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The Research is Complete
Guilty as charged, with the research
The CFO software market three years ago vs. today is barely the same sport.
We were living in a world where:
you picked a vendor from a shortlist your peer gave you at a conference (a peer who prob was half / twice the revenue size as you),
sat through a super polished demo from a system engineer that was half asleep
due diligence was a reference call with someone who was actively trying to leave their current job where they used the tool and get a job at the vendor in question (true story, happened to me).
cut a check to a systems integrator for 1.5x the first year subscription cost. Wait six months for the first sniff of value.
Some things haven't changed. NetSuite still owns the mid-market. Carta still has your cap table. Auntie Anne's is still the best part of the mall, even as they rebuild everything around it.
TBH, the founder of Auntie Annie’s looks exactly like I thought she would. I wonder what billing system she uses.
But at the edges? The edges are moving fast. And the edges will eventually be the main story.
We did it again. 1,364 of you answered the call. What follows is our second annual benchmarking report on the tools finance leaders actually use to get the job done. It’s segmented by revenue size, so the findings are relevant to your company stage, not some abstract nebulous average.
Here's what we learned.
1. QB rules early stage. NetSuite owns the mid-market.
QuickBooks dominates below $10M in revenue. Like more than 50% market share. It’s not close. But things flip wicked fast post-$25M. That seems to be the natural inflection point based on accounting complexity.
NetSuite captures +50% share at $50–$100M and +65% at $100–$500M. The transition isn't a question of if. It's a question of when you're ready to make the jump. And if you look at anyone else before moving to the Cadillac of ERPs.
2. Ramp is eating everything under $100M.
This one surprised me. Actually no it didn’t. It might have if I hadn't been watching it happen in real time. Ramp now holds more than 1/3 market share across Corporate Cards, Expense Management, and AP for companies under $100M. They've already taken mid-market procurement, too. They hungry. And those Superbowl ads don’t pay for themselves.
3. Spreadsheets still own Close and FP&A.
And Claude has recently entered the group chat, strengthening your Excel workbook's sneakily strong moat. It’s obvious that dedicated tools haven't won this space yet. FP&A is the most fragmented category in the survey: 56 unique tools submitted.
You could try a new one every day in Feb and March.
Companies don't cross 50% adoption for dedicated FP&A software until after $100M in revenue.
4. New ERP challengers are for realz.
Rillet and Campfire have each captured low-to-mid single digit market share for companies under $100M. That doesn't sound huge until you remember: nobody was talking about these two years ago. They're the first legitimate AI-native midmarket ERP challengers. Some serious zero to one shit is going down.
5. Carta has cap tables on lock for private companies
Above 70% market share up to $500M in revenue. Pulley is a spunky second at +10%. Then something interesting happens post-$500M: Shareworks ties Carta at 32%. Slice and Fidelity Private Shares are also emerging as viable pre-IPO options. The further you get from startup, the more contested this category gets.
6. FP&A is still the Wild West.
After you subtract spreadsheets, it's a knife fight. Adaptive Insights dominates after $100M (+25%). Pigment is gaining serious enterprise traction. Aleph, Planful, and Abacum cluster around 5–8% in mid-market. No one has pulled away. If you're in this buying decision, the report will give you the clearest picture available of what your peers are actually using at your stage.
7. Avalara still owns sales tax, but watch Taxwire.
Avalara is #1 across all revenue bands. But Taxwire has surged to 17% share in the $5M–$25M cohort. Anrok sits at +10%. Sphere is gearing up. The compliance category is getting competitive in a way it hasn't been in a decade.
8. Most companies still don't use a procurement tool.
Only 36% of respondents use one. For those that do, Coupa, Vendr, Zip, and Tropic are popular. Spendhound is leaning into data as a moat. BRM is a new entrant worth watching. The category is underpenetrated, which means there's either a real opportunity here or the category hasn't proven its value clearly enough yet. The report digs into why.
(Click my book report. I dare you. It’s free.)
Thank you to our sponsors for their thought leadership and support
Hoping you download my damn report
CJ
