PlanGuru Software

it is very easy to use, very flexible.
it saves my time and it generate results fast for planning.
the platform is easy for the eyes, help links are awesome.
lots of videos, articles, webinars!
awesome supports i.e. friendly and knowledgeable.

Pros

friendly flexible fast

Cons

they really need to have monthly for current year plus next 3 years
many businesses are seasonal

Advice to Others

try it!!

Plan Guru is an excellent product, specially considering that there are no products out there with this many features at this price level. If you want to have the best products you will have to pay tens of thousands every year, ie. Budget Maestro. However I think PG has some room for improvement, such as

1.- More flexibility in the automatization for the recording of Historical and actual values. Not even copy and paste is possible.
2.- Make it more friendly. PG can only be mastered by someone with a strong background in Finance
3.- Expand reporting capabilities and allow to export reports to excel with up the 36 months instead of only 12 mo.
4.- Develop a Mac version or a web version
5.- Develop Inventory module and allow for supporting schedule on the Balance sheet
6.- Flexibility in putting some values ( ie. interest expense) in the balance sheet for capitalization purposes

Pros

-Once you have all the numbers, projections are very fast and exact.
-Income Statement, Balance Sheet and Cash flow integration
-Links to excel files

Cons

- The link process is very long and tedious
- No possibility of using formulas in the actual and historical data
- Need an inventory module
- Need Supporting schedule for the Balance sheet

Advice to Others

If you work mostly by yourself and need a good integration when dealing with financial forecasts, this is the product.
If you need a company product with colaboration, tPG is not very friendly

Don't like it it faults out alot.it was very easy to use but it just doesn't wo4k sometimes.

Pros

Really easy to use

Cons

Just stops working

Advice to Others

Consider a different program

We purchased this software after reviewing many company options. Our funds to purchase budget/forecast software was minimal. We came across PlanGuru, whose price point was within our budget. I can tell you the software performs just like any other budget/forecast software. It is compatible with QuickBooks, so you can import your G/L into the software at will. Once the data is imported, you can begin forecasting by month, year, etc. You can also save unlimited number of files for historical review. The software is very user-friendly and customer service is very responsive. I would highly recommend this software for those companies with minimal money to spend on forecasting software.

Likes Best

Able to send portions of the budget to other people in the firm to fill out and return to me.

Likes Least

Took a little time to get the hang of, but a good product.

Recommendations

It is cheaper than other software (prophix), and seems to do the same thing.

Likes Best

Anytime I have had a problem they were able to resolve it quicky

Likes Least

Software has a bit of a learning curve to become proficient rapidly. However support provided compensates.

Recommendations

Take the courses offered so you can get up to speed quickly.

Likes Best

It is easy to use. It is the only product in the market that I am aware of that focuses on the balance sheet and in particular cash.

Likes Least

Reporting features could be enhanced. Would like to be able to hide accounts that are no longer in use. When reporting condense some categories while expanding others.

Recommendations

It is nice that you can make small changes to the assumptions that don't take hours to see the results.

Likes Best

The reporting exports are nice and clean. It is easy to upload information for historical data. The use of the overall product seems good. Although, the RE and NI seems to be calculating opposite of what I would expect to see. The program can be self taught and that is always good.

Likes Least

You can't seem to see Prior year over Current year, only Actual to Budget.

Recommendations

Beware that it does have limitations. However, it is a good product for small businesses.

Likes Best

It has saved a lot of time building reports.

Likes Least

It was a little difficult getting in contact with someone for help after the initial setup and training.

Recommendations

You don't need to spend thousands of dollars to get a good program. Don't disregard a product because it seems too cheap.

Likes Best

I like its simplicity. The support is quick. The product has all of the functionality to produce a consolidate the P&L and balance sheet.

Likes Least

Consolidating takes a while and needs to be organised.

Recommendations

Try the free download. You will see how easy it is to use.

Likes Best

PlanGuru is good software. One of its key advantages is you can import all your data from any accounting system, and it is really user-friendly software. Support was really helpful at the beginning, and it made my experience with PlanGuru better. It's good software for the price. It was one of the cheapest when I bought it.

Likes Least

My version of PlanGuru still has some bugs. When I import my data, the software notes the import date in the right account. It seems it doesn't recognize the information. Between each import, the description of some accounts are changed, so I have always to re-link the account or manually enter some accounts. I think using only a description as common information for the import is inefficient. People should use the account number.

Recommendations

Solve the problem with the data import. Cash-flow isn't user-friendly.

Likes Best

I like the product's flexibility. Most companies can handle the forecasting of a P&L fairly well using Excel. PlanGuru excels in that not only does it forecast the P&L well, but it also has the flexibility of computing the balance sheet and cash flow, using our calculation method. This enables us to perform "What if" analyses with various revenue numbers that will simultaneously create a P&L, Balance Sheet, and Cash Flow that all work together.

Likes Least

Nothing. I think this is a great product for the dollar.

Recommendations

Be prepared. Have a clear idea of the supporting data and calculations in building your P&L and Balance Sheet. This will enable you to be most efficient in your implementation.