APP COMPARE: Business Analysis & Forecasting Tools Part 1

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This article begins a mini-series within our broader APP COMPARE series. In this mini-series, we will be looking at forecasting and analytic Apps that provide business analysis and metrics typically not available within standard financial reporting.

There are a number of Apps in this category, too many to include all of them within a single 'App Compare' article, so each installment of this mini-series will encompass a handful of randomly selected Apps (presented in alphabetical order within each grouping), without regard to any assessment of their performance, and as with our other 'App Compare' articles, no side-by-side comparisons or rankings will be provided. (For further clarification see the Editor's commentary at the conclusion of this, and each 'part' of this mini-series with regard to Apps included therein.)

CashFlowTool by Finagraph

CashFlowTool.com securely connects to QuickBooks Online, Desktop and Enterprise and immediately unlocks power cash flow insights. CashFlowTool predicts the future with confidence, using their CashLearn patent-pending artificial intelligence, so you can understand your current and future cash flow situation.

You can track your daily cash balance, the best time to pay your bills, or when you need to get outstanding invoices paid. Enable automatic updates on a schedule that you define, ensuring CashFlowTool.com is always up-to-date.

In 5 minutes or less you will get over 30 of the most critical metrics and a cash flow forecast for your business. It detects anomalies and sends you key alerts about unexpected bills, late payments or if you’re going to run low on cash. Display them all on your own dashboard customized to meet your specific needs.

For more information see the CashFlowTool.com landing page at the Intuit QuickBooks Apps Center.

Fathom

Fathom is a financial analysis and management tool which helps you to assess business performance, monitor trends and identify improvement opportunities. Whether you call it business intelligence, performance management, or analytics... the goal of Fathom is to help you understand what's happening in your business and how to take action when needed. Fathom enables you to measure and monitor the financial and non-financial metrics which matter most to your business.

Fathom provides a suite of in-depth analysis tools and metrics which help you see exactly how well your business is performing. These tools and metrics help to assess profitability, cash flow, growth and other key performance indicators (KPIs).

Fathom also optionally helps you easily compare, rank and benchmark your companies, clients or franchisees. Or group related companies together to create consolidated reports for an organization.

For more information see the Fathom landing page at the Intuit QuickBooks Apps Center.

LivePlan

LivePlan is an intuitive business planning and management tool set built with small business owners in mind. LivePlan is the perfect tool to allow you to live up to your role as a trusted advisor to advise your clients on an initial and on-going basis as to the status of their companies.

With LivePlan, you can easily create and manage forecasts and budgets to find out if your client’s business can make money; and to find out how much money your client will need to get started. Using LivePlan you will be able to compare your clients’ business performance against their peers as well as to their financial forecasts using easy-to-understand dashboards.

LivePlan integrated with QuickBooks serves as a platform to offer scalable client advisory services to help small business owners plan, track and manage their financial goals. As their trusted advisor, you will be able to guide your clients in making quick adjustments, so their businesses can stay on track and grow faster.

For more information see the LivePlan landing page at the Intuit QuickBooks Apps Center.

Editor's Comments:

As I mentioned in the introduction of this article, there are way too many Apps of this category to include all of them within a single article and remain true to our editorial guidelines regarding feature length. As such, we have limited the number of Apps within this article, and will do so in future installments within this mini-series. I randomly selected Apps and have presented them within this feature in alphabetical order without regard to any assessment of their performance, and with no side-by-side comparison or ranking. The same will be true of all the Apps include in the future features within this topic and the APP COMPARE series overall.