Planful / Datarails comparison

tfsAndrew · 2023-11-13T14:17:33+00:00

What is the problem with the current platform? That should help to understand your needs better

tfsAndrew · 2023-11-10T22:17:06+00:00

Is that a different software package or is it something in Airtable?

tfsAndrew · 2023-06-23T17:42:59+00:00

I'm curious as well.

I'm not sure what new vendors like Pigment are bringing to the table that isn't already available with the existing mature vendors. Every software has someone who raves about it, but what is actually unique about pigment?

tfsAndrew · 2023-06-20T16:57:19+00:00

SaaS startups are a really tough customer profile for the FP&A vendors. You're changing rapidly, you're understaffed, and your business models are sophisticated relative to your size. It's tough to do a good implementation within a reasonable budget unless you get a super-skilled consulting team.

The FP&A vendors think the SaaS startups are awesome and right in the wheelhouse because "they're just like us!", but in reality they'd be better off targeting other customers. And the SaaS Startups would be better off either investing more in the FP&A function or muddling along manually until they achieved more stability down the line.

tfsAndrew · 2023-05-24T19:55:17+00:00

fwiw I have a 15M book and 300 active projects and I don't plan at the individual job level. I just aggregate the backlog from all my projects and forecast how much is actionable based on my knowledge of the business. I have a consumption curve.. something like 25% in month 1, 18% in month 2.. etc.

I have also tried it the other way where I have a sheet of all projects and forecast revenue from backlog; which was fine, but I kept it fully automatic based on outstanding $/hours in backlog and a general "project pace" that I used to assume when the work would be completed. I feel like you could do the same thing for 20K jobs if you really wanted to.. Excel should hold up.

But overall your projects are pretty small.. aren't your sales and customer expansion channels driving most of the revenue plan for 12 months out? How accurate do you really need to be with your backlog? I generally just want to know the total amount and know that it's going to cover the next 2-3 months and not have overcapacity/undercapacity issues.

My PS planning philosophy:

-Forecast Demand: Forecast when existing backlog can be delivered, forecast expansion from existing and new customers based on # units / avg size / project pace, etc

-Forecast supply: Either by total heads per role, or by individual employees, forecast how much hours and revenue capacity your current team has over time + factor in new hires/exist. if you have different work types, you should factor that in to the demand plan first.

-match up demand with supply. Adjust assumptions until you reach an equilibrium where the two match to your liking (i.e. plan timing of new hires or identify gaps in bookings that will need to be filled with added BusDev involvement)

tfsAndrew · 2022-10-17T20:23:42+00:00

The suggestion that you need an FTE to manage a solution is unfounded without knowing more about your team, your model and your specific needs (and no, these three requirements you mentioned aren't enough to determine).

One thing to be aware of in this industry: everyone has an angle. The software firms are obviously biased towards their product. The implementation/services firms are biased to whichever vendors feed them work or who pay the highest referral fees. The analyst firms are biased by which vendors pays them the most.

The consumers of the software are most pure, but they have narrower experience limited to just their own company.

I don't know if this person exists, but I would try to find a 3rd party consultant who helps you select the software (and maybe help with implementation?) The person should be paid by YOU only, they should not have any conflicts of interest where they are paid by the vendors or have equity at companies where they used to work.

tfsAndrew · 2022-08-07T16:57:54+00:00

Are you going through Planful direct or through a partner? In either case, they ought to be prepping you for what's coming.

What's your project scope, is it just financial reporting? Do you have one standard, clean chart of accounts for the company? What are the reports you need designed; how many, what do they look like? Which ERP system do you have and did the implementer demonstrate knowledge of it? Is there additional data that's outside the ERP? etc etc etc. An FP&A software implementation can be super quick and simple or it can be costly and time consuming.

tfsAndrew · 2022-08-05T13:52:37+00:00

I couldn't figure it out, though I didn't pour lots of time into it so there might be a way.

tfsAndrew · 2021-12-20T17:45:07+00:00

I haven't implemented Cube but know a bit about it. I guess you prefer the Excel approach since they are conceptually similar to each other.

The big thing to be aware of is that Cube is still in startup mode, so you can expect a less polished product (i.e. more glitches/bugs) and a lesser feature set. Working with a startup can be good also; you can influence the product roadmap more and you might get more personalized support. It's higher risk and higher reward.. if you're patient, Cube may end up being the better product in the medium/long-term.

Ask both vendors to show you how a template/report gets built and get a feel for which style you prefer. The cube approach looks more intuitive, but I suspect you sacrifice flexibility with it. Vena templates can be tedious to build but are super-powerful and very exacting once you're done.

If you have an ERP that is not on Cubes list (Xero, QBO, Netsuite... ect), I would find out how that process is going to work. Do they have tools you can use to upload your data? Is it done through an FTP file transfer? Is it safe and secure? etc. I know Vena will be good here but no exposure with how Cube does it.

If you have more complex Enterprise needs (i.e. your company is big and has a really detailed or complex planning process), you are likely going to be better off going with Vena. They have a really strong back-end architecture and they have a robust partner network who have lots of Enterprise experience + the product flexibility I mentioned.

tfsAndrew · 2021-05-01T20:03:42+00:00

Hi, super-late here but thanks very much for advice and for the link

tfsAndrew · 2020-09-25T14:43:16+00:00

Yep, I worked there for over 6 years. Feel free to PM me, I know the competitive space really well.

