About FP&A Stack
FP&A Stack is independent research on AI tools for corporate FP&A and capital planning — the budgets, forecasts and business cases finance teams actually build.
Who's behind it
Every page is reviewed by a corporate finance practitioner with 11+ years in corporate finance at one of the largest private companies in the US and a publicly traded company, and experience across both private and public investments. Today they focus on capital planning and business cases, and they use Claude, ChatGPT, Copilot and Grok daily in real finance work.
Why that background matters
Their core experience is M&A across both private and publicly traded companies, plus hands-on work inside portfolio companies. That's an operator's view of what makes a finance organization run well: where cost can come out, where value gets created, and which tools add value rather than overhead.
Does it make the finance org leaner and better, at a cost that earns its return?
That's the test every tool here is held to, the way a deal team or portco operator would judge it: real ROI, real efficiency gains, and the full cost. So the research covers what a tool costs, what it connects to, and whether it holds up in a real close. Minus the sales pitch.
The reviewer stays anonymous so we can write candidly about vendors their employer may evaluate. They have no ownership in, or compensation from, any vendor we cover.
Methodology
Pricing
- Published prices come from the vendor's own pricing page, linked on every tool page.
- Quote-only vendors get third-party benchmarks, primarily Vendr's median and range, always attributed and dated. We note sample size when Vendr shows it.
- Secondhand figures (a blog citing Vendr) are labeled lower-confidence. No source, no number — we never estimate a price ourselves.
AI connectors
- A pairing is Official only if the finance vendor or the assistant maker documents it (help center, developer docs, directory listing, release notes).
- We record access (read-only vs read + write), cost (included vs paid add-on, as stated), stage (GA only when the vendor says GA; "Live" when available but unlabeled), a source link and a last-verified date.
- Anything we can't source is marked Unverified. Contradictions between a vendor's own pages are flagged, not resolved by guesswork.
Scores (coming)
Practitioner scores will come from running every tool through the same corporate-finance tasks, with inputs published where possible:
- Budget build — departmental opex budget from prior-year actuals and drivers.
- Variance commentary — budget-vs-actual narrative a CFO would accept.
- Rolling forecast refresh — update a 12-month forecast with new actuals.
- Capex business case — NPV/IRR/payback with sensitivities and a one-page memo.
Each task is scored 1–5 on accuracy, effort saved, auditability and fit with existing workflow. Until a tool is tested, its page says "Take coming soon". We'd rather leave a gap than publish a score we haven't earned.
Independence & disclosure policy
- Revenue sources. FP&A Stack plans to earn money from clearly labeled featured listings, newsletter sponsorships, and affiliate or referral programs (for example, a vendor paying for a qualified demo referral).
- Today: we have no active affiliate, referral or sponsorship relationships. When that changes, affected pages will say so near the top, and affiliate links will be marked.
- Payment never buys a score, a ranking position, a practitioner take, or a change to pricing or connector data.
- Corrections are free and open to anyone, including vendors. Send a documentation link to [email protected]; we date and note material corrections.
- Not advice. Content is research, not financial, legal or procurement advice. Confirm pricing and terms with the vendor.
Contact
[email protected] — corrections, tips, advertising, or a tool we should cover (submit it here).