--- title: Catalyst Reviews meta_title: 'Catalyst Reviews 2026: Details, Pricing, & Features | G2' meta_description: Filter 20 reviews by the users' company size, role or industry to find out how Catalyst works for a business like yours. aggregate_rating: rating_value: 4.5 review_count: 20 scale: '5' date_modified: '2026-05-05' parent_category: name: Accounting & Finance url: https://www.g2.com/categories/accounting-finance --- # Catalyst Reviews **Vendor:** EBM Software **Category:** [FP&A Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/fp-a-financial-planning-analysis) **Average Rating:** 4.5/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 20 ## About Catalyst Unlock your data and unleash your performance. Catalyst is powerful, cloud-based business performance software that is designed to accelerate your profitability. Reporting, Planning, Budgeting and Forecasting have never been this simple. Catalyst allows you to easily slice, dice, drill down and pivot enormous amounts of granular data instantaneously to get a complete picture of your business, find anomalies, draw fully-baked insights and make fact-based decisions that positively impact your business. Analyze and create reporting for any data source, from your financials to big data. Don’t just find anomalies, understand them. Catalyst brings all of your data into one clear view: a simple, app-like interface that serves as a single source of truth and democratizes data for your organization. With Catalyst, you finally get a complete view of your business and clarity for the path forward. ## Catalyst Reviews ### 1. Excellent Consolidation Tool for Single Source of Data **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Consumer Goods | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 19, 2022 **What do you like best about Catalyst?** Catalyst is simple and easy to use. It makes it possible for different functions in an organization to share data and have one source of truth instead of having multiple data sources in various spreadsheets. Since UI is in Excel for most business users (cubes), there is almost no learning curve for users already familiar with Excel pivot tables. Managing permissions is easy, and I love the functionality to impersonate different users. I also like that the system can be used right in the browser. **What do you dislike about Catalyst?** I would love to get email notifications if and when a job failure happens. Also, when an update is made to the hierarchies, it sometimes takes longer than usual. However, EBM has made a lot of enhancements to the system recently, such as UI changes which will give users more information and control, and SQL Enterprise, which will reduce the cube processing time by 3X+. **What problems is Catalyst solving and how is that benefiting you?** Catalyst enables businesses to consolidate large amounts of data from multiple ERPs consistently. Profit Cube and Financial Cube are excellent tools to help us understand accurate and timely customer/item margins and create EBITDA bridges down to the customer/item level. The cubes also give visibility to the largest drivers of margins and costs through the integration of PowerBI (also available in Excel), enabling us to make faster and more accurate business decisions based on company data. ### 2. I can get to answers quickly and create models for future projections **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Vince J. | Sr. Director, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 26, 2021 **What do you like best about Catalyst?** Catalyst has been an easy system to quickly learn, implement, and put to use for various projects and functions across departments (finance, operations, marketing, and sales). It is an excellent system for processing large swaths of data quickly, and the system is much easier to customize and adapt to meet the needs of our business vs. an SAP, Oracle, etc. The support staff is friendly, professional, helpful, and available. **What do you dislike about Catalyst?** If you have trouble using excel and pivot tables, then Catalyst might not be the system for you. **What problems is Catalyst solving and how is that benefiting you?** Catalyst has helped us measure the past and plan the future. Catalyst has been great for creating one version of the truth. Collecting all the data and getting it into a centralized database has increased the visibility and transparency of all our sales and finance numbers. No more spreadsheets from multiple sources with different/conflicting information. ### 3. Implementation of Catalyst for BI Purposes **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Kenneth W. | Chief Financial Officer, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 27, 2021 **What do you like best about Catalyst?** Ease of implementation and information literally at my fingertips in whatever point of view that I or my colleagues want. Easily customizable and eliminates which version of the truth discussions finance and other departments historically have engaged in. **What do you dislike about Catalyst?** There is nothing that we dislike about Catalyst, it delivers to our needs. **What problems is Catalyst solving and how is that benefiting you?