12 Best Financial Close Software Tools [August 2024] | Vena

To make strategic choices that will help your business achieve its long-term goals, your leaders need timely numbers they can trust. But without a speedy financial close, your team is left waiting for those much-needed actuals, putting decision making on hold.

In the absence of a dedicated tool for managing the financial close, many finance teams struggle to get by manually extracting data from their ERP or GL and working across countless spreadsheets.

This poses serious risks to their business, as managing the financial close process without any help from automation not only hinders potential growth but also creates a breeding ground for errors, inefficiencies, compliance issues and security concerns.

That’s why top companies use financial close solutions to close faster and more accurately.

So how do the market’s top financial close software tools rank? Which is best for your business?

Read on for an overview of the best 12 financial close solutions on the market and the pros and cons of each.

What Is the Financial Close and Consolidation Process?

The financial close is the process of closing your books—on a recurring basis, such as monthly, quarterly or annually—to report on your business’s true financial performance.

During the financial close, finance teams will review and reconcile account balances, document and investigate discrepancies and adjust journal entries. With your financials finalized, your organization can then produce and distribute financial statements, audits or regulatory and management reports.

Two key steps within the financial close process are account reconciliation and financial consolidation.

Without a well-organized account reconciliation process—the matching and validating of balances in your GL to external and internal records to ensure accuracy—during your financial close, your reporting may suffer from accuracy issues that don’t uphold accounting standards. This exposes your organization to undetected fraud and declining stakeholder confidence.

The financial close is also more complex for multi-entity organizations. They perform a consolidation process, which involves aggregating and integrating the financial reports of its subsidiaries into consolidated financial reports. Without this consolidation process, the disparate financial reports of a multi-entity organization won’t accurately reflect its financial performance.

Together during the financial close process, account reconciliation and financial consolidation are your foundation for timely, accurate reporting of your organization’s true financial health. 

These processes establish internal controls for protecting your assets, validate your numbers before issuing financial statements and provide greater transparency internally for regulatory reporting.

Now let's look at some of the top financial close management solutions on the market. 

Comparing The Best Financial Close Management Software

1. Vena

The right financial close solution can also help you manage tasks across the many team members involved in the financial close process—the various inputs and approvals that usually clog up your inbox and lead to endless versions of the same Excel file. 

Many financial planning and analysis platforms weren’t built with the financial close in mind, so when choosing a solution, it’s important to look for how the solution can build custom workflows for how your company uniquely manages its consolidations and eliminations.

Benefits

• Flexible and easy to manage multi-data model capabilities making it ideal for companies with multiple entities and multiple ERPs/Charts of Accounts
• Connects with systems such as Oracle NetSuite, Microsoft Dynamics GP and SL, QuickBooks, Sage Intacct, FinancialForce and more
• Integrates data from not only your financial system (ERP/General Ledger), but also your fixed asset register and subledgers

Weaknesses

• Limits around highly complex ownership structures sometimes required for global enterprises
• Set up for financial consolidation permission ownership can be challenging (however this may the case if you have a complicated organization structure) 
• Some additional training required to get up to speed with financial consolidation and account reconciliation

Want to see Vena in action? Request a Demo to learn more!

2. Fluence

Fluence is an out-of-the-box, no-coding software designed for financial consolidation, close, and reporting. It offers a full Excel interface and is tailored for midmarket businesses. Vena and Fluence have a strategic partnership to provide a unified solution for business planning and financial close.

Benefits

• Out-of-the box consolidation models, drag-and-drop workflow and a cloud calculation engine
• Record-to-report audit trails
• Self-service model eliminates reliance on IT departments

Weaknesses

• The ETL process could be enhanced by establishing a more direct integration with users’ local ERP system to save time during the latter stages of the consolidation process
• Some challenges with Mac compatibility
• Users report lacking automation features when it comes to adding a new company or entity

How Does Fluence Compare With Vena

3. OneStream

OneStream is a software platform which integrates financial consolidation, planning, reporting, and data management into a single application.

Benefits

• Extensible across multiple use cases
• Powerful workflow engine and robust security features
• Flexible in terms of creating reports, dashboards and task automation

Weaknesses

• Requires IT/technical knowledge to use
• Difficult to sort members within the member dimension without using an external macro for meta data building
• Is not native Excel; requires an add-in
• System can become sluggish if too many users are logged in simultaneously 

How Does OneStream Compare With Vena

4. Prophix

Prophix is a software solution that specializes in financial planning and analysis (FP&A), helping organizations automate and streamline budgeting, forecasting, reporting and financial consolidation processes.

Benefits

• Automates time-consuming tasks such as account reconciliation, inter-company eliminations, currency translations, journal entries, and report assembly and distribution
• Can be integrated with other accounting systems
• Doesn't require IT intervention except for the initial setup, backup and version upgrades

Weaknesses

• Acquired Sigma Conso in 2021, a European company with expertise in financial close management, which is a separate solution/product not integrated/embedded in Prophix. As a result, there could be potential integration challenges between Sigma and Prophix
• No details provided when errors are encountered, which places the troubleshooting responsibility on the end-user
• Takes time to run cube updates and overall refreshes, which can negatively impact the close process

How Does Prophix Compare With Vena

5. Blackline

Blackline is a software solution designed to automate and streamline processes such as financial close management, account reconciliations, inter-company transactions and journal entries.

