Light vs Planful
Planful is a financial performance management platform that connects planning, close, consolidation and reporting. It is strong at budgeting and forecasting, what-if scenarios, workforce planning and a structured close with automated eliminations and currency translation. It is not a general ledger: it connects to your ERP and picks up where the ERP ends. Light is the agentic ERP where budget, forecast, variance and consolidation run on the posted ledger itself, so the plan and the group numbers are the books rather than a layer above them.
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Light and Planful, compared
| Feature | Light | Planful |
|---|---|---|
| General ledger and accounting system of record | ||
| Budget, forecast and budget-vs-actual reporting | ||
| Actuals come straight off the posted ledger, with no import step | ||
| Multi-entity consolidation | ||
| Accounts payable and accounts receivable ledgers | ||
| Corporate cards and spend management | ||
| Vendor payments on local rails |
Budget and consolidate in the ledger
Planful works on data from your ERP. Light runs budget, forecast, variance and consolidation on the posted ledger, with every number drilling to its source documents.
Keep daily finance together
Light runs the general ledger, bills, invoicing, cards, payments and consolidation in one product. Agents complete routine work within your controls, with a record of every action.
Check the planning requirements
Planful covers what-if scenarios and workforce and compensation planning. Light budgets and forecasts on the ledger, and its own FP&A and Management Reporting apps are free with your Light plan. If you need those, Light also connects to dedicated planning tools such as Abacum and Drivetrain.
When to choose Light
Budget against the books
Budget and forecast on the same keys as the ledger, with variance split into operational and FX.
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 Planful a general ledger?
No. It plans, closes and reports on data from your connected ERP.
Does Light do budgeting and consolidation?
Yes. Budgets use the same keys as the ledger, and consolidation updates as transactions post.
When does Planful fit?
When you keep several ERPs, or need scenario and workforce planning alongside close.