The 17 best financial reporting software tools [updated for 2023]

What is financial reporting, and why is it essential to a successful business?

Financial reporting helps the office of the CFO surface important insights to key stakeholders that help them make informed, data-driven decisions to grow the business.

Businesses typically report on their finances through the three accounting financial statements, which they create at least once a year, but more commonly at the end of every month as part of their financial close process.

Good financial reporting also helps businesses have more productive, real-time conversations. For example, when deciding where to allocate money from a slush fund, the CFO might do quick ad hoc reporting to estimate that money's impact.

What is the primary objective of financial reporting?

The primary objective of financial reporting is to surface accurate and timely information about a business's finances to help people make rational decisions.

Financial reporting is also important for compliance. Businesses with many compliance requirements, like Cube customer Masterworks, need robust financial reporting tools.

What are the key types of financial reports?

The key financial reports are the 3 GAAP financial statements:

• The income statement
• The balance sheet
• The statement of cash flow

Other key financial reports are typically focused subsets of those three statements, like the statement of shareholder's equity and the contribution margin income statement.

What is financial reporting software?

Financial reporting software speeds up the financial reporting process with automation and analysis. It helps finance teams with these basic accounting tasks:

• Data collection
• Budget alignment
• Reconciliation
• Financial close and consolidation
• Creating financial statements

Organizations can quickly generate filtered financial reports to learn essential business details.

Types of financial reporting software

Different finance software will have different capabilities. In our review, we'll discuss financial reporting software. However, you might also encounter:

• Accounting software
• Invoicing and payment software
• Tax management software
• Budgeting software
• Financial planning software
• Financial statement software
• SEC reporting software
• Financial consolidation software
• General ledger software

Critical components of financial reporting software

Here's what the best financial reporting software helps organizations accomplish: 

Automation: Financial reporting software automates many routine tasks, like pulling updated data from your source systems

Custom report creation: Balance sheets, income statements, profit and loss statements, and cash flow statements are a few of the many critical financial reports organizations need to pay taxes, inform business strategy, and assess performance. It also helps you create custom reports based on your business's circumstances.

Source system integrations: The best financial reporting software integrates with your ERP, HRIS, and other source systems that house critical information about your finances, payroll, and compliance.

Security: Financial reporting software must be secure, preferably SOC 2 Type 2 compliant, to protect your business's financial information.

But does financial reporting software give you everything on this feature list? Not quite, but each one has pros and cons. Let's explore them in this next section.

The 17 best financial reporting software tools on the market in 2023

Let’s start our review of the top financial reporting tools. 

But first, a disclaimer: yes, we put Cube first. We’re proud of the results our software gets for customers—and our customers love them, too.

You don’t have to just take our word for it: check out our 5-star reviews on Capterra.

1. Cube

Cube is the first spreadsheet-native FP&A platform that empowers teams to drive better reporting, planning, and business performance without changing how they work.

We integrate with both Excel and Google Sheets, so you can create reports in Excel and then share them with your CEO, department leaders, or board members in Google Sheets.

Of course, FP&A also has to make reports, and that's where Cube can help. Many companies (like SmugMug) use Cube's reporting capabilities to inform their budgeting and planning, saving weeks of work.

Cube offers faster time to value (most companies onboard within two weeks) and is competitively priced.

Convinced? Book your free demo with us today.

Features

• Automated data consolidation: Connect data from numerous sources to create a single source of truth that can be used to quickly create custom and ad hoc reports.
• Multi-scenario analysis: Allows you to model how changes to key assumptions affect overall outputs seamlessly.
• Endless integrations: Integrations for spreadsheets (Google and Excel), accounting & finance, HR, ATS, billing & operations, sales & marketing, and more.
• Customizable dashboards: Design, build, and share customizable reports across your organization without leaving Cube.
• Native Excel and Google Sheets integration: Compatible and bi-directional with any and all spreadsheets. We work with both, and many teams find Cube a powerful Google Sheets unlock, improving financial transparency across the organization.
• Keep your Excel models: Work how you work, only better. Cube doesn't replace your back end with proprietary formulas or add hidden columns to your reports.
• Multicurrency support: Evaluate your finances in your local and reporting currencies.
• User-based controls: User controls, validations, and an audit trail ensure that the right data goes to the right people at the right time.
• Dive in your data with drilldown: Ensure accurate reports by knowing where your data comes from, down to the individual cell. Get straight to the transactions and history behind a single data cell in just one click.
• Audit trail: Track and account for changes via this historical record to ensure your data stays clean
• Built-in roll-up logic: Easily aggregate values across time periods and other parameters with built-in formulas.