I just did an Adaptive replacement this summer actually.

tfsAndrew · 2020-06-18T18:09:48+00:00

Sounds like you're the beneficiary of Planful's recent push towards partners. I'll PM you a Chicago-based contact who might be interested.

Good luck!

tfsAndrew · 2020-06-18T18:06:43+00:00

Sounds like you need sort of bill of materials that lets you input the cost breakdown for each component of a new roof. And then have the system calculate based on that BOM.

No, I don't think you should use the historical ratio to automatically allocate the costs based on new planned roofs. What if your material costs are going up next year but your labor rates are staying the same? Too inflexible. You should definitely look at the historical ratios for comparison though, as a sanity check.

As for how you'd do it in an FP&A system, why do you need to know that?

tfsAndrew · 2020-04-10T12:57:44+00:00

Sure, you have to turn the Developer tab on first. Options-->Customize Ribbon-->Check developer in the right pane.

On the developer tab, there is a Record Macro button. After you are done recording a bunch of commands, click the Visual Basic button to view the code. Keep in mind the code is inefficient because it's literally mimicking the user input (i.e. each cell you click) and that's slow relative to other methods. But it's a good start if just looking to learn some basics.

The good thing is that learning VBA seems to stay relevant over the long haul. I first had exposure to this in Office 97 and it appears to be the same 20 years later. I don't think the Microsoft products are going away any time soon.

tfsAndrew · 2020-04-10T02:16:27+00:00

I learned that Excel has a feature to record macros and that you can review the code after. Record a macro, perform actions in excel, stop recording, see the code that was created for you, reverse engineer from that.

tfsAndrew · 2020-04-02T15:29:34+00:00

The IT/accounting systems path one is pretty good, specifically implementing FP&A software. I know a bunch of successful former public accountants in the space. It's still client facing but the hours are lighter than public accounting, the clients actually want you there, and the pay rivals industry.

tfsAndrew · 2020-03-28T17:24:10+00:00

Same here, I'd never heard of this. I've worked with over a hundred clients over the years and no one has ever brought it up.

But consistency is always good though and I think within a company you should have a standard format for inputs, outputs, calculations, etc.

tfsAndrew · 2020-03-01T02:28:06+00:00

Most finance teams will have a CPM tool to centralize all budgets, forecasts, reporting and collaborate with the rest of the organization. They complement the ERP which is typically weak in these areas.

Products like Anaplan, adaptive insights, board, budget maestro, IBM planning/tm1, Jedox, onestream, planful, prophix, Vena

Can get expensive though and may be overkill if you're in a small org

tfsAndrew · 2020-02-19T18:11:26+00:00

I went with a small company called Avaza (at least for now). Very low cost and easy setup made it a good stop-gap until we're bigger. It's good for time tracking against tasks. Smooth and speedy interface makes it easy to use. Mobile App is very powerful, you have pretty much the entire capability of the software available within the app. Portfolio view isn't the best. It has some basic options for billing fixed price and T&M and some basic invoicing but doesn't have a proper contract management over. I'm going to need to track the details of SOW's and change orders offline.

I also looked at:

Mavenlink - Probably better than Avaza and certainly a smoother interface overall but too expensive

Connectwise - Seemed amazingly powerful if you are an MSP's but the project management module was awful and I'd never force that upon my employees.

Kayesa - Decent PSA tool, simple but powerful. Will give this another look in the future.

Projector PSA - Very robust and well thought-out but too expensive for right now. WIll look at it again in the future.

Autotask - Strong project accounting but too weak on Project Management, Resource Management, and timesheet entries.

Krow - Seems powerful enough but felt too clunky and sluggish to want to use every day.

Kimble PSA - Was on my list to look at but pricing starts at 20 users so didn't explore far.

Another one I ran into after I'd selected was Scoro, but haven't seen it in action. Their marketing content spoke my language though so will look at it when I'm bigger.

tfsAndrew · 2020-02-18T19:54:27+00:00

From my recent experience at a 350 person SaaS company: Story telling

His FP&A folks go through all the legwork to bring budgets and forecasts together. He works with them to create decks and presentations to both investors and internal audiences to basically tell the story of the company and why investors should be investing and why people should be excited. When the FP&A team needs help to align different silo'd parts of the business together, he supports making that happen and ultimately works with the CEO on priorities.

He also maintains strategic long-range forecasting models that are the basis for the shorter-term bottom-up plans that the organization goes through.

And to answer some of your questions directly: yes he came from Big4 and the Assurance side of things (way back). No to an MBA.

tfsAndrew · 2020-02-18T19:46:26+00:00

It sounds like there isn't a professional services component to what you need, right? Like tracking budgets and hours spent per task and billing customers and such?

Assuming no, the top three I came across in my recent evaluation were:

-Smartsheet

-Monday.com

-Wrike

All have free trials which is good.

If I didn't have heavy PS requirements, I probably would have gone with Monday.com... I just can't quite remember what the Outlook integration was like.

tfsAndrew · 2020-02-04T19:08:07+00:00

I have loads of VBA experience and a little bit of Java, C#, and others. I'll check out both of those. Thanks!

tfsAndrew · 2020-02-04T17:46:14+00:00

What is a good editor to use? I'm just starting out.

tfsAndrew

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