Finance

Planful’s New Product Innovations Enable Finance Automation, Collaboration, and Innovation

Published

2 months ago

May 15, 2024

New Technology, Ideas, and Strategies Shared at Perform24 Support Finance, Accounting, Marketing, and HR Leaders Go Beyond to Drive Peak Financial Performance

SAN FRANCISCO, May 15, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Planful Inc., the pioneer of financial performance management cloud software, announced today, as part of the Perform24 theme to “Go Beyond,” an array of product advancements tied to three key pillars: Automate, Collaborate, and Innovate. The company unveiled the future of Planful AI, new Planful for Workforce and Planful for Marketing capabilities, connectors with Snowflake and Microsoft Power BI, and more. The company also debuted the Solution Hub, an all-new searchable collection of pre-built solutions, open for anyone to explore, and for customers to configure. With these advancements, Planful is bringing increased value to large and fast-growing organizations and supporting their business leaders in driving peak financial performance.

“Achieving successful financial performance management requires a highly-collaborative effort and organizations who treat it as a team sport will thrive and outperform their competitors,” said Steve Welsh, Chief Product Officer, Planful. “Planful’s purpose-built product delivery and vision is an intentional result of working with our customers to make that team effort easier, faster, and more connected by unlocking the data teams need to make confident decisions.”

Innovate: The Future of Planful AI

The company announced the extended vision for Planful AI and significant investments that will bring its first generative AI experience to customers later this year. Finance and business leaders will have access to a unified suite of Planful AI solutions that include:

Operational automation that anticipates tasks and processes, recommends next steps, and gathers insights into how a process is running and if a reminder is needed to complete data inputs for a forecast
Analytics and decision support for both simple and complex, time-consuming scenario analysis that anticipates tasks to uncover variances and the meaning behind the numbers, while also suggesting next steps to further the analysis when business leaders are evaluating key business decisions

These new generative AI capabilities will complement the company’s existing, industry-leading Planful Predict AI/ML suite of solutions, which have been foundational in automating forecasting, error detection, and manual processes for businesses worldwide.

Collaborate: New Capabilities for Planning as a Team Sport

At Perform24 the company introduced new solution advancements, including Planful for Workforce capabilities and Planful for Marketing features, that improve business outcomes by facilitating collaboration and unlocking access to data across teams.

The new Planful for Workforce capabilities announced at Perform will enable Finance and People leaders to collaborate directly in the platform to generate actionable insights. These capabilities include advanced analytics, actuals data loading at the most granular level, multi-currency capabilities for employee and compensation item planning, and more. With almost 90% of Planful customers using Planful for Workforce, users will be able to leverage their existing data to rapidly conduct complex scenario analysis in managing their most valuable asset–people.

The latest Planful for Marketing advancements include a new integration with Coupa; further reporting enhancements, including custom fields and attributes; and new forecasting capabilities.

Automate: Frictionless Access to Data

Planful introduced several new connectors that will further support customers with their overall data strategy. A new connector with Snowflake, a data-cloud company, enables governed access to limitless volumes of financial performance and other business data. This integration will meet the growing need of enterprises to share data, build AI/ML applications, and power business growth using a modern data infrastructure. It will also reduce friction, speed data access, and enable highly-complex financial modeling and calculations. The new connector with Microsoft Power BI, an interactive data visualization software product, accommodates the consumption of Planful data to augment with other data sources natively in Power BI.

Protective Industrial Products, a global leader in personal protective equipment that offers an extensive range of over 20,000 products, leverages the Planful platform for agile and efficient planning as it continues to expand its market reach and diversify its offerings through many strategic acquisitions. “Planful’s automation capabilities have greatly streamlined our acquisition processes,” said Mark Smith, Director, Corporate FP&A at Protective Industrial Products, and a speaker at Planful Perform24. “Planful has become a must-have tool for our team and we integrate it into each of our newly acquired entities. Its automation capabilities not only help to simplify acquisition processes, but also enhance our consolidation and workforce planning in a very dynamic M&A environment.”

New Early Adopter Program

Customers can now join an early adopter program with Planful to gain access to a range of unreleased product advancements and find opportunities to co-innovate and trial Planful AI. With this new program, Planful continues to prioritize product development that is closely attuned to practical customer needs and top feedback.

Watch Perform24 live today or on demand later this week to hear what Planful customers and industry thought leaders are saying about driving peak financial performance.

