Finance AI Index
September 2026 Edition · The permanent record of this edition. The unqualified address always carries the latest edition.
Index › Accounting and close › Financial close manageme › Small business › September 2026 Edition

Financial close management for small business buyers

Asked as “financial close management software”, and as “month-end close software”, on behalf of a small B2B company. 50 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing
Numeric
Contested
36% of first choices, contested.
ShowinginAll 41 categories in the September 2026 Edition →

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment; they sit side by side and are never added together.
Small businessNumeric36%ContestedThis pageMid-marketFloQast60%Clear leaderStanding →EnterpriseBlackLine64%Clear leaderStanding →

01The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for a small B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01Numeric36%7%41endorsed leader
02FloQast18%33%46criticized challenger
03DOKKA Close8%8%13accepted challenger
04Finlens8%0%10accepted challenger
05PivotXL6%0%10accepted challenger
06Double4%0%18accepted challenger
07Datarails2%6%16accepted challenger
Show the two products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
09BlackLine0%88%33criticized challenger
08Workiva0%79%14criticized challenger
Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its vendor page.
Head to head
FloQast vs NumericFloQast vs ProphixNumeric vs Prophix

Recommended versus criticized

Every product with at least 10 labels here, on both axes. The 30% line names a quadrant, not the verdict above: that one needs more than 40%.

Criticized challengerCriticized default
Negative label rate →
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative50%
Key
01Numeric36%
02FloQast18%
03DOKKA Close8%
04Finlens8%
05PivotXL6%
06Double4%
07Datarails2%
08Workiva0%
09BlackLine0%

02What they warned about

Two of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, GPT-5.4 mini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Perplexity Sonar, Mistral Small, DeepSeek V4 Flash, Llama 4 Maverick, Qwen 3.7 Flash, GLM 4.7 FlashX and MiniMax M2.5 changed. A high negative share on a product with few labels is a warning. A low share on a product with many labels is salience, not sentiment.
BlackLine
88%
29 of 33 labels negative · 11 of 12 models · 14 hard negative
“**Skip (at least initially):** BlackLine, Workiva, Trintech, OneStream — these are enterprise tools designed for much larger finance teams and budgets.” DeepSeek V4 Flash, scale prompt
Workiva
79%
11 of 14 labels negative · 9 of 12 models · 6 hard negative
“**BlackLine** and **Workiva** \u2013 These require dedicated admins and are designed for large enterprises.” MiniMax M2.5, negative prompt
FloQast
33%
15 of 46 labels negative · 9 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“What to Avoid (too expensive for a tight budget) ... Overkill for most small companies.” DeepSeek V4 Flash, budget prompt
OneStream
100%
5 of 5 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“These mid-market enterprise tools often have steep learning curves and high price tags” MiniMax M2.5, negative prompt

03What they cite

Citations exist only for the models that return a source list: twelve of the twelve in this edition, and all six flagship models on the expanded tier.

Sites the answers cite

65 of 72 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 12 of 12 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 6 of those lists are Google grounding redirects that name no site and are left out of the counts. 846 links across 208 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

numeric.io
vendor site · Numeric49 answers · 74 citations · 10 models
learn.g2.com
36 answers · 39 citations · 10 models
dokka.com
vendor site · DOKKA33 answers · 45 citations · 10 models
doublehq.com
28 answers · 55 citations · 9 models
g2.com
19 answers · 25 citations · 9 models
getapp.com
17 answers · 25 citations · 9 models
capterra.com
16 answers · 20 citations · 9 models
finlens.app
vendor site · Finlens14 answers · 24 citations · 6 models
worldmetrics.org
14 answers · 20 citations · 8 models
spendesk.com
vendor site · Spendesk14 answers · 14 citations · 10 models
financial-cents.com
13 answers · 13 citations · 8 models
hubifi.com
vendor site · HubiFi12 answers · 19 citations · 7 models

Pages the answers cite

The ten pages named in the most answers, by full address. A page here is one the models returned with a recommendation, not one the index endorses.

numeric.io/blog/financial-close-software
49 answers · 10 models
learn.g2.com/best-financial-close-software
35 answers · 10 models
dokka.com/best-financial-close-software-for-small-businesses
30 answers · 10 models
doublehq.com/blog/best-close-management-systems-for-finance-teams
18 answers · 8 models
doublehq.com/blog/6-best-close-management-tools-internal-finance-teams
17 answers · 9 models
getapp.com/all-software/financial-close/org/small-business
15 answers · 9 models
finlens.app/blogs/month-end-close-tools
14 answers · 6 models
spendesk.com/blog/best-month-end-close-software
14 answers · 10 models
financial-cents.com/resources/articles/best-month-end-close-software
13 answers · 8 models
capterra.com/financial-close-software/s/small-businesses
12 answers · 8 models

