Light vs OneStream
OneStream is an enterprise corporate performance management platform that unifies financial close and consolidation, planning, reporting and analytics on one data model. It is strong on group consolidation, account reconciliations, driver-based and workforce planning, tax provisioning and ESG reporting, with AI agents built into those workflows. It is not an ERP: it sits alongside the ERPs your entities run and pulls their data in through connectors. Light is the agentic ERP where the ledger and the consolidation are the same system, so the group numbers are the books rather than a platform built above them.
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- KPMG global partnership
- Remove 4+ tools
- 700+ apps
The world's most demanding finance teams run on Light.
Light and OneStream, compared
| Feature | Light | OneStream |
|---|---|---|
| General ledger and accounting system of record | ||
| Multi-entity consolidation | ||
| Budget, forecast and budget-vs-actual reporting | ||
| Accounts payable and accounts receivable ledgers | ||
| Corporate cards and spend management | ||
| Vendor payments on local rails | ||
| Consolidation posts continuously as transactions happen |
Consolidate at the source
OneStream loads data from the ERPs your entities run. Light consolidates as transactions post, with drill-down from group figures to source documents.
Keep daily finance together
Light runs bills, invoicing, cards and payments alongside the general ledger. Agents complete routine work within your controls, with a record of every action.
Check the specialist requirements
OneStream covers driver-based, scenario and workforce planning, tax provisioning and ESG reporting. If you need those, a dedicated platform is the right answer; compare them explicitly before deciding.
When to choose Light
One ledger for every entity
Add a company, a country or a currency without adding another system.
Close every entity at once
Consolidation and eliminations update as transactions post.
One product for all of finance
Ledger, cards, bills, billing and consolidation share one data model, so nothing moves between systems.
“We evaluated several vendors. Light won because it covers our full finance stack, revenue, AR, AP, expenses, and consolidation, without stitching together a patchwork of point solutions.”
TanjaDirector of Finance, Omnea
Built for the daily work
Bills through to payment
Capture invoices, route approvals and pay vendors from the same system.
Room to grow
One ledger built to handle billions of transactions across your business.
Trace every number
Open a report and drill straight into the transactions behind it.
Spending, under control
Expenses, vendors and cards connected to your ledger.
Expenses
Collect receipts, approve expenses and track spend as it happens.
Vendors
Keep supplier details, bills and approvals together. Apply your purchasing rules as work moves through.
Cards
Issue cards for employees and vendors. Pay with Apple Pay or Google Pay. Send receipts through Slack, Teams or email.
Frequently asked questions
Is OneStream a general ledger?
No. It sits alongside your ERPs and consolidates, plans and reports on their data.
Can Light replace our entity ERPs?
Light provides the ledger, payables, receivables, spend and consolidation in one platform.
When does OneStream fit?
When you keep many different ERPs, or need enterprise planning, tax and ESG reporting on top of them.