FP&A and planning: requirements checklist
From the guide at bestfinancesoftware.com/guides/fp-and-a, published 29 October 2026. Use your browser's print command; the site header and footer are left off the page.
| Requirement | Vendor A | Vendor B | Vendor C |
|---|
| Must have |
|---|
| Scheduled loads of actuals from your ERP or accounting system, with a visible last-refreshed time. | | | |
| Version control for budgets and forecasts, and a log of who changed which assumption. | | | |
| Permissions by department or entity, so a budget owner sees only their own lines. | | | |
| Export of models and data in a usable format, so you are not locked in to one tool. | | | |
| Reports a finance analyst can build without the vendor's services team. | | | |
| Depends on you |
|---|
| Headcount planning tied to your HR or payroll system. | | | |
| Native Excel or Google Sheets workflows, if your team will keep modelling in spreadsheets. | | | |
| Multi-currency and consolidation, if you plan across entities. | | | |
| Operational data (CRM pipeline, usage, warehouse data) in the model, not only the general ledger. | | | |
Questions to ask in the demo
- Load our chart of accounts and one month of our actuals before the demo, and show the variance report.
- Add a new cost centre and a new scenario while we watch. How long did that take?
- Show me who changed a driver last week and what it changed downstream.
- What happens to the model when our ERP adds a new account or entity?
- Which parts of this would our analyst build, and which would your services team build?
- Show the export of a model: what leaves with us if we cancel?
Back to the guide, with the reasons behind each item and the vendors described from their own pages.