➡️ See more 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.
• Keep real-time eyes on cash flow with easy-to-update actuals and the ability to drill down into cells.

Cons

• Cube works best for mid-sized businesses—it’s not a personal finances app.
• Cube doesn't provide multilingual support right now

Pricing

• Starting at $1250/month for lean finance teams and $2,450/month for companies looking to scale. See detailed pricing.

2. Oracle NetSuite

Oracle NetSuite features a user-friendly interface where organizations can access real-time analytics and advanced reports.

The platform enables serious automation, from data collection and journal entries to account reconciliation. Customers appreciate the cloud function, allowing them to access important financials anywhere.

Features

• Tax management
• Accounts receivable and payable
• Cash management
• General ledger
• Payment management
• Financial management

Pros

• Real-time insights into profitability ratios, margins, tax liabilities, and cash flow
• Automation for countless administrative processes

Cons

• Higher learning curve
• A more expensive option 
• Not many customization options 

Pricing

Pricing is not listed on their site.

Did you know?

We've built a robust, comprehensive Oracle NetSuite connector for Cube. Check out our integrations or see how the CFO at SmugMug uses Cube + NetSuite to simplify her budgeting and reporting. 

3. Intuit QuickBooks 

Intuit QuickBooks is a great introductory financial analysis software for freelancers and small or growing businesses. 

While it's one of the world's most popular accounting software, it falls short as a financial reporting software due to its limited capabilities in advanced and custom financial report generation.

For example, you can customize profit and loss statements and other reports by vendor or employee, but not by unique market conditions to prepare for future strategy. 

Larger organizations might need more robust software to capture all their insights. 

Features

• Invoicing
• Expenses and expense management
• VAT and GST
• Inventory
• Insights and reports
• Multi-currency support
• Financial consolidation
• Tax preparation

Pros

• User-friendly
• Easy integrations
• Affordable
• Works best for individuals or smaller businesses

Cons

• Lack of custom reports
• Poor customer support
• Not the best fit for larger companies 

Pricing

• Essentials: $7.80/month/user
• Plus: $10.80/month/user 

Did you know?

We've built a robust, comprehensive Intuit QuickBooks connector for Cube that significantly reduces your time-to-value as a new Cube user. Check out our integrations or see how the CFO of Masterworks uses Cube + QuickBooks to create custom financial reports. 

4. FreshBooks 

Freshbooks is even more tailored to freelancers and small businesses, functioning primarily as invoicing software. You can generate seven types of reports through this software, but custom capabilities are limited. 

Customers praise the platform's user-friendly interface and affordability but complain about frequent crashes.

Features

• Budget and sales tax summaries
• Profit and loss reports
• Accountant access and permissions
• Expense reports
• Balance sheet reconciliation 
• Journal tracking

Pros

• Affordable, including a free trial
• User-friendly interface 

Cons

• Slower loading and crashes are possible 
• More an invoicing tool than an accounting software
• Lack of flexibility
• Not ideal for large organizations

Pricing

• Lite: $4.50/month
• Plus: $7.50/month
• Premium: $15/month
• Custom pricing available

5. Sage Intacct

Sage Intacct is financial reporting software that prioritizes increased user efficiency and extensive reporting customization.

Users can use its drag-and-drop design to create reports based on math functions, aggregations, transaction details, grouping, and other criteria.

This platform works for various industries, like SaaS (software-as-a-service) and hospitality.

