By Jude 
The landscape that businesses have to work with today can be very unpredictable. Using spreadsheets alone will never give the best financial planning. Most organizations today will need to use forecasting tools.
These will give them real-time insights, flexibility and collaborative abilities. Choosing the right platform will help Financial teams to budget with confidence.
They will also be able to adapt very quickly to change. We’ve reviewed seven of the best financial planning and forecasting software solutions available in 2025.
We will highlight their major benefits and also list some of their limitations. This way you can decide whether a software is a good fit for your company.
1. Unit4 – Best for Advanced Scenario Planning
Unit4 will give you a unified platform that you can use for analytics, budgeting and forecasting. Its major standout feature is real-time scenario planning.
This will allow your finance team to run a lot of “what if” models. Once they find the answers they can adapt their strategies almost instantly.
This software is built for service industries and it will integrate with Unit4’s ERP so that you can have a complete and connected experience.
This software excels at helping service based industries. Public services, nonprofits and educational organizations benefit from their financial agility. This platform excels at allowing financial leaders to tie project forecasting, and operation budget together in one place.
| Pros | Cons |
| Advanced scenario as well as driver-based planning | It can be very complex for smaller teams |
| You get real-time data in addition to AI-driven insights | Has a higher price point |
| Users enjoy strong collaboration | It has a learning curve for new users |
2. Anaplan – Best for Connected Planning Across the Enterprise
Anaplan is well known for its connective planning that spans the supply chain, HR, as well as sales and finance. It has what is known as hyper-block technology and this recalculates massive data sets very quickly.
This feature is what makes it a favorite of several large enterprises who want to save on time and resources when it comes to financial planning.
This software is not just about financing. It has been widely adapted by global enterprises in technology, manufacturing and retail. This enables it to connect forecasting across several different departments.
| Pros | Cons |
| It links finance with your other business units | It can be expensive for SMBs |
| Hyperblock technology enables fast recalculations | The setup can be a bit complex |
| It is highly scalable for global organizations |
3. Workday Adaptive Planning – Best for Workforce Planning & Scalability
Workday’s adaptive planning will give you some strong forecasting for your finances. You will also have collaborative budgeting and dashboards to work from as well.
It integrates very well with a lot of extra systems and is used by many ERP systems as well. This makes it a very flexible choice for those who are looking to grow their organizations while still adhering to a tight budget.
| Pros | Cons |
| It has a user-friendly interface | May be quite costly if you have a smaller team |
| Contains robust reporting | The best features are all tied to the Workday ecosystem |
| Has flexible integrations |
4. Vena Solutions – Best for Excel-Native Planning
This solution is heavily invested in Excel but that doesn’t mean it won’t come with some modern and authentic features. It modernizes Excel by layering on automation, centralized data management and workflow adaptability as well.
It is a software that is perfect for those teams that want to have an innovative solution for handling finances but they don’t want to leave the classic excel spreadsheet behind.
What truly sets it apart is its ability to combine traditional excel with a cloud-based FP& A system. There are many finance teams out there that love using excel and they will not have to abandon all their favorite formulas or layout to get a more robust system.
They will have access to automated version control and centralized data. Secure collaboration will also be at their fingertips. This type of hybrid approach to excel is very useful for many organizations.
| Pros | Cons |
| Has a familiar excel interface | Heavily reliant on Excel |
| Provide a strong workflow automation for its users | |
| Gives quick adoption for finance teams |
5. Centage (Planning Maestro) – Best for SMBs
This software is perfect for those businesses that are small or medium size in nature. The tools are powerful but they’re very affordable at the same time and this is good news for those companies who are on a shoestring budget.
Its planning maestro platform will automate your forecasting and financial consolidations as well. This will help smaller teams to operate like their bigger counterparts.
| Pros | Cons |
| It is affordable and SMB-friendly | Contains very limited enterprise features |
| Very easy to implement and use quickly | Has fewer integration capabilities |
| Has very strong automation for forecasts |
6. Kepion – Best for Microsoft-Centric Organizations
This platform is built on Microsoft SQL server and it will integrate very seamlessly with Excel and Azure to name a few. It is among the preferred choices for those organizations who have already heavily invested in the Microsoft ecosystem and don’t want to leave it behind.
Companies that want flexible modeling as well as affordability often choose this software.
| Pros | Cons |
| Has very tight Microsoft integrations | It will require Microsoft expertise |
| Uses a flexible modeling and workflow | Has a much less modern interface |
| It is affordable compared to its rivals |
7. Board International – Best for FP&A + Business Intelligence
If you want to combine your financial planning, business intelligence and performance management then Board International is the right software for you. You will get all of this in one platform.
It all fits together very seamlessly. This is ideal for organizations that want to connect all of their financial and strategic KPIs and visualization tools as well.
| Pros | Cons |
| It combines FP&A and BI all in one tool | Its broader scope may overwhelm some users |
| Has strong dashboards and analytics features | Has a much steeper learning curve |
| Flexible across several different industries |
Final Thoughts
Financial forecasting is a lot for any business. A lot of new businesses fail simply because they have mismanaged their finances.
With these types of warning statistics weighing heavily on entrepreneurs it’s no wonder many become nervous about finances and seek professional assistance.
This assistance can come in the form of affordable software. Selecting the right one can be a bit of a challenge. Entrepreneurs have to think about all of their present needs before making that choice.
One of the best choices they can make is Unit4, it shines for providing real-time as well as AI driven forecasting.
The bottom line is that the best choice for your business is going to depend on the size of the organization. It’s also going to hinge on the goals and financial complexities that you have to deal with.