The 5 best mid-market financial planning software for businesses

Financial planning means assessing the current state of your business and using that to establish a plan of action to reach specific goals.

It sounds simple enough, but does your team have processes in place to properly execute this? Could these processes be even more streamlined?

We’ll walk you through the basics of financial planning software and what your best options are, so your team can figure out how to hit your financial goals more effectively.

Wat is software voor financiële planning?

Financial planning software is a tool that helps an organization execute the basic steps involved in financial planning. These software platforms often leverage automated data integration, simplified reporting, and forecasting features to help businesses with financial planning processes.

What is financial planning in business?

In business, financiële planning involves assessing your company’s financial standing, setting goals based on those assessments, and creating a plan to meet these goals. While financial planning looks similar across organizations, niche needs can emerge based on size, goals, and current financial health.

Why is financial planning important?

Financial planning is crucial for businesses to identify areas of growth and improvement, as well as potential problems. A successfully executed plan will help a business cut costs and increase revenue by identifying where to allocate resources and time for a maximum return on their investment (ROI).

Benefits of financial planning software

Some companies—especially smaller ones—may opt for a more manual approach to financial planning. While that may seem simple, it’s not scalable and will lead to complications as your business grows. Let’s take a look at the top three benefits of implementing financial planning software.

Centralisatie

You may have different dashboards and data silos for each department. Manually sifting through and organizing this data can be tedious. FP&A software will aggregate data in one place for simple analysis.

Easier collaboration

With financial planning software, updates don’t get lost in email chains or messaging apps. It’s not just your data that’s centralized, but all the tasks involved in financial planning will be in one place, too.

Streamlined processes

Centralizing your financiële planning process in a single platform simplifies data management, enhances accuracy, and improves collaboration across teams, enabling more strategic decision-making and forecasting.

5 best midmarket financial planning software for businesses

Now that we understand what financial planning software is and why it’s important, let’s look at the top 5 financial planning software options on the market today.

1. Prophix One

Prophix One is a Financial Performance Platform that simplifies and transforms Office of the CFO processes while scaling with you. Prophix One supports key finance processes like Financial Planning & Analysis, Financial Consolidation, Account Reconciliation, Intercompany Management, and Integrated Business Planning.

Best for: Prophix One serves all teams in every industry looking for comprehensive financial planning software.

Features: Features and capabilities include data integrations, customizable workflows, anomaly detection, dynamic reporting, predictive forecasting, and more.

Pros: Prophix One offers top-notch customer training through Prophix Academy and a dedicated support team to help you implement the platform and start seeing immediate value.

Cons: Prophix One offers more than just Financiële planning & analyse, so you’ll need time to effectively use the platform to your advantage. Luckily, the Prophix team is ready guide you.

Integrations: Prophix One users can securely integrate data from a variety of sources into one place for key insights, reducing the reliance on IT teams. This provides a holistic view into a unified system so you can get a holistic view of your company’s performance.

Pricing: With a wide array of services and use cases, it’s best to contact the Prophix team for the most accurate quote. For more information on understanding FP&A software pricing, check out our resource.

Prophix One is the most well-rounded financial planning software on this list. Reach out for a demo to learn more about Prophix One, and how it can fit within your team.

2. Anaplan

Anaplan is a popular connected planning software tool. Aside from finance, Anaplan offers services for HR, work operations, sales, and supply chain management.

Best for: Anaplan is specifically geared toward larger mid-market companies.

Features: Some of Anaplan’s features include forecasting, dashboards, incentive management, and more.

Pros: Anaplan is easy to use and performs smoothly. The customizability is also a huge plus for users.

Cons: Anaplan’s reporting analytics are limited, and users cite difficulty when utilizing integrations.

Integrations: Anaplan supports many integration options including API integrations, third-party integrations, and their own tool called Anaplan Connect.

Pricing: There’s no free version of Anaplan, but you can contact their team for a quote.

Anaplan vs Prophix One: Prophix One offers more integration options with a broader range of functionality. Prophix One also offers a wider range of reporting analytics than Anaplan. 