04How they answered

Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. One row per model, so a row shows whether it held its answer under rewording, what it named when cost was the constraint, and what it argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.
ModelDirect“What is the best financial close management software for a small B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which month-end close software would you recommend to a small business that sells to other businesses?”Comparative“What are the top close management tools for a small team and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best financial close management software for a small company with a tight budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 30 person company evaluating a financial close management software. What should we look at?”Negative“Which close management tools should a small business avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5Sage Intacct
Three alternativesDatarails, FloQast, Numeric
against: BlackLine, WorkivaNumericChanged
Three alternativesDatarails, Double, Sage Intacct
Double
Two alternativesDatarails, Numeric
against: FloQastDatarails
Three alternativesCube, Planful, Sage Intacct
against: BlackLine, OneStreamno first choiceagainst: BlackLine
GPT-5.4 miniFloQast
One alternativeLiveFlow
against: BlackLineno first choiceChanged
Three alternativesAsana, Monday.com, Notion
against: BlackLineno first choiceFloQast
One alternativeLiveFlow
against: BlackLine, OneStream, Workivano first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashNumeric
Three alternativesMayday, ScaleXP, Xenett
against: BlackLine, FloQast, TrintechDoubleChanged
Two alternativesLiveFlow, Numeric
against: FloQastDouble
Three alternativesFloQast, Numeric, Trintech Adra
against: BlackLine, Trintech CadencyNumeric
Four alternativesCoefficient, Financial Cents, Finlens, Trintech Adra
against: BlackLine, FloQastNumeric
Four alternativesClay, Double, FloQast, NetClose
against: Anaplan, BlackLine, OneStream, Solver, Trintech, Workiva
Perplexity SonarNumeric
Four alternativesDOKKA Close, Datarails, FloQast, Vena
DOKKA Close, NumericChanged
Two alternativesDatarails, FloQast
no first choiceNumeric
Four alternativesDOKKA Close, Datarails, FloQast, Vena
no first choiceagainst: Asana, BlackLine, Close, Excel, FloQast, Google Sheets, Monday.com
Grok 4.1 FastNumeric
Two alternativesDatarails, FloQast
NumericHeld
One alternativeFinlens
against: BlackLine, FloQastno first choiceEasy Month End
Two alternativesFinlens, PivotXL
against: BlackLine, DOKKA Close, FloQast, NumericFloQast, Numeric
One alternativeBlackLine
against: Trintech Adra, Workivaagainst: BlackLine, Workiva
Mistral SmallDOKKA Close
Two alternativesDouble, PivotXL
KashFlow, SpendeskChanged
Two alternativesMYOB, Numeric
Double, FloQast
Two alternativesBlackLine, Numeric
Numeric, PivotXL
Two alternativesDOKKA Close, FloQast
no first choicenothing named
DeepSeek V4 FlashDOKKA Close, FloQast
One alternativeDatarails
QuickBooks OnlineChanged
Five alternativesBILL AP/AR, FloQast, Numeric, Xero, Zoho Books
against: Oracle NetSuite, Sage IntacctClose
Five alternativesCopper, Freshsales, HubSpot, Pipedrive, Zoho CRM
against: SalesforceFinlens, PivotXL
One alternativeEasy Month End
against: BlackLine, FloQast, PlanfulDOKKA Close, FloQast, Numericagainst: BlackLine, OneStream, Trintech, Workivaagainst: Close, HubSpot, Salesforce
Llama 4 MaverickPivotXLKashFlowChanged
One alternativeMYOB
DOKKA Closeno first choiceno first choiceagainst: BlackLine, FloQast, Numeric, Workiva
Qwen 3.7 FlashNumeric
Three alternativesDatarails, Finlens, FloQast
Flow.ioChanged
Five alternativesApproACH, Billtrust, Datarails, FloQlik, Reconcilio
against: HighRadiusPipedrive
Four alternativesClose, Copper, Dubsado, HubSpot
against: SalesforceFinlens
Three alternativesPivotXL, QuickBooks Online, Xero
against: BlackLine, FloQastFloQast
Three alternativesAccountantView, Corrodata, Trullion
against: BlackLineagainst: Asana, BlackLine, Monday.com, Trello, Workiva
Kimi K2Numeric
Two alternativesEasy Month End, FloQast
against: BlackLineNumericHeld
Two alternativesDouble, Finlens
against: BlackLine, FloQast, Oracle NetSuite, Sage IntacctDouble
Two alternativesFinancial Cents, Numeric
against: BlackLine, FloQastFinlens
Three alternativesCube, Numeric, PivotXL
FloQast
Two alternativesNumeric, Trintech Adra
against: BlackLine, Workivaagainst: BlackLine, Datarails, FloQast, Planful, Trintech, Vena, Workiva
GLM 4.7 FlashXNumeric
Two alternativesDouble, Easy Month End
against: BlackLine, FloQastDoubleChanged
One alternativeDatarails
against: FloQast, NumericFloQast
Two alternativesLiveFlow, Numeric
against: BlackLineNumeric
Five alternativesAkaunting, Cube, FloQast, GnuCash, MODLR
no first choiceagainst: Agile CRM, Apptivo, Bitrix24, HubSpot Sales Hub (paid tiers), HubSpot Marketing Hub, HubSpot Service Hub, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Oracle CX / SAP CRM, Salesforce, Zoho One, Zoho CRM + Zoho Desk + Zoho Campaigns
MiniMax M2.5FloQast, Numeric
Three alternativesDOKKA Close, LiveFlow, PivotXL
QuickBooks Online, XeroChanged
Two alternativesDouble, FloQast
Double, Numeric
One alternativeFloQast
against: BlackLineFinlens
Two alternativesEasy Month End, PivotXL
FloQast
Three alternativesNumeric, Trintech Adra, Vena
against: BlackLine, Close, Lucanet, OneStream, Planful, Workiva
Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against

