Budgeting & Forecasting

The 18 best financial forecasting software solutions for FP&A teams [in 2024]

Updated: June 27, 2024 |

Gina Roffo

Head of Product Marketing, Cube Software

Gina Roffo
Gina Roffo

Gina Roffo is the Head of Product Marketing at Cube. With a career spanning over a decade in the fintech industry, she leverages her expertise to drive strategic product marketing in the finance and FP&A tech space.

Head of Product Marketing, Cube Software

The 18 best financial forecasting software solutions for FP&A teams [in 2024]

Financial forecasts drive budgeting, planning, headcount, investments, and strategic direction. But doing it well takes more than a spreadsheet and a few formulas.

Effective, accurate financial forecasting—especially in today’s business climate—requires modern tools like financial forecasting software to enable accurate projections your organization can use confidently.

Let’s explore the best financial forecasting software available today.

Contents

See Cube in action

Get out of the data entry weeds and into the strategy.

Free demo

Financial forecasting software vs. budgeting software

Forecasting and budgeting both involve planning for future business outcomes, and teams often use them together. However, they differ in key areas:

  • A budget is a plan. It sets the company's direction and outlines its ideal future state.
  • A forecast is a set of expectations. It estimates revenue and income and informs a realistic budget.

The budget serves as the baseline against which companies measure their performance, while the forecast estimates future performance (which they measure against the budget). 

This difference in purpose separates budgeting and forecasting software. Budgeting software helps businesses create and manage various budgets and track expenses against predefined limits. It offers features like resource allocation, revenue and expense variance analysis, and approval workflows for budget proposals and revisions.

Forecasting software predicts future financial performance with features like scenario modeling, predictive forecasting, what-if analytics, and risk management tools.

Benefits of financial forecasting software

FP&A teams have traditionally relied on large, complex, and interconnected offline spreadsheets to develop financial forecasts. No other business function depends more on Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets than FP&A. However, using spreadsheets without a centralized database poses challenges.

Modern, cloud-first, and highly powerful solutions now help FP&A teams perform financial forecasts better, faster, easier, and more confidently. Here are the benefits of using financial forecasting software:

Saves time 

How much time do you spend manually entering data, creating complex spreadsheets, and updating your rolling forecasts? According to Asana, most people spend 157 hours yearly on manual recurring tasks.

You could direct that time to actual decision-making.

Without a single source of truth or centralized database, spreadsheets require constant checking of numbers, formulas, cell references, and more.

Forecasting software automates most of this work by connecting all data sources to a single platform with spreadsheet templates and built-in tools for maintaining rolling forecasts.

Improves decision-making process

Forecasting software streamlines your decision-making process and improves the quality of your business decisions. How?

You can analyze larger and more complex data sets than with spreadsheets. Handling more data reduces assumptions and creates forecasts based on proven insights.

The software helps you visualize and model scenarios based on your forecasts. You can compare outcomes of multiple scenarios, test the feasibility of forecasts, and choose the best outcome for the business.

Key features of financial forecasting software

Financial forecasting software helps FP&A teams create financial forecasts.

Here's a few features to look out for in the best financial forecasting software:

  • Unlimited scenarios (for easily making multiple forecasts)
  • Excel compatibility (because you work best in Excel)
  • Google Sheets compatibility (for easy sharing)
  • Intuitive dashboards (for easy reporting and comparisons)
  • Robust and in-house customer support (for an easier way to create those tricky forecasts)

Most importantly, the software should integrate with other business tools you use, such as your CRM, accounting software, payroll software, and more. 

Best financial forecasting software tools

These are the top financial forecasting software providers, with crucial details on their features, benefits, targets, and more, all evaluated through an FP&A lens.

1. Cube

horiz-wordmark-ultramarine (2)

Cube is a powerful and intuitive FP&A tool. It’s the  first spreadsheet-native FP&A software that empowers teams to drive better planning and performance without changing how they work.

Cube: 

  1. Eliminates manual work and provides the real-time insights finance needs to strategize with speed and agility. 
  2. Pairs the flexibility and familiarity of your spreadsheets with the control and power of enterprise software. 
  3. Implements quickly. Cube gets you up and running in weeks, not months, which means faster time to value at a lower cost.
  4. Connects with any source system, browser, and sheet in moments, so you don't have to change your work style. 
  5. Offers an award-winning customer team with deep FP&A experience. 

