without getting bogged down by spreadsheet errors. Causal provides the versatility of a spreadsheet with added financial modeling sophistication, allowing for real-time collaboration and visualizations. It offers integrations with popular accounting software, making it easy to pull in real data and improve forecasting accuracy. It's hard to compete with Causal's price and features - it's truly fun to use as an end-user.
Takeaway: Startups need lightweight, versatile FP&A tools that allow for easy pivots and quick adjustments as business needs evolve.
Best FP&A Tools for Small to Medium Businesses (SMBs)
Challenges Facing SMBs: As SMBs grow, the challenges grow too—financial complexity increases, and relying solely on spreadsheets starts to fall short. Collaboration becomes key, and manual forecasting processes become inefficient.
Key Features to Look For: Automation, collaboration capabilities, scenario planning.
Recommended Tools:
Jirav: If your SMB is outgrowing spreadsheets, Jirav offers excellent automation features that will help bring more accuracy and efficiency to your forecasting. Jirav stands out for its ability to automate data collection, allowing you to create driver-based models that can be easily adjusted to reflect changing business conditions. It also integrates well with existing accounting software, reducing manual data entry and the risk of errors.
Fathom: Offers in-depth financial analysis paired with integrated scenario planning, allowing SMBs to make more informed strategic decisions. Fathom's visual dashboards make it easy for non-financial stakeholders to understand the numbers, making it a powerful tool for communicating financial performance and strategy across teams. Its focus on key metrics and benchmarking also helps SMBs understand their performance in context. This is my number 1 recommended software for non-FP&A experts who want to get started financial modeling.
Cube: A lightweight, flexible FP&A solution designed for SMBs that still want the familiarity of Excel but need better automation and FP&A tools to manage growth. Cube integrates directly with Excel and Google Sheets, providing powerful FP&A capabilities without requiring users to leave their familiar environment. It’s particularly strong in its ability to automate data consolidation, making budgeting and forecasting much more efficient.
Takeaway: SMBs need FP&A software that bridges the gap between the simplicity of spreadsheets and the efficiency of automated forecasting tools, allowing them to plan proactively.
Best FP&A Tools for Middle-Market & PE-Backed Companies
Challenges Facing Middle-Market Companies: These companies face increasing complexity, pressures to scale, and diverse stakeholders demanding deeper strategic insights. Financial forecasting and modeling software must accommodate more detailed and collaborative planning.
Key Features to Look For: Advanced analytics, driver-based forecasting, integration across systems.
Recommended Tools:
Vena: If your company relies on Excel, Vena’s integration is ideal for adding structure and sophistication while keeping the flexibility of your existing spreadsheets. Vena brings automation and workflow capabilities to Excel, making it easier to manage complex budgeting processes, approvals, and reporting. It also integrates with other enterprise systems, allowing for a more connected FP&A process.
Adaptive Planning (Workday): Offers powerful features for complex modeling and strategic planning, helping finance teams drive value through FP&A transformation. Adaptive Planning is known for its scalability, making it a great option for companies experiencing rapid growth. Its cloud-based nature ensures that teams can collaborate in real-time, with powerful scenario analysis and predictive modeling to help businesses stay ahead of market changes. If you're already on the Workday platform for other business units (HR, etc.) it might make sense to start here due to easier data integration and scalability.
Datarails: Designed for PE-backed environments, Datarails offers robust scenario modeling, collaboration, and financial analysis features that bring transparency to your finance transformation. Datarails integrates with your existing financial software and Excel, allowing for automated data consolidation and reducing manual work. Its advanced analytics capabilities help finance teams create insights quickly, and the intuitive dashboards make it easy to present these insights to stakeholders. If you made me pick a single one on this list, I'd pick Datarails do to the fact that it's a full data anlytics and FP&A solution end-to-end. I can't find a fault with it.
Takeaway: Middle-market companies need scalable, powerful FP&A tools that can provide advanced financial modeling while integrating easily across various platforms to support growth.
Best FP&A Tools for Large Enterprises
Challenges Facing Large Enterprises: Large enterprises need to manage sprawling data sets, coordinate across multiple divisions, and provide real-time insights. The complexity and scale of these organizations require financial forecasting software that offers depth, integration, and real-time capabilities.
Key Features to Look For: Scalability, real-time data insights, cross-functional integration.
Recommended Tools:
Anaplan: Built for enterprise-grade scenario modeling, Anaplan excels in enabling collaboration across multiple teams while providing big-picture integration capabilities. Anaplan's strength lies in its ability to handle large data sets and provide real-time modeling, making it ideal for organizations needing to align operations and finance at scale. Its flexibility allows for custom models that reflect the unique drivers of your business, and its collaborative platform ensures that all stakeholders have visibility into the planning process. From my understanding, Anaplan is implemented in over half of the Fortune 100 companies in the US - so you'll be in good company if that's you.
SAP Analytics Cloud: Ideal for companies seeking real-time data visualization and insights to empower finance teams and decision-makers at scale. SAP Analytics Cloud combines planning, predictive analytics, and business intelligence in one platform, making it a powerful tool for large enterprises. It offers deep integration with other SAP systems, providing a seamless flow of data across the organization, which is crucial for maintaining data accuracy and providing a single source of truth.
Oracle Hyperion: A powerful FP&A suite, Oracle Hyperion provides the kind of financial management and compliance tools that large-scale enterprises need for effective FP&A transformation. Hyperion is particularly well-suited for handling complex financial consolidation and reporting needs, making it a popular choice for enterprises with multiple subsidiaries or divisions. It offers advanced features for planning, budgeting, and forecasting, with strong controls to ensure data integrity.
Takeaway: Large enterprises need FP&A software that can handle enormous volumes of data while providing centralized, actionable insights to guide strategic decisions.
Conclusion: Picking the Right FP&A Tool for Your Business
No matter your business size, the best FP&A tool is the one that fits your current needs while also preparing you for future growth. Startups can benefit from cash flow-focused forecasting tools, SMBs need automation, middle-market companies need deep insights, and large enterprises require real-time, large-scale analytics.
If you need help picking a new tech for your FP&A function and want an expert opinion, reach out to us by joining our waitlist for FP&A Transformation consulting. Just let us know you need a quick chat and we'll be in touch.
Each of these FP&A tools serves a unique role in digital finance transformation, financial modeling, and empowering FP&A teams to make better decisions and drive growth.
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