Modern finance unleashed: Transforming financial planning and consolidation for visionary leaders

Finance teams face a perfect storm today, with stakeholders demanding real-time insights amid economic volatility, regulatory complexity, and relentless competition. Yet many organizations still depend on systems that are simply repackaged versions of legacy tools — applying old-school approaches to modern challenges. These fragmented systems trap teams in endless cycles of manual data entry, error-prone reconciliations, and delayed reporting. Our eBook reveals why modern financial consolidation and planning solutions aren’t optional — they’re survival tools for finance leaders steering their organizations through uncertainty.

The high cost of legacy limbo

Outdated systems create four critical vulnerabilities for finance organizations:

1. The spreadsheet spiral

According to the 2025 AFP FP&A Benchmarking Survey Report: Technology & Data, spreadsheets remain the primary tool for finance and accounting professionals — 96% use them for planning, and 93% rely on them for reporting on a daily or weekly basis. Yet despite this widespread usage, respondents cited poor data quality as the biggest barrier to realizing the full potential of their technology investments.

Teams waste weeks each quarter chasing data across disconnected ERPs, emailing multiple versions of budget templates, and reconciling numbers that seem to never align. KPMG confirms this fragmentation leads to “increased reconciliation efforts and higher risk of errors.”

2. Innovation inertia

Legacy consolidation tools built in the 1990s still force teams to manually generate cash flow statements and wait days or weeks for IT-led system changes during mergers or acquisitions (M&A). Meanwhile, competitors using modern, no-code platforms adapt to currency fluctuations or M&A activity in minutes. Additionally, these legacy technologies provided planning capabilities anchored in their consolidation approach, resulting in inflexible planning environments that can’t adapt to shifting market demands.

3. Compliance roulette

Manual journal entries and opaque audit trails turn quarterly closes into high-stakes gambles. Our eBook reveals that organizations using legacy systems face compliance challenges that impact decision-making agility, while modern solutions can reduce audit time by up to 50% through built-in controls and audit trails.

4. Insight blackouts

When planning and consolidation live in separate silos, CFOs and finance leaders can potentially make billion-dollar decisions with stale data. Our research shows disconnected systems create barriers to real-time forecasting, leaving organizations vulnerable to market shifts.

Your advantage with Anaplan

Anaplan’s cloud-native, AI-infused platform redefines what’s possible for finance teams through:

Real-time unification of planning, consolidation, and reporting

Unlike bolt-on solutions that perpetuate silos, Anaplan integrates planning, budgeting, forecasting, consolidation, and reporting on a unified platform to put the power back in the hands of your finance team. This connection enables features such as:

• Live scenario modeling, budgeting, and forecasting that enables you to create and modify plans instantly as your business needs change

• Automated intercompany eliminations, currency translation, and reporting to cut manual work

• Instant cash flow statement, income statement, and balance sheet generation

No-code agility owned by finance

Legacy systems’ dependency on IT or third parties creates innovation bottlenecks. Anaplan’s intuitive, no-code interface lets your finance and accounting teams:

• Build, customize, and configure financial reports and planning models

• Modify consolidation rules directly from the front-end, no IT required

• Manage 50+ ERP integrations directly

AI-infused intelligence

Quickly extract insights and deepen analysis in your financial data. Anaplan surfaces critical insights through:

• Automated variance analysis that flags discrepancies early

• Machine learning and AI that surfaces insights and trends up to 75% faster

• Natural language queries with CoPlanner like, “What expenses exceeded budget this quarter?”

Rapid implementation, lasting value

While other solutions can take 12-18 months to deploy, Anaplan users:

• Go live in weeks with prebuilt templates, logic, rules, and planning models

• Achieve up to 90% faster close and reporting time, with up to 50% reduction in annual audit time

• Experience up to 20% improvement in forecast accuracy, and up to 40% increase in finance team efficiency

With Anaplan, you can ensure your financial consolidation and reports are compliant with global accounting standards such as GAAP, IFRS, ASPE, and more.

Future-proof scalability

From intercompany eliminations and new entity integrations to zero-based budgeting and long-range planning, Anaplan handles all complex global requirements for your finance and accounting teams without performance lag. Our cloud architecture supports real-time data updates, instant scaling for M&A activity, and easily adjustable planning models that meet your evolving business needs, enabling finance and accounting to stay agile, accurate, and aligned across all regions and functions.

The future of finance starts now

Legacy systems and spreadsheets no longer meet the demands of today’s fast-paced, complex business environment. They slow you down, increase risk, and limit your ability to respond with agility. Modern finance leaders need a unified, cloud-native solution that connects planning, consolidation, and reporting, enabling you to drive faster closes, deeper insights, and confident decision-making.

Are you ready to break free from outdated processes and lead your finance function into the next era? Start by exploring how Anaplan transforms financial consolidation and planning. Our comprehensive eBook guides you through the critical steps to modernize your finance systems, reduce complexity, and accelerate value.