3. Mosaic

Mosaic is a Strategic Finance Platform made to provide a central source-of-truth for better forecasting, planning, and team alignment.

Best for: Mosaic is best for fast-growing startups hitting their mid-market stride, specifically in finance and business.

Features: Mosaic offers features like budgeting and forecasting, consolidation, performance metrics, sales metrics, and more.

Pros: Mosaic offers deep customization and simple integration with existing CRMs and accounting software.

Cons: Users cite slow performance, bugs, and long wait times for launches of key features.

Integrations: Mosaic offers integrations with a handful of popular software categories like ERPs, CRMs, and HRIS tools.

Pricing: Mosaic does offer a free trial, and you can visit their website to review plan features and request a quote.

Mosaic vs Prophix One: Mosaic is specifically developed for fast-growing startups, whereas Prophix One serves teams of all sizes in every industry. Prophix One also offers more dedicated support than Mosaic. 

4. Datarails

Datarails is financial planning software for Microsoft Excel users. It automates traditionally manual processes like consolidation, reporting, and planning.

Best for: Small to medium organizations that use Microsoft Excel.

Features: Datarails features include “what if” scenarios, customizable dashboards, financial analysis, KPI monitoring, and more.

Pros: Datarails is easy to use, easy to implement, and they offer strong reporting capabilities.

Cons: There are limitations in terms of the types of dashboards users can create, as well as the amount of data users can import.

Integrations: Aside from Excel, Datarails offers over 200 integrations for popular SaaS tools.

Pricing: Datarails does not offer a free trial. You can contact their team for a quote.

Datarails vs Prophix One: Datarails is limited to companies that use Excel and has dashboard and data import limits. Prophix One is an all-in-one Financial Performance Platform that allows users to pull data from spreadsheets and other tools without having to work in them exclusively.

5. Vena

Vena is a financial planning platform that allows businesses to streamline operational, financial, and analysis processes. Vena uses an Excel interface to streamline productivity.

Best for: Vena is best for large teams specifically looking for Excel-based software.

Features: Audit trails, data integration, forecasting, multi-currency transactions, and version control.

Pros: Vena is customizable and enables teams to take away clear action items from their data.

Cons: Pricing isn’t very small-business friendly, and the implementation process for Vena can be lengthy.

Integrations: Vena offers a handful of native and partner-built connectors such as Quickbooks, Salesforce, and Dropbox.

Pricing: Vena does not offer a free trial or a free version. You can contact their team and request a quote for more information.

Vena vs Prophix One: Because Prophix One serves companies of all sizes, there are pricing options better suited for small businesses or mid-market companies than what Vena can offer. Implementation for Prophix One is also smoother.

How to choose the best financial planning software for your business

Financial planning software tools can support a wide array of features for your team. Some features are best for teams with niche needs, and some are universal must-haves. Here are some must-haves to keep in mind when choosing a platform.

Integraties

Since one of the key benefits of financial planning software is the ability to centralize data from multiple processes into one platform, you should choose one that integrates seamlessly with the systems you’re currently using.

Key functionality

Financial planning is one thing, but choosing software that encompasses all your business's financial needs will make it a much more valuable investment. Prophix One, for example, is a Financial Performance Platform where your financiële planning, consolidation, account reconciliation, and other essential processes are integrated into one user-friendly platform. financial planning, consolidation, account reconciliation, and other essential processes are integrated into one user-friendly platform.

Mogelijkheden om samen te werken

Ensuring your financial planning software supports inter-departmental collaboration will lessen the work of manual reporting. Collaboration capabilities should be simple, secure, and easy to use for all stakeholders.

Support and resources

Onboarding financial planning software tools can be time and resource intensive. Choose a software solution with a wealth of resources and hands-on support for the best success.

Conclusion: How financial planning software drives better business performance

Financial planning software takes manual data collection and supercharges it into a simple, streamlined process that will have your team prepared to meet your future goals.

If you have additional questions about your team’s needs and how financial planning software fits into your plans, reach out to learn more about Prophix One.