Finance AI Index
Index › Planning and analysis › Financial modeling › Small business › September 2026 Edition

Financial modeling and scenario planning for small business buyers

Asked as “financial modeling software”, and as “scenario planning tool for finance”, on behalf of a small B2B company. 50 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing
Clockwork
Contested
12% of first choices, contested.
ShowinginAll 41 categories →

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 businessClockwork12%ContestedThis pageMid-marketDatarails19%ContestedStanding →EnterpriseAnaplan56%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
01Clockwork12%0%15accepted challenger
02LivePlan10%0%13accepted challenger
03Fathom6%3%29accepted challenger
04Cube6%11%19accepted challenger
05Finmark6%12%16accepted challenger
06Jirav6%26%23criticized challenger
07Forecastr6%8%12accepted challenger
08Google Sheets6%27%11criticized challenger
09Microsoft Excel6%37%19criticized challenger
10Datarails2%6%16accepted challenger
Show the three products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
13Anaplan0%87%15criticized challenger
11Causal0%10%10accepted challenger
12Runway0%10%10accepted 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
Datarails vs Google SheetsDatarails vs CubeGoogle Sheets vs Cube

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
10
11
12
13
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative30%
Key
01Clockwork12%
02LivePlan10%
03Fathom6%
04Cube6%
05Finmark6%
06Jirav6%
07Forecastr6%
08Google Sheets6%
09Microsoft Excel6%
10Datarails2%
11Causal0%
12Runway0%
13Anaplan0%

02What they warned about

One of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, GPT-5.4 mini, Perplexity Sonar, Grok 4.1 Fast, Mistral Small, DeepSeek V4 Flash, Llama 4 Maverick, Qwen 3.7 Flash, Kimi K2, 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.
Anaplan
87%
13 of 15 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 8 hard negative
“Avoid unless you have a dedicated finance team and $50M+ in revenue.... Anaplan starts around **$30,000+/year**” DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt
Microsoft Excel
37%
7 of 19 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“Creating large, interconnected financial models from scratch in Excel is high-risk.” Qwen 3.7 Flash, negative prompt
Workday Adaptive Planning
86%
6 of 7 labels negative · 4 of 12 models · 5 hard negative
“Avoid unless you have a dedicated finance team and $50M+ in revenue.... Workday Adaptive is often **$15,000–$20,000+/month**” DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt
Jirav
26%
6 of 23 labels negative · 3 of 12 models · 3 hard negative
“Often quoted starting around **$10,000/year** ... requires a dedicated in-house finance professional” Gemini 3.5 Flash, budget 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

66 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. 827 links across 288 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

fathomhq.com
35 answers · 37 citations · 10 models
farseer.com
vendor site · Farseer29 answers · 32 citations · 10 models
cubesoftware.com
28 answers · 40 citations · 10 models
drivetrain.ai
vendor site · Drivetrain22 answers · 27 citations · 9 models
worldmetrics.org
20 answers · 39 citations · 6 models
productive.io
vendor site · Productive20 answers · 20 citations · 10 models
datarails.com
vendor site · Datarails18 answers · 19 citations · 9 models
gitnux.org
16 answers · 17 citations · 8 models
clockwork.ai
vendor site · Clockwork12 answers · 19 citations · 9 models
g2.com
12 answers · 17 citations · 7 models
skyvia.com
12 answers · 12 citations · 9 models
zipdo.co
vendor site · Zipdo11 answers · 12 citations · 8 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.