** Profitability analysis, Sales Reporting, Inventory Management and in process of building out an analytical S&OP process based on sound analytics. ### 4. Quick...responsive...easy to access and understand the output **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Kelly S. | S, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 27, 2021 **What do you like best about Catalyst?** Data as I want to see it, versus how retailers share it, aggregated as we need it **What do you dislike about Catalyst?** Not as intuitive as I would like, some of the logic and naming conventions in our world are not intuitive **What problems is Catalyst solving and how is that benefiting you?** Fastest way to see the macro data...and quickly drill to the smallest level. It is a great solve for us seeing the data in OUR hierarchies as we measure things versus our customers ### 5. Catalyst is a Powerful Analytical and Mgmt Reporting Tool **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Steve H. | Vice President, FP&A, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 21, 2021 **What do you like best about Catalyst?** Catalyst allows me to consolidate data from multiple ERPs in a consistent account, item, and customer hierarchy. The tool works great with not only our internal data but also acquisition target data where I can view another business in the same structure along with our existing. Monthly reporting requires just a simple refresh, and PowerBI integration provides real-time dashboards for key stakeholders. If you're looking to improve your understanding of results, communicate influentially, and get better at predicting the future, Catalyst is a fantastic tool. **What do you dislike about Catalyst?** When significant changes are made to the hierarchies, the next system refresh can take longer than usual. This wait time has come way down over the four years I've used Catalyst as EBM has made several enhancements and we've learned to be more efficient in how we use the tool. **What problems is Catalyst solving and how is that benefiting you?** Profitability Cube: The biggest initial win was getting our profitability cube set up to provide accurate customer/item margins. The cube allowed us to embark on a large-scale SKU rationalization project that decreased our SKU count by 1/3, while increasing our margins by nearly 5% along with some other simplification initiatives. We used the same profitability cube to create EBITDA bridges down to the customer/item level, desegregating volume, mix, rate, and FX across all of our key customer and item-driven costs: sales, sales allowances, COGS, broker, and royalties. We've driven several points of mix favorability over the past three years by using this tool to understand the drivers of our profitability at a low level. Volume: To build out an S&OP process, we needed to start by getting our demand estimates out of Excel and into one consolidated tool. As Catalyst aligned our item and customer hierarchies across three ERPs, our sales organization could then plan case volume for the entire company in one location. This forecast practice not only helped us improve our accuracy but laid the groundwork for understanding our mid-to-long range capital/capacity needs. Reporting: By getting our GL accounts aligned in Catalyst, we could more easily consolidate financial reporting. Not only that, but the flexible structure of the tool allowed us to hone our reports over time. Now, monthly business reviews are nearly as simple as a right-click "refresh'. ### 6. Catalyst - Ease of Monthly Reporting **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Marla H. | H, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 26, 2021 **What do you like best about Catalyst?** The ease of reporting takes the pain out of monthly reporting. **What do you dislike about Catalyst?** There is nothing at this point that I do not like about the tool. **What problems is Catalyst solving and how is that benefiting you?** Monthly reporting with Catalyst comes together a lot quicker, which gives me more time to analyze the results instead of spending time just putting reports together. ### 7. Mid-sized CPG Food Experience **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Food Production | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 09, 2021 **What do you like best about Catalyst?** The simplicity, user experience, and administration flexibility are top-notch. User adoption and self-service reporting has enabled our organization to elevate its financial understanding of the business and allow for real-time reporting and sharing of data **What do you dislike about Catalyst?** Auto connection to the cube could be enhanced **What problems is Catalyst solving and how is that benefiting you?** Better understanding of customer/item margin and identifying pricing issues/opportunities. Elevating our sales force to "mini-CEOs" for their customer sets using margin as the lens of good/bad business. Self service reporting on progress vs. Plan and PY ### 8. Great for various P&L scenarios **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Consumer Goods | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 26, 2021 **What do you like best about Catalyst?** Love that we can easily upload and run different P&L scenarios. Easy to allocate costs and run analyses. The pivot options are great for looking at different product segments/SKUs. Training from Catalyst rep was very helpful. **What do you dislike about Catalyst?