With Cube’s cloud-based FP&A platform, you can hit your numbers without sacrificing your spreadsheets. Skip the hours of manual work–and jump to solutions that drive better business performance.

Key features: 

  • Automated data consolidation: Aggregate and manage all your business financial data on a single accessible platform.
  • Sharable planning templates: Create and share plans using custom templates.
  • Customizable dashboards and reports: Use, adjust, and share reusable dashboard and reports.
  • Scenario planning and analysis: Model and analyze multiple scenarios to plan better for business outcomes.
  • Bi-directional Excel and Google Sheets integration: Leverage integrations with tools you already use for forecasting.
  • Approval workflow: Ensure forecasts are sent to the right people for sign off.
  • Drill-throughs and audit trails: View all changes to your data in real time.
  • User-based access controls: Customize user permissions and access levels to maintain the integrity of your business data.
  • Centralized formulas and KPI: Host all your calculations and formulas in one place for easy access and knowledge sharing.
  • Spreadsheet-style interface: Do your financial forecasting on an advanced interface similar to what you’re used to.

Cube features translate to easier financial reporting and KPI management, more accurate forecasting and budgeting, faster close and consolidation cycles, and collaborative teamwork for more control and fewer mistakes.

Pricing: 

  • Cube go: $1,500+/month 
  • Cube pro: $2,800+/month 
  • Enterprise: Custom quote. See detailed pricing for customizable plans

Best for: Cube’s simple and intuitive experience makes it an excellent choice for mid-market companies that want to start fast with scalable, enterprise-grade technology at a reasonable price.

Want to give Cube a try? 

Book your free demo.

2. Workday Adaptive Planning

Workday-Adaptive-Planning

Workday Adaptive Planning, formerly called Adaptive Insights, provides enterprise solutions for planning, modeling, budgeting, and forecasting for the financial workforce

Workday Adaptive Planning for Finance provides large enterprises with explicit financial planning and analytics. Their FP&A solution adds modeling, collaboration, analytics, financial management, board reporting, scenario planning, and financial consolidation capabilities. It also supports integration with other back end enterprise solutions like ERPs. 

Key features:

  • Rolling forecasts: Organize rolling forecasts to manage OpEX spending.  
  • Multi scenario modeling: Run multiple what-if scenarios with real time financial data.
  • Collaborative forecasting: Leverage integrated workflows and consolidated data to increase team wide collaboration on forecasts.

Pricing:  Pricing is not available on their website, but sources report packages starting at $250/month

Best for: Their strong capabilities outside of Finance and FP&A make Adaptive Planning a good choice for large enterprises seeking a transformational, company-wide FP&A solution. 

3. Anaplan

Anaplan supports scenario planning, forecasting, and decision-making. Their enterprise-wide solutions connect strategy to outcomes with accountability to a single truth source.

Anaplan specifically provides FP&A solutions to connect people, data, and plans across the organization to get the right decisions. 

The solution includes planning, budgeting, and forecasting; specialty finance planning; operational planning, which delivers better and faster decision-making; automated cost management practices; and connected financial and operational plans.

Key features: 

  • Hyperblock: Leverage Anaplan’s calculation engine to calculate large data sets.
  • Scenario modeling: Model scenarios with dimensions such as location, currency, time, and more.
  • Data Hub: House data needed to create financial forecasts and maintain a single source of truth.

Pricing:  Pricing for the Anaplan platform is not available online. The platform offers three tiers- Basic, Professional, and Enterprise. Sites report that entry-level pricing starts from $30,000 to $50,000 annually.

Also read: Anaplan vs. Adaptive vs. Planful vs. Vena vs. Datarails vs. Cube

Best for: Anaplan works for large enterprises with strong IT teams that can lead an enterprise-scale business transformation.

4. Planful

Planful offers a cloud-based budgeting software platform covering structured and dynamic planning, consolidation, and reporting. In early 2020, the company rebranded from Host Analytics to focus on mid-market customers.

For FP&A, Planful offers solutions for managing cash flow, workforce reporting, financial reporting, annual operating planning, monthly close and consolidation, and multi-dimensional analysis. 

Key features:

  • Pre-built templates: Forecast with prebuilt templates and native AI/ML.
  • Rolling forecasts: Adapt to change with continuous planning and forecasting.
  • Driver-based forecasting: Adjust key drivers when forecasting.

Pricing: Planful doesn’t list pricing on their website, but users report the platform to be more expensive than others.

