11+ best strategic planning software for CFOs in 2024

What is strategic planning in finance?

Strategic financial planning is the process of determining how a business financially manages its assets to achieve ROI and growth goals.

Strategic planning in finance is sometimes called strategic financial management. It falls under the purview of the FP&A team. 

Before doing anything else, the planning team must create their objectives and goals. This happens through a combination of studying growth targets, analyzing past data, and building models and projections to assess realistic and reach targets. 

To meet growth and ROI goals, the FP&A team creates financial plans, determines financial controls, and sets up a process for financial decision-making.

What is strategic planning software?

Strategic planning software helps organizations analyze their financial situation, develop actionable plans, and track progress against their goals.  

It helps reach the goal of strategic management: to ensure an excellent ROI for the business and its stakeholders in the future.

The finance sector uses strategic planning software to:

• Gain insight into financial markets
• Develop and execute successful strategies
• Analyze historical market trends and use predictive analytics to forecast future movements. 

Strategic planning software helps teams determine how much risk to take for certain investments and how to manage portfolios for the best return. By leveraging this technology, finance professionals can optimize their portfolios for long-term growth and maximize shareholder value.

Of course, strategic planning solutions should also help you improve your strategic planning process.

Key features of strategic planning software

Strategic planning software offers a range of features designed to bring greater efficiency and effectiveness to financial planning and corporate management. 

1. Project management 

Strategic planning software can help organize and track team activities around specific projects. It facilitates team collaboration by providing a centralized communication and task assignment hub.

For example, project milestone tracking can help ensure tasks are completed on time and the project runs according to schedule. Other features like Gantt charts help users visualize project lifecycles and timelines.

2. Data tracking, analysis, and reporting 

Strategic planning software solutions offer a range of features that enable businesses to track their progress, uncover valuable insights, and communicate their results to stakeholders. 

• Data tracking allows users to follow the progress of their goals and objectives, identify trends in performance, and access relevant data.
• Analytical capabilities enable users to quickly and automatically compare metrics across different periods or areas of the business. 
• Reporting capabilities provide comprehensive yet concise documentation that presents key performance indicators in an easy-to-read format.

3. Strategy development 

Strategy development is a crucial aspect of running a successful business. It involves creating and implementing plans to achieve specific goals and objectives. A good strategic planning solution should:  

• Provide users with the tools they need to develop actionable strategies tailored to their needs. This may include setting objectives and milestones, creating an actionable timeline, assigning tasks to team members, and creating a budget.
• Allow users to monitor progress and adjust their strategies as needed. 
• Provides users with scenario analysis, sensitivity analysis, and other analytic templates that enable businesses to evaluate different scenarios and identify potential risks and opportunities. 

Some corporate planning software programs offer predictive analytics capabilities that help businesses understand how external factors may influence their strategies.

Businesses can forecast, budget, and plan accordingly using industry trends, economic indicators, and customer sentiment surveys.

Benefits of using strategic financial planning software 

The advantages of using strategic planning software include the following: 

Strong collaboration 

Strategic planning software provides users with a single source of truth, supporting quicker decision-making and easier collaboration.

Accessible, updated documentation makes it easier for teams to identify potential risks, troubleshoot issues, and determine solutions. 

Improved decision making 

Strategic planning is a disciplined effort that produces fundamental decisions and actions that shape and guide an organization.

FP&A analysts can use the software for predictive driver-based and multi-scenario planning to determine the company’s current standing and potential future.

Once executives determine their financial objectives and outline how the company will meet those goals, the software makes it simple to track your progress and make decisions about any necessary changes. 

Better visibility 

Advanced analytics and reporting capabilities give users a holistic view of company performance. This means that people from any department or level within the organization can look at key metrics and assess what actions must be taken to move toward the set goal. 

The software presents this information in easy-to-read tables and graphs, making it easier to understand. With access to this information in real time, businesses can quickly adjust their strategies to meet changing market conditions or customer demands.

Not only does this help business owners to make better decisions, but it also helps to reduce the risk of planning errors and inefficiencies.

Better strategic execution

An improved strategic planning process makes it easier to keep business leaders happy, measure progress, and keep the team focused on business goals.

Continuous planning also becomes more straightforward, as strategic management software makes planning processes simpler and easier to follow. So the cost of creating and refining strategic plans goes down.

Likewise, you'll have more performance data to inform your strategic initiatives, such as using performance data to inform your strategy execution or improve your project portfolio management.

The 11 best strategic planning software solutions in finance

Some of the best software used for strategic financial planning include:

1. Cube

Cube is the first spreadsheet-native FP&A platform that empowers finance teams to plan faster, more nimbly, and more scalably without changing how they work. 

