September 2026 Edition, published · The permanent record of that edition, superseded since. The current standing is on the category page →
Index › Finance › Planning and analysis › Financial reporting · September 2026 Edition

Financial reporting and dashboards

Asked as “financial reporting software”, and as “finance dashboard tool”, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. 48 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing · first-choice share
27%
Contested · Fathom 12%
27Sage Intacct12Fathom12Wave48others

27% of first choices, contested.

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.

The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for a mid-market B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01Sage Intacct27%0%18accepted challenger
02Fathom12%24%17accepted challenger
03Vena6%6%18accepted challenger
04Microsoft Power BI4%23%26accepted challenger
05Datarails4%0%11accepted challenger
06Cube2%0%12accepted challenger
07Oracle NetSuite2%0%11accepted challenger
08QuickBooks Online2%25%12criticized challenger
Show the seven products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
15Looker Studio Lab in the set0%36%14criticized challenger
14Metabase0%27%11criticized challenger
11Looker Lab in the set0%21%14accepted challenger
09Tableau0%21%19accepted challenger
10Xero Analytics0%17%12accepted challenger
13Domo0%10%10accepted challenger
12Qlik Sense0%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 product page.

Looker is made by Google, whose model Gemini 3.5 Flash is in the set. On the four share prompts that model made it the first choice zero times of 4; the other eleven models zero times of 44. Looker Studio is made by Google, whose model Gemini 3.5 Flash is in the set. On the four share prompts that model made it the first choice zero times of 4; the other eleven models zero times of 44. Lab treatment is defined on the method page; the row is marked, not excluded.

All twenty-eight head-to-head pages: the top eight products, each against each

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
M04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
13
14
15
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative40%
Key
01Sage Intacct27%
02Fathom12%
03Vena6%
04Microsoft Power BI4%
05Datarails4%
06Cube2%
07Oracle NetSuite2%
08QuickBooks Online2%
09Tableau0%
10Xero Analytics0%
11Looker0%
12Qlik Sense0%
13Domo0%
14Metabase0%
15Looker Studio0%

What they warned about

One of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, GPT-5.4 mini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Grok 4.20, 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.
Microsoft Excel
100%
5 of 5 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 3 hard negative
“Spreadsheets (especially Microsoft Excel) ... experts consistently warn against them for anything beyond small-scale, ad-hoc work.” GLM 4.7 FlashX, negative prompt
Looker Studio
36%
5 of 14 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“Looker Studio if you need external client reporting or true white-label delivery, because one comparison notes hidden connector costs, no true white-labeling” Perplexity Sonar, negative prompt
Microsoft Power BI
23%
6 of 26 labels negative · 5 of 12 models
“Power BI is the classic example — it's extremely popular and powerful, but its DAX formula language and data modeling require real expertise.” DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt
IBM Cognos Analytics
57%
4 of 7 labels negative · 4 of 12 models · 3 hard negative
“Avoid adopting it fresh; if you already use it, evaluate a migration path to modern cloud-native BI tools.” Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt

What they cite

Twelve of the twelve models returned a source list in this edition: four return the pages they cited and eight the search results they consulted.

Sites the answers cite

59 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. 795 links across 285 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

vendor site · Worldmetrics21 answers · 28 citations · 10 models
vendor site · Ramp17 answers · 18 citations · 8 models
15 answers · 15 citations · 10 models
14 answers · 15 citations · 8 models
13 answers · 13 citations · 7 models
12 answers · 20 citations · 9 models
12 answers · 15 citations · 8 models
vendor site · Productive12 answers · 13 citations · 6 models
vendor site · HighRadius12 answers · 12 citations · 8 models
vendor site · Cubesoftware10 answers · 11 citations · 7 models
vendor site · Drivetrain10 answers · 11 citations · 7 models
vendor site · Basedash10 answers · 10 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.

Search against answers

Each company's standing in the answers beside its site's footprint in Google search, one row a site: the products the models named on it with their shares, and the share they add up to; monthly searches on Google, and DataForSEO's estimate of AI search demand (modeled from search signals, directional, not a count of queries to any assistant), for the most-searched of the company's and its products' names (the name is in each row's hover text); estimated monthly organic visits to the site; and its best position in Google's top ten for “best financial reporting software”, “financial reporting software”, “reporting tools”. US estimates from DataForSEO and Google's Ads Transparency Center. A small company's site, or a mid-sized company's site for its flagship, is marked company; a product on a large parent's site (Google, Microsoft) has no site figures. A column with no figures for this category is left out, and an empty cell means none were seen, not none exist. Two measurements side by side: neither is read as the cause of the other.
Company and productsShareOwn site citedName searches, GoogleAI search demand, est.Organic visitsPaid search a month, est.Google ads, last 30 days
Sage sage.com
Sage Intacct 27%
27%500246,00090,5991,737,127 company$114,67178
Fathom fathomhq.com12%19090,5006,65774,88138
Wave waveapps.com12%363368,000253,218708,86239
Zoho zoho.com
Zoho Books 8%
8%36727,1002681,216,894 company$51,031119
Vena venasolutions.com6%40412,1003,92862,294$13,79258
Microsoft Power BI4%14,800515
Datarails datarails.com4%3746,60013418,964$16,697107
Pigment pigment.com4%19849,50025,64512,24822
Cube cubesoftware.com2%30490,500152,613168,76413
Oracle parent site
Oracle NetSuite 2%
2%542450,00066,611

Google's top ten for the three searches hold 24 sites; 4 of them are among the sites the models cited here (highradius.com, productive.io, ramp.com, thecfoclub.com). The first result for “best financial reporting software” is thecfoclub.com.