fathomhq.com/blog/the-6-best-financial-modelling-software-tools
33 answers · 10 models
farseer.com/blog/financial-modeling-tools
24 answers · 9 models
cubesoftware.com/blog/financial-modeling-software
20 answers · 10 models
productive.io/blog/financial-modeling-software
19 answers · 10 models
datarails.com/best-financial-modeling-software
18 answers · 9 models
drivetrain.ai/solutions/financial-modeling-software
17 answers · 9 models
clockwork.ai/blog/best-fpa-software-small-business
12 answers · 9 models
skyvia.com/blog/top-data-modeling-tools
12 answers · 9 models
compassapp.ai/compare/best-financial-modelling-software-2026
11 answers · 8 models
worldmetrics.org/best/small-business-financial-projection-software
10 answers · 6 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 modeling software for a small B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which scenario planning tool for finance would you recommend to a small business that sells to other businesses?”Comparative“What are the top modeling tools for a small team and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best financial modeling software for a small company with a tight budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 30 person company evaluating a financial modeling software. What should we look at?”Negative“Which modeling tools should a small business avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5Drivetrain
Five alternativesCube, Fathom, Jirav, LivePlan, Mosaic
CubeChanged
One alternativeFathom
Fathom, LivePlan
One alternativeLucidchart
against: Erwin Data ModelerBudgyt, LivePlan
Three alternativesCube, Fathom, Microsoft Excel
no first choiceagainst: Microsoft Excel
GPT-5.4 miniDatarails, Fathom
Two alternativesLiveFlow, Planful
against: Workday Adaptive PlanningClockworkChanged
Two alternativesCube, Jirav
no first choiceMicrosoft Excel
One alternativeGoogle Sheets
against: Smartsheetno first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashClockwork
Four alternativesCausal, Jirav, LiveFlow, Runway
ClockworkHeld
Three alternativesCausal, Dryrun, Runway
Clockwork
Two alternativesCausal, Datarails
Google Sheets
Three alternativesClockwork, Fathom, Sturppy
against: Causal, Jirav, Mosaic, RunwayLiveFlow
Four alternativesCausal, Clockwork, Parallel, Runway
against: Anaplan, Fathom, Jirav, Planful, Syft Analytics, Workday Adaptive Planningagainst: Anaplan, OneStream, Oracle Hyperion, Workday Adaptive Planning
Perplexity SonarClockwork
Two alternativesDatarails, LiveFlow
CubeChanged
Two alternativesCentage Planning Maestro, Futrli
no first choiceFloat, LiveFlow
Six alternativesClockwork, Datarails, Finmark, Google Sheets, Jirav, Microsoft Excel
no first choicenothing named
Grok 4.1 FastJirav
Four alternativesCube, Datarails, Finmark, LivePlan
against: Anaplan, Microsoft ExcelProfit FrogChanged
Two alternativesFathom, Runway
against: Anaplan, Centage Planning Maestro, Venano first choiceGoogle Sheets, Microsoft Excel
Two alternativesFathom, LiveFlow
against: Anaplanno first choiceagainst: Anaplanagainst: Anaplan, ChatGPT, ER/Studio, Erwin Data Modeler, Finmark, Gemini, Google Sheets, Hugging Face, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Power BI, Oracle tools, SAP PowerDesigner, Tableau
Mistral SmallBILL, Forecastr
One alternativeFathom
ClockworkChanged
One alternativeFutrli
no first choiceMicrosoft Excel
Three alternativesCompass AI, Finmark, Jirav
no first choiceagainst: Excel + Power BI/Tableau, Google Sheets + Apps Scriptagainst: Google Sheets, Microsoft Excel
DeepSeek V4 FlashFinmark
Three alternativesCoefficient, Fathom, Forecastr
against: Anaplan, Cube, Jirav, VenaFloatChanged
Two alternativesClockwork, Fathom
against: Excel/Google Sheets, Jiravno first choiceGoogle Sheets / Excel with free templates
Five alternativesAdlega, EasyFinancialModels, LiveFlow, Productive, Upmetrics
against: Cube, Finmark, Forecastr, Jirav, Prophixno first choice
Six alternativesCube, Excel/Sheets, Forecastr, Jirav, Pigment, Vena
against: Anaplan, Prophixagainst: @RISK, Anaplan, Capital IQ, Crystal Ball, Datarails, Excel/Google Sheets, FactSet, Macabacus, Oracle Hyperion, Prophix, Vena, Workday Adaptive Planning
Llama 4 MaverickForecastr
Two alternativesBILL, Farseer
no first choiceChangedMicrosoft Excelno first choiceno first choiceagainst: Make, n8n
Qwen 3.7 FlashExcel/Google Sheets
Four alternativesCube, Flare Finance, Float, LivePlan
ClockworkChanged
One alternativeFathom
against: Microsoft Excelno first choiceExcel/Google Sheets
Three alternativesCube, Finmark, Forecastr
Agilix, Cube, Fathom, Float
Four alternativesClari, InsightSquared, Microsoft Power BI, Tableau
against: Anaplan, Oracle Hyperionagainst: Azure DevOps, IBM Blueworks Live, Jira, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Power BI, Monday.com, NetSuite, Oracle BPM, Oracle Hyperion, SAP BusinessObjects, SAP Signavio, Tableau
Kimi K2BILL, Fathom
Four alternativesCausal, Google Sheets / Excel, Jirav, LivePlan
Jirav, LivePlanChanged
Three alternativesDryrun, Fathom, Pulse
no first choiceEasyFinancialModels, Google Sheets
Three alternativesCausal, Finmark, LiveFlow
Jirav
Five alternativesCube, Datarails, Fathom, Finmark, Forecastr
against: Anaplan, Pigmentagainst: ARIS, Anaplan, Bizagi, Camunda, Excel/Google Sheets, IBM BPM, IBM Planning Analytics, Keen, Liftlab, Oracle BPM, Prophix, Recast, SAP BPC, Workday Adaptive Planning
GLM 4.7 FlashXFinmark
Six alternativesBudgyt, Cube, Datarails, Excel/Google Sheets, Fathom, Forecastr
against: JiravLivePlanChanged
Two alternativesBrixx, Futrli
no first choiceLivePlan
Two alternativesExcel/Google Sheets with free templates, Fathom
against: Floatno first choiceagainst: Erwin Data Modeler, Macabacus, Quantrix Modeler
MiniMax M2.5Finmark, Forecastr
Four alternativesDatarails, LiveFlow, PlanGuru, Vena
LivePlanChanged
Three alternativesBrixx, Fathom, Jirav
no first choiceExcel/Google Sheets, Float