** Quicker refresh of cubes when uploading scenarios/allocating costs. Sometimes the lag messes up our allocation process and uploads incorrect amounts if my colluegues and I are both working in the software. **What problems is Catalyst solving and how is that benefiting you?** Quick analyses and pivots between various P&L scenarios and products. Quick and customizable upload processes. ### 9. FP&A Manager **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Food & Beverages | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 28, 2021 **What do you like best about Catalyst?** Easy, user-friendly navigation and drilling down data to the lowest level if there are any discrepancies. **What do you dislike about Catalyst?** I cannot delete users completely who are no longer with the organization **What problems is Catalyst solving and how is that benefiting you?** I wish "Parent Accounts" in the hierarchy did not flow into Catalyst, or after corrections would be easier to delete those Benefits seem limitless and will require more time to explore. Nevertheless, I am excited to see information separately per entity and consolidated at the same time. ### 10. Harvesting Opportunity! **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Gregory G. | Senior Director of Finance & Administration, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 01, 2021 **What do you like best about Catalyst?** This tool allows us to make the most of the data that we already have. It allows us to create insights that would otherwise be lost in the shuffle. Further it makes it easy to find, filter, group and sort the data into digestible content. **What do you dislike about Catalyst?** Setup is always tough - would perhaps have liked to have the option of parallel path for GL and Profit and Inventory cubes. In our case we chose to do these successively - makes the implementation process feel longer than it is. **What problems is Catalyst solving and how is that benefiting you?** Simplified financial reporting. Insights into margins. ### 11. The Catalyst experience has been great **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** KEITH W. | Plant Controller, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 27, 2021 **What do you like best about Catalyst?** Easy navigation. Accurate reporting. Information is in one place and easy to retrieve. **What do you dislike about Catalyst?** Catalyst is a very good tool and I am very happy withnthe program **What problems is Catalyst solving and how is that benefiting you?** Financial statement review. Forecast and budgets ### 12. User Friendly Software **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Food Production | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 26, 2021 **What do you like best about Catalyst?** Catalyst is extremely user-friendly for profitability analysis and forecasting. It takes minimal time to train new users and provides valuable information quickly. **What do you dislike about Catalyst?** The only dislike is after software updates there are often glitches. **What problems is Catalyst solving and how is that benefiting you?** I use catalyst for profitability analysis every day. It is a quick way to draw the information I'm looking for, and has the ability to provide answers to numerous questions. ### 13. I think this is a great financial system but not user friendly from a sales perspective approach **Rating:** 3.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Consumer Goods | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 28, 2021 **What do you like best about Catalyst?** I like that it can be used for both a forecasting tool and a POS reporting tool. **What do you dislike about Catalyst?** I dislike that it is not very user friendly when trying to create sales reports to refresh. **What problems is Catalyst solving and how is that benefiting you?** It feeds all of our POS systems and forecasting tools so i like that all data lives in one system to feed our most used reports. **Official Response from Will Flor:** > I'm glad to know you're getting value out of having shipment, forecast, and POS data all in Catalyst, but certainly would like to help with getting data out of Catalyst in a more efficient way. If you reach out to support@ebmsoftware.com and reference your review, someone on our Customer Success team will reach out to see how we can help! ### 14. Overall it is easy to work with **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Industrial Automation | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 26, 2021 **What do you like best about Catalyst?** That it is in pivot format and the team is easy to work with. **What do you dislike about Catalyst?** Good but a bit clunky with the continual logins and getting kicked out of excel all together. Hierarchies can be a bit difficult. **What problems is Catalyst solving and how is that benefiting you?** Financial reporting for PE company. Good overall for that and am getting the profitability cube working to make it an even better experience. ### 15. Timely Financial Analysis at your fingertips **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Caitlin R. | Director of Accounting, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 27, 2021 **What do you like best about Catalyst?** Ability to pull multiple data sets in real time **What do you dislike about Catalyst?** Lag time synching to our ERP system NetSuite **What problems is Catalyst solving and how is that benefiting you?