# Page 3 | Planful Reviews 2026. Verified Reviews, Pros & Cons | Capterra > Page 3 - Is Planful the right Budgeting solution for you? Explore 76 verified user reviews from people in industries like yours to make a confident choice. Source: https://www.capterra.com/p/72818/Host-Analytics-EPM-Platform/reviews --- Planful 4.3 (76) [View alternatives](https://www.capterra.com/p/72818/Host-Analytics-EPM-Platform/alternatives/) Provider data verified by our Software Research team, and reviews moderated by our Reviews Verification team. [Learn more](https://www.capterra.com/our-story/) * * * Last updated March 13th, 2026 # Page 3 - Reviews of Planful ## Showing most helpful reviews Showing 51-75 of 76 Reviews Sort by: Most Helpful Rating Company Size Reviewer's Role Length of Use Frequency of Use VB Victoria B. Sr. Financial Analyst Insurance Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Review of Planful" September 24, 2021 4.0 Pros We use this software for our month-end close process to consolidate financials and publish our monthly financial package to management and other various internal/external partners. The software is easy to navigate and helps us quickly consolidate financial data for all of our entities each month. Cons There aren't any specific features that I dislike about the software at the moment, however the Planful support portal/team hasn't always been the most helpful when it comes to troubleshooting issues in a timely manner. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Controller Accounting Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "High Quality Financial Reporting Platform" January 5, 2019 4.0 Used this software to simplify reporting from 8 companies with varying charts of accounts and 10,000 accounts to a single, comparable reporting structure. Greatly reduced effort and time spent on consolidating and preparing financial reports. Pros Dynamic reports and the ability to get the precise financial information you need, with drill down capabilities is a huge plus. Can include links to images of transaction source documents, providing great transparency in reporting. Spotlight for Excel add in to develop custom, refreshable reports is a great help. Forecasting and budgeting tools are good as well. Cons Learning curve of implementing a new software for financial reporting is always going to be somewhat significant, but there are several quirks in data loads and reporting cube processing that make things harder than they should be. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Senior Financial Analyst Insurance Used the software for: 2+ years ### "2+ Year User of Host Analytics EPM Platform" June 21, 2018 4.0 Pros The ability to quickly consolidate all of our agency financials at month end and close the books in a timely manner. Cons I enjoy most things about this software, however I would have to say that I wish the Spotlight Excel add-in that Host offers would be directly connected to the Core Application, eliminating the need to maintain and update a separate model in excel so that they data comes through the Spotlight Excel reports accurately. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Head of Financial Planning & Analysis Internet Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Host has helped us scale from ~200 employees to over 1k!" February 2, 2018 4.0 Pros \- Similar to Oracle Hyperion, but in the cloud - Lower overhead than on premise tools - Robust platform with more advanced feature set then other cloud tools - Solid excel integration - Product team responds to feedback - Fair pricing - No limit on size of model Cons \- Attractiveness of user interface - Template speed - Visualizations - Speed of new development - Implementation took longer than expected Review Source VR Verified Reviewer CEO Internet Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "helpful tool for data management" December 29, 2022 5.0 I had a very good experience with planful I will recommend it Pros what i like about planful is that the data is transmitted in real time.the application is easy to handle.reliable and accurate details and it has very good features. Cons planful works very well for me and I haven't found any complication with this application yet Review Source priyanka K. Business Intelligence Engineer Computer Software Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "HA is really an efficient tool which made our FP&A activities automated to certain exten" February 6, 2018 5.0 Automation , easy to use Pros Reusable formats in Reports makes Reporting easier and customer support responds usually in hours and makes our job more easy. Cons I think they should have more tutorials on their Training website. Review Source PG Phil G. Financial analyst Accounting Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Good FP&A software" May 9, 2024 5.0 Pros Ease of use and ability to quickly customize reports Cons Some budget templates required some backend work to adhere to our needs Review Source HS Han S. Manager, FP&A REPORTING & ANALYTICS. Pharmaceuticals Used the software for: 2+ years ### "OVerall is a great tool for the ease of standardizing and managing our reports." September 12, 2017 4.0 Our reporting process became easier for end users. The Support and CFL team from Host also helped us tremendously for our users from day to day basis!! Pros The application made reporting a piece of cake with automated distribution. The planning tool helped us standardize our budgeting process and we're very impressed with the workforce planning module that helped us easily managing our headcount and compensation estimate. Cons Not the most user friendly application for budgeting purpose. The access was made easy with SSO solution, but the timeout issue causing customers to complain. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer CMO Computer Software Used the software for: 2+ years ### "I was never able to go live with it…" October 21, 2022 3.0 Pros Product seems powerful and capable, but going live is a nightmare Cons I was never able to go live. Never got any value out of it and they made me pay for 2 years… Review Source DC David C. Head of Financial Systems Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Host Analytics has decreased our dependency on excel and has allowed us to forecast concurrently. " September 12, 2017 5.0 Pros We love the ease and flexibility of the tool. The monthly releases mean that the product is constantly making improvements. Administration of the core app and spotlight is straightforward and not time consuming. We can now complete a forecast in 4 hours versus a week+ that it look using excel. Cons We would love to see more data visualization features added to the core app along with a Mac compatible spotlight extension. Review Source AM Amanda M. VP of Finance and Technology Non-Profit Organization Management Used the software for: Less than 6 months ### "Best Budgeting tool" November 1, 2022 5.0 Pros The software is easy to use. I have the ability to lock down budgets so they cannot be changed. Bring in real time data from our ERP and do financial reporting. I have saved more than 100 hours on the annual budgeting process. It is excel based and it makes it easy for non-financial users to use and understand. Can segment who gets to see what. Have workforce planning capabilities Cons None so far. I have only been using it for a short time. Alternatives considered [Jirav](https://www.capterra.com/p/195572/Jirav/)[Prophix One](https://www.capterra.com/p/139909/Budgeting-Solution/) Reason for choosing Planful The fact that it was robust and excel based, while not truly being excel was amazing. Review Source BG Bradley G. Manager Financial Services Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Very slow, but highly customizable" December 13, 2016 2.0 Implemented this software solution at my office. It was less expensive than some of the other providers, and we expected the product to perform as such. There are some drawbacks to the product, but I think these are in-line with the price. Pros Very deep database and highly flexible integration with our disparate data feed. Cons Slow. A data pull is not immediate and can cause some frustration if data is not pulled 100% accurately the first time. Collaboration can also be difficult, as the individual models are fragile and must be updated online. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Financial Analyst Mental Health Care Used the software for: Less than 6 months ### "Planful" October 5, 2021 5.0 Pros User interface is very friendly along with support. I enjoy the accessibility to create and analyze different reports with ease. Cons more excel like features on the web software. Review Source MZ Michael Z. Financial Analyst Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Positive, Discovery, Trial & Error" July 6, 2018 4.0 Pros Centralized data storage helps ensure we have consistent reporting on a month-to-month basis. This also eliminates many minor mistakes prevalent with externally linking excel files. Customer service is phenomenal Cons PCR can be finnicky. Modeling occasionally freezes. Modeling and PCR needs to be in touch to ensure accurate up-to-date reporting (supposed to be coming out in an update soon) Review Source NJ Nikita J. Finance Manager Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Good planning tool that integrates well with excel" September 13, 2017 4.0 Scale for team! Pros We plan by detail and this tool allows us to do that. Modeling cloud is nice as it is more flexible. Cons This tool is good but we did a lot of customization for CAPEX, BS, cash flow forecasting which requires a lot of time. Review Source JE Jamie E. Analyst Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Great for automating reporting and forecasting" September 13, 2017 4.0 Helps to avoid human error while providing a flexible platform in which to plan and report Pros I like that Host is on the cloud, is very customizable by letting us have numerous templates and allows for multiple users at once Cons The software is a bit clunky at times which can lead to it running slowly. Also there are certain nuances that you have to learn which is expected Review Source Monica S. Finance Internet Used the software for: Less than 6 months ### "Use Host for financial planning " January 19, 2018 4.0 Pros i like the cloud based model & speed. it is very useful for scenario planning and for collaborating across my team Cons the inability to do calculations in the report without creating a new template. also as we are on