# FP&A platforms for small business buyers: what AI models recommend, September 2026

Gane Index, September 2026 Edition. Asked as "FP&A software" and as "financial planning and analysis platform", six framings each, to twelve models with search on, on behalf of a small B2B company. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/finance/planning/fpa-platforms/2026-09/smb

This is the permanent record of the September 2026 Edition, published September 17, 2026 and superseded since. The current standing: https://www.gane.ai/index/finance/planning/fpa-platforms/smb/index.md

**Standing:** Clockwork leads with 60% of first choices; verdict clear leader. 47 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| Rank | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | [Clockwork](https://www.gane.ai/index/finance/vendors/clockwork/index.md) | 60% | 0% | 52 |
| 2 | [Fathom](https://www.gane.ai/index/finance/vendors/fathom/index.md) | 13% | 3% | 36 |
| 3 | [Cube](https://www.gane.ai/index/finance/vendors/cube/index.md) | 9% | 17% | 47 |
| 4 | [Jirav](https://www.gane.ai/index/finance/vendors/jirav/index.md) | 4% | 11% | 46 |
| 5 | [Datarails](https://www.gane.ai/index/finance/vendors/datarails/index.md) | 2% | 20% | 35 |
| 6 | [Mosaic](https://www.gane.ai/index/finance/vendors/mosaic/index.md) | 2% | 22% | 23 |
| 11 | [Vena](https://www.gane.ai/index/finance/vendors/vena/index.md) | 2% | 58% | 19 |
| 12 | [LiveFlow](https://www.gane.ai/index/finance/vendors/liveflow/index.md) | 0% | 12% | 24 |
| 16 | [Limelight](https://www.gane.ai/index/finance/vendors/limelight/index.md) | 0% | 31% | 16 |
| 53 | [Pigment](https://www.gane.ai/index/finance/vendors/pigment/index.md) | 0% | 80% | 10 |
| 54 | [Planful](https://www.gane.ai/index/finance/vendors/planful/index.md) | 0% | 69% | 13 |
| 55 | [Anaplan](https://www.gane.ai/index/finance/vendors/anaplan/index.md) | 0% | 90% | 20 |

Rank is by share of first choices among all 56 products named; products with the same share are tied, and the order among them carries no meaning. The table lists those with at least 10 labels.

## Each model's first choice on the direct prompt

- Claude Haiku 4.5: Clockwork; alternatives Cube, Datarails, Jirav
- GPT-5.4 mini: Fathom; alternatives Datarails, Reach Reporting
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: Clockwork, Fathom; alternatives Cube, Datarails, Jirav, LiveFlow
- Perplexity Sonar: Clockwork; alternatives Aleph, Cube, Jirav
- Grok 4.20: Cube; alternatives Clockwork, Datarails, Jirav
- Mistral Small: Clockwork; alternatives Aleph, Limelight
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: Clockwork; alternatives Fathom, Float, Jirav
- Llama 4 Maverick: Clockwork; alternatives Aleph, Datarails, Runway
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: Clockwork; alternatives Cube, Jirav, LiveFlow
- Kimi K2: Clockwork; alternatives Cube, Datarails, Jirav, Mosaic
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: Clockwork; alternatives Aleph, Budgyt, Cube, Datarails
- MiniMax M2.5: Cube; alternatives Budgyt, Clockwork, Jirav, Limelight

## Sources the answers cite

63 of 72 answers came back with a source list, from 12 of 12 models. Sites named in the most answers:

- clockwork.ai: 56 answers, 82 citations
- golimelight.com: 49 answers, 58 citations
- getaleph.com: 43 answers, 63 citations
- cubesoftware.com: 40 answers, 72 citations
- drivetrain.ai: 35 answers, 35 citations
- g2.com: 22 answers, 40 citations
- centage.com: 22 answers, 27 citations
- learn.g2.com: 19 answers, 20 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://clockwork.ai/blog/best-fpa-software-small-business (56 answers)
- https://golimelight.com/blog/fpa-software-for-small-business (48 answers)
- https://drivetrain.ai/solutions/financial-planning-analysis-software (34 answers)
- https://getaleph.com/answers/best-fpa-software-by-company-size (31 answers)
- https://cubesoftware.com/blog/best-fpa-software-tools (26 answers)
- https://cubesoftware.com/blog/best-fpa-software-for-small-businesses (19 answers)
- https://centage.com/blog/best-fp-a-software (18 answers)
- https://learn.g2.com/best-fpa-software (18 answers)
- https://getaleph.com/answers/top-fpa-software-2026 (17 answers)
- https://g2.com/categories/fp-a-financial-planning-analysis/small-business (13 answers)

## Warned against

- Workday Adaptive Planning: 19 of 23 labels negative. "the main goal is to avoid enterprise-grade FP&A platforms (like Workday Adaptive Planning, Anaplan, or Vena)" (Gemini 3.5 Flash, budget prompt)
- Anaplan: 18 of 20 labels negative. "Designed for large, complex organizations... Requires significant modeling expertise, IT resources, and long implementation timelines." (GLM 4.7 FlashX, negative prompt)
- Vena: 11 of 19 labels negative. "avoid enterprise-grade FP&A platforms (like Workday Adaptive Planning, Anaplan, or Vena)" (Gemini 3.5 Flash, budget prompt)
- Planful: 9 of 13 labels negative. "Why avoid: These are firmly in the enterprise tier, with annual costs ranging from $240k to $260k+ per year." (DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt)

## Record

- Method: https://www.gane.ai/index/finance/methodology
- License: CC BY 4.0. Cite as Gane Index, September 2026 Edition, www.gane.ai/index/finance.