About Planful

Planful is the pioneer of financial performance management cloud software. The Planful platform, which helps businesses drive peak financial performance, is used around the globe to streamline business-wide planning, budgeting, consolidations, reporting, and analytics. Planful empowers finance, accounting, and business users to plan confidently, close faster, and report accurately. More than 1,400 customers, including 23andMe, Bose, Boston Red Sox, Five Guys, and Zappos, rely on Planful to accelerate cycle times, increase productivity, and improve accuracy. Planful is a private company backed by Vector Capital, a leading global private equity firm. Learn more at planful.com.

Additional Resources
Hear from Planful customers.
Learn what Planful can do for finance, marketing, HR, and other teams.
Join the conversation on LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook.

SOURCE Planful, Inc.

Finance

I’m a Financial Advisor: 6 Year-End Tax Moves My Wealthy Clients Make

Published

7 hours ago

July 26, 2024

Press Room

I’m a Financial Advisor: 6 Year-End Tax Moves My Wealthy Clients Make

Vasyl Dolmatov / Getty Images

The dog days of summer might seem like a strange time to start thinking about the right year-end tax moves. After all, you still have to go through spooky season and the holidays well before the taxman comes a callin’. Yet planning your tax moves well in advance can help you preserve more of your wealth long before you have to sign those forms.

Find Out: Should Trump Eliminate Income Taxes? Here’s What Tax Experts Say

For You: 7 Reasons You Should Consider a Financial Advisor — Even If You’re Not Wealthy

As the founder and CEO of 11 Financial, Taylor Kovar, CFP, has experience in helping wealthier clients make those savvy tax moves. GOBankingRates connected with Kovar to get his insights about what people with higher incomes can do to get their taxes in order as the end of the year approaches (it’ll be here sooner than you know).

Contribute to Tax-Advantaged Retirement Accounts

One of Kovar’s first big pieces of advice for wealthy clients is to ensure that they’re maximizing contribution to tax-advantaged retirement accounts, like 401(k)s, IRAs and Roth IRAs.

“For 2024, the contribution limits are $22,500 for 401(k)s ($30,000 if over age 50) and $6,500 for IRAs ($7,500 if over age 50),” he said. “Making these contributions can reduce taxable income and boost long-term savings.”

Read Next: This Is the One Type of Debt That ‘Terrifies’ Dave Ramsey

Focus on Charitable Giving

Giving money to causes that inspire you doesn’t just do your heart and soul some good, it can also have great benefits for your bottom line. Kovar recommends that his clients consider making donations to qualified charities before the year’s end to help save on taxes.

“Additionally, they can donate appreciated assets such as stocks or real estate to avoid capital gains taxes and receive a charitable deduction,” he added. “For those 70 and a half and older, qualified charitable distributions from IRAs can be a tax-efficient way to give.”

Explore Tax-Loss Harvesting

While the word harvesting conjures images of plucking fresh fruits and vegetables out of the ground, tax-loss harvesting can help you generate more green. As Kovar explained it, tax-loss harvesting involves selling investments at a loss to offset capital gains and reduce taxable income.

“Investors should review their portfolios to identify underperforming assets that can be sold to realize losses and minimize their tax liability,” he said.

Make Annual Gifts

Kovar also recommends that his wealthy clients make annual gifts to reduce their estate size and potentially avoid estate taxes. Even better? They get to see the recipient enjoy their gift. For 2024, the annual gift tax exclusion is $17,000 per recipient.

“Reviewing and updating estate planning documents and strategies can ensure that their estate plan is aligned with current laws and personal goals,” he added.

Convert to a Roth IRA

If you’re expecting your income to increase in the future, you might consider converting traditional IRAs or other tax-deferred accounts to Roth IRAs.

Kovar shared that Roth conversions can be taxed in the year of conversion. However, they provide tax-free growth and withdrawals in retirement.

Take RMDs

New Year’s Eve should be more than your last chance to party before the end of the year, it’s also the last day of the year you can take required minimum distributions (RMDs) to avoid penalties.

“Investors who turn 72 this year need to start taking RMDs, and those already taking them should verify they have met the requirements,” said Kovar.

More From GOBankingRates

This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: I’m a Financial Advisor: 6 Year-End Tax Moves My Wealthy Clients Make

Finance

2 charts show why the stock market sell-off isn't done yet

Published

14 hours ago

July 26, 2024

Press Room

2 charts show why the stock market sell-off isn't done yet

The roaring stock market rally of 2024 has finally hit a pause.

The S&P 500 (^GSPC) and Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) tallied their worst one-day drops since 2022 on Wednesday and extended those losses on Thursday. Over the past 10 days the benchmark S&P 500 is down about 3%, while the Nasdaq is down more than 6%.