Macs the inability to use spotlight in Mac Excel Review Source LB Lanny B. Senior Financial Planning Analyst Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Using Host has been much more user friendly than our previous reporting and planning software." September 19, 2017 5.0 Pros I like that it is user friendly, drag and drop feature makes it easy to run ad hoc reports. Love the line item detail and notes feature in the templates. Cons I would love to be able to use the workforce reporting to run budget vs. actual HR data. I'd also love to see a dashboard available within the next year or so. Review Source MM Mary M. VP Finance & Admin Wholesale Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Host took a lot of data and made it usable." September 21, 2017 5.0 Better use of data, easier budgeting, easier financial statement processing. Pros Once set up, Host is easy to use. I have a large amount of product data that Host has helped me organize into something I can use in my business. I love how I can get several financial reports with the push of a button each month. It continues to make month end easier for me. Oh yeah, I use it for budgeting too. I originally got into Host for budgeting and it has been great for that, but I have found it great for many other things. I also love the way it can grow with me. As I use the software I realize there are more things I can do. Host customers for life team is always there to help me when I explore these possibilities. Cons It can be difficult to set up a report template. Once set it is good and there are no worries. I would like to feel like I understand how it all works better, but that is a time consuming endeavor. Thankfully there is always someone available at Host to help out. Review Source SW Scott W. Director of Financial Planning & Analysis Health, Wellness and Fitness Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Director of Financial Planning & Analysis" November 17, 2018 4.0 Pros Centralizes our planning, budgeting, & forecasting efforts. Quick roll-up of updates and opportunity to copy versions for running alternate scenarios. Upload of transactional data allows for greater degree of self-service research of budget variances on the part of budget owners. Cons Core functionality doesn't lend itself to efficient sales reporting Review Source MG Megan G. Financial Reporting Analyst Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Easy to use, customer service has not been the greatest in terms of solving our issues" September 12, 2017 4.0 Pros The ability to customize the reporting to pull the data needed, the ability to automatically send reports to other users Cons No complaints of the software based on the limited usage for my role. Only complaint is that the customer service was not the most responsive to our needs in terms of correcting an issue we were having with the software (we ended up correcting the issue internally). Review Source aC andrea C. Analyst Online Media Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Great experience for me. We have a dedicated business systems resource on our team who helps a lot." September 25, 2017 5.0 Great experience for me. We have a dedicated business systems resource on our team who helps a lot. Pros I like the flexibility and fluidity of working in the cloud so there is no more verison-ing of excel files and having to wait for input from others. Cons There is definitely some upfront legwork to get input templates/reports where you want them to be. But once you have something you like, it's much easier to work with from there. Review Source PP Pam P. Senior Accountant Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Host has helped reduce the amount of time previously spent manually keying into Excel." September 15, 2017 4.0 Pros My favorite thing about Host is it has eliminated manually keying excel spreadsheets. We are able to hook into our financial system and are able to upload the data that we need which has drastically reduced the amount of human error. Cons The interface is pretty dated. I also mainly use chrome as my browser and there seems to be a lag time when scrolling in a template which is a bit of a pain. Review Source DF Daniel F. Sr Financial Analyst Marketing and Advertising Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Financial Planning tool with great reporting!" August 29, 2017 4.0 Pros Great reporting tool Fully customizable to your business Able to assign different users with different permissions/access Cons Not self-serve initial setup, but most financial planning software falls under this category Initially it can seem a bit daunting to remember everything, but it gets better Review Source SB Samia B. Financial Analyst Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "It's user friendly" December 16, 2017 5.0 Pros It's easy to use for making reports, there are so many great features such as "Drag and drop feature, and Templates". Cons Add ability to use the workforce reporting to run budget vs. actual HR data, and to see a dashboard available within the next year or so. Review Source Similar Products Featured ## Send me user reviews about this product ### Fill out the form and we'll send a list of the top-rated software based on real user reviews directly to your inbox.