Best for: Planful works for companies with large FP&A teams that want to collaborate more with the business.

5. Vena Solutions

Vena Solutions offers a planning platform designed to bring people, processes, and systems together with pre-built solutions to automate time-consuming tasks. 

Specific capabilities include financial planning and analysis, reporting, compliance reporting, and financial close. The platform enables finance teams to do variance analysis, identify discrepancies, and build ad hoc reports for the business.

Vena offers “pre-configured” FP&A software for a prescriptive approach that you can then customize.

Key features:

  • Central database: Consolidate data in one place for accurate forecasting.
  • Workflow visualization: Use intuitive visual workflow tools to represent forecasts visually.
  • Excel templates and integration: Use pre-built Excel templates to turn Excel into a complete forecasting tool with tools like drill-throughs and advanced modeling. 

Pricing: Vena doesn’t list the price on its website; user feedback implies the cost is on the high side.

Best for: Vena works for companies that need the rigid process and planning controls of pre-built FP&A processes or want to customize a pre-built solution for their unique needs.

6. Prophix

Prophix sells a corporate performance management (CPM) solution designed to improve profitability and minimize risk by automating repetitive tasks. 

The solutions help finance teams forecast, plan, and report with cloud or on-premise solutions. Users can keep all their processes and insights on one platform and use centralized capabilities like user management, workflow, and data integration. 

Prophix also has an AI-powered virtual financial analyst that helps users identify and resolve human errors while forecasting. 

Key features:

  • Predictive forecasting: Create rolling and quarterly forecasts with speed and accuracy.
  • Self-service analytics: Leverage AI-driven insights to drill into variances, uncover root causes, track performance, and make data-driven decisions.
  • Integrations: Bring HRIS, CRM, and ERP systems on a single platform to simplify data collection.

Pricing: Prophix’s pricing isn’t available online, but users report it is affordable.

Best for: Prophix works for automating slow, manual, repeatable FP&A processes using pre-built functionality. 

7. Jirav

Jirav offers financial planning and analysis in the cloud, helping accounting and finance teams budget and forecast without relying on error-prone spreadsheets. 

It’s also customizable so you can track, forecast, and share the data that matters most to your business.

The platform has separate solutions for accounting and CFO firms and small businesses, but it's better suited for smaller organizations that want to scale.

Key features:

  • Driver-based financial modeling: Create and maintain financial forecast models across three financial statements with customized models or industry-accepted templates.
  • Cashflow forecasting: Build what-if scenarios and define working capital assumptions to drive cash flow forecasts.
  • Rolling forecasts: Integrate with key business systems, create monthly rolling forecasts, and set plans to roll forward automatically.

Pricing:

  • Industry Safari: $20,000+
  • Strategy Safari: Custom pricing

Best for: Jirav is for small businesses that want to automate their financial processes by replacing spreadsheets with a simple tool.

8. Datarails

Datarails offers financial reporting, data consolidation, scenario analysis, and ERP-Excel connectivity.

Their financial management platform empowers finance professionals to collect, report, and analyze data easily. Its FinanceOS enables users to keep building forecasts in Excel with more functionality.

Without changing how you work, Datarails creates a unified database of all your numbers by automating data collection from your organizational systems and spreadsheets.

Key features:

  • Profitability analysis: Assess the business’s financial viability by forecasting revenue and expenses.
  • Financial analytics: Use AI-powered FP&A tools to analyze patterns and trends.
  • Production reporting: Forecast, track, analyze, and report resource allocation.

Pricing: Datarails pricing is unavailable on their website or other review websites.

Best for: Datarails works for smaller companies that run financial processes and financial forecasts on Excel but have trouble finding and organizing data across spreadsheets.

9. Centage

Centage’s Planning Maestro helps users build flexible, driver-based plans, forecast likely financial performance, analyze results, and share critical information across the business.

Finance teams can keep track of assumptions made when forecasting and automatically adjust assumptions with real time data to make better decisions.

Key features:

  • Cash flow forecasting: Sync cash flow information with actual budgets and monitor the effect of cash flow from any business operation area.
  • Variance reporting: Generate up-to-date variance reports.
  • Rolling forecasts: Run continuous yearly forecasts and generate monthly or quarterly re-forecasts as needed.

Pricing: Centage has three pricing tiers: Standard, Professional, and Enterprise. Prices aren’t listed on their website, but sources say plans start at $10,000 annually. 

