Prophix versus Fluence Technologies: a side-by-side comparison

With so many options available, choosing the right financial consolidation software can be overwhelming. That’s why we’ve done some of the research for you.

Today, we’re looking at two choices for financial consolidation software: Prophix and Fluence Technologies. We’ll break down key features, compare their strengths, and help you determine which is the right fit for your business.

How Prophix and Fluence bring your data together

How Prophix and Fluence analyze data and build reports

The Prophix Financial Performance Platform offers advanced management reporting, financial planning & analysis, financial consolidation, and intercompany management capabilities.

Prophix for analyzing data and building reports

Prophix’s Data Integration allows customers to use the same financial data across all applications, so any changes made by a user in one application are updated in real-time wherever that data appears throughout the platform.

Prophix’s robust Financial Consolidation application enables users to make any changes to the consolidation scope, including participation rates, step-ups, new acquisitions, and sub-consolidations.

Prophix also provides our customers with a library of out-of-the-box reports, including analysis, drill-down, and audit trail reports to ensure full transparency at any consolidation stage. Prophix’s powerful consolidation tool process consolidation in seconds regardless of its complexity and the amount of data involved.

Fluence Technologies for analyzing data and building reports

Fluence is one of the newest vendors in the financial consolidation space that offers a user-friendly interface with strong workflow capabilities. However, this interface was built on the back of Excel templates and relies on an integration with Power BI for complex data visualizations.

Fluence also depends heavily on other Excel-based solutions, such as Vena’s Complete Planning platform for FP&A and its own Fluence XL for reporting (based on its acquisition of XLCubed). Fluence leverages Datablend (a third-party data integration tool) to move customer data between Fluence and other FP&A vendors and for loading data from different ERPs.

This means that Fluence customers will have to sign three separate contracts with Fluence, the FP&A partner, and Datablend and undergo three separate implementations. Dealing with three different vendors could also lead to three times the commercial and technology risk for Fluence customers, as they are likely to have poor post-implementation support experience.

Prophix vs. Fluence: How do I know which solution is right for me?

Now that you understand how Prophix and Fluence Technologies have built their consolidation applications and their unique approaches to reporting and analytics, you can determine which solution is right for you.

Benefits of Prophix for financial consolidation

Prophix is the ideal vendor for large organizations that have a strong growth potential and want to scale their global operations with a quick to implement solution that is easy to modify without the need for development work.

Prophix’s Financial Performance Platform offers applications for Financial Consolidation, in addition to Financial Planning and Analysis, and Intercompany Management. The platform brings your key financial processes together in one place with hyper precision, adaptability, and dramatic performance so you can simplify and transform your processes.

Since the Financial Consolidation application was designed to provide greater automation and manage higher levels of data complexity, finance professionals can focus on making strategic business decisions instead of grappling with Excel crashes or manual data updates.

We also provide post-implementation support through a Continuous Success Package Program that enables you to work with our in-house experts who understand how the software was configured for your instance. Some of the benefits of this program include a dedicated Customer Success Manager for your account, unlimited coaching/design sessions with the Prophix team, and a full access pass to Prophix Academy training.

Benefits of Fluence Technologies for financial consolidation

Since Fluence is a new entrant in the European consolidation market, it does not have significant implementation experience in the region. The company has tried to partially offset this with a network of partners, but any customers who need an FP&A solution still have to separately buy and implement another solution, preferably from Vena, Workday, or Pigment. As a result, Fluence is best suited for companies in the lower mid-market that already use Excel for FP&A and are only looking for financial consolidation and reporting solutions that easily integrate into that familiar Excel environment. These customers are also unlikely to require extensive post-implementation support due to low levels of data complexity.

Another target for Fluence is organizations looking to migrate from SAP BPC, since its key engine designer, Herve Capo, was formerly working at OutlookSoft (which is now SAP BPC) and has developed a tool to facilitate the migration from SAP BPC to Fluence. However, this appears to be more than just a simple click of a button.

The right financial consolidation solution for you

Prophix is a platform vendor that provides a wide range of applications for the office of the CFO, including financial consolidation, intercompany management, and financial planning & analysis.

Fluence is a best of breed vendor that offers an innovative consolidation solution for the full “Close to Disclose” process.

Whether you choose Prophix to automatically consolidate large volumes of complex financial data or Fluence to work with less complex datasets in an Excel-based environment, your decision should ultimately be driven by your specific business needs, goals, and the level of support you require.

Whichever software you choose, implementing  consolidation software is a huge upgrade from staying on spreadsheets and can bring your organization immense benefits, including improved accuracy, efficiency, and ability to drive business performance. 

Still unsure about financial consolidation software, or struggling to make the business case for your organization? Check out 12 reasons for investing in financial consolidation software. Or learn more about consolidation software pricing.

This blog post was last updated in December 2023, and is part of our ‘Prophix versus’ series. Check out Prophix vs. Excel, Prophix vs. Vena, Prophix vs. Planful, and Prophix vs. LucaNet.