AI Indexes
Finance AI Index
September 2026 Edition, published September 17, 2026 · The permanent record of that edition, superseded since. The current standing is on the category page →
Index › Accounting and close › Financial consolidation › Small business › September 2026 Edition

Financial consolidation for small business buyers

Asked as “financial consolidation software”, and as “multi-entity consolidation tool”, on behalf of a small B2B company. 59 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing · first-choice share
46%
Clear leader
46Joiin08Centage Planning Maestro08Cube37others

46% of first choices, clear leader.

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment; they sit side by side and are never added together.

The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for a small B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01Joiin46%0%39endorsed leader
02Centage Planning Maestro8%4%25accepted challenger
03Cube8%5%22accepted challenger
04Fathom7%0%30accepted challenger
05Datarails5%0%13accepted challenger
06Sage Intacct5%41%17criticized challenger
07QuickBooks Online3%44%16criticized challenger
08LiveFlow2%0%14accepted challenger
09Vena2%33%12criticized challenger
10Prophix2%40%10criticized challenger
11Xero2%45%11criticized challenger
Show the three products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
13Oracle Hyperion0%90%10criticized challenger
14OneStream0%80%20criticized challenger
12Oracle NetSuite0%71%14criticized challenger
Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its product page.
All twenty-eight head-to-head pages: the top eight products, each against each

Recommended versus criticized

Every product with at least 10 labels here, on both axes. The 30% line names a quadrant, not the verdict above: that one needs more than 40%.

Criticized challengerCriticized default
Negative label rate →
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
13
14
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative60%
Key
01Joiin46%
02Centage Planning Maestro8%
03Cube8%
04Fathom7%
05Datarails5%
06Sage Intacct5%
07QuickBooks Online3%
08LiveFlow2%
09Vena2%
10Prophix2%
11Xero2%
12Oracle NetSuite0%
13Oracle Hyperion0%
14OneStream0%

What they warned about

Three of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, GPT-5.4 mini, Perplexity Sonar, Mistral Small, Llama 4 Maverick, Qwen 3.7 Flash, Kimi K2, GLM 4.7 FlashX and MiniMax M2.5 changed. A high negative share on a product with few labels is a warning. A low share on a product with many labels is salience, not sentiment.
OneStream
80%
16 of 20 labels negative · 9 of 12 models · 11 hard negative
“small businesses should avoid or be cautious about: - Enterprise-grade financial consolidation platforms (OneStream, Oracle Hyperion, NetSuite OneWorld, Sage Intacct)” Mistral Small, negative prompt
Oracle NetSuite
71%
10 of 14 labels negative · 7 of 12 models · 4 hard negative
“Enterprise-Grade Financial Consolidation Software (e.g., NetSuite, Oracle Hyperion, SAP Consolidation...) - Why avoid or be cautious?” Grok 4.1 Fast, negative prompt
Oracle Hyperion
90%
9 of 10 labels negative · 6 of 12 models · 9 hard negative
“Enterprise-grade financial consolidation platforms (OneStream, Oracle Hyperion, NetSuite OneWorld, Sage Intacct)” Mistral Small, negative prompt
QuickBooks Online
44%
7 of 16 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 4 hard negative
“Who Should NOT Use QuickBooks Enterprise: Businesses that need full cloud-native infrastructure, multi-entity consolidated reporting, or full ERP capabilities” Muse Glimmer 30B, negative prompt

What they cite

Citations exist only for the models that return a source list: fourteen of the twelve in this edition, and all six flagship models on the expanded tier.

Sites the answers cite

76 of 84 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 14 of 12 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 1026 links across 258 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

vendor site · Prophix40 answers · 41 citations · 12 models
vendor site · Consolidate.io35 answers · 36 citations · 12 models
32 answers · 41 citations · 12 models
vendor site · Cubesoftware30 answers · 37 citations · 12 models
vendor site · Guideflow24 answers · 31 citations · 8 models
vendor site · HighRadius24 answers · 26 citations · 11 models
23 answers · 23 citations · 10 models
vendor site · Datarails21 answers · 25 citations · 9 models
vendor site · Sourceforge19 answers · 28 citations · 10 models
vendor site · G218 answers · 37 citations · 10 models
vendor site · LiveFlow18 answers · 27 citations · 9 models
17 answers · 17 citations · 8 models

Pages the answers cite

The ten pages named in the most answers, by full address. A page here is one the models returned with a recommendation, not one the index endorses.