Best for: Planning Maestro suits FP&A at small businesses looking to drop spreadsheets and enable more complex financial processes. Their solutions target specific industries, such as architecture, engineering and construction, education, and nonprofits.

10. LivePlan 

LivePlan is a business planning system that helps startups, enterprises, or businesses in the ideation stage to create forecasts for financial statements investors want to see. It includes an AI assistant tool to generate ideas for plans and access sample plans for their industry.

LivePlan provides guidance from business planning experts through webinars, walkthrough videos, and tutorials. The platform integrates with accounting software like QuickBooks and Xero.

Key features:

  • Automated forecasting: Use automated drag and drop forecasting to create sales forecasts, P&L statements, cash flow statements, etc.
  • Scenario planning: Forecast scenarios to see how business decisions will impact bottom line performance.
  • Custom comparison dashboards: Integrate data from Quickbooks or Xero and use the LivePlan dashboard to compare actual results to forecasts. 

Pricing: 

  • Standard: $15/month
  • Premium: $30/month 

Best for: LivePlan works for individuals with a new business idea and startups looking to create fundable business plans.

11. Budgyt

Budgyt is a clean, simple platform for budgeting multiple P&Ls without needing Excel. It helps finance teams organize cluttered formulas and reduce the number of formulas used in financial forecasts.

This cloud-based, multi-department budgeting tool delivers solutions for small and medium-sized businesses, nonprofits, and larger enterprises.

Key features:

  • Reforecasting: Use rolling and continuous forecasts in place of annual planning cycles.
  • Custom APIs: Import data from other software via APIs.
  • Data visualization: Use custom dashboards to compare forecasted vs actual data however you want.

Pricing: Pricing is not available on the website or other online sources.

Best for: Budgyt works for small businesses, non profit, and larger enterprises with cost allocation needs.

12. Oracle Essbase

Oracle Essbase allows organizations to rapidly generate insights from multidimensional data sets using what-if analysis and data visualization tools. It’s a business analytics solution that can complement other FP&A tools with deeper analytics and modeling capabilities.

The platform has sandboxing capabilities that enable businesses to test models and determine which ones are appropriate for production. It also has a REST API to automate the management of Essbase tools. 

Key features:

  • What-if analysis: Model multiple what-if scenarios using business drivers.
  • Analytical and calculation query engine: Do forecast calculations with out of the box and prebuilt mathematical functions. 
  • Excel integration: Build an advanced forecasting interface in Excel.

Pricing: Pricing details are unavailable online.

Best for: Oracle Essbase is best for extensive Oracle organizations seeking an analytics and modeling solution. 

13. Oracle Hyperion

Oracle Hyperion Planning is part of Oracle’s broader enterprise business planning solutions. It combines financial and operational processes to increase business predictability.

Its capabilities for planning, budgeting, and forecasting align financial plans, models, and forecasts across departments, cost centers, and lines of business.

Oracle Hyperion Planning supports robust integrations and workflow capabilities and is available on desktop, mobile, and Microsoft Office interfaces.

Key features:

  • Scenario planning: Model long and short-term business scenarios.
  • Narrative reporting: Provide context to forecasted numbers.
  • Data management: Reconcile metadata differences across business units.

Pricing: Pricing is unavailable online.

Best for: Oracle Hyperion Planning serves large organizations seeking an enterprise-grade performance planning management solution integrated with other Oracle solutions.

14. Oracle PBCS

Oracle Enterprise Planning and Budgeting Cloud Service (PBCS) offers operational planning with flexibility, scalability, transparency, and control.

Their software solution uses built-in best corporate finance practices through a configuration framework that you can use as-is or customize for unique needs.

The software allows users to connect every part of their business with an integrated plan across finance, operations, and other lines of business.

Key features:

  • Freeform modeling: Use freeform ad-hoc modeling to model operational what-if scenarios.
  • Predictive planning: Validate forecasting assumptions and reduce financial risks.
  • Interactive dashboards: Gain insights with interactive, easy-to-read dashboards.

Pricing: Pricing is not available online.

Best for: Oracle PBCS suits large enterprises that combine financial and operational planning and have existing investments in Oracle solutions.

15. Oracle NetSuite

NetSuite Planning and Budgeting, an enterprise resource management (ERP) tool, offers planning and integrated accounting software.

Users can automate planning and budgeting processes and centralize financial and operational data for companies in specific industries.