Two alternativesFathom, Jirav
no first choiceagainst: Google Sheets, Microsoft Excel
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 19:41yes97 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 19:52yes27 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 19:04yes1722 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 19:27yes205 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 20:29yes2718 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 20:49yes54 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 18:06yes2649 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 19:51yes52 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 21:01no062 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 19:24yes822 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 18:53yes1733 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 18:39yes1427 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 20:50yes1410 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 19:41yes35 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 19:56yes1421 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 18:25yes205 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 18:01yes3017 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 20:34yes53 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 17:57yes2828 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 20:20yes53 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 20:30yes1030 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 21:05yes1436 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 18:11yes1482 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 20:48yes1330 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 19:30yes1713 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 19:07yes310 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 19:55yes1624 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 19:41yes208 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 20:42yes2314 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 19:00yes89 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 18:43yes1626 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 19:59yes74 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 18:28yes530 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 20:50yes1024 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 19:13yes1288 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 19:56yes521 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 18:51yes97 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 18:00yes46 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 21:56yes1653 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 18:51yes207 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 19:29yes3714 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 19:12yes54 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 21:02yes2017 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 18:16yes52 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 18:47yes522 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 18:37yes1021 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 20:13yes1515 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 20:38yes956 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 19:55no05 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 20:13no06 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 21:20yes945 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 20:49yes209 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 18:20yes138 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 20:38no08 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 20:04yes1220 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 20:07yes54 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 18:52no027 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 17:55yes1226 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 20:59yes1468 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 20:53yes1033 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 19:53yes1710 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 19:58no04 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 21:53yes1453 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 20:30yes198 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 18:13yes3718 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 19:25yes56 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-17 19:44yes2380 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 19:24yes54 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 20:35yes1538 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 19:12yes2737 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 20:22yes2747 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 20:45yes1283 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
Adaptive Insights read as Workday Adaptive Planning
Centage read as Centage Planning Maestro
Clockwork.ai read as Clockwork
Excel read as Microsoft Excel
Quantrix read as Quantrix Modeler
QuickBooks Online read as QuickBooks
Workday (for profitability modeling) read as Workday Adaptive Planning
diagrams.net read as draw.io
Unresolved, counted raw
@RISK
Agilix
Azure DevOps
Bizagi
Camunda
Crystal Ball
Enloop
Excel + Power BI/Tableau
Excel/Google Sheets with free templates
Excel/Sheets
Finamodel
FinancialAHA
Flare Finance
Gliffy
Google Sheets + Apps Script
Google Sheets / Excel with free templates
Hebbia
IBM BPM
IBM Blueworks Live
InsightSquared
Jeda.ai
Keen
Liftlab
Navicat Data Modeler
Northbeam
Oracle tools
Prescient AI
Profit Frog
Recast
SAP Signavio
ShortcutAI
Triple Whale
WPS Spreadsheets
WallStreetMojo
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.

Also in planning and analysis

The other categories of this function, with the leader in each.
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