** Budget to Actual Analysis ### 16. Catalyst is neat but very quirky **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Food Production | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 28, 2021 **What do you like best about Catalyst?** I like the fact that you can pull data from multiple systems **What do you dislike about Catalyst?** Most people seem to be afraid of it because it requires a lot of time and knowledge to work and build valuable reports in Catalyst **What problems is Catalyst solving and how is that benefiting you?** The consolidation of data - I like Catalyst it's just a bit quirky at times **Official Response from Will Flor:** > Thank you so much for your feedback! The last thing we want is for anyone to be tentative to use the product or create reports and analysis, so we'd love to get you over that hump. If you send a note to support@ebmsoftware.com and reference your review, someone on our Customer Success team will reach out to set up some time with you and anyone on your team. ### 17. I love cubes **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Maria K. | Director of Financial Projects **Reviewed Date:** November 03, 2021 **What do you like best about Catalyst?** Ease of Use / Versatility / Integration with other applications **What do you dislike about Catalyst?** 1 day lag between our ERP and Catalyst and setting up multiple upload in the middle of the day created various issues when updating cubes etc. **What problems is Catalyst solving and how is that benefiting you?** Financial Reporting Data Analysis ### 18. Great tool for all departments! Easy to use! **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Marketing and Advertising | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 26, 2021 **What do you like best about Catalyst?** The data table is very easy to mainpulate and structure to fit your personal needs! **What do you dislike about Catalyst?** It takes a little time to load and needs constant updating. **What problems is Catalyst solving and how is that benefiting you?** I am better able to understand my business performance, update forecasts and compare to previous years. ### 19. Finally a Finance Platform thats Robust and Easy to Use...and made by People that know Finance! **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Consumer Goods | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 10, 2021 **What do you like best about Catalyst?** Integration with excel making it intuitive **What do you dislike about Catalyst?** Almost entirely pivot table driven but workarounds **What problems is Catalyst solving and how is that benefiting you?** Being able to zoom in and out of data quickly and efficiently ### 20. Good for Data summary & consolidation **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Consumer Goods | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 09, 2021 **What do you like best about Catalyst?** Visualizations of data in a dashboard format. **What do you dislike about Catalyst?** Certain data points in the EBM export are not intuitive. **What problems is Catalyst solving and how is that benefiting you?** Summarization of Data - [View Catalyst pricing details and edition comparison](https://www.g2.com/products/ebm-software-catalyst/reviews?section=pricing&secure%5Bexpires_at%5D=2026-06-16+19%3A25%3A06+-0500&secure%5Bsession_id%5D=fb915a46-ca97-4017-bc75-5e5f6d8ac68b&secure%5Btoken%5D=f419bcc4668c120c95161eb5e0885d5d5ef4510aa9b4b199f4e19e7aa3f1d8a2&format=llm_user) ## Catalyst Features **Budget Creation** - Data Import - Budget Hierarchies - Versioning - Formulas - What-If - Budget Periods **Data Management** - Data Import - Data Consolidation - Data Validation **Reconciliation** - Consolidation - Management **Financial Planning** - Extended Planning - Reporting - Integration **Agentic AI - Accounting & Finance** - Autonomous Task Execution **Agentic AI - FP&A (Financial Planning & Analysis) ** - Proactive Assistance - Decision Making **Financial Insight** - Budgeting - Forecasting - Planning **Budget Management** - Consolidation - Adjustments - Workflows **Reporting Structure** - Reporting Hierarchy - Report Templates - Report Types **Reporting** - Report Types - Standard - Custom **Data** - Data Visualization - Data Analysis - Custom Reporting - Reporting Templates **Forecasting** - Historical Data - Reforecast - Forecast Types - Rolling Forecasts - AI **Standard Analytics** - Standard KPIs - Standard Reports - Financial Statements - Drill Down **Closing Process** - Journal Entries - Distribution **Status Communication** - Collaboration - Version Control - Real-Time Data Updates - Scorecards **Analytics** - Variance Analysis - Forecasts Comparison - Forward Looking **Custom Analytics** - Dashboards - Custom KPIs - Custom Reports - Self Service - Multiple Entities **Agentic AI - Budgeting and Forecasting** - Natural Language Interaction - Proactive Assistance - Decision Making **Agentic AI - Financial Analysis** - Cross-system Integration - Decision Making **AI - Financial Close** - Autonomous Task Execution - Compliance - Reconciliation - Data Collection - Analysis ## Top Catalyst Alternatives - [Vena](https://www.g2.com/products/vena/reviews) - 4.5/5.0 (469 reviews) - [Planful](https://www.g2.com/products/planful/reviews) - 4.3/5.0 (491 reviews) - [Anaplan](https://www.g2.com/products/anaplan/reviews) - 4.6/5.0 (395 reviews)