Strategic financial planning is the process of determining how a business financially manages its assets to achieve ROI and growth goals. Sometimes called strategic financial management, it falls under the purview of the CFO and the FP&A team.
The first step to effective strategic planning in finance is building a solid, forward-looking financial plan that ties into the company’s goals. This means analyzing growth targets, reviewing past performance, and creating models to predict future financial scenarios. Effective planning expands the role of the CFO or FP&A team from managing current finances to shaping the company’s financial trajectory.
Long-term planning helps spot opportunities for growth, plan smart investments, and keep everyone prepared for risks. Finance teams can step up to create strategies that protect the company’s finances and drive its future success by looking at where the company is today, what’s happening in the market, and where it wants to go.
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:
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.
The best strategic planning tools help finance turn inputs into clear decisions faster. The list below highlights platforms built for scenario planning, reliable reporting, and cross-functional alignment.
We chose these companies based on financial intelligence capabilities, integration strength across core systems (ERP, CRM, HRIS, spreadsheets), planning depth (forecasting, driver-based modeling, scenarios), and control features such as permissions and audit trails, plus proven adoption in mid-market and enterprise teams.
What it is: The financial intelligence platform built for the AI-era.
Who it’s for: Mid-size and enterprise finance teams that want faster planning and more strategic insights without giving up spreadsheets.
Cube is the AI-powered financial intelligence platform that supercharges FP&A teams where they do their best work: across spreadsheets, browsers, chats, and beyond. Cube unifies data from your source systems and spreadsheets into one governed, real-time source of truth, so teams can plan and report in Excel, Google Sheets, or the web with full lineage and auditability.
With Cube’s FP&Ai, FP&A teams can move from reactive reporting to proactive decision-making. Instead of bolting AI onto disconnected data, Cube pairs a unified data foundation with structured context so AI can understand your definitions and return outputs finance can verify.
Today, that includes AI-powered forecasting, smart variance analysis that explains the “why” behind the numbers, and a conversational analyst that delivers instant, data-backed insights in plain language inside tools like Slack, Teams, and Cube. Many high-growth companies (like BlueWind Medical and Edge Fitness Clubs) use Cube for all their FP&A needs.2. Data tracking, analysis, and reporting
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Pricing: Cube offers custom pricing and plans starting at $30,000 annually.
Best for: Mid-size and enterprise FP&A teams looking to save time and scale quickly.
Curious to see if Cube is a fit for your organization?
What it is: Planning software for forecasting and what-if scenarios
Who it’s for: Finance teams who need reporting and collaborating tools
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.
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Pricing: Pricing is not publicly available
Explore the top Anaplan competitors.
What it is: Planning software for financial modeling and scenario planning
Who it’s for: Finance teams managing complex planning needs with predictive analytics and real-time data
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.
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Pricing: Pricing is not publicly available.
Read our comparison of Anaplan vs Adaptive vs Planful vs Vena vs Datarails vs Cube.
What it is: Business management software for financial and operational planning
Who it’s for: Operations teams who need a unified platform to manage budgets, inventory, and forecasting
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. The platform’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 compare results against competitors.
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Pricing: Pricing is not publicly available
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.
What it is: Planning software for financial performance management and budgeting
Who it’s for: FP&A teams who need customizable tools for budgeting, forecasting, and integrating data across systems
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.
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Pricing: Pricing is not publicly available
What it is: FP&A software for budgeting, forecasting, and financial reporting
Who it’s for: Finance teams who want to automate workflows and visualize forecasts
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. It offers AI-powered features that automate daily finance tasks and provides real-time data insights through dashboards. CFOs can use Planful to make current financial decisions based on potential future outcomes.
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What it is: Planning software for financial modeling and predictive analytics
Who it’s for: Finance teams who need planning, simulation, and analytics
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.
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Pricing: Pricing is not publicly available
What it is: Corporate performance management software for financial consolidation, planning, and reporting
Who it’s for: Teams who need to centralize budgets, forecasts, and reconciliation from multiple data sources
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.
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Pricing: Pricing is not publicly available
What it is: Planning software for strategy mapping and goal tracking
Who it’s for: Teams looking to review and align KPIs with long-term growth goals
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. The software's analytic capabilities enable businesses to review past performance and adjust future action plans accordingly.
It’s designed to be used by team members of any level and can integrate with other corporate systems.
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What it is: FP&A software for financial modeling
Who it’s for: CFOs and finance teams creating scenario plans and sharing financial reports
Jirav is a driver-based planning platform with features for CFOs to customize reporting and planning. Users can create KPI packages that summarize the current state of their financial health to stakeholders. They can also create new scenario plans based on key business drivers.
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What it is: Financial management software for automating accounting processes and gaining operational insights
Who it’s for: Finance teams managing accounting tasks and multi-entity consolidations
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.
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Pricing: Pricing is not publicly available
AI-powered tools help CFOs by automating tedious tasks and uncovering data anomalies that could take long amounts of time to manually discover.
Strategic planning software offers a range of features designed to bring greater efficiency and effectiveness to financial planning and corporate 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.
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.
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:
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.
The advantages of using strategic planning software include the following:
Strategic planning software provides a single source of truth, enabling teams to move faster and collaborate in one place. The 2024 FP&A Trends Survey reports that Excel remains the primary planning tool for 52% of organizations, often leading to multiple versions of the same model and slower coordination.