Features

• Quick multi-entity consolidation
• Cloud solution
• Integrations, including with Salesforce
• General ledger with predefined dimensions
• Collaboration feature
• 150 built-in reports plus custom reports

Pros

• User-friendly interface
• Extensive reporting features with key metrics
• Data visualizations to make reports more accessible

Cons

• Integrations could be smoother
• Limited search capabilities
• Higher learning curve 

Pricing

Pricing isn't available on their website.

Did you know?

You can integrate Sage Intacct directly with Cube to create custom financial reports in Excel, then share them with key stakeholders in Google Sheets. See all Cube integrations.

6. Insight Software

A French tech company,  Insight Software promises to reduce your closing and reporting times by 50%.

It features custom reports and Excel integrations.

This company bases pricing on increased features measured by claims of improved efficiency up each tier.

Features

• ERP to Excel data export
• Spreadsheet server reporting
• Data integrations, formatting, and prep
• Custom reports
• Integrations with some financial software
• Equity Management

Pros

• User-friendly

Cons

• Bugs can be frequent
• Not the strongest customer service. 

Pricing

Insight offers three pricing tiers—simple, streamlined, and vetted—but you must inquire within for exact pricing. 

7. Workday Adaptive Planning 

Workday Adaptive Planning boasts visible insights as fast as a click, and immense financial planning capabilities.

However, users cite frustration with difficulties translating advanced insights to non-finance audiences.

Features

• Budgeting and forecasting
• Analytics and reporting
• Scenario planning

Pros

• Predictive models
• Time savings 
• Cloud-based 
• Integrates with other Workday products

Cons

• Limited training resources and high learning curve
• Advanced reporting can be challenging to learn 

Pricing

Pricing isn't listed on their site. 

8. Board

Board is a financial reporting software that helps businesses improve financial processes and accounting.

It even allows users to create custom planning and analysis applications. The platform unifies metrics, analytics, and reports into one place.

Features

• Calculated metrics
• Analytics
• Real-time modeling
• Multi-user data entry
• Adaptive aggregation
• ERP database write-back

Pros

• Easy to create dashboards without a tech background
• Actionable insights
• Adaptable

Cons

• High learning curve
• Privacy concerns
• Slow customer service
• Not user-friendly

Pricing

Board doesn't list pricing on their website. 

9. Xero

Xero is an accounting software with some reporting features, though its primary functions are payroll, expenses, and invoicing.

You can track and pay bills, claim expenses, connect to your banks, track payments, use Gusto payroll software, manage Xero contacts, and much more. 

Features

• Collaboration capabilities
• Customizable reports
• Formulas to compare budgets with actuals
• Lock dates
• Search functionality

Pros

• 24/7 customer support
• Interactive and KPI-specific reports
• Tracking categories for different business departments 

Cons

• Limited advanced functionality
• Limited integrations to other financial software 

Pricing

• Starter: $22/month
• Standard: $35/month
• Premium: $47/month

Did you know?

You can connect your Xero instance with Cube and enjoy all the benefits of an ERP with the speed and flexibility of enhanced spreadsheets. See all Cube integrations here, or read about how WizeHire uses Xero + Cube to cut their financial reporting time from weeks to days.

10. Sage 50 Accounts

You might remember Sage Intacct, which we covered previously in this review.

However, the company also offers a cloud version called Sage 50cloud Accounts. This financial reporting software is similar to Intacct, but users can access their files anywhere. 

Additionally, it’s a decent financial reporting software for companies requiring Microsoft 365 integration. 

Features:

• Advanced budgeting and reporting
• Audit trails
• Inventory management
• Automated reconciliation
• Fraud detection 
• Invoice tracking

Pros

• Microsoft 365 integration
• Adequate customizability for reports

Cons

• Permissions are only permitted on the most expensive plan
• Any company with over five users will have to sign up for the most costly plan
• The basic plan offers basic reporting, but nothing advanced

Pricing

The company is currently offering a 40% discount. The prices listed below reflect that discount.

