Planful Announces Major Product Innovations That Support Customers in Driving Peak Financial Performance

Product advancements revealed at Perform 2023 bring finance, accounting, and all budget managers into complex financial processes via an exceptional, collaborative user experience

SAN FRANCISCO, May 11, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Planful Inc., the pioneer of financial performance management cloud software, announced today at Perform23 a range of product innovations including improved budget management features within the Planful for Marketing solution, extended AI capabilities to the Predict suite, and more. These innovations further the Planful vision to help customers achieve peak financial performance by bringing finance and accounting users together with business stakeholders throughout a company on one platform to collaborate quickly and accurately on the most critical financial processes. 

"Modern financial performance management is a team sport, where key players from across the business can simply and intuitively make quick contributions to complex financial processes," said Grant Halloran, Planful Chief Executive Officer. "We at Planful are focused on driving innovations that help our customers to achieve their financial potential, with a user experience that empowers everyone to easily work together with control and agility, at scale."

YMCA of the North, a leading nonprofit committed to strengthening individuals and communities across the country, leverages Planful to bring transparent financial visibility and collaboration across departments. "Planful makes it easy for not just my finance team, but also all budget owners, to see the full picture of the business, including how we arrived at numbers, what they mean, and the impact of their individual business decisions and programs," said Andrea Sorenson, Director of Finance, YMCA of the North. "It's paramount that our employees see and understand how their budgets interplay with the rest of the organization, which helps them engage in collaborative budget management that best contributes to the health of the business."

New Series of Integration Tools
The company announced a new series of integration tools that add to the platform's extensive array of cloud-based collaboration options and furthers the ability for customers to gain visibility across all their data sources. This includes:

• Spotlight for GSheets from Google Workspace: frictionless data movement for Google Workspaces users
• Native SFTP Connector: easily brings datasets into Planful with rapid implementation
• Microsoft Power Automate: Microsoft ecosystem data connects directly to Planful
• DataBlend: seamlessly integrates with Datablend's iPaaS, purpose built for the Office of the CFO
• Integration Tiles: allows for easy discoverability of connectors within Planful, with drag and drop configuration
• RESTful APIs: provides easy connection and scalability under higher traffic loads and flexibility with data formats

Expanded AI Capabilities to Support an Extensive Library of Algorithms
The company's next progression of the Planful Predict suite of AI/ML applications features new predictive capabilities that will extend choice and customization options to help users best address their unique requirements and challenges. Users can leverage a comprehensive library of predictive algorithms natively within the platform, compare their accuracy, and use the algorithm most appropriate for their needs, all without needing to move sensitive financial data around their ecosystem.

"The Office of the CFO is rapidly adopting highly advanced predictive analytics capabilities to deliver more accurate, actionable and insightful forecasts and plans to stakeholders," said Robert Kugel, Senior Vice President and Research Director at Ventana Research. "Planful's approach, in providing these capabilities natively within a business-owned platform, has the potential to bring deeper levels of insight to financial processes."

Improved Planful for Marketing User Experience
Following Planful's acquisition of Plannuh, now known as the Planful for Marketing solution, the company announced new budget management features. These features contribute to an even more efficient user experience for teams working together on corporate financial processes touched by both marketing budget managers and finance. With these new features, planned and committed spend is now indicated at the campaign and expense group level and expenses are considered 'actual' spend for easy tracking and better alignment with finance. The new features support:

• Automated expense inputs with invoice visualization for ease of use and efficiency
• Campaign planning using a range of currencies within one budget
• Viewing campaign and expense group details in one screen for better visibility and access

Performance and Scalability Innovations
Planful announced powerful performance and scalability advancements, with significant optimizations for speed and increased data volumes that provide an endless runway for customers to scale. These advancements were engineered to address the complexity, scalability, and large data requirements users seek, as they navigate ever-changing circumstances. Upgrades include faster writebacks using RESTful streaming APIs and state-of-the-art NVMe technology for storage and servers.

To learn more, join Perform23: watch live or on demand to hear what Planful customers and industry thought leaders are saying about driving peak financial performance.

About Planful

Planful is the pioneer of financial performance management cloud software. The Planful platform, which helps businesses drive peak financial performance, is used around the globe to streamline business-wide planning, budgeting, consolidations, reporting, and analytics. Planful empowers finance, accounting, and business users to plan confidently, close faster, and report accurately. More than 1,300 customers, including 23andMe, Bose, Boston Red Sox, Five Guys, and Zappos, rely on Planful to accelerate cycle times, increase productivity, and improve accuracy. Planful is a private company backed by Vector Capital, a leading global private equity firm. Learn more at www.planful.com.

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SOURCE Planful, Inc.