How 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.
ShowHide
ModelDirect“What is the best financial reporting software for a mid-market B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which finance dashboard tool would you recommend to a mid-sized B2B company?”Comparative“What are the top reporting tools and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best financial reporting software for a company with a limited budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 500 person company evaluating a financial reporting software. What should we look at?”Negative“Which reporting tools should I avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5Sage Intacct, Vena
Five alternativesDatarails, FineReport, Maxio, Oracle NetSuite, Planful
Microsoft Power BIChanged
Three alternativesDatarails, Maxio, Tableau
no first choiceZoho Books
Three alternativesG-Accon, LiveFlow, Xero Analytics
no first choicenothing named
GPT-5.4 miniSage Intacct
One alternativeOracle NetSuite
against: QuickBooks Online
DatarailsChanged
Four alternativesLiveFlow, Planful, Vena, Workiva
Microsoft Power BI
Seven alternativesBIRT, JasperReports, Looker, Qlik Sense, SQL Server Reporting Services, Tableau, ThoughtSpot
against: SAP Crystal Reports
QuickBooks Online
Four alternativesFathom, Microsoft Power BI, Xero Analytics, Zoho Books / Zoho Analytics
no first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashCube, Pigment
Five alternativesAleph, Datarails, Oracle NetSuite, Planful, Sage Intacct
against: QuickBooks Online, Xero Analytics
MosaicChanged
Three alternativesCube, Datarails, Pigment
against: Anaplan, Workday Adaptive Planning
Microsoft Power BI
Five alternativesLooker, Looker Studio, Qlik Sense, Tableau, ThoughtSpot
Syft Analytics, Zoho Books
Three alternativesFathom, Wave, Xero Analytics
against: Jirav, Vena
no first choiceagainst: Oracle Hyperion, SAPagainst: IBM Cognos Analytics, JasperReports, Manual Excel/Google Sheets Reporting Workflows, Pentaho, SAP Crystal Reports, SQL Server Reporting Services, Salesforce, legacy Sage
Perplexity SonarSage Intacct
Three alternativesDatarails, Prophix, Vena
Sage IntacctHeld
Two alternativesFathom, Sigma Computing
no first choiceagainst: MetabaseZoho Books
Two alternativesQuickBooks Online, Xero Analytics
against: Wave
no first choiceagainst: Bloomerang, Databox, DonorPerfect, Funnel, Improvado, Looker, Looker Studio, Metabase, MicroStrategy, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Power BI, Qlik Sense, Tableau
Grok 4.20Sage Intacct
Two alternativesDatarails, Vena
FathomChanged
Two alternativesFairview, Spotlight Reporting
against: Microsoft Power BI, Plecto
Microsoft Power BI
Five alternativesDomo, Looker, Qlik Sense, Tableau, Zoho Analytics
against: Grafana, Looker Studio
Wave
Two alternativesQuickBooks Online, Zoho Books
against: Fathom
Sage Intacct
Two alternativesCube, Workiva
against: Domo, Fivetran, Looker, Microsoft Power BI, Tableau, Xero Analytics
Mistral SmallSage Intacct
Two alternativesFairview, Vena
FathomChanged
Two alternativesPlecto, Sigma Computing
no first choiceWave
Three alternativesQuickBooks Online, Xero Analytics, Zoho Books
no first choicenothing named
DeepSeek V4 FlashSage Intacct
Four alternativesDatarails, Maxio, Oracle NetSuite, Vena
FathomChanged
Four alternativesCube, Jirav, Microsoft Power BI, Mosaic
Microsoft Power BI, Zoho Analytics
Three alternativesLooker, Qlik Sense, Tableau
Wave
Two alternativesXero Analytics, Zoho Books
against: Fathom
Acumatica Cloud ERP, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Oracle NetSuite, Sage Intacct
Two alternativesSAP, Workday
against: BIRT, FastReports, JasperReports, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Power BI, SAP Crystal Reports, SQL Server Reporting Services
Llama 4 MaverickSage IntacctSigma ComputingChanged
Three alternativesFathom, Microsoft Power BI, Plecto
no first choiceno first choiceno first choiceagainst: Funnel, IBM Cognos Analytics, Improvado, Looker Studio, Oracle BI Publisher, SAP BusinessObjects, SQL Server Reporting Services, Swydo
Qwen 3.7 FlashSage Intacct
Six alternativesFathom, Looker Studio, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, Oracle NetSuite, Planful, Vena
against: Anaplan
Aleph, PigmentChanged
Three alternativesBoard, Prophix, Sigma Computing
against: Fathom
Microsoft Power BI
Four alternativesLooker, Looker Studio, Metabase, Tableau
Wave
Three alternativesFreshBooks, Xero Analytics, Zoho Books
against: Oracle, SAP
no first choiceagainst: Oracle E-Business Suite, QuickBooks Online, SAPagainst: ChartBlocks, Google Sheets, IBM Cognos Analytics, Looker Studio, Metabase, MicroStrategy, Microsoft Excel, QlikView, Redash, SAP BW
Kimi K2Sage Intacct, Vena
Two alternativesCube, Datarails
Fairview, FathomChanged
Four alternativesJirav, Mosaic, Sage Intacct, Spotlight Reporting
against: Looker Studio
Microsoft Power BI, Tableau
Three alternativesDomo, Looker, Zoho Analytics
Zoho Books
Seven alternativesFathom, FreshBooks, Joiin, Looker Studio, QuickBooks Online, Wave, Xero Analytics
no first choiceagainst: Oracle Hyperion, SAP BPCagainst: Apache Superset, ChatGPT, Grafana, IBM Cognos Analytics, Looker, Microsoft Power BI, Redash, SAP BusinessObjects, Tableau
GLM 4.7 FlashXDatarails, Vena
Four alternativesCube, HighRadius, Sage Intacct, Workday Adaptive Planning
against: Fathom, OneStream
FathomChanged
Three alternativesCube, Klipfolio, Microsoft Power BI
Microsoft Power BI, Tableau
Eight alternativesAmplitude, Baremetrics, ChartMogul, Databox, Domo, Looker, Metabase, Qlik Sense
Wave
Four alternativesAkaunting, Frappe Books, GnuCash, Manager.io
no first choiceagainst: Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Power BI, Tableau
MiniMax M2.5Sage Intacct
Four alternativesCube, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance, Oracle NetSuite, Workday Adaptive Planning
Fathom, Microsoft Power BIChanged
One alternativeSigma Computing
Microsoft Power BI
Four alternativesLooker, Qlik Sense, Tableau, ThoughtSpot
Wave
One alternativeXero Analytics
no first choiceagainst: Google Sheets, Microsoft Excel
Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against

