Strategic financial planning is the process of determining how a business financially manages its assets to achieve ROI and growth goals. Strategic planning in finance is sometimes called strategic financial management. It falls under the purview of the 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.
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.
2. Data tracking, analysis, and reporting
Strategic planning software solutions offer a range of features that enable businesses to track their progress, uncover valuable insights, and communicate their results to stakeholders.
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 users with a single source of truth, supporting quicker decision-making and easier collaboration. It keeps everyone on the same page, whether they’re in the same office or working remotely across the globe.
The software ensures that everyone is working toward the same objectives by aligning teams with a unified financial plan tied to the company’s goals. Accessible, updated documentation also helps teams identify potential risks, troubleshoot issues, and prepare for growth opportunities together.
Improved decision making
Strategic planning is a disciplined effort that produces fundamental decisions and actions to shape and guide an organization. FP&A analysts can use the software for predictive driver-based and multi-scenario planning to evaluate the company’s current standing and forecast its future.
With these tools, executives can outline their financial objectives, assess market risks, and create forward-looking plans that safeguard the company’s financial health. Once the plan is in place, the software makes tracking progress and making necessary adjustments simple and intuitive.
Better visibility
Advanced analytics and reporting capabilities provide a holistic view of company performance. This enhanced visibility empowers leaders to assess the financial trajectory and align plans with strategic goals. Users across all departments can see real-time metrics and understand the financial impact of their actions.
The software’s easy-to-read tables and graphs make complex data accessible and the real-time insights ensure businesses can respond quickly to market changes or risks. This reduces planning errors and helps identify growth opportunities to improve strategies for better outcomes.
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.
Some of the best software used for strategic financial planning include:
What it is: FP&A software for demand forecasting and financial planning
Who it’s for: Finance teams who want to automate forecasting, manage budgets, and plan within Excel and Google Sheets
Cube is the first spreadsheet-native FP&A platform that empowers finance teams to plan faster, more nimbly, and more scalably without changing how they work. The cloud-based FP&A software helps finance teams work more effectively by collecting and centralizing data into a single source of truth. This empowers teams to create plans and reports based on that trusted data in the spreadsheets they know and love.
Cube transforms FP&A with a spreadsheet-native platform that offers fast, flexible, and scalable financial analysis for continuous collaboration and insights. Many high-growth companies (like BlueWind Medical and Edge Fitness Clubs) use Cube for all their FP&A needs.
Perhaps even more importantly, Cube was founded by a former CFO. The problems and use cases of FP&A have been baked into Cube since its inception.
FP&A teams already know and love spreadsheets. Cube simplifies many of the headaches of the often challenging planning process—like collecting actuals from other departments or checking and verifying that your numbers are correct—and lets teams turn their complicated budgeting process into a lean operation.
Key features:
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Pricing: Cube offers custom pricing and plans starting at $2,000/month.
Best for: Mid-size and enterprise FP&A teams looking to save time and grow. Cube also works for hyper-growth SMBs who want a solution that will scale with their organization's complexity.
Curious to see if Cube is a fit for your organization? Book your demo now.
What it is: Planning software for forecasting and what-if scenarios
Who it’s for: Finance teams who need scenario planning and collaboration 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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Key features:
Anaplan 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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Key features:
Workday Adaptive Planning 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 compares results against competitors.
Key features:
NetSuite 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.
Key features:
Jedox 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.
Key features:
Planful pricing: Pricing is not publicly available
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.
Key features:
Board 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.
Key features:
OneStream 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.
Key features:
Cascade pricing:
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.
Key features:
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Jirav pricing
Jirav has two pricing tiers:
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.
Key features:
Sage Intacct Pricing: Pricing is not publicly available
Ai tools can help CFOs by automating tedious tasks and uncovering data anomalies that could take long amounts of time to manually discover.
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 and save your team from wasting time on 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 like 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.
Weigh stakeholder feedback, cost-benefit analysis, and your strategic objectives to make an informed decision. For instance, if scalability is a key point, choose a vendor with a track record of supporting businesses through growth phases. Consider vendor reputation and customer support just in case problems occur down the line.
Ensure your final software choice aligns with both current needs and future plans to maximize long-term value.
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 helps CFOs and finance teams streamline daily workflows, model scenarios, and gain actionable insights—all within the spreadsheets they already use.
Book a free demo with Cube today.