Benefits

• Keeps closing checklist and tasks related to monthly close on track
• Allows for reviews to be completed in a single place
• Can be integrated with most major ERP platforms
• Consolidates the closing process and provides a central repository for all documentation and support

Weaknesses

• No customization capabilities for non-admin users
• Upon certifying a task or reconciliation, Blackline does not update automatically to remove it from your to-do list; you must manually refresh the module
• Complicated to connect with ERPs, requiring custom scripts

How Does Blackline Compare With Vena

6. FloQast

FloQast is a software solution that provides collaborative close management for financial teams, aiming to improve collaboration, reduce errors and streamline the close process.

Benefits

• Adds transparency to the close process to easily uncover any bottlenecks as well as late submissions
• Suitable for SMBs, mid-market and enterprise-class companies
• Checklist, reconciliation and flux analysis tools come ready out of the box 

Weaknesses

• Needs additional templates for reconciliation
• Limitations on reconciliation file sizes
• Performance issues around Flux functionality

How Does FloQast Compare With Vena

7. Wolters Kluwer CCH Tagetik

CCH Tagetik is a software company specializing in corporate performance management solutions that provides financial planning, budgeting, consolidation and reporting functionalities.

Benefits

• Transaction matching and account reconciliation modules speed up the close process
• Drilldown report function makes it easy for end users to drill into their numbers when they have queries
• Automated consolidations shorten the consolidation process

Weaknesses

• Learning curve can be quite steep when you need a function that is not part of the default set
• Error messages are a bit too vague for basic users to understand what the problem is and how to fix it
• May require special customizations to match the uniqueness of a business’s operations

How Does CCH Tagetik Compare With Vena

8. Planful

Planful offers cloud-based financial planning and analysis (FP&A) solutions, enabling organizations to streamline budgeting, forecasting, financial consolidation and reporting processes.

Benefits

• Can be customizable for unique use-cases that businesses may require
• Pulls data directly from your ledger to decrease work time and reduce errors caused by manual inputs
• Has an Excel-like interface that is intuitive for users

Weaknesses

• Data pulls and/or loading time can be slow
• Can be a steep learning curve for more inexperienced users
• Limited out of the box templates are available for use, requiring you to build from the ground up
• Relies heavily on partnerships with other solutions

How Does Planful Compare With Vena

9. Board

Board is a software platform that provides integrated business intelligence (BI) and corporate performance management (CPM) solutions. These combine planning, forecasting, reporting, consolidation (including financial close) and analytics capabilities to support decision making and performance management across the business.

Benefits

• Clean and intuitive user interface
• Enables the consolidation of financial statements, such as balance sheets, income statements and cash flow statements
• Provides workflow automation for tasks and approvals

Weaknesses

• New functionalities are available in the Cloud version, but on-premise customers may receive updates later on or not at all
• Users may experience integration or compatibility issues if data structures are not aligned
• May require technical expertise that’s beyond the scope of internal IT teams; can be problematic for smaller companies with no internal IT teams

How Does Board Compare With Vena

10. Oracle

Oracle Financial Consolidation and Close Cloud is a cloud-based solution specifically designed to enhance the financial close process, aiming to minimize risk, ensure process transparency and deliver accurate results to streamline consolidation and close activities.

Benefits

• Connects various financial modules, such as General Ledger, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable and Fixed Assets
• Predefined workflows and approval processes for financial close activities
• Can scale to handle large volumes of data and accommodate changing business requirements

Weaknesses

• Implementing and configuring the software may require specialized expertise and training
• Upgrading software to newer versions can be a significant undertaking; it may require extensive testing, data migration and re-configuration efforts
• Challenges with compatibility, data mapping and data validation may arise, leading to delays and inaccuracies during the integration process

How Does Oracle Compare With Vena

11. Datarails

Datarails is a software company specializing in budgeting, forecasting and financial consolidation and reporting solutions. The software aims to automate the collection, consolidation and analysis of financial data from various sources, helping to ensure accuracy and compliance.

Benefits

• Consolidates data from various sources—such as ERP systems, spreadsheets and databases—into a unified and controlled environment
• Provides version control and audit trail
• Allows you to drill down to provide data sources and track changes

Weaknesses

• Some users report data mapping issues
• Can be a steep learning curve for more junior users
• Recurring data mapping/functionality issues 

How Does Datarails Compare With Vena

12. Cube

Cube is an FP&A platform that integrates with your existing spreadsheet to provide access to real-time financial and operational data, enabling faster and more strategic planning, reporting, and analysis.

