The 2025 mandate for RevOps is clear: efficient, predictable growth. Today, leaders need to know not just whether they will hit the number, but also how to do so without burning unnecessary cash.
Yet, a dangerous gap remains for most teams. Revenue targets sit in static spreadsheets while deal reality lives in the CRM, and the two rarely align. When strategy and execution don’t talk to each other, you aren’t planning, you’re guessing.
I wanted to find the platforms that finally close this loop. After hands-on testing nearly a dozen solutions, I looked for tools that go beyond simple dashboards to truly connect top-down strategy (headcount, quotas) with bottom-up execution.
Here are the six platforms that stood out as the most complete tools for connecting sales planning to reality this year.
1. Lative: The connected sales planning and decision intelligence platform
Lative isn’t just another dashboard; it’s a connected sales planning platform that merges productivity data, headcount and revenue targets into a single live sales capacity model. The tool helps you answer three core questions:
- Will we hit our number?
- How will we hit it?
- Can we hit it efficiently?
Lative does this by combining capacity, productivity and efficiency metrics in one place.
What it does best
Lative shines by moving beyond static reporting to create a dynamic, interconnected view of your sales engine. It excels at translating complex capacity and productivity data into actionable levers for growth.
Real‑time productivity and efficiency insights
Lative’s live dashboards let RevOps leaders benchmark reps and teams, surface bottlenecks and detect productivity shifts early. This is not a static BI report; trend detection alerts you when conversion rates dip or a region starts underperforming.
Scenario‑based capacity planning
Planning tools are built on live capacity models. You can run what‑if simulations for hiring, ramp times and quota changes in minutes and immediately see the revenue impact. I modelled a “mid‑year hiring freeze” scenario in a few clicks and instantly saw how it would affect quota capacity
Execution tracking and early warning signals
A single view of quota attainment, pipeline health and coverage shows where you’re ahead or behind. Early‑warning signals highlight gaps before they derail quarterly targets. In my tests, I set thresholds for sales productivity and could see when a team’s productivity dropped below the cohort average.
Deep integrations and a single source of truth
Lative connects to more than 150 data sources, including Salesforce, HubSpot and Snowflake. By merging these data sources, it eliminates manual data handling and ensures every model reflects real‑world inputs.
Problems it solves
Most revenue teams suffer from a blind spot between the hiring plan and the revenue target. Lative fixes the fragmented planning process that leaves leaders guessing about the actual impact of headcount and performance changes.
- Disconnected planning and execution: Traditional BI tools report on the past. Lative combines productivity insights, capacity‑based planning and execution tracking in one platform, enabling real‑time adjustments.
- Opaque headcount planning: Live capacity models make it easy to determine if current headcount and productivity will achieve revenue targets and where additional hires (or cost savings) will have the most impact.
- Inefficient coaching: By benchmarking productivity and efficiency at the rep and team levels, leaders can coach exactly where performance drops off, rather than relying on gut feel.
My experience with Lative
Lative impressed me from onboarding, as connecting Salesforce and Workday took less than an hour. By the end of my first day, I had a live capacity model showing current rep productivity, open hiring requisitions and projected revenue attainment. Running “what‑if” scenarios gave us rarely seen insights that let us adjust ramp‑time assumptions and quotas, and the platform recalculated capacity and revenue in seconds.
Early‑warning alerts were very handy. When one region’s productivity trend dipped, I received a notification and investigated the root cause. The combination of planning, sales capacity forecasting and execution tracking in one place made Lative a standout for sales leaders, RevOps and executives who need to steer their business with confidence.
2. Clari: The forecast management and pipeline‑inspection specialist
Clari is a revenue‑execution platform renowned for forecast accuracy and deal‑level visibility. Its Forecast module replaces fragmented spreadsheets with a single, AI‑powered view. The Inspect module turns complex revenue data into a 360° pipeline view.
What it does best
Clari is well-suited to taking the guesswork out of calls, providing a clear lens into deal progress. Its strength lies in rigorous pipeline governance and the ability to predict quarterly outcomes with high precision.