FP&A teams quickly and easily create budgets, financial forecasts, what-if scenarios, and reports within one tool. However, more robust demand planners might combine NetSuite with a dedicated financial forecasting tool on this list.

Key features:

  • Data warehouse: Simplify data management with a cloud-based storage platform.
  • Reporting & dashboards: Use built in real-time reporting and dashboard functionality for actionable analysis.
  • Financial forecasting: Reduce forecasting cycle times.

Pricing: Pricing is not available on the website or other online sources.

Best for: NetSuite Planning and Budgeting serves large companies in specific industries that already use NetSuite solutions.

16. IBM Planning Analytics with Watson

IBM Planning Analytics with Watson streamlines and integrates financial and operational planning across the enterprise.

More than just budgeting and forecasting software, the platform uses Watson AI to power your financial forecasting or demand planning process.

Users can analyze fine-grained and large-scale what-if scenarios in real-time. It provides built-in AI capabilities for teams to forecast business outcomes with greater accuracy.

Key features:

  • Baseline forecasting: Project future outcomes with historical data.
  • Univariate forecasting: Analyze and model forecasts using time series AI algorithms. 
  • Multivariate forecasting: Analyze past trends across multiple variables.

Pricing:

  • Essential: $825/month
  • Standard: $1650/month
  • Premium: Custom quote 

Best for: Enterprise corporations, especially those with another IBM solution. 

17. Cloud Zero 

Cloud Zero is a cloud-based cost intelligence platform that enables businesses to optimize spending and identify savings opportunities.

Its solutions help users forecast and track the cost of business operations lines, like projects, apps, teams, and features. It integrates with cloud platforms including Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform, and MongoDB.

Key features: 

  • Reporting: Simplify forecast reporting with standard dashboards.
  • Anomaly detection: Leverage AI to detect and flag abnormal spending patterns.
  • Notifications and updates: Send regular updates to teams about how they’re tracking against forecasts.

Pricing: Pricing is not available online

Best for: Cloud Zero suits more technical organizations focused on cost optimization and cost savings.

18. Baremetrics Forecast+

Baremetrics Forecast+ helps SaaS companies perform end-to-end forecasting for their subscription business. It uses a three-statement financial forecasting model. The platform integrates with Xero and QuickBooks, automatically consolidating monthly data and enabling users to generate charts and dashboards in a few clicks.

Baremetrics also supports hiring planning by forecasting current and future employee needs and HR costs.

Key features: 

  • Scenario planning: Plan for multiple business outcomes.
  • Custom reporting: Create forecast to actual reports.
  • Hiring planning: Forecast when you can afford to hire and how much to pay.

Pricing: Pricing details are not available online.

Best for: Baremetrics suits SaaS companies with subscription businesses.

New call-to-action

Financial forecasting methods

Determining historical and current financial performance requires FP&A to gather organizational data from the past several years or quarters, depending upon the cyclicality and seasonality of a particular business or sector.

Estimates of future performance, however, vary widely by company and sector. There are several methods of financial forecasting:

Straight-line financial forecasting

Suppose your business operates in a stable industry and has experienced a 3% increase in revenue per quarter for the past several years. You can assume a similar growth rate going forward, barring any economic chaos.

This method is a “straight-line forecast” and is relatively simple. Your FP&A team assumes the organization will continue growing in a straight line.

However, straight-line forecasting is more complex in practice.

New products entering markets, economic uncertainty, pandemics, internal decisions, headcount changes, executive movements, and other factors impact financial forecasts. Your FP&A team must deal with a lot of data.

You need to account for all these factors. Even when using straight-line forecasting, your FP&A team needs a financial software tool or solution to assist.

Moving averages financial forecasting

If your business relies on historical data to develop financial forecasts, moving average financial forecasting incorporates more data and statistics into its projections.

A moving average uses data from several prior periods to estimate the next period’s results. By averaging over an extended series of periods, it reduces the impact of anomalies, one-time changes, or other fleeting factors affecting future forecasts.

While moving average financial forecasting uses straightforward averaging, it can quickly become complex as FP&A teams forecast more granular details beyond just revenue or profits.

Equip your FP&A team with a modern tool for financial forecasting if your organization has complex product lines, multiple regions, and other factors.

Times series financial forecasting 

If you operate in a sector or industry with less predictable financial results, your FP&A team may choose to employ a time series method of financial forecasting.