The record

One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, and latency.
Seventy-two rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 18:21yes97 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 19:10yes36 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 19:44yes1320 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 20:24yes205 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-17 20:38yes3015 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 19:44yes54 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 19:50yes812 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 18:42yes52 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 20:59no030 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 19:37yes1020 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 20:08yes1758 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 19:16no049 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 20:18yes178 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 20:27yes35 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 20:02yes1226 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 18:20yes205 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-17 18:17yes2514 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 20:00yes54 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 20:06yes1519 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 19:54yes53 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 19:22yes1032 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 19:17yes853 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 18:22yes3483 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 18:36yes517 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 19:00yes99 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 18:33no010 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 17:57yes722 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 18:25yes209 s
ComparativeGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-17 19:42yes139 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 19:07yes1413 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 20:31yes1917 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 17:58yes53 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 19:40yes1026 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 20:04yes1023 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 19:52yes1937 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 20:08yes520 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 19:55yes97 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 20:09no05 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 20:12yes2121 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 19:26yes206 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-17 19:06yes138 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 19:56yes97 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 19:14yes1518 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 20:59yes53 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 18:36yes525 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 18:27yes921 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 19:07yes3044 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 19:39yes1034 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 19:54no05 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 18:38no08 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 21:19no041 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 18:17yes209 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-17 20:14yes1210 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 19:17no06 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 20:07yes1417 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 18:33yes54 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 19:13yes527 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 19:05no057 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 19:05yes18119 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 20:06no058 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 19:50no02 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 19:48no05 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 18:46yes1720 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 18:41yes207 s
Negative framingGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-17 19:31yes4416 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 19:05yes55 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 20:40yes2020 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 19:52yes53 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 19:13no031 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 18:38yes2050 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 18:15yes1966 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 20:59yes1537 s

Normalization in this category

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

ShowHide
Category-scoped readings
Acumatica read as Acumatica Cloud ERP
Adaptive Insights read as Workday Adaptive Planning
Excel read as Microsoft Excel
FastReport read as FastReports
Google Looker Studio read as Looker Studio
IBM Cognos read as IBM Cognos Analytics
NetSuite read as Oracle NetSuite
NetSuite ERP read as Oracle NetSuite
Oracle Cloud ERP read as Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP
Prophix One read as Prophix
Qlik read as Qlik Sense
QuickBooks read as QuickBooks Online
Sigma read as Sigma Computing
Syft read as Syft Analytics
Vena Solutions read as Vena
Wave Accounting read as Wave
Xero read as Xero Analytics
Unresolved, counted raw
Bloomerang
ChartBlocks
Crazy Egg
DonorPerfect
Frappe Books
Manual Excel/Google Sheets Reporting Workflows
Omni
Oracle BI Publisher
Power BI Paginated Reports
QlikView
Rollstack
SAP BW
Swydo
legacy Sage
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
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