Our cloud-based FP&A software helps finance teams work more effectively by collecting and centralizing data into a single source of truth. 

This empowers teams to create plans and reports based on that trusted data in the spreadsheets they know and love.

Cube transforms FP&A with a spreadsheet-native platform that offers fast, flexible, and scalable financial analysis for continuous collaboration and insights.

Many high-growth companies (like Masterworks and Unqork) use Cube for all their FP&A needs.

For example, Cube: 

• Has a true, native Excel integration with all versions of Excel to keep you in your favorite working environment
• Is intuitive for everybody who's used a spreadsheet so onboarding new employees and users is quick
• Onboards new accounts 5x faster than the competition so you see immediate value
• Uses simple formulas for creating reports so that you can understand exactly how you've arrived at your numbers
• Doesn't charge for ongoing customer support so you can stay on plan and within budget
• Works perfectly on Mac OS X and Google Sheets for easier reporting, even with non-Cube users

Perhaps even more importantly, Cube was founded by a former CFO. The problems and use cases of FP&A have been baked into Cube since its inception.

FP&A teams already know and love spreadsheets. Cube simplifies many of the headaches of the often challenging planning process—like collecting actuals from other departments or checking and verifying that your numbers are correct—and lets teams turn their complicated budgeting process into a lean operation.

Check out all of the 5-star reviews on Capterra.

Sounds like a fit? Book your demo with Cube today. Keep scrolling to learn more.

Users get all of the benefits of a robust FP&A tool (like scenario analysis, data consolidation, multi-currency support, dynamic user controls, robust source system integrations, and custom reporting) within Excel and Google Sheets.

Cube eliminates tedious FP&A tasks so finance teams can deploy their efforts toward higher-level objectives.

Features:

• Automated data consolidation: Connect data from numerous sources for automated rollups and drilldowns.
• Multi-scenario analysis: Allows you to seamlessly model how changes to key assumptions affect overall outputs.
• Endless integrations: Integrations for spreadsheets (Google and Excel), accounting & finance, HR, ATS, billing & operations, sales & marketing, and business intelligence. 
• Customizable dashboards: Gives you the full ability to build and share customizable dashboards.
• Native Excel and Google Sheets integration: Compatible and bi-directional with any spreadsheet
• Multi-currency support: Evaluate your financials in both your local and reporting currencies.
• User-based controls: User controls, validations, and an audit trail ensure that the correct data goes to the right people at the right time.
• Centralized formulas and KPIs: Store all your calculations in a central location and manage from a single source of truth.
• Drilldown and audit trail: Get straight to the transactions and history behind a single data cell in just one click.

➡️ See all of our features here.

Pros: 

• Powerful reporting and KPIs help automate and analyze important data.
• Streamline manual data, reduce errors, and improve collaboration so you can make smarter business decisions in a fraction of the time.
• You can easily collaborate with industry-leading FP&A experts and an award-winning support team.
• Integrations with dozens of applications.
• Proper, native Excel integration with all versions of Excel (no coding or formulas needed)
• Always reliable during sophisticated Excel calculations
• Standard implementation time that's 5x shorter than the competition
• Quick fresh and fetch times
• Intuitive, easy, and customizable reporting
• Simple formulas for making reports
• User-friendly user interface and controls
• Easy permission management
• Integrates with more source systems
• Has full Mac OS X compatibility
• Is an always-correct single source of truth
• Built and designed by a former serial CFO

Cons:

• Cube works best for mid-sized and commercial businesses–it’s not a personal finance app.
• Cube is built for finance professionals and is not a solution for learning FP&A for the first time.
• Pricing (below) is not designed for pre-series A startups.

Pricing:

• Starting at $1,250/month for lean finance teams and $2,450/month for companies looking to scale. See detailed pricing.

Best for: Mid-size and enterprise FP&A teams looking to save time and grow. Cube also works for hyper-growth SMBs who want a solution that will scale with their organization's complexity.

Curious to see if Cube is a fit for your organization? Book your demo now. 

2. Anaplan

Anaplan is a cloud-based strategic planning software that helps businesses plan and model their operations.

The platform provides various tools and features to support these functions, enabling users to create, manage, and share their plans and forecasts.

Anaplan's proprietary hyperblock technology enables businesses to build what-if scenarios. 

It also provides an application platform that enables organizations to build and customize their planning applications.

The App Hub features pre-constructed apps for sales, operations, finance, human resources, and others and a custom app module.