Forecasting intelligence
Clari Forecast uses historical deal data and AI to help teams call numbers with pinpoint accuracy. The platform supports subscription and consumption revenue models and can forecast existing ARR, deal‑based ARR and usage‑based ARR.
Deal inspection and pipeline health monitoring
Clari Inspect centralises data into a single dashboard, providing real‑time pipeline visibility and health scores. It highlights at‑risk deals, identifies gaps and recommends next steps.
Workflow integrations
Clari integrates with Salesforce, Microsoft Excel, Databricks and many other tools, ensuring data integrity across the revenue organisation.
Problems it solves
Sales leaders often struggle with invisible risks that cause last-minute forecast slips. Clari addresses the volatility of revenue prediction by removing reliance on rep intuition and exposing the proper health of every deal.
- Forecast variability: Many sales teams depend on gut instinct. Clari replaces that with AI‑driven forecasts, producing consistent, verifiable numbers that executives can trust.
- Opaque pipelines: With Inspect, managers can instantly see pipeline coverage gaps and stalled deals, without relying on manual reports.
My experience with Clari
When I trialled Clari, the biggest shift was the reduction in manual effort. Instead of gathering updates from several people, I had a clear view of the entire pipeline in minutes. The forecast roll-up felt straightforward and removed the typical back-and-forth that happens when reps and managers disagree on commit numbers.
I also found the activity signals helpful. One of the deals looked healthy based on size and stage, but Clari flagged that engagement had been down for more than 2 weeks. That warning proved accurate, allowing us to adjust the forecast before it became a last-minute issue.
Clari is best suited for teams that want more control over their forecasting process and more transparency in day-to-day deal health. It is not a planning tool and does not touch capacity or headcount, but as a visibility and prediction layer, it is one of the more dependable platforms available.
3. Pigment: Integrated financial and headcount planning
Pigment is an integrated business‑planning platform that helps finance, HR and revenue teams create dynamic financial models, collaborate on forecasts and run scenario analyses. I looked at third-party reviews, and they describe Pigment as a tool that syncs and aggregates large amounts of business data, enabling users to build dynamic models and reports in real time.
I had to confirm if its agentic AI capabilities really allow teams to simulate endless scenarios and provide actionable recommendations.
What it does best
Pigment stands out for its flexibility in handling complex, multidimensional modelling that spans the entire organisation. It effectively breaks down silos between finance, HR and sales to ensure everyone is working from the same numbers.
Integrated planning across departments
Pigment collects inputs from multiple sources and connects business cases across the company, enabling finance, sales, and HR to collaborate on a single platform. This integration is critical for large enterprises seeking to align headcount plans with revenue forecasts.
Scenario planning and modelling
Users can run “what‑if” scenarios to understand the impact of market changes or strategic decisions. Its modelling engine supports multidimensional models across revenue, finance and workforce plans.
Granular access controls and collaboration.
Pigment offers granular access rights so teams can govern who can edit or view each metric or dimension, as well as collaborative features such as tagging and commenting.
Problems it solves
Large enterprises often get bogged down by rigid, siloed planning cycles that take weeks to update. Pigment solves the paralysis of static spreadsheets by enabling agile, real-time collaboration across business functions.
- Fragmented financial planning: By integrating data from various business tools (ERPs, CRMs, HRIS), Pigment creates a single source of truth and reduces the time required to build and modify complex financial models.
- Rigid planning processes: The platform’s flexible modelling allows large organisations to respond quickly to market shifts and revise forecasts frequently.
My experience with Pigment
When I deployed Pigment, I used it primarily for headcount and budget planning. Uploading data from our ERP and HRIS took a few hours; after that, I created a dynamic workforce plan that linked hiring, attrition and ramp rates to revenue. The ability to clone a model, tweak assumptions and instantly compare scenarios made budgeting sessions far more efficient. Pigment’s strengths lie in cross‑departmental collaboration, but the steep learning curve is real, building complex models required training, and customising dashboards was less intuitive than I’d like.
For enterprises that need enterprise‑wide planning flexibility, Pigment is a powerful companion to Lative’s sales‑specific capacity models.
