Overview of Runway
Runway is shaking up the way businesses handle financial planning! It all started when Siqi Chen realized his struggles with financial expertise during his time as a senior leader and the headaches that come with using spreadsheets.
Now, as a cloud-based FP&A platform for strategic financial management, Runway is making finance easier to understand and more accessible for everyone in an organization. With $33.5 million in funding—$27.5 million of which came from a Series A round in 2023—Runway simplifies financial modeling, planning, and reporting. It offers a fresh alternative to those clunky spreadsheets we all love to hate.
It integrates beautifully with various tools, including the up-and-coming accounting startup, Puzzle. One of its standout features is a natural language modeling engine that helps you easily group and visualize planning timelines. Runway also syncs effortlessly with tools like accounting, HRIS, and data warehouses, automatically updating forecasts with real-time data.
With user-friendly formulas and built-in scenario comparison features, businesses can analyze different plans without the hassle of copying sheets or tabs. With Runway Copilot, generating various scenarios takes seconds, allowing users to model key financial metrics more easily and accurately than ever before.
Key Features
Chen believes that AI will transform the roles of FP&A professionals, automating routine tasks and elevating the importance of finance.
It offers Ambient Intelligence within its FP&A platform. Unlike today’s typical AI, which remains disconnected and requires activation and specific tasks, Ambient Intelligence integrates seamlessly into users' workflows, anticipating their needs rather than merely responding to commands.
This technology deeply understands user intent by observing how individuals interact with the product in their daily routines. It enhances capabilities and expands possibilities, available wherever the user might be. It automatically highlights discrepancies from forecasts, clarifies terminology, and surfaces valuable insights, enabling users to make optimal decisions quickly and effortlessly.
Currently, Runway has implemented a waitlist for its AI features, and interested users must register to gain priority access upon launch.
Driver Explanations
Runway gives you simple and clear explanations for all those financial terms. Just hover over things like “Gross Margin” or “Burn,” and you'll find easy-to-understand descriptions that fit your model.
BvA Variance
It automatically analyzes your Budgets vs. Actuals, making it easy to spot variances without you having to do any manual work. This feature helps you keep a clear financial overview while saving time and reducing the risk of human error.
Scenario Comparisons
Runway does a great job of breaking down the differences across different scenarios. With these insights, you can speed up your business planning and make better decisions, helping you choose confidently with a clear perspective.
Sample Integrations
Rippling
Netsuite
Stripe
Hubspot
Xero
Quickbooks
Gusto
API
Pros and Cons Based on Users’ Reviews
Runways gained a 4.9 out of 5 Stars review on G2. However, it's a relatively new platform that just came out of Beta and is still adding more features and capabilities as it grows.
Pros
Users from G2 recently shared their impressive experience with Runway Financial, highlighting the total flexibility it offers for building go-to-market (GTM) models. They appreciated no longer relying on complex and brittle spreadsheets, which had previously hindered collaboration and efficiency. Now, their board pack is generated swiftly and largely sourced from Runway, integrating all necessary data from financials to CRM and billing providers.
The users noted that it effectively addresses numerous challenges, including robust GTM modeling, cash flow forecasting, and headcount planning. Runway facilitates collaboration with revenue leaders on annual planning, ensuring alignment around revenue across the entire business. The flexibility of the platform allows them to manage various GTM initiatives—such as demand generation models and sales capacity planning—within a single, version-controlled system instead of numerous duplicated spreadsheets.
Their monthly reviews now consolidate marketing, sales, and finance data, streamlining decision-making processes and enhancing operational effectiveness. This comprehensive insight enables them to evaluate the impact of strategic decisions and prioritize changes that drive results while anticipating future risks and benefits.
Cons
Users have expressed mixed feelings about their experience with Runway Financial.
While the platform is still relatively new and they faced various glitches and hiccups during onboarding, feedback highlights the responsiveness of the Runway team, who quickly addressed issues and even developed new functionalities tailored to specific user needs.
Some users noted that there is a learning curve associated with the software, requiring a huge investment of time to fully get to know its features. However, they appreciated the excellent documentation and support provided, which made the platform intuitive after a week or two of use.
Another point of concern was that the permissioning system could benefit from more granularity, and users mentioned the lack of support for weekly splits. They encountered delays in calculations, and getting everything set up, especially integration and implementation, took longer than expected. Some customization options felt more complex than the familiar spreadsheet format, particularly when conducting cohort analysis.
Pricing
Runway Financial hasn’t shared their pricing info for their product or service yet. This is pretty typical for software and service providers. If you’re curious about the cost, just reach out to Runway Financial for the latest pricing!
Final Thoughts
Runway is one of the emerging FP&A software options out there. If you're thinking about giving it a try, just remember that it's still a relatively new platform, so you might run into a few glitches here and there. Because of that, it might not be the best fit for large companies, but it works well for small to mid-sized businesses. What’s great about it is its clean, modern interface, and the formula language is pretty easy to grasp. What’s really cool about Runway is how simple it is to create, group, and visually manage plans within the planning timeline.