The Beauty of Specialization
There's something truly special about mastering a craft. When you dedicate yourself completely to one platform, you start seeing possibilities that others miss. You discover elegant solutions to complex problems. You develop an intuition for what will work beautifully and what won't.
Over 400 implementations later, we've built something remarkable: a depth of expertise that allows us to help clients achieve transformations we're genuinely proud of.
Every project teaches us something new. Every challenge solved becomes part of our collective knowledge. Every client success story adds to our understanding of what's possible. This compounding expertise means that when you work with us today, you benefit from every lesson we've learned along the way.
What Specialization Unlocks
When you focus exclusively on Planful, amazing things happen:
You see the full picture. Working across manufacturers, SaaS companies, retailers, and healthcare organizations—all using the same platform—we've developed pattern recognition that helps us solve problems faster and design solutions that truly fit. We know what works for a $150M company versus a $700M company. We understand how different industries leverage Planful's capabilities in unique ways.
You stay ahead together. Our partnership with Planful goes beyond being a customer. We're in their beta programs, we collaborate on new features, and we help shape the platform's future. When exciting new capabilities launch, we've already explored them and know exactly how they'll benefit your team.
You speak fluently. There's no learning curve, no "getting up to speed." We live in Planful every day. This fluency means faster implementations, smarter solutions, and the ability to show you possibilities you didn't know existed.
You build lasting relationships. Because we're specialists, we're here for the long haul. Six months or six years after your implementation, when you're ready for your next value sprint, we already know your models, your team, and your goals. We pick up right where we left off.
Finance People, Technology Experts
Here's what makes us especially excited about what we do: we're finance practitioners who fell in love with a technology platform.
Our team includes former CFOs, controllers, and FP&A directors who've lived through countless budget cycles, month-end closes, and board presentations. We didn't learn finance from a textbook—we learned it by doing it, just like you.
This matters because the best FP&A solution isn't just technically excellent—it's one that fits how finance teams actually think and work. We design solutions that feel natural to finance professionals because we understand the real challenges you face every day.
When we implement Planful, we're not just configuring software. We're helping transform how your team plans, reports, and delivers insights. And we know what that transformation should look like because we've lived it ourselves.
Why Planful Inspires Us
People often ask us: what is it about Planful specifically?
The answer is simple: Planful was built specifically for FP&A, and it shows. It's purpose-designed to solve the exact challenges finance teams face—planning, reporting, consolidation, and analysis—without requiring you to be a software engineer.
What excites us most is how Planful balances power with usability. It can handle incredibly complex consolidations, sophisticated driver-based models, and multi-dimensional reporting—while still being approachable enough that your FP&A analysts can build and maintain models independently.
And Planful keeps getting better. Their product innovation is remarkable, their technology is modern, and they're genuinely committed to being the best FP&A platform available. When we dedicated our entire practice to one platform, we needed to choose one that would grow with us and our clients. Planful has exceeded our expectations.
What This Means for Your Team
When you partner with Top Down CPM, you're getting more than Planful expertise—you're getting partners who are genuinely invested in your success.
Here's what we bring:
Deep institutional knowledge. With 400+ implementations, we