Time series forecasting is particularly helpful for industries that experience cyclical or seasonal changes, such as winter sports apparel companies or lawn mower manufacturers.

This method benefits organizations that frequently experience market, competitive, or other changes and cannot rely on years of historical data. In these cases, FP&A teams may limit historical data usage to only recent months or quarters.

Time series financial forecasting typically requires more computing power than standard straight-line forecasting.

However, this method aims to accurately estimate similarly cyclical, seasonal, or fast-changing financial results in the short term.

When using time series financial forecasting, your FP&A team will benefit from the help of a modern, capable FP&A software tool.

Linear regression financial forecasting

Linear regression models the relationship between a dependent variable (the influenced variable) and an independent variable (the influencer).

This method of financial forecasting will help you see the effect on profits, for example, based on taking an action, say adding additional sales reps.

Financial forecasting using more complex linear regression may consider many dependent and independent variables to determine how those factors affect future financial performance. 

Your FP&A  team can use linear regression financial forecasting to create forecasting models based on differing assumptions to focus on a final likely forecast. But, as the number of assumptions and variables increases, these forecasts quickly become complex.

Employing linear regression financial forecasting with spreadsheets can quickly add undue confusion, complexity, and manual effort, requiring FP&A teams to find a dedicated financial forecasting solution. 

Read our guide to cash forecasting for SaaS companies.

Technique

Use

Data needed

Straight-line

Constant growth rate

Historical data

Moving averages

Repeated forecasts

Simple linear regression

Compare one independent variable with one dependent variable

10-20 data points per independent variable

Multiple linear regression

Compare multiple independent variables with one dependent variable

New call-to-action

How to conduct financial forecasting for FP&A teams

Organizations must understand their internal performance, strategy, goals, investments, market trends, etc, to create more accurate and agile financial forecasts. 

This requires lots of data and assumptions, which can quickly overwhelm FP&A relying on spreadsheets and manual effort.

Here’s a streamlined way to conduct financial forecasts:

1. Collect and analyze data 

Your FP&A team must work with other teams to locate, collect, aggregate, understand, and analyze financial data. Ensuring the accuracy and relevance of the collected data is crucial.

FP&A teams often face the challenge of consolidating data spread across different platforms, such as accounting software, CRM, ERP, HRIS, and business intelligence tools.

You can solve this by using financial forecasting software that integrates with your existing tech stack. This approach makes financial data from those platforms available in real-time on the forecasting software, creating a single source of truth for FP&A.

2. Collaborate across teams 

Effective collaboration helps all key stakeholders and teams understand the financial goals and outcomes achieved with the financial forecasts. It ensures your FP&A team doesn't work in a silo and receives enterprise-wide inputs.

Establish easy-to-access communication and collaboration channels between your FP&A team, sales, the business, and executives so they understand outside influencers and account for their impact on financial forecasts.

Use forecasting software that provides a cloud-based platform where everyone involved in the forecasting process can work together, see progress, and be accountable for their respective inputs.

3. Research external data 

While forecasting typically requires you to make a healthy amount of assumptions, relying on assumptions where you can use actual data is a recipe for disaster. 

Research external data and rely on third-party forecasts and analyst reports to estimate the impact of market forces and economic realities on potential future performance.

You can also engage communities of financial professionals like consultants and advisors with experience in financial forecasting to get industry-specific knowledge, valuable insights, and benchmarking data.

4. Analyze historical trends 

Historical trends give you insights into past performance and performance drivers, which is great, especially when creating driver-based forecasts. 

Analyze all corporate activities and past periodic performance to evaluate how different actions have impacted past financial forecast accuracy. Also, this is where you can apply methods such as linear regression and moving averages to see underlying patterns.

You can collect data from past forecasts, actual cash flow statements, P&Ls, and balance sheets and visualize it using charts or graphs. Then, create new forecasts and validate them using scenario analysis.

5. Provide management reporting 

Management reporting presents the outcomes of your forecasts to stakeholders who monitor business performance and make decisions that guide operations.

Provide detailed financial forecasts and decision guidance to the business, executives, board of directors, and others. These reports include executive summaries, KPI dashboards, and performance comparison reports.

This process gives management all the information they need to assess the organization’s financial health and current trends, compare forecasts to actuals, and make data-driven decisions.

Pro tip: Use forecasting software with prebuilt reporting templates and automated report generation to give your stakeholders the reports they need whenever they need them.