• Pro Accounting: $340/year
• Premium Accounting: $554/year
• Quantum Accounting: $919/year

11. Vena Solutions

Vena Solutions is financial reporting software dedicated to helping businesses seamlessly integrate advanced reporting with Excel data.

A cloud solution, Vena offers reporting to include what-if scenarios and prepare for cash and budget planning.

However, customers cite a long learning curve and limited training opportunities. 

Features

• Financial management
• Financial and ad-hoc reporting
• Analytics and real-time insights
• Report consolidation 
• Audit trails

Pros 

• Mobile version
• User-friendly
• Integration with Excel 

Cons

• Longer loading time
• Lacking training
• Limited customization 

Pricing

Vena Solutions doesn't list prices on its website.

Cube vs. Vena Solutions

While Vena Solutions integrates with Excel, most users find Cube's native Excel integration better for their existing workflows.

Cube is faster to set up and requires less training than Vena Solutions. After all, if you know how to use Excel, you know how to use Cube. There's little learning curve, which is different from Vena Solutions. 

12. Planful (formerly Host Analytics)

Planful, formerly known as Host Analytics, has skilled professionals with enterprise software, HR, and growth experience.

While reviews praise the platform's user-friendly interface, some criticism cites issues with accuracy when updating formulas and reports.

Features

• Excel reporting and integrations
• Data visualizations
• Personalized dashboards
• Forecasting
• What-if scenarios
• Journal entries 
• Reports consolidation

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 integrates with Excel, but the integration isn't as robust as Cube's.

13. Multiview ERP 

Multiview ERP features a team of in-house support along with its financial software. It delivers year-round insights, data visualizations, and customization capabilities through core accounting, business insights, business automation, and inventory management. 

Features

• Asset management
• General ledger
• Accounts payable and receivable
• Budgeting and forecasting
• Automated workflows
• Business intelligence

Pros

• Search functionality
• Strong and responsive customer service

Cons

• There can be difficulty in creating customer reports
• There are glitches at times

Pricing

Multiview doesn't list pricing online.

14. DataRails

Datarails is a legacy Excel-friendly platform for FP&A teams at small to mid-size businesses. It helps teams forecast their finances and plan operations accordingly.

Features

• Auto backup & version management
• Logical version comparison
• Cell drill down
• Spreadsheet error and data loss prevention

Pros

• Dashboards are easy to set up
• Keeps your FP&A team on Excel
• Old-school Excel experts will enjoy the mix of formulas and coding with a refreshed UI

Cons

• Limited Mac compatibility
• No Google Sheets compatibility
• Users need an additional DataRails license to edit any reports, which makes collaboration expensive
• Proprietary formulas and hidden columns in their pre-built reports exacerbate Excel's existing weaknesses instead of complementing them, causing frustrations as reporting gets more complex
• Replaces much of your back end, making it difficult to offboard should you find DataRails isn't a good fit

Pricing

DataRails doesn't list pricing on its website.

Cube vs. DataRails

Both Cube and DataRails want to keep you in Excel, where you work best. However, that's where similarities end. Cube is notably more flexible than DataRails, including:

• Cube gives you more power and customization over your reporting. We don't hide proprietary complicated formulas in the back end, which means your reports are easy to understand and don't break
• You own your templates in Cube. While DataRails provides plenty of pre-built templates, they're rigid and prone to breaking, so you'll have trouble tweaking them to your preferences.
• Cube works with Google Sheets and Excel, so while both tools make it easy to create reports, Cube makes it infinitely easier to share those reports in tools that the receiver already uses. 

15. Jirav

Jirav is a driver-based planning platform that gets FP&A teams out of spreadsheets. 

Jirav is a great tool if all of the following describe you:

1. You're part of the 5% of finance professionals who don't believe advanced spreadsheet skills are essential for FP&A managers
2. You prefer a driver-based approach to planning
3. You want a strict cloud-based solution

Otherwise, Jirav is probably not the best fit.

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

• Replaces your Excel models
• 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

Jirav vs. Cube

Most FP&A teams prefer Cube over Jirav because Cube keeps them in Excel.