Features & Benefits 

• Data synchronization
• Predictive analytics
• Interactive dashboards
• Inter-platform integrations

Anaplan Pricing

According to various sources, plans range from $30,000–$50,000 or higher depending on the scope and scale of the project. 

Anaplan vs. Cube

It's no secret that Anaplan is one of the biggest names in the FP&A industry.

But for most companies, what Anaplan offers is overkill. And overpriced.

If you're at a massive enterprise company, Anaplan can certainly fill your needs. But the implementation timeline is long and user adoption tends to be low. Plus, it's an additional roadblock for new hires, who had to learn the system.

That's why we built Cube to be easy to learn and modular, so anybody who knows how to use Excel can immediately unlock massive time savings with Cube.

3. Workday Adaptive Planning

Workday Adaptive Planning is a strategic planning software that provides modeling, analytics, and cloud applications for businesses and organizations of all sizes.

Workday Adaptive Planning is designed to be similar to Excel, and the core function includes budgeting, forecasting, reporting, dashboards, and financial modeling.

Workday Adaptive Planning comes with a network of global value-added resellers (VARs) that offer training and support services for each transaction.

Features & Benefits

• Budgeting 
• Forecasting data analysis 
• Collaboration 
• Real-time updates

Workday Adaptive Planning Pricing

Workday Adaptive Planning does not provide pricing information on its website, but various sources estimate that pricing starts at $15,000 depending on the organization's size. 

Read our comparison of Anaplan vs Adaptive vs Planful vs Vena vs Datarails vs Cube. 

4. NetSuite

NetSuite is an integrated cloud-based business management software that offers various features spanning ERP, financials, commerce, inventory management, HR, PSA, supply chain management, and CRM. 

NetSuite provides businesses with automation and real-time operational and financial performance analysis. 

NetSuite's strategic planning module helps businesses create models of long-term strategies that include financial assumptions, cash flow analysis, and resource allocations.

The software allows users to set up scenarios for testing different strategies before executing them. It enables companies to benchmark performance and compares results against competitors.

Features & Benefits 

• Workflow capability 
• Data import and export tools 
• Financial statements 
• Audit trail
• AP automation

NetSuite Pricing

NetSuite does not provide pricing information on its website. However, customer reviews estimate that a NetSuite license includes a $999/month licensing fee and an additional $99/month for each user.

Read our NetSuite vs Quickbooks comparison.

Did you know?

NetSuite and Cube work together. You can use NetSuite as your ERP solution and connect your data, through Cube, into Excel or Google Sheets, where you can do much of your strategic planning.

The Google Sheets integration is key here, as it makes your strategic planning and progress tracking collaborative and shareable. Everybody can always have access to the most recent data AND you can work in a highly cooperative environment. It's a win-win.

5. Jedox

Jedox is a planning and performance management platform for finance, sales, and operations. Jedox uses artificial intelligence to offer integrated business planning.

Jedox enables users to create financial models, budgeting solutions, and forecasting models. It was designed to help organizations assess performance and make decisions on how to optimize operations.

Features & Benefits

• Forecasting 
• Real-time data updates 
• Data visualization
• Budget hierarchies 

Jedox Pricing

Jedox does not provide pricing information on its website, but sources estimate that plans start at $160/month. 

6. Planful

Planful, formerly Host Analytics, is one of the market's best-established FP&A platforms. Planful, as the name suggests, specializes in helping you plan better, whether in strategy, budgeting, or forecasting.

So for strategic financial planning, Planful has a lot to offer. 

Key features

• Excel reporting and integrations
• Data visualizations
• Personalized dashboards
• Forecasting
• What-if scenarios

Pros

• Strong customer service team
• Reusable templates for efficiency 

Cons

• Accuracy issues when updating formulas
• Tricky collaboration 
• Different reporting tools for templates
• High learning curve 

Pricing

Planful doesn't list its prices online.

Planful vs. Cube

While both Planful and Cube are complete planning platforms for FP&A teams, Cube keeps you in your favored spreadsheet environment and unlocks the flexibility of Google Sheets for easier financial report distribution.

Planful's Excel integration isn't as robust as Cube's.

7. Board

Board is a strategic planning software with predictive analytics, comprehensive financial modeling, and advanced simulation capabilities.

The platform provides users with an intuitive user interface and workflow, enabling them to define goals, set objectives, analyze data, track progress, and make necessary changes. 

Board uses advanced machine learning algorithms to help companies forecast future outcomes based on past performance and current trends.

Features & Benefits

• Data column filtering, discovery, and visualization
• Auto-modeling 
• Predictive analysis 
• Report generation
• Simple dashboards

Board Pricing

The Board pricing structure is not listed because it’s based on the size of the business, the number of user licenses, and whether any customization is needed.