Search against answers

Each company's standing in the answers beside its site's footprint in Google search, one row a site: the products the models named on it with their shares, and the share they add up to; monthly searches on Google, and DataForSEO's estimate of AI search demand (modeled from search signals, directional, not a count of queries to any assistant), for the most-searched of the company's and its products' names (the name is in each row's hover text); estimated monthly organic visits to the site; and its best position in Google's top ten for “best financial consolidation software”, “consolidation tools”, “financial consolidation software”. US estimates from DataForSEO and Google's Ads Transparency Center. A small company's site, or a mid-sized company's site for its flagship, is marked company; a product on a large parent's site (Google, Microsoft) has no site figures. A column with no figures for this category is left out, and an empty cell means none were seen, not none exist. Two measurements side by side: neither is read as the cause of the other.
Company and productsShareOwn site citedName searches, GoogleAI search demand, est.Organic visitsPaid search a month, est.Google ads, last 30 daysBest Google position
Joiin joiin.co46%67590415206
Centage centage.com
Centage Planning Maestro 8%
8%381,000111,692 company6
Cube cubesoftware.com8%34990,500152,613168,76413
Fathom fathomhq.com7%20490,5006,65774,88138
Datarails datarails.com5%3036,60013418,964$16,697107
Sage sage.com
Sage Intacct 5%
5%433246,00090,5991,737,127 company$114,67178
QuickBooks quickbooks.ninja
QuickBooks Online 3%
3%6211,000,00054,681253 company
Consolidate.io consolidate.io
JustConsolidate 2%, Consolidate.io 2%
3%53
LiveFlow liveflow.com2%951,3001994,84644
Gather.nexus gather.nexus2%151002

Google's top ten for the three searches hold 20 sites; 3 of them are among the sites the models cited here (consolidate.io, highradius.com, liveflow.com). The first result for “best financial consolidation software” is gartner.com.

