From the Field (Part 4): FP&A Driving Efficiency & Strategic Agility
Previously, we explored how Datarails, Anaplan, Cube Software, Workday and Prophix helped businesses gain real-time insights and transform their financial operations. In this final part, we will see how tools like Planful, and Vena helped companies modernize their planning environments, handle growth challenges, and make more profit.
6. Planful: Driving Profitability with Scalable FP&A at ACI Brands
ACI Brands, headquartered in Canada with over 600 employees and estimated revenues of $250–300 million per year, is a leading multi-divisional supplier of consumer goods across North America. The company specializes in distributing beauty, fashion, and lifestyle products through a network of retail partners. To modernize its internal financial operations and scale efficiently, ACI Brands selected Planful as its cloud-based FP&A platform.
Planful is designed for mid-to-large companies looking to reduce Excel dependency while still retaining spreadsheet familiarity. The platform enables budgeting, forecasting, consolidation, and reporting through intuitive web and Excel interfaces.
Pricing typically ranges from $50,000–$150,000 annually, scaling with modules, integrations, and users.
Our Insight:
Many mid-market consumer goods companies still rely heavily on Excel, but now seek platforms like Planful that offer Excel-like familiarity with cloud-native scalability.
Planful appeals to FP&A teams needing quick deployment, deep ERP integration, and department-level planning without burdening IT.
Companies operating across multiple product lines and customer segments—like ACI Brands—value Planful’s ability to deliver granular profitability insights and streamline reporting cycles.
FP&A Alternatives to Planful
The Challenge: Manual Spreadsheets and Long Close Cycles
Before Planful, ACI Brands’ finance team faced:
25-day close cycles for monthly books and reports
Error-prone, manual Excel consolidations
Limited ERP reporting tools
Inability to perform detailed product or customer profitability analysis
Minimal visibility into customer-level performance
The newly hired VP of Finance recognized the urgent need to streamline reporting and improve financial agility.
The Solution: Cloud-Native FP&A with Planful
After assessing vendors like Adaptive Insights and Pillar, ACI Brands chose Planful for:
Cloud-based, IT-light deployment with fast onboarding
Superior data analysis with daily-level granularity
Competitive pricing and responsive customer support
Spotlight for Office to continue reporting in Excel/PowerPoint
Seamless ERP integration using a custom Boomi connector
Key capabilities adopted:
Cloud-native budgeting and financial reporting
Scenario modeling and profitability analysis by customer/product
Forecasting and debt servicing tools
Department-level ownership of budget inputs via web interface
Excel-integrated reports via Spotlight for Office
Business Impact
Reduced close cycle from 25 days to under 10 days
Completed forecasting cycles months faster
Eliminated spreadsheet-based reporting errors
Provided leadership with real-time access to product and customer profitability
Achieved 75% ROI in 3 years; payback in 1.7 years
Net Present Value (NPV) of $177,257
Strategic ROI
Enabled better pricing decisions through customer/product-level profitability
Lowered debt costs with improved forecasting
Reduced manual workload—finance focused more on analysis
Created a repeatable, scalable budgeting process across divisions
Drove department-wide engagement using Excel-friendly reporting tools
Product Demo Video
Real Benefits: I Brands accelerated close cycles, deepened profitability insights, and empowered finance to become a strategic driver of growth rather than a reporting bottleneck.
7. Vena Solutions: Empowering PetIQ to Consolidate Financials and Scale Without Adding Headcount
PetIQ, headquartered in Idaho with approximately 400 employees and revenues of $1 billion per year, is a leading provider of pet wellness products and veterinary services across North America. With a rapidly growing footprint driven by multiple acquisitions since its 2017 IPO, PetIQ needed a more agile approach to financial planning and consolidation. Internally, it selected Vena Solutions to modernize its finance operations, streamline budgeting, and enable real-time forecasting—without expanding its finance team.
Vena Solutions is purpose-built for finance teams who prefer the familiarity of Excel but require powerful automation, data control, and collaboration. It combines an Excel-native interface with a cloud database back-end, audit-ready workflows, and real-time financial consolidation.
Pricing typically ranges from $30,000–$100,000 annually, scaling based on users, implementation scope, and data complexity.
Our Insight:
Many finance teams want to retain Excel familiarity while moving beyond manual processes (Vena, Cube).
Vena is often favored by multi-entity or acquisition-heavy companies seeking scalable consolidation without hiring.
Companies with limited IT support gravitate toward Vena’s finance-owned, Excel-native workflows.
Top FP&A Software Alternatives to Vena Solutions
The Challenge: Complex Multi-ERP Environment, No Consolidation Team
After its IPO, PetIQ scaled quickly through acquisitions. Corporate Controller Pat Jones inherited a fragmented environment with:
Two core ERP systems (NetSuite, Sage X3) and others like ADP and Innatrack
Manual Excel consolidations taking over three months
Disconnected reports and templates across business units
No internal team for consolidation or integration
Limited IT bandwidth for SQL-based automations
Pat needed a finance-owned, low-code solution to simplify consolidation and support scalable budgeting.
The Solution: Excel-Native Consolidation and Forecasting with Vena
After evaluating alternatives, PetIQ chose Vena for its ease of use, fast onboarding, and ability to unify data across multiple ERPs—all while retaining an Excel interface.
With support from Vena’s Expert Managed Services Plus (EMS+), the finance team:
Consolidated financials across five systems
Implemented a 9-month rolling forecast to replace static budgeting
Rolled out self-service dashboards and Excel-integrated reports
Empowered 55+ budget owners across departments
Enabled controllers to refresh data on-demand, improving agility
Business Impact:
Close cycle reduced by 12 days (from the 24th to the 12th of the month)
Forecasting cadence transformed from static plans to rolling forecasts
ERP consolidation streamlined from 3 reports to 1 unified template
Operational visibility achieved with real-time consolidated balance sheets
Headcount efficiency: 5 acquisitions absorbed with no finance team growth
Audit readiness: Clean audits and zero late SEC filings
Scalability: Supported growth from $200M to $1B in revenue with the same team
Strategic ROI:
Enabled decentralized planning with 55+ contributors
Scaled from 2 to 5 ERPs without technical debt
Achieved rapid, real-time forecasting across divisions
Built out HR and CapEx templates to support broader operational planning
Strengthened finance as a strategic business enabler with minimal IT support
Real Benefits: PetIQ’s adoption of Vena showcases how an agile, Excel-native FP&A platform can transform financial operations without disrupting teams. Vena delivered automation, speed, and structure that enabling PetIQ to grow fivefold while maintaining lean finance operations.
These case studies show how businesses across industries are using FP&A tools to solve critical financial planning challenges. Common benefits include:
30–50% faster financial reporting
Improved forecasting accuracy
25–40% reduction in financial close time
Hundreds of thousands in cost savings through automation
When selecting an FP&A tool, businesses should consider factors such as compatibility with current workflows, automation capabilities, scalability, and the ability to unify data across departments. With the right solution, finance teams can shift from data wrangling to strategic decision-making.