Solver Reviews & Product Details

Solver has significantly improved our finance operations. Its Excel-based platform makes report building incredibly intuitive, especially for users already familiar with Excel. Administration is straight forward - maintaining metadata, security, and business rules is easy and doesn’t require much effort. The software is also highly reliable with minimal downtime, which helps keep productivity high. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Honestly, there's very little to dislike. Occasionally, getting familiar with new features takes a bit of time, but Solver’s responsive support team quickly helps resolve any confusion. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

With Solver's automated integrations, we no longer need to manually download data from multiple sources and format it to meet reporting needs. We can easily create report templates, saving hours of work when modifying large Excel models to change reporting format, roll forward into new reporting periods, or bring in new data. The fact that Solver is easy to learn by team members who are familiar with Excel is a great bonus when it comes to training. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The biggest downside for us is that creating new reports can still be a time consuming process. We do not use D365 and therefore do not have access to the template marketplace, and having access to these templates would be extremely valuable. In addition, AI functionality would be extremely valuable if it could help quickly create new reports or draft new rules. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The data aggregation componenet is my favorfite part of solver. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

There are some things from like a user perspective that just don't quite make sense. For example, Publisher operates only on a calendar day basis. The vast majority of organizations close their books on a business day basis, so having that functionality would make publisher more usable.

I also do not like the inability to automatically and conditionally hide rows that visually display 0, but actual have underlying transactional data.

For example, we might have 1 debit and 1 credit for accounts receivable, that adds up to approximately 0, but not 0 exactly. From a visual perspective, we can't automatically hide those rows. So we have to go into the excel, modify the document, then save. Perhaps some sort of rounding function built into the "hide blank or near blank" rows would do the trick. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

As a report creator for our organization, I have been able to use my Excel skills paired with Solver's robust functionality to create dream come true reports with ease. For other users looking for on demand data pulling, Solver's Ad Hoc Reporting allows for folks to slice and dice the data to get what they need. During our annual budgeting process, Solver's writeback templates and assignments has made creating, reviewing, editing, and finalizing our budget a seamless process. Staff at Solver have a wealth of knowledge and are easily accessible to help provide service when needed. The connection with our ERP is automated and seamless. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

When migrating to the cloud platform, a few functions were no longer available in the cloud that existed in the on-premises environment. While they are working on building some back, there are a few that have not been rebuilt. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

We moved to Solver as an add on to our transition from and older accounting software to Microsoft Business Central. We were initially drawn to Solver through our need for more robust financial reporting that we weren't getting elsewhere. After spending the last 6 months in Solver, and attending their annual Ascend conference, I have found other areas of business we can utilize the platform in, such as sales dashboards, KPI metrics, project tracking, and much more. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

There is a significant learning curve with the solver system, but luckily they have a healthy knowledgebase full of videos and articles on how to most effectively use the system. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

It is very helpful with our budgeting process Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

If anything it would be that I have to save it frequently or risk the data I entered is lost. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I like the data warehouse and the different ways you can integrate different software's. We implement several of our custom systems as well as BC, and excel files. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Sometimes the exact details aren't clear for certain error messages and make it difficult to figure out what the exact problem is, especially on input templates. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What is most helpful about Solver is they will resolve and answer your concerns promptly. Solver is a power tool that can help plan and report. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Solver does and does not function like an excel. I wish it can filter and find function in the planning and report setting instead of export to Report Designer. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I like you can use excel formulas together with Solver commands. For the most part that makes the reporting super easy and very flexible. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

It is not always user friendly and if there is an issue it can be hard to figure out. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

*I can rely on Solver as a tool to get financial reporting done.

*The API to powerBI has worked flawlessly so far.

*User's ability to load their forecasts and budgets directly into the scenario.

*Security is easy to implement

*Security settings staying constant throughout all the different modules e.g., reporting archive, input template, etc.

*I like the role that was created in Solver for more technical customer support without having to escalate questions/needs e.g., Steve Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

*Data Explorer's load time is slow. I'd like the initial view limited to 100 records to speed it up.

*Unable to control the report archive for my users. I want to be able to delete reports in their archive, similar to being an admin in a workspace.

*Parameter naming is inflexible. I had an issue where a previous report creator was using 'periods' and I was using 'period'. This created a confusing extra period filter in the report archive for users. To fix this, I had to delete the old parameter out of every report and setup a new paramter. Then I had to publish the report to the report archive and now my users have 2x the report because I can't control their archive space.

*Default LID entry in input templates. My users think it's clunky and they constantly make mistakes while using it e.g., leaving the last column cell blank & somehow breaking it by putting a value in the main line (even though I thought that wasn't supposed to be possible... they found a way to break it). I then have to clear out everything, save, and re-enter in the LID section.

*Solver is very slow sometimes or has issues fetching drill-down data or it fails. I'd like to have an indication of when Solver is experiencing a slowdown or issues.

*Customizing a drill-down in a report is cumbersome.

*No way to 'view as' a role. In many programs I admin, I can 'view as' a role so I can interact with the program the way the user is enabled to.

*Auto-save feature for input templates. I had 2 users enter their budgets and not his save this cycle.

*Overhaul the look and UI experience of input templates. I had some users complain that it wasn't "slick looking"... I get that it's Excel, so maybe at least Learning Academy courses on beautifying a report template and best practices for the user experience.

*Maybe I missed this option, but there is no way (?) to get a summary of my publisher jobs for the day so I can see what ran or did not run easily.

*Lack of user community. With many other software programs, users can respond and try to help others, and then an official representative of the software responds occasionally. The Solver community forum is a borderline ghost town.

*Need the ability to lock roles in the planning security section instead of having to lock the entire scenario down

*Metrics on how often reports are viewed and by what users Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.