How they answered

Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. One row per model, so a row shows whether it held its answer under rewording, what it named when cost was the constraint, and what it argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.
ShowHide
ModelDirect“What is the best financial consolidation software for a small B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which multi-entity consolidation tool would you recommend to a small business that sells to other businesses?”Comparative“What are the top consolidation tools for a small team and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best financial consolidation software for a small company with a tight budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 30 person company evaluating a financial consolidation software. What should we look at?”Negative“Which consolidation tools should a small business avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5Centage Planning Maestro
Three alternativesDatarails, Joiin, JustConsolidate
QuickBooks OnlineChanged
Two alternativesAnaplan, Workiva
against: Oracle NetSuite
Cube
Two alternativesDatarails, Fathom
Joiin
Two alternativesCentage Planning Maestro, Fathom
against: Microsoft Excel
no first choiceagainst: BlackLine, OneStream, Oracle Fusion Cloud EPM, Vena
GPT-5.4 miniDatarails, Joiinagainst: BlackLine, Board, CCH Tagetik, OneStream, Oracle Financial Consolidation and CloseQuickBooks OnlineChanged
One alternativeOracle NetSuite
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central
Two alternativesBoard Financial Consolidation / Group Consolidation and Reporting, Oracle Financial Consolidation and Close
against: Oracle Hyperion Financial Close Management
LiveFlow
Two alternativesDatarails, FloQast
against: BlackLine, CCH Tagetik, OneStream
no first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashJoiin
Three alternativesFathom, LiveFlow, Syft Analytics
against: Oracle, Oracle NetSuite, QuickBooks Online, Xero
JoiinHeld
Four alternativesFlow ERP, LiveFlow, SoftLedger, Syft Analytics
against: Oracle NetSuite, Sage Intacct
Fathom
Two alternativesJoiin, Syft Analytics
Joiin
Three alternativesFathom, G-Accon, Syft Analytics
against: Anaplan, OneStream, Vena
Joiin, JustConsolidate
Five alternativesCube, Datarails, Fathom, LiveFlow, Syft Analytics
against: OneStream, Oracle Hyperion, Planful, Prophix, Vena, Workday Adaptive Planning
against: Google Sheets, Microsoft Excel, OneStream, Oracle Hyperion, SAP BPC
Perplexity SonarCube
Three alternativesCentage Planning Maestro, Joiin, Sage Intacct
JoiinChanged
Two alternativesCube, Gather.nexus
Cube
Three alternativesCentage Planning Maestro, Fathom, Joiin
against: Board, Planful, Prophix, Workday Adaptive Planning
Cube
Four alternativesCentage Planning Maestro, Fathom, QuickBooks Online Advanced with consolidation add-ons, Zoho Books with Zoho Analytics
no first choicenothing named
Grok 4.1 FastJoiin
Three alternativesCentage Planning Maestro, Fathom, QuickBooks Online
against: OneStream, Prophix
JoiinHeld
Two alternativesMicrosoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, Sage Intacct
ClickUp, Notion
Three alternativesAsana, Monday.com, Trello
Joiin
Three alternativesCentage Planning Maestro, Fathom, TallyPrime
against: OneStream, Oracle Hyperion, Planful
no first choiceagainst: Oracle Hyperionagainst: AWS Glue, Alteryx, Oracle Hyperion, Oracle NetSuite, SAP Consolidation
Mistral SmallCentage Planning Maestro, Joiin
Two alternativesCube, Datarails
JoiinChanged
Two alternativesMicrosoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, Model Reef
Centage Planning Maestro, Cube
One alternativeDatarails
Centage Planning Maestro, Cubeagainst: JustConsolidate, Qvincino first choiceagainst: OneStream, Oracle Hyperion, Oracle NetSuite, Sage Intacct
DeepSeek V4 FlashJoiin
Three alternativesCentage Planning Maestro, Cube, ScaleXP
against: Lucanet, Prophix
JoiinHeld
One alternativeFathom
against: Oracle NetSuite, Sage Intacct
ClickUp
Six alternativesAirtable, Asana, Basecamp, Monday.com, Notion, Zoho One
Joiin
Two alternativesFathom, ScaleXP
against: OneStream, Oracle, SAP, Zoho Books
no first choice
Seven alternativesCentage Planning Maestro, Fathom, Gather.nexus, Joiin, LiveFlow, Prophix, QuickConsols
against: CCH Tagetik, OneStream, Oracle, SAP
against: CCH Tagetik, Manual Spreadsheet Consolidation, OneStream, Oracle Fusion Cloud EPM, Oracle Hyperion, Oracle NetSuite, Sage Intacct
Llama 4 Maverickno first choiceFathom, Gather.nexus, Sage IntacctChangedCentage Planning Maestro
One alternativeCube
Centage Planning Maestro
One alternativeLucanet
no first choicenothing named
Qwen 3.7 FlashCube, Datarails
Three alternativesFathom, Joiin, Prophix
against: OneStream, Oracle, SAP BPC
Acumatica Cloud ERP, Consolidate.ioChanged
One alternativeQuickBooks Online
against: Oracle, SAP
Datarails
Two alternativesCentage Planning Maestro, Flair Analytics
Joiin
Two alternativesCentage Planning Maestro, Cubes
against: Gravity Software, Oracle Hyperion, Sage Intacct
Centage Planning Maestro, Fathomagainst: Oracle, Oracle NetSuite, Planful, SAP, Sage Intacct, Venaagainst: Microsoft Dynamics, Oracle NetSuite, QuickBooks Online, SAP Business One, Xero
Kimi K2Joiin
Two alternativesFathom, ScaleXP
Sage IntacctChanged
Three alternativesFathom, LiveFlow, QuickBooks Online
no first choiceJoiin
Two alternativesFathom, Xero
against: OneStream, Oracle Hyperion, Wave, Workday
Datarails, Fathom, Joiin, Prophix, Spotlight Reporting, Vena
Three alternativesBoard, Fluence Technologies, Planful
against: OneStream, Oracle Fusion Cloud EPM, Oracle NetSuite, SAP
nothing named
GLM 4.7 FlashXFathom
Four alternativesFlow ERP, Gather.nexus, LiveFlow, Syft Analytics
against: Sage Intacct
JoiinChanged
Two alternativesFathom, ScaleXP
against: QuickBooks Online, Xero
Datarails, Joiin
One alternativeCube
Joiin
Six alternativesMicrosoft Excel, Microsoft Power BI, Power Query, QuickBooks Online, Xero, Zoho Books
against: Centage Planning Maestro, Wave, Zoho Expense
no first choiceagainst: Google Sheets, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Power BI, QuickBooks Online, Tableau, Wave, Xero
MiniMax M2.5Fuelfinance, Sage Intacct
One alternativeVena
JoiinChanged
Four alternativesFathom, Fuelfinance, LiveFlow, Spotlight Reporting
no first choiceJoiin, Xero
One alternativeWave
no first choiceagainst: FreshBooks, GnuCash, Manager.io, QuickBooks Online, Wave
Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against