05The record

One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, and latency. Full answer text is in the free responses file. Download the record
Seventy-two rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 18:11yes98 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 20:32yes25 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 19:42yes2221 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 20:22yes204 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 18:52yes4419 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 20:25yes1710 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 19:43yes2529 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 18:02yes53 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 21:08yes1127 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 21:02yes1526 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 20:56yes18133 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 17:56yes1442 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 18:39yes198 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 19:35yes24 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 21:55yes1564 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 17:59yes207 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 20:47yes2916 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 20:51yes55 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 20:36yes1820 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 19:48yes53 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 19:36yes739 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 20:15yes2746 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 19:07yes2649 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 18:08yes818 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 17:59yes1413 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 18:12no04 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 21:54yes2047 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 20:44yes207 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 19:47yes2417 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 20:02yes68 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 18:57yes2934 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 20:46yes53 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 20:49no027 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 18:01yes1537 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 20:05yes21175 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 19:42yes1441 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 20:57yes98 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 19:28yes25 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 19:37yes1722 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 19:02yes207 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 19:35yes2919 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 20:07yes87 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 20:28yes1714 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 18:11yes52 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 19:56yes1329 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 18:29yes1424 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 20:22yes1649 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 19:20yes727 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 18:15no07 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 18:40no08 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 19:27yes920 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 18:22yes209 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 18:40yes1116 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 20:27no07 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-17 18:01yes1650 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 18:38yes53 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 18:31no032 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 21:04yes827 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 20:07yes923 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 18:25yes519 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 19:53yes1610 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 21:03no05 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 21:56yes1260 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 20:40yes206 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 20:56yes2415 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 20:55yes55 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 18:35yes2523 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 19:47yes85 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 19:29yes516 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 18:44yes819 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 20:57yes1582 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 19:48yes1237 s

Normalization in this category

Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.

Category-scoped readings
Adra read as Trintech Adra
Adra (Trintech) read as Trintech Adra
Adra (by Trintech) read as Trintech Adra
Adra by Trintech read as Trintech Adra
DOKKA read as DOKKA Close
HubSpot CRM read as HubSpot
NetSuite read as Oracle NetSuite
Vena Solutions read as Vena
Unresolved, counted raw
AccountantView
Agile CRM
ApproACH
Apptivo
CloseTheBooks
Corrodata
Flare
FloQlik
Flow.io
Fluid CRM
HubSpot Sales Hub (paid tiers), HubSpot Marketing Hub, HubSpot Service Hub
Mayday
Oracle CX / SAP CRM
Reconcilio
ScaleSuite
Zoho One, Zoho CRM + Zoho Desk + Zoho Campaigns
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.

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