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OneStream or Anaplan, settled by whether the group has intercompany eliminations.
OneStream (EPM software) runs the close, the consolidation and the plan in 1 application. Anaplan (planning software) is a planning engine that reads actuals from a ledger or a consolidation system.
OneStream and Anaplan often share a shortlist when a multi-entity group's planning has outgrown its workbooks and a budget round has a date. The 2 products are built for different jobs, and we compare them here on 11 tasks.
- OneStream (EPM software)
- 1 application holding the entities, accounts and periods for the close, the consolidation, the plan and the report.
- Anaplan (planning software)
- Models built by certified model builders on Anaplan's Hyperblock engine, reading actuals loaded from a ledger or a consolidation.
- The main difference
- OneStream runs intercompany eliminations, currency translation and ownership adjustments in the same product as the plan. Anaplan plans on results consolidated elsewhere, or on logic a model builder writes.
OneStream and Anaplan are each built in their own way for the 11 tasks a multi-entity group runs every year.
| OneStream (EPM software) | Anaplan (planning software) | |
|---|---|---|
| Consolidate 12 entities with minority interests | The consolidation engine applies ownership percentages and minority interests inside the model the entities load to. | Consolidation logic is built as a model by a model builder, or a consolidated result is loaded from the system that produced it. |
| Eliminate intercompany balances across 40 entity pairs | Intercompany matching and elimination run in the consolidation, per entity pair and per period, with the matching report stored beside the result. | An elimination is a calculation a model builder writes in a module, on the intercompany balances the model has been fed. |
| Translate 9 currencies at closing, average and historical rates | Translation runs in the consolidation with a rate type per account, and the local and translated values are held side by side. | Rate tables and translation logic are modelled by the builder, and the model holds the translated value that logic produces. |
| Run a 5 day close to a calendar | The close runs in the same application as the consolidation, with task lists, certifications and a status per entity and period. | The close runs in the ledger and the consolidation system, and Anaplan receives the actuals once they are final. |
| Load actuals from 3 ERPs | Each ERP loads through the platform's data management layer, with its mapping, its validation and a drill back to the source record kept per load. | Actuals arrive through Anaplan's integration tools or Anaplan Data Orchestrator, mapped to the model's lists on the way in. |
| Build a driver based forecast for 200 cost centres | The forecast uses the consolidation's entities and accounts, with the drivers in the same model and the actuals already in place. | The forecast is built from lists, line items and modules, the work Anaplan's engine was designed for. |
| Branch a scenario and compare it with the base case | A scenario is a member of the scenario dimension in the same model, compared with actuals without an export. | Versions are a native dimension in Anaplan. A branch is a version, and the comparison is a line item. |
| Plan headcount with HR and volume with the commercial team | Operational plans sit in the same application as the financial plan, on shared entities and periods. | Anaplan links a finance model, a workforce model and a sales model through shared lists and data flows between them. |
| Produce the statutory accounts and the audit trail | Statutory adjustments, journals and the audit trail sit in the consolidation, and the annual report reads from it. | The statutory accounts are produced in the group's consolidation system, and Anaplan reads the result for planning. |
| Reconcile the plan to last month's actuals | The plan and the actuals share 1 set of entities, accounts and periods, and the variance is a calculation in the same model. | The variance is calculated once actuals are loaded and mapped to the model's lists. Any difference usually traces back to that mapping. |
| Change the model after go-live | A finance systems team administers the model, and a change goes through the application's metadata management and workflow. | Certified model builders change the model. Anaplan trains and examines model builders at 3 levels in its own curriculum. |
OneStream holds the close, the consolidation and the plan in 1 application.
OneStream defines the entities, accounts, periods and scenarios once, and the close, the plan and the report all read that definition.
The design is called Extensible Dimensionality. Extensible Dimensionality lets a subsidiary add detail below the group hierarchy without breaking it.
Each ledger loads once, which shortens the close. The consolidation then runs ownership, translation and elimination on what arrived.
The plan sits on the actuals the consolidation produced, in the same model, with no export between them. OneStream is built for a group with a statutory close to run and a finance systems team to look after 1 model.
Anaplan is a planning engine that calculates whatever a model builder defines.
Anaplan's calculation engines are called Hyperblock and Polaris. A model builder defines the lists, modules and line items the engine runs.
Every dependent cell recalculates when an input changes. A single Anaplan model can hold headcount, volume and cash on the same lists.
Actuals reach an Anaplan model from a ledger or a consolidation system through Anaplan's integration tools, mapped to the model's lists on the way in. The consolidation itself, with its eliminations and ownership rules, stays in the system the actuals came from.
Anaplan links a finance model to a workforce model and a sales model through shared lists. Groups that close elsewhere keep Anaplan on the shortlist for that reach beyond finance.
Intercompany eliminations are the first question on a shortlist that carries both OneStream and Anaplan.
A group with 12 subsidiaries selling to each other every month runs an elimination somewhere. OneStream runs it in the same model as the plan, so the comparison is with the group's current consolidation system.
Some groups keep the consolidation where it is and want headcount, volume and finance planned on shared lists. For them, Anaplan and OneStream's planning are compared on the plan alone.
Most shortlists with both products carry 1 open question, whether the close will move. An early answer leaves the demonstrations free for the other tasks.
Constancia is an EPM consultancy and an official partner of OneStream. We survey the group's data model before we say which question the shortlist is asking.
The Anaplan to OneStream migration and 2 more comparisons are worth reading next.
Abacum or Anaplan
Anaplan compared with Abacum (FP&A software), which the finance team sets up itself.
Read the comparisonOneStream or Board International
OneStream and Board compared for a group that wants the statutory close inside the scope.
Read the comparisonAnaplan to OneStream migration
What moves across and what is designed fresh when a group brings its close onto OneStream.
Read the route
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