The recent pause in the rally’s chug higher aligns with calls from equity strategists in our recently released third volume of the Yahoo Finance Chartbook. Truist co-chief investment officer Keith Lerner noted that in years when the S&P 500 has risen more than 10% in the first half of the year, the second half usually sees an average pullback of about 9%.

Through the end of June, the S&P 500 was up about 14%.

“This choppier market action of late, which we have been anticipating, likely has further to go in terms of price and time,” Lerner wrote in a note to clients on Thursday.

Tech has been the clear leader of the recent market drawdown. Information Technology and Communication Services are the only two of the 11 sectors in the S&P 500 with negative returns over the past month. In an interview with Yahoo Finance, Lerner reasoned that the recent sell-off in Tech made sense given how far up the sector had run.

In late June, tech had outperformed the S&P 500 on a rolling two-month basis by the most since 2002, per Lerner’s research. Lerner reasons that, like a rubber band that becomes overstretched, there’s usually a snapback from extreme levels of outperformance in markets.

“When we get that stretched, a little bit of bad news can go a long way,” Lerner said.

The “little bit of news” came via earnings reports from Alphabet (GOOGL, GOOG) and Tesla (TSLA) after the bell on Tuesday leading into Wednesday’s sell-off. Lerner noted that the earnings weren’t bad but failed to impress investors, who had a high bar entering this reporting season.

Earnings from Apple (AAPL), Meta (META), Microsoft (MSFT), and Amazon (AMZN) expected next week will prove the next test for investor sentiment in the tech sector. Lerner reasoned that, after the market reset over the past few trading sessions, there’s a chance technology’s latest swath of earnings can surpass investors’ now-trimmed expectations.

“I think the secular story of this bull market is still intact,” Lerner said. “Money will come back there. I just think more likely you need a resting period and kind of a pause that refreshes.”

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - APRIL 02: Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange during afternoon trading on April 02, 2024 in New York City. All three major stock indexes closed at a loss with the Dow Jones leading the way closing over 350 points falling for a second day as Wall Street has a turbulent start to the second quarter. Both the Dow and S&P 500 had its worst day since March 5th. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images) — Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange during afternoon trading on April 2, 2024, in New York City. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images) (Michael M. Santiago via Getty Images)

BMO Capital Markets chief investment strategist Brian Belski also highlighted the likelihood of a pause in stocks’ climb higher in the latest edition of our Chartbook. Similarly to Lerner’s analysis, Belski’s work shows that going back to 1949, the second year of a bull market sees a roughly 9% average pullback. The most recent bull market started in October 2022.

Belski told Yahoo Finance on Tuesday that the market was “ripe for a pullback from a sentiment perspective.” But to Belski, this is a “buying opportunity.” His research shows that markets typically bounce back an average of 14.5% from the bottom of the second-year bull market drawdowns he studied.

“Stocks will be higher at year-end,” Belski said.

Josh Schafer is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow him on X @_joshschafer.

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Finance

Pakistan's finance minister in Beijing to seek debt relief, say sources

Published

21 hours ago

July 25, 2024

Press Room

Pakistan's finance minister in Beijing to seek debt relief, say sources

Islamabad —

Pakistani Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb arrived in Beijing on Thursday for talks on power sector debt relief alongside structural reforms suggested by the International Monetary Fund, two government sources said.

He held a meeting with his Chinese counterpart in Beijing, they said, and is leading a delegation, along with Power Minister Awais Leghari, that will discuss several proposals, including reprofiling nearly $15 billion in energy sector debt.

The countries, which share a border, have been longtime allies, and rollovers or disbursements on loans from China have helped Pakistan meet its external financing needs in the past.

The IMF this month agreed on a $7 billion bailout for the heavily indebted South Asian economy, while raising concerns over high rates of power theft and distribution losses that result in debt accumulating across the production chain.

The government is implementing structural reforms to reduce “circular debt” – public liabilities that build up in the power sector due to subsidies and unpaid bills – by 100 billion Pakistani rupees ($360 million) a year, Leghari has said.

On Thursday he said on X that he and the finance minister had briefed Chinese Minister of Finance Lan Fo’an on Pakistan’s “efforts to introduce tax and energy reforms in the system.”

Pakistan’s finance ministry, junior Finance Minister Ali Pervaiz Malik and the Chinese finance ministry did not respond to requests for a comment.

Both the finance and power ministers told Reuters in interviews last week that they would be discussing the power sector reforms in their Beijing visit, though they did not specify the timing.

Poor and middle-class households have been affected by a previous IMF bailout reached last year, which included raising power tariffs as part of the funding program that ended in April.

China has set up over $20 billion worth of planned energy projects in Pakistan.