Cube also has all the benefits of Jirav—templates, custom reporting, a cloud-based source of truth, shareable dashboards, etc.—and then some, because it unlocks Google Sheets, which simplifies real-time ad hoc reporting.

As Cube and Jirav have comparable price points, you should request a demo and compare them for yourself.

16. SAP S/4HANA Finance

SAP S/4HANA Finance is group reporting software from SAP. It's best for businesses that are already entrenched within the SAP ecosystem.

It promises to help streamline financial consolidation and close processes by unifying operational and group reporting.

Features

• Deployment flexibility: on-premise, cloud, or hybrid
• Unified entity and group close reporting
• Continuous accounting functionality

Pros

Cons

• Integrations, especially with recent SAP acquisitions, could be improved and more robust
• Slow customer support response times
• Complex to integrate, set up, and keep running
• Not easy to create customized reports

Pricing

We were unable to find SAP S/4 HANA Finance pricing online.

17. Synoptix

Synoptix is a legacy financial reporting tool that replaces your custom Excel reports to move everything to the new platform, like many other tools on this list.

Features

• Dashboards that highlight KPIs
• Custom reports
• Real-time analytics
• Drill-down and transactional details

Pros

• Helps teams create annual financial statements, especially those that don't change much year-on-year
• Sells to a wide variety of businesses, so it's relatively industry agnostic 

Cons

• Seems to be lacking in features—one reviewer called them bare-bones reporting software
• Difficult to navigate, with an outdated UI
• Users report frustrations with mismatched updates to the desktop version and online portal, suggesting consistent snags

Pricing

We were unable to find Synoptix pricing on their website. 

Benefits of using financial reporting software 

Organizations reap many benefits by having the best financial reporting software, like:

• Identifying trends
• Real-time insights
• Time and labor cost savings
• Accurate data and consequently informed business decisions
• Better collaboration and cohesion across teams
• Minimizes the chance for human error
• Streamlined tax management

The best SEC software will give all the above and more.

More about financial reporting software

There's a lot to dig into regarding financial reporting software. Let's go over from frequent questions.

Financial reporting software for small businesses

Small businesses require the best financial reporting software to stay on top of payroll, expenses, business strategy, and more.

Although the best financial reporting software offers extensive custom reports and features, a small business might benefit from one with limited reporting if the price is significantly more competitive. 

QuickBooks and FreshBooks are some of the most common software for small businesses, offering Lite and Basic plans to accommodate smaller budgets.

Best financial reporting software for Excel?

Cube integrates with both Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel to capture every single data point your business has to give you accurate reports.

Other financial reporting software requires manually copying and pasting data into Excel. Some may offer Excel integrations, but Cube is the only tool that also works with Google Sheets.

Best financial reporting software for QuickBooks?

Maybe you already use accounting or invoicing software for your business. QuickBooks is popular, but you might crave more advanced reporting capabilities.

Cube integrates with plenty of financial software—including QuickBooks—to enhance your financial reporting.

What kind of financial data does good financial reporting software handle?

The best financial reporting software solutions will help you create and report your three financial statements.

The three financial statements are the income statement, balance sheet, and statement of cash flow. Together, they comprise the 3-statement model.

Conclusion: the best financial reporting software? 

No business became successful without any support. Be it through a team of skilled professionals or machine learning tech, the best organizations offload the busy work so they can spend more time scaling.

Cube offers you this exact service–to take on the effort that goes into financial reporting to save you time and resources. 

We've covered an extensive list of the best financial reporting software, each with unique selling points and downsides. 

Now, it's your turn to take the wheel and drive your financial reporting to new heights. Cube could help you with automation, strategy, and seamless integrations on your journey.

Request a free demo today to learn why Cube is the best financial reporting software on the market. 

Sources cited

• https://www.irs.gov/businesses/large-business-and-international-tax-center
• https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/knowledge/other/machine-learning-in-finance
• https://finance.uw.edu/fr/internal-controls/reconciliation
• https://financesonline.com/accounting-software-trends/