The record

One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, and latency. Full answer text is in the free responses file. Download the record
Seventy-two rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-01 08:00yes97 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-01 08:42yes36 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-01 10:43yes1420 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-01 10:39yes192 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-01 09:09yes248 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-01 11:21yes54 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-01 10:39yes2132 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-01 08:44yes52 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-01 09:13yes920 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-01 10:43yes1925 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-01 09:59yes2428 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-01 09:10yes1033 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-01 08:40no04 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-01 08:09no03 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-01 08:51yes1427 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-01 10:20yes162 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-01 09:07yes186 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-01 10:47yes53 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-01 07:39yes2322 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-01 08:32yes51 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-01 10:24no034 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-01 11:07yes1719 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-01 07:40yes1973 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-01 10:53yes1361 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-01 08:41yes98 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-01 11:22yes58 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-01 07:31yes1525 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-01 11:11yes205 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-01 08:27yes257 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-01 08:36yes97 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-01 09:04yes2438 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-01 09:57yes511 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-01 09:17yes531 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-01 08:03yes2026 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-01 11:11yes2377 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-01 10:47yes517 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-01 11:02yes98 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-01 09:12yes25 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-01 08:16yes1524 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-01 10:41yes223 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-01 07:41yes228 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-01 08:57yes53 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-01 11:01yes2525 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-01 10:29yes52 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-01 09:59yes1436 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-01 10:21yes1919 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-01 10:04yes2444 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-01 10:03yes1012 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-01 11:06no05 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-01 07:53no07 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-01 09:59yes921 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-01 09:52yes328 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-01 10:25yes127 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-01 08:57no012 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-01 11:26yes1744 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-01 09:25yes52 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-01 10:40yes528 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-01 07:39yes1531 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-01 09:25yes1720 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-01 08:49no08 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-01 09:36yes1610 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-01 09:39no04 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-01 11:03yes1923 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-01 07:37yes203 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-01 08:33yes219 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-01 07:43yes54 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-01 10:48yes2337 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-01 10:09yes52 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-01 08:42yes1034 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-01 11:03yes2524 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-01 09:06yes13102 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-01 09:15yes1033 s

Normalization in this category

Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.

ShowHide
Category-scoped readings
Acumatica read as Acumatica Cloud ERP
Centage read as Centage Planning Maestro
Centage (Planning Maestro) read as Centage Planning Maestro
Excel read as Microsoft Excel
Fluence read as Fluence Technologies
NetSuite read as Oracle NetSuite
Oracle EPM read as Oracle Fusion Cloud EPM
Oracle FCCS read as Oracle Financial Consolidation and Close
Prophix One read as Prophix
QuickBooks read as QuickBooks Online
QuickBooks Advanced read as QuickBooks Online
QuickBooks Enterprise read as QuickBooks Online
SAP Group Reporting read as SAP S/4HANA Finance for Group Reporting
Vena Solutions read as Vena
Workday Adaptive read as Workday Adaptive Planning
Unresolved, counted raw
Board Financial Consolidation / Group Consolidation and Reporting
Cubes
Flair Analytics
Keboola
Manual Spreadsheet Consolidation (Excel/Google Sheets)
Model Reef
QuickBooks Online Advanced with consolidation add-ons
QuickBooks multi-company
QuickConsols
SAP Consolidation
Troop Messenger / Microsoft 365
Xero HQ
Zoho Books with Zoho Analytics
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
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