Planful - strong for financial reporting and data aggregation
Use Cases and Deployment Scope
I use Planful in a daily capacity to provide financial analysis to our field team in order for them to operate more efficiently. It allows me to aggregate both financial data along with key performance metrics so that I can answer questions for operators to drive efficiency and answer questions about the health of the business. It also lets me create dedicated reports so that I can quickly report on our financials to our key stakeholders both on a monthly basis and when they have questions about the business. Recently I have been using the planning templates in an effort to create in depth models to attempt to forecast and budget future expense based on historicals and key data inputs.
Pros
- It aggregates data from different sources well, allowing me to report on a wide variety of metrics that interrelate.
- I can build detailed reports so that my monthly and weekly reporting is done more efficiently
- I like the tools that I am using to create dedicated models for forecasting and budgeting purposes
Cons
- I think there is an opportunity to allow for more customization of reports so that they can be finalized in Planful
- Data aggregation of very large data sets can be slow at times
- Dashboards need more features in order to have a better use case
Return on Investment
- I am able to report faster on financials and KPIs
- I am able to create reports that show the impact KPIs have on the financials due to the data aggregation abilities
- The attributes and drill down capabilities allow me to answer questions related to financial performance in a detailed and efficient manner
Other Software Used
Dayforce, Microsoft Power BI