4. BoostUp.ai: AI‑driven forecasting and pipeline risk detection (Rebranded as Terret)
BoostUp.ai positions itself as a revenue command centre that uses AI to capture sales data, visualise forecasts and flag pipeline risks. In BoostUp’s “Definitive Guide to Accurate Forecasting,” the authors argue that achieving ±5% forecast accuracy requires an AI‑driven platform like BoostUp that collects crucial sales data and creates visualisations to support accurate forecasting.
The guide highlights KPIs such as pipeline coverage gap, pacing against weighted targets and deal‑by‑deal risk assessment, which BoostUp tracks to improve forecast quality.
What it does best
BoostUp distinguishes itself by acting as an early-warning system for your pipeline, using behavioural AI to dig deeper than standard CRM data. It is powerful at identifying the subtle risk factors that human managers might overlook.
AI‑based forecast automation
BoostUp automates the collection and analysis of sales data, creating visualisations that help leaders understand current and historical trends.
Pipeline risk analytics
By monitoring KPIs such as pipeline coverage gaps, creation pace, and risk‑weighted pipeline, BoostUp surfaces at‑risk deals and provides a probabilistic view of pipeline health. This supports proactive coaching and resource allocation.
User‑friendly interface and mobile app
Review sites note that BoostUp offers a straightforward interface and a robust mobile app, which improve forecast and pipeline efficiency.
Problems it solves
Even with a CRM, accurate forecasting is often plagued by inconsistent rep behaviour and hidden deal rot. BoostUp solves for the lack of objective data in the sales process, standardising how pipeline health is measured and acted upon.
- Inconsistent forecasting processes: BoostUp introduces a scientific approach to KPIs and forecasting, reducing reliance on gut feel.
- Hidden pipeline risk: By aggregating data and highlighting pipeline changes and risk signals, BoostUp enables teams to address threats before forecasts slip.
My experience with BoostUp
I trialled BoostUp with our mid‑sized sales team. The platform connected to Salesforce and Slack to ingest deal updates and provided an intuitive dashboard showing weighted forecasts, pacing, and risk factors. The AI insights were helpful: I received alerts when coverage dropped below a safe threshold and could drill down to see which deals were driving the risk.
BoostUp also coached reps on missing MEDDIC fields or next steps. However, customising the forecasting logic required assistance from the vendor, and the setup was more involved than expected. BoostUp excels at forecast governance and risk detection; pairing it with Lative or Clari can enhance broader planning efforts.
5. Anaplan: Enterprise-grade revenue and sales planning at scale
Anaplan is a long-standing connected planning platform used by large organisations to coordinate sales, finance and operational planning. It brings territory design, quota setting, headcount planning, and revenue modelling into a single environment, which can be helpful once planning complexity reaches a certain level.
I tested Anaplan mainly for sales planning to understand whether it provides practical value beyond spreadsheets. It handled large, multi-layered plans well, although the setup effort is noticeably higher than lighter-weight tools.
What it does best
There’s plenty to explore here, and Anaplan offers value for almost any team size. Of course, it’s tailored for larger ones, so you might not need all its costly features if your team consists of just a few salespeople.
Enterprise-wide sales planning
Anaplan allows teams to manage quotas, territories, hiring assumptions, and compensation structures in a single model. This helps reduce version-control issues, especially in global organisations with several sales motions and regular structural changes.
Scenario modelling with a fast calculation engine
Its calculation engine, Hyperblock, recalculates large models quickly. I duplicated a full GTM plan, tweaked ramp rates and altered coverage assumptions, and the model updated without delay. It is most useful when dealing with plans that would otherwise become slow or unstable in spreadsheets.
Quota and territory alignment
The platform includes dedicated tools for territory design and quota distribution. These features help teams compare different carving approaches, assess capacity and match territories to account for potential.
Cross-functional collaboration
Finance, HR and sales teams can all contribute to the same model with controlled access. Each team updates its own area, and changes flow through the plan automatically, reducing the need for manual reconciliation.
Problems it solves
Anaplan aims to make sense and simplicity of large and often scattered sales plans.
