Best Mosaic Alternatives for Financial Planning & Modeling

Mosaic Alternatives

Looking for Mosaic alternatives? We’re here to help. As a business leader, you need information. With the right financial planning and analysis (FP&A) tools, you can centralize and democratize your financial data across departments, driving decisions that fuel sustainable growth. 

One such tool is Mosaic. Mosaic is an FP&A solution that uses dashboards and reporting tools that provide insight into the operations of your business. Mosaic can integrate with several resources within your organization, including financial systems, CRM, or HR systems. 

Mosaic is a new kid on the block, and its technology reflects the need for cloud-based, agile planning platforms. Mosaic replaces Excel’s manual inputs with automation and data integration. Customers use Mosaic to reconcile and update forecasts, track KPIs, and generate useful reports. 

So why would you even consider alternatives to Mosaic? Unfortunately, there are downsides to Mosaic. While valuable, it doesn’t have expansive customization and tracking options, so it’s not an all-in-one solution for your FP&A needs. 

In this article, we’ll explore the disadvantages and problems that Mosaic users have encountered and highlight alternatives worth considering: OnPlan, Cube, Centage Planning Maestro, Jirav, and Limelight. 

With this information in hand, you should be able to evaluate which solution is the best fit for your business. 

Disadvantages of Using Mosaic

Mosaic’s real advantage is its affordability. Mosaic has a lower price than the alternatives mentioned in this article. However, the old adage “you get what you pay for” applies. Mosaic is a good fit if you are looking for a basic solution at a low price. If you need greater capabilities and a more reliable product, it’s best to consider the alternatives. Let’s look at a few of the reasons customers are moving away from Mosaic: 

Development 

Mosaic is the new kid on the block. While the solution is promising, it can feel like you are using the Beta version of the software. While additional features roll out every few months, and if you are patient enough, you’ll benefit from them. However, if you would rather work with a comprehensive solution, you may want to consider a more established alternative. 

Integration Issues

Mosaic is still under development, which means you won’t be able to integrate with all of the internal data sources you are currently using. You also won’t be able to run multiple instances of some of the solutions you are using. Again, might be on the roadmap, but Mosaic isn’t the right solution for you if you can’t afford to wait. 

Export and Data Sharing 

While Mosaic offers dashboards, you can’t export them. This can complicate data sharing. 

Challenging to Get Started

Flexibility in your FP&A solution is great. But if you are a smaller company with limited experience with FP&A and business intelligence solutions, the flexibility can pose a challenge. Presenting inexperienced staff with too many options can result in a convoluted and difficult-to-use system. Mosaic provides very little guidance about the setup process.

Troubleshooting

Let’s be fair: every solution will experience downtime now and again. However, it’s hard to troubleshoot and fix these common issues with Mosaic. Bugs almost always require a time-consuming call to customer support. 

Branding and customization

Mosaic’s flexibility allows for customization, but it is not possible to customize graphs/charts according to your brand guidelines and colors. This can complicate reporting, especially when you’re trying to present a clean look to the Board, even though it is a minor issue. 

Use Cases

As a new company, Mosaic is still developing various use cases, which is why some companies feel that there are metrics and data that aren’t available through the out-of-the-box Mosaic solution. 

Alternatives to Mosaic

Let’s relook at the disadvantages of Mosaic: 

• The product still requires some development and fine-tuning
• Limited integration
• Users find it difficult to get started with Mosaic 
• Troubleshooting requires customer support instead of in-house fixes
• Limitations in customization 
• New features not added for common use cases 

While Mosaic offers low pricing and has great potential, the general feedback is that the company has a long way to go. If you can’t afford to wait, there are other alternatives to consider. 

#1 — OnPlan 

OnPlan’s customers write glowing reviews about the platform. This FP&A solution is incredibly flexible, but unlike Mosaic, the company offers dedicated support to help companies get started on the right foot with attention and personalization from the onset. 

OnPlan’s depth of features and expert guidance makes it an extremely attractive value compared to other options in this review, starting at only $12,500 per year for the Essential Plan. 

OnPlan combines familiar Excel spreadsheets with powerful analytics and a consumer app-like user interface that is intuitive and easy to use. OnPlan’s goal is to reduce the learning curve for end users without taking them away from their sophisticated analytical tools or performance. This not only accelerates adoption but drives value from the start. Businesses can use OnPlan for forecasting, budgeting, business performance, and workflow management. 

OnPlan offers numerous integrations with ERP, HRIS, and CRM sales systems so that data can be accessed and shared accurately among departments using a single centralized hub. Permissions-based access reduces errors and increases collaboration with other stakeholders while preserving control of the data. 

The company is well-known for its world-class support, which is available through a number of contact channels for your convenience. 

OnPlan can truly revolutionize financial and business planning through powerful analyses, what-if scenario planning, and forecasting. In terms of features, OnPlan is perhaps best compared with the Adaptive Planning solution, but at a fraction of its price. 

Unlike some of the alternatives mentioned here, OnPlan can be set up and implemented in a matter of days – not months. 

Key Features 

• Integrations with Netsuite, Sage Intacct, Salesforce, QuickBooks, Xero, and many other data sources
• Up-and-running and delivering value in days
• Cross-departmental collaboration 
• Reduced manual inputs and error
• Permission management
• Flexible API 
• Fast, real-time insight into company data
• Democratized financial data
• Budget vs Actuals, scenario, and predictive analysis 
• Engaging, tailor-made dashboards 

Use Cases

• Budget vs. actual analysis that detects fraud and errors
• Steer company decisions with fast, efficient custom modeling
• Ad hoc reporting, budgeting, and forecasting
• Test threats and opportunities with what-if scenario planning
• Benchmarking KPIs and company goals 

#2 — Cube

Cube is a SaaS FP&A platform geared towards shared insight and visualization of data. Cube leverages the familiarity of Excel, much like OnPlan, to save time and reduce the support staff required during the adoption phase of the software.