Benefits

• Allows for customized data mapping
• Clean, simple interface
• Easy to create new hierarchies

Weaknesses

• Can be slow for information loaded to the accounting system to be passed into Cube, which can be problematic for last-minute changes
• There is a limitation on the number of dimensions available to your organization which can negatively affect flexibility and ease in managing data
• Importing actuals can be time-consuming, requiring planning ahead and allocating up to an hour for the data to be imported successfully every month

How Does Cube Compare With Vena

Benefits of Using Financial Close Management Software

Managing the financial close process manually can be exceptionally challenging due to the effort involved in aggregating data from all your sources (such as your ERP, GL and subledgers) and coordinating inputs and approvals from your various team members.

Without a dedicated software to manage all the supporting processes involved in the financial close, you’ll not only waste precious time, but you’re also much more likely to encounter errors, reporting inconsistencies, and compliance issues.

Adopting a financial close management software can address these challenges and improve accuracy, efficiency and compliance.

Let’s dig into these benefits further:

Standardized Processes Reduce Errors and Wait Time

The faster you complete the financial close, the faster you can put those numbers to work for important functions like forecasting. But if you’re tediously aggregating and updating your actuals for every reporting period, closing the books early becomes virtually impossible.

When managing the closing process manually, you waste valuable time scouring spreadsheets and external systems for the numbers and documents you need, copying and pasting to roll financials forward and keeping track of all those templates. If you’re a multi-entity organization, then your financial close is much more complicated and time-consuming when performed manually.

Financial close solutions standardize and streamline your account reconciliation and financial consolidation processes to accelerate your close time. They typically provide features for:

• Partial ownership
• Inter-company eliminations
• Multiple currency reporting
• Workflow standardization and automation with pre-configured logic

This all helps you prevent discrepancies that lead to wasted time on reviews and helps you secure approvals for your journal entries faster.

With financial close management software, your business can report on its financials quicker, enabling your leaders to make better informed decisions before your competitors do.

Better Accuracy and Visibility

If you’re performing your financial close processes manually or through offline spreadsheets, it’s inevitable your data will suffer inaccuracies from human error. A single incorrect number can misguide your analysis and decisions as you manually enter data from various systems, convert currencies, and make manual adjustments.

Financial close software tools automate your data mapping with integrations between your ERP and your General Ledger and sub-ledgers. They pull data from your disparate sources—such as your separate chart of accounts—to streamline and consolidate data into one data model. This establishes a single source of truth and guarantees data accuracy, giving your decision makers data they can trust.

By centralizing your financial information to one platform, you can also:

• Track reconciled and unreconciled accounts
• Segregate duties to maintain internal controls
• Drill down to the transaction level of accounts to easily trace the origin of balances or quickly find a specific eliminating entry or adjusting entry

This increased transparency instills greater confidence in your reporting from your stakeholders.

Custom Workflows for Improved Collaboration

The right financial close solution can also help you manage tasks across the many team members involved in the financial close process—the various inputs and approvals that usually clog up your inbox and lead to endless versions of the same Excel file.

Many financial planning and analysis platforms weren’t built with the financial close in mind, so when choosing a solution, it’s important to look for how the solution can build custom workflows for how your company uniquely manages its consolidations and eliminations.

Make Your Financial Close Process 50% Faster With Automation Software

To make data-driven decisions with certainty, you need visibility into your business’s true financial health sooner. And the way to get there is with a faster financial close.

Without a financial close solution, important decisions may be informed by outdated, untrustworthy data—made with little to no confidence—by your leaders. This compromises your overall strategy as you’ll be reacting to stale data and won’t be able to maintain the agility needed in today’s complex business environment. 

A financial close solution enables you to make strategic decisions sooner by closing the books faster and with confidence. It can also enable you to scale efficiently, when the platform can be customized to how your business uniquely manages its financial close process.

Take Idaho-based pet health and wellness company PetIQ, for instance. After adopting Vena for financial close management, the company moved from closing their months on the 24th to closing on the 12th, achieving a remarkable 12-day improvement. The time saved has allowed them to generate a consolidated balance sheet, providing actionable insights across the business at a much faster pace.

To outpace and remain ahead of your competitors, you need to close faster and with more accuracy. Adopting financial close management software is a critical step in making that happen.

Frequently Asked Questions About Financial Close Management

To make data-driven decisions with certainty, you need visibility into your business’s true financial health sooner. And the way to get there is with a faster financial close.

What Does the Financial Close Process Involve?

The financial close process involves closing your books on a recurring basis for every reporting period. The business standard is closing at the end of every fiscal month and every fiscal year. Every financial close process involves reviewing and reconciling account balances, documenting and investigating discrepancies and adjusting journal entries.

Can Financial Close Software Help With Financial Reporting?

Adopting a financial close software can improve the accuracy, efficiency and compliance of your financial statements, audits or regulatory and management reports.

A financial close software enables you to report your business’s true financial performance.

Can Financial Close Software Help With Both the Month-End and Year-End Close? 

By using financial close software, organizations can standardize and streamline their closing procedures, reduce manual efforts, minimize errors, and expedite the entire closing process, whether it occurs monthly or annually. This enhances overall financial control and transparency, providing stakeholders with timely and accurate financial information for decision-making and reporting purposes.