6. Communicate financial forecast reports 

Publish financial forecast reports and communicate the organization’s overall financial projections, estimations, and granular details to internal and external parties.

This helps you keep everyone aware of what goals they’re working toward and any assumptions you’ve made. You can use visualizations such as dashboards and charts to make your forecasts clear and easy to understand. 

Encourage questions and feedback from internal and external stakeholders during this stage to foster buy-in and ensure alignment.

7. Leverage financial forecasts to achieve objectives  

What do you do now that you’ve created financial forecasts that all stakeholders have bought into?

Use forecasts to guide teams in achieving set objectives. They provide daily, monthly, and quarterly to yearly projections of the organization's position, ensuring everyone understands the needed outcomes for these periods.

Guide planning, budgeting, modeling, and scenario planning with financial forecasts. Inform the allocation of assets and investments to achieve corporate financial goals and business objectives.


New call-to-action

Choose the best financial forecasting software

Which financial forecasting software solution is best for you?

If you’re in FP&A at a mid-market company, you need easy-to-use and scalable forecasting software with robust features that let you maintain your spreadsheet experience while leveraging the power of an advanced cloud platform.

This article provides a list of software options, but you can always research further by reading reviews on trusted sites like G2 and Capterra.

Book a free demo with Cube to see how the software works in real life.

New call-to-action

More on financial forecasting software

  • What is financial forecasting?
    +

    Financial forecasting makes financial projections to predict and estimate an organization's near-term and long-term financial performance.

     

    Organizations worldwide use forecasting as the basis for decision-making, making it fundamental to finance and FP&A. FP&A teams work with the C-suite and the broader business to gather data, determine market trends and shifts, and develop forecasts.

     

    Traditionally, forecasting relies on a combination of historical performance, current performance, current trajectory, future market predictions, competitor performance, internal performance, strategy, and execution.

     

    FP&A teams use this information to estimate future revenues, profits, cash, expenses, and other financial metrics.

  • What is sales forecasting?
    +

    Sales forecasting projects future sales revenue. A sales forecast estimates how a market responds to a company's go-to-market strategy and execution. 

     

    It might predict future pipelines, close rates, upsells or cross-sells, and even cycle lengths. 

     

    The FP&A team relies on accurate sales forecasting to predict future revenue. They use this information for headcount planning, capacity planning, and other strategic plans and forecasts that the business needs to hit its revenue and growth targets.

  • What's the difference between financial forecasting software vs. budgeting and forecasting software?
    +

    There is no major difference between financial forecasting software vs. budgeting and forecasting software.

     

    Budgeting and forecasting software promises to improve both your budgeting and forecasting processes. But financial forecasting software does the same thing.

     

    Some software with more built-in budgeting programs might help you accomplish different budgeting tasks faster, like zero-based budgeting.

     

    But by and large, the two terms are interchangeable.

  • How are financial forecasts used in financial planning?
    +

    Forecasts drive financial modeling, financial planning, financial budgeting, hiring and headcount (also known as workforce planning), capital expenditures, strategy creation, and overall organizational execution.


    If FP&A forecasts strong profit growth, the CEO, CFO, and other executives may decide to increase budgets in different business areas to maximize that profit potential.


    If FP&A forecasts show slower growth or lessening demand for specific products or markets, business leaders may plan to preemptively leave or reduce investments in those areas as they plan future budgets.


    Externally, the CEO and CFO use financial forecasts to inform external creditors and investors, develop reports and projections, and calculate broader financial metrics, such as company valuation, goals, and bonuses.


    Banks and lenders use forecasts to measure risk, determining lending attractiveness, funding levels, or loan interest rates.


    Potential acquisition candidates, merger partners, and acquiring companies look at forecasts to determine the net value of a transaction or the valuation of a particular deal.

    The primary goal of financial forecasting is to help the business make better plans and decisions based on future expectations. Therefore, the accuracy of financial forecasts is critical to sound decision-making, goal attainment, and financial sustainability.


    Ensuring accurate forecasts falls on FP&A's shoulders.

  • How does financial forecasting relate to the demand planning process?
    +

    Demand planning is forecasting demand for a given product or service so that it can be effectively and efficiently delivered to the market.


    This enables companies to optimize their supply chain and inventory to meet future demand.


    For the most part, demand planning software is similar to financial forecasting software. Both are types of planning software you can use to predict future demand, whether customer demand or shifting market trends.