Cube provides a useful, centralized data source that departments can use to view and manipulate financial and operational data for reviews and reporting. AOP and BvA processes are efficiently streamlined. Like OnPlan, Cube integrates with several useful financial and business applications, including Google Sheets. 

If you’re considering Cube, note that Cube requires onboarding assistance and intervention during the implementation stage at additional cost, both for the expertise and the time it takes to learn to use the tool. Hands-on FP&A professionals will find Cube frustrating. Fixing errors is difficult, data presentation is complex, and the solution runs into performance issues more often than not. If you need something a little more intuitive, OnPlan is a better option. 

Key Features

• Data consolidation
• Automation 
• What-if scenario analysis to test opportunities/risks
• Spreadsheet and Google integration
• Ability to use with multiple currencies 
• Dashboarding 
• Templates 
• Audit trails
• Reporting 

Use Cases

• Revenue planning and financial forecasts
• Data visualization 
• Data import-export
• Cross-functional reporting and insight 
• Attractive dashboards to present data 

#3 — Centage Planning Maestro

Centage Planning Maestro has been on the market for some time, which gives it an edge over Mosaic in terms of stability and reliability. The platform comes with many features and capabilities, including version control, ad-hoc reporting tools, asset lifecycle management, cross-department data sharing, and so forth. 

Pre-built templates and modules simplify usage, and setup wizards guide clients through the installation process, which reduces the need for support. Planning Maestro is cloud-native, which allows organizations to scale and rapidly adapt to a shifting market. 

Like OnPlan, the tool has several forecasting tools that teams can use to make and compare assumptions and test various scenarios. Information is presented in a visual way. 

The primary disadvantage is that Centage comes up short in customer support. While the built-in support and guidance tools should make up for this, some errors require the assistance of an engineer — and they are not readily available. Even creating reports and maintaining version control can be a complex process, and many users find the navigation confusing. For FP&As that need to hit the ground running or prefer to remain hands-on, Centage Planning Maestro may be a frustrating experience, particularly for users that do not have a technical background. 

Key Features

• Optimized for scale and adaptation through the cloud
• Integration with ERP, CRM, and HRIS 
• GAAP-compliant calculations
• What-if scenario planning, forecasting, and budgeting
• Integration with Centage Budgeting Maestro 

Use Cases

• Revenue planning and forecasting
• Cash flow management
• Workflow management
• Data import/export
• Balance sheet 
• Income statements 

#4 — Jirav

Jirav is a cloud-based financial intelligence and forecasting tool. Like Mosaic, they target smaller businesses with an intuitive user interface and a lower price point. The software can be integrated with several data sources. 

In terms of features, Jirav doesn’t offer anything that Mosaic (or its alternatives) doesn’t. There’s KPI monitoring, a forecasting and modeling engine, dashboards, and a general ledger. If you are heading up a small company with 5+ employees, Jirav is a fair solution to use. It’s affordable and useful but fairly lightweight compared to the alternatives. 

Unlike Centage, Cube, and OnPlan, Jirav wants to steer users away from Excel altogether, making it hard to adapt to. Like Limelight (below), Jirav is prone to stability and performance issues. Experienced FP&A professionals will find the dashboards and its formulas extremely restrictive and overly simplistic for their needs. Jirav is a little more time-consuming to use and because of its steep learning curve, it will take longer to realize any value from the solution. 

Key Features 

• Scenario planning 
• KPI tracking capabilities and scorecards
• General ledger 
• Cash flow management
• Dashboarding and reporting

Use Cases

• Workflow management
• Multi-scenario forecasting
• Growth planning and tracking
• Budgeting and forecasting
• Reporting
• Centralized data 

#5 — Limelight

Limelight is a web-based financial planning and analytics platform that provides centralized data across various functions and departments to improve business planning and enhance strategic initiatives. 

While Limelight is an FP&A tool, its workforce planning capabilities are the most powerful feature on offer. Many companies lean on Limelight to access employee-specific data (linked to payroll information) to review and forecast staffing and budgeting requirements for the year, including seasonal peaks. 

Most reviewers say favorable things about Limelight’s customer support, but aside from its strong workforce planning module, it doesn’t have the edge over the competition. It is recommended for companies that rely on a fluctuating workforce, like retail organizations, but it might not meet every need. Other options in this review score higher in terms of ease of implementation, reliability, and analytical capabilities. 

Like many of the solutions mentioned, Limelight isn’t particularly user-friendly. This is further compounded by a real lack of permission and access control, which can lead to serious data errors. Limelight is best used for smaller companies that are not eyeing expansion, as performance issues tend to crop up when companies scale. OnPlan, for example, can be used by smaller companies and then scale up to enterprise-level, which makes it a better fit for ambitious businesses. 

Features 

• Payroll management
• Workflow management 
• Performance tracking and analysis 
• Forecasting, dashboarding, and scorecards
• Permission-based access management
• Historical analysis of hours logged by employees

Use Cases

• Workforce planning, including employee counts and paid time
• Goal setting and financial insight across departments 
• What-if scenario planning
• Budgeting and forecasting 

Final Word

When reading customer reviews online, it’s clear that Mosaic has excellent potential, but it isn’t there yet. Most companies want to hit the ground running and can’t afford to wait for their FP&A solution to catch up. They need fast, accurate, and customizable analyses and ad hoc reporting, and they need it now. 

If Mosaic doesn’t quite meet your needs, consider the alternatives. Each solution has its advantages and disadvantages, which is why you should weigh them up carefully before making a final decision.