With a centralized planning platform, finance and business teams work from the same assumptions, actuals, and forecasts. Everyone sees the same numbers, updated on the same cadence, which reduces time spent comparing files, resolving discrepancies, or confirming which version is correct.
It also cuts busywork. The same survey found that FP&A teams spend 45% of their time on data collection and validation. Centralized inputs reduce that effort, allowing teams to spend more time reviewing scenarios, discussing tradeoffs, and supporting decisions sooner.
Strategic planning is a disciplined effort that produces fundamental decisions and actions to shape and guide an organization. FP&A analysts use the software for driver-based forecasting and multi-scenario planning to evaluate the company’s current position and model what comes next.
With these tools, executives can outline financial objectives, assess market risks, and create forward-looking plans that safeguard the company’s financial health. Speed is a real advantage here: the 2024 FP&A Trends Survey found that only 18% of organizations forecast within 2 days, while 53% take over 5 days. Once the plan is in place, the software makes it easier to track progress, refresh assumptions, and adjust quickly as conditions change.
Advanced analytics and reporting capabilities provide a holistic view of company performance. That visibility helps leaders assess the financial trajectory and align plans with strategic goals. It also addresses a common gap: EY found only 17% of treasurers report complete near-real-time cash visibility, often because teams lack the tools to aggregate financial data.
Strategic planning software helps by turning raw numbers into easy-to-read dashboards, tables, and charts that update as data changes. Teams across departments can quickly see what’s happening, understand the financial impact of decisions, and respond faster to market shifts or emerging risks.
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.
With access to more performance data, businesses can use these insights to guide strategic initiatives, improve project portfolio management, and adapt their approach as needed. This proactive planning helps finance teams move from managing the present to shaping the company’s future trajectory.
With 45% of FP&A time still spent on data collection and validation, FP&A teams that use strategic financial planning software reduce reliance on manual spreadsheets, helping limit version-control issues and formula errors.
By centralizing assumptions, actuals, and forecasts in a single system, finance teams work with consistent data throughout planning cycles. The presence of validation rules, standardized models, and controlled inputs makes forecasts and reports easier to trust, which supports clearer discussions with leadership when decisions depend on precise numbers.
According to an Insightsoftware survey, more than two-thirds of IT and finance professionals spend a day each week on operational reports, time that could otherwise go to variance review, scenario updates, and leadership-facing analysis.
Strategic financial planning software simplifies reporting by consolidating financial and operational data into a single, structured workflow, so updates follow the same definitions and rollups each cycle. With repeatable templates and centralized KPI definitions, FP&A teams spend less time rebuilding reports and more time reviewing drivers, variances, and actions.
Strategic financial planning software helps teams identify and assess risk earlier in the planning process. Scenario modeling and sensitivity analysis allow finance leaders to test how changes in revenue, costs, or market conditions impact outcomes.
KPMG also notes that tools such as scenario planning and sensitivity analysis help teams “measure and quantify risks and opportunities,” so leaders can see downside exposure before it hits results. This proactive approach supports steadier decision-making and reduces surprises during execution.
The right strategic planning software empowers organizations to identify growth opportunities, mitigate risks, and improve collaboration across teams. Selecting a solution that supports long-term planning and adapts to your evolving needs can turn your finance function into a strategic driver for success. Let’s explore how you can select the right software to shape your organization’s financial trajectory.
Verify whether the software integrates seamlessly with existing systems like ERPs, CRMs, or accounting platforms. For example, a system that syncs directly with your ERP can automatically pull in financial data, saving your team time from manual entry. Check compatibility with your IT team to choose software that works smoothly with your tech stack. A lack of integration can lead to unnecessary downtime and costly workarounds later.
Involve key stakeholders like finance, operations, and IT teams early in the selection process. Hosting workshops or surveys can help uncover specific departmental needs and pain points the software must address. Collaboration ensures buy-in from all teams and reduces resistance to adoption later. This level of teamwork helps align software capabilities with both immediate and long-term business goals.
Perform a detailed cost-benefit analysis to understand the value the software will bring to your organization. Consider monthly subscription fees, licensing fees on the investment end, and the savings from improved efficiency and reduced errors on the returns end.
For example, a platform that automates manual workflows might save hours of labor each week, translating into thousands of dollars in saved time. Balancing direct costs with indirect benefits like scalability and improved decision-making will lead to a higher ROI.
Focus on features that address your organization’s unique needs, such as real-time reporting, customizable dashboards, or scenario-planning tools. For example, if your business struggles with visualizing KPIs, prioritize software with easy-to-understand data visualization capabilities.
Ensure the platform can handle your data volume and complexity, especially if you work across multiple departments or regions. Avoid overwhelming your team with unnecessary features that don’t align with your goals.
Now that you know all about the best strategic planning software, you’re ready to choose the right solution for your business. The right platform helps CFOs save time, prioritize resources, and adapt to unexpected market changes. It enables your team to track performance metrics, adjust forecasts, and create financial plans that align with your company’s goals.
Focus on tools that address your biggest challenges first. Investing in software that simplifies workflows and supports growth allows you to make critical decisions quickly and confidently.
For CFOs looking for a strategic planning software that offers seamless integration with Excel and Google Sheets, automated data consolidation, and real-time insights, consider Cube.
Cube brings agentic AI into a spreadsheet-native FP&A platform, so finance teams can use AI for analysis while keeping ownership of the narrative. With Cube, finance teams can run multiple scenarios across different plans, compare outcomes, and use dashboards to review headcount data in a single view for org design and budget discussions.
Book a free demo with Cube today.