- Fragmented quota and territory planning: Spreadsheets tend to multiply quickly in large organisations and fall out of sync. Anaplan centralises the underlying assumptions and reduces the amount of manual stitching required.
- Slow planning cycles: Annual planning often drags on because different teams work separately. Anaplan shortens this by providing a familiar environment for everyone.
- Lack of clarity around sales capacity: Linking headcount plans to budgets, quotas, and productivity inputs helps organisations understand whether their current structure can realistically support the revenue target.
My experience with Anaplan
Getting Anaplan off the ground required more initial configuration than the other tools in this article, and building the data model took time. Once it was set up, however, I was able to build a multi-region quota plan that tied together hiring dates, ramp rates and conversion assumptions. Changing any of these inputs updated the revenue and capacity calculations straight away.
Where Anaplan felt strongest was in modelling complex structures such as overlay teams, channels and multi-product quotas. Creating multiple planning versions helped compare trade-offs and gave leadership clearer choices.
The platform has a learning curve and typically needs RevOps and Finance to collaborate closely during setup. For organisations with sizeable planning requirements, it can provide a structured environment that reduces the manual overhead of managing many interconnected spreadsheets.
6. ChatFin: AI-driven finance operations
ChatFin is an AI-powered finance operations platform designed to automate accounting, FP&A and controllership workflows. It embeds AI agents directly into day-to-day finance processes, helping teams reduce manual effort, improve accuracy and gain real-time visibility across financial operations.
What it does best
ChatFin is well-suited to modernising finance execution at scale. Its strength lies in automating high-volume finance work while surfacing timely, decision-ready insights for finance leaders.
Finance automation and AI agents
ChatFin uses AI agents to automate reconciliations, document processing and repetitive accounting tasks. This significantly accelerates month-end close and reduces reliance on manual workflows that slow down planning cycles.
FP&A analytics and performance insight
The platform supports financial analysis, variance tracking and forecasting using historical and real-time data. Teams can query financial performance using natural language and surface insights without building complex models or reports.
Continuous monitoring and anomaly detection
ChatFin continuously monitors financial data to detect anomalies, inconsistencies and potential risks. This allows finance teams to catch issues early, before they impact forecasts or executive reporting.
Workflow integrations
ChatFin integrates with modern finance stacks including NetSuite, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Snowflake, BigQuery and Sage, ensuring clean data flows across finance systems and analytics environments.
Problems it solves
Finance teams often struggle with slow closes, fragmented data and limited real-time visibility. ChatFin addresses these challenges by automating execution and strengthening the quality of financial inputs used for planning and forecasting.
Manual finance processes: ChatFin replaces spreadsheet-heavy workflows with AI-driven automation, freeing teams to focus on analysis rather than data preparation.
Delayed financial insight: Real-time monitoring and analytics reduce lag between financial activity and decision-making.
My experience with ChatFin
When reviewing ChatFin, the most noticeable impact was how quickly routine finance work could be automated. Reconciliations and document handling that typically consume days were reduced to minutes, and financial performance data was available continuously rather than at month-end.
I also found the anomaly detection particularly useful. Instead of discovering issues late in the close process, ChatFin flagged irregularities early, giving finance teams time to investigate without disrupting reporting timelines.
ChatFin is best suited for controllers, FP&A teams and CFO offices that want to modernise finance execution and analytics. It is not a sales forecasting or capacity planning tool, but as a finance automation and insight layer, it complements planning and forecasting platforms by ensuring financial data is timely, accurate and reliable.
How these tools complement one another
By combining these solutions, sales and RevOps leaders can plan strategically (Lative, Anaplan, Pigment) and forecast accurately (Clari, BoostUp), and ensure reps feed the system with clean, timely data (Scratchpad). Lative stands out because it bridges the gap between strategy, headcount and execution, offering a live model that anchors the entire revenue engine.
When integrated with Clari for forecasting, Pigment or Anaplan for enterprise-wide financial and headcount modelling, and BoostUp for AI-driven pipeline governance, Lative provides the foundation for precise, profitable growth in 2025.