However, sources report that Board is less expensive than the industry average.

8. OneStream

OneStream is a CPM 2.0 solution that offers financial consolidation, planning, reporting, analytics, and financial data quality services to medium and large-sized companies.

OneStream is used to streamline financial processes, replace outdated legacy applications, and decrease the overall cost of ownership for financial systems. It allows teams to spend less time dealing with data integration and system maintenance.

Features & Benefits 

• Data integration, data reporting, and transformation
• BI dashboarding
• Marketplace solutions like Task Scheduler and Security Audit
• Budgeting,  forecasting,  and reconciliation 
• Long-term expansion capability

OneStream Pricing

OneStream does not provide pricing information on its website but sources estimate that its starting price is $150,000.

9. Cascade

Cascade is a cloud-based strategic planning software solution to help businesses develop long-term growth plans. It focuses on critical areas of the planning process, such as goal setting, budgeting, monitoring progress, and managing resources.

Cascade also includes features for collaboration, analytics, reporting, and visualizing data.

Cascade is designed to be used by team members of any level and can integrate with other corporate systems.

The software's analytic capabilities enable businesses to review past performance and adjust future action plans accordingly. 

Features & Benefits

• Strategy mapping and modeling 
• Multiple strategy frameworks 
• Defines and monitors objectives and key results
• Monitor the progress of strategy-related activities
• Departmental KPI reporting 

Cascade Pricing

• Free Team: Free Trial for $0 to get started
• Premium: $29  Per Month
• Enterprise: Request for quotation

10. Jirav

Jirav is a driver-based planning platform. For FP&A teams that prefer a driver-based model, Jirav might be a good solution.

Features

• Driver-based planning platform
• Templated and custom reporting
• Shareable dashboards

Pros

• Cloud-based solution
• Cheaper price point
• Dashboards can be shared with anybody, even if they don't have a Jirav license

Cons

• Gets you out of spreadsheets—your Excel skills are useless here
• Processing speed can be slower than comparable tools
• Integrations are limited and not as robust as other tools 

Pricing

Jirav has three pricing tiers:

• Starter: $10,000/year
• Pro: $15,000/year
• Enterprise: Contact Jirav for a quote

11. Sage Intacct

Sage Intacct is a cloud-based financial management and accounting software for small to midsize organizations. It helps businesses automate critical financial processes and gain insights into their operational performance.

It's tailored to accommodate the needs of each accountancy firm and comes with a comprehensive suite of functionality that will streamline core financials.

Sage Intacct provides core accounting applications like the general ledger, accounts payable and receivable, cash management, and order management.

It supports functionality for built-in dashboards, real-time reporting, time and expense management, project accounting, revenue management, and global consolidations for multiple entities.

Features & Benefits

• Audit trail
• Invoice customization 
• AP automation 
• Performance and reliability 

Sage Intacct Pricing

We were unable to find Sage Intacct's pricing on its website, but sources estimate that prices range between $15,000-$60,000, depending on your individual or organization's needs. 

Selecting the right strategic planning software

Determining the ideal software for your organization involves several critical steps. Here, we offer a clear and comprehensive framework, aimed at guiding you through a thorough and informed decision-making process.

Assess Integration and Compatibility
Verify the software's ability to seamlessly integrate with existing systems (like ERP or CRM) and its compatibility with your technological infrastructure to avoid future integration issues.

Involve Key Stakeholders
Effectively involve key stakeholders by conducting collaborative meetings and surveys to ensure the chosen software meets diverse departmental needs and aligns with company goals.

Analyze Cost vs. Benefit
Perform a comprehensive cost-benefit analysis to evaluate the software's ROI, considering both direct costs and indirect benefits such as efficiency improvements and potential revenue growth.

Evaluate Software Features
Focus on critical features such as data analytics, real-time reporting, and user interface. Ensure the software can handle your specific financial planning needs and data volume.

Make the Final Choice
Balance stakeholder feedback and cost-benefit analysis against strategic objectives, focusing on software functionality, integration capabilities, scalability, vendor reputation, and support.

Conclusion: choose the best strategic planning software

Looking for a strategic planning software that blends efficiency with simplicity? Designed for fast implementation and user-friendliness, Cube stands out as the perfect choice.

Cube, an all-in-one FP&A software, streamlines your project planning and execution with its advanced analytics and reporting capabilities.

It makes reporting and KPI management more straightforward, enhances the accuracy of forecasting and budgeting, and accelerates closing and consolidation cycles, leading to increased control and fewer errors.

Book your free demo to see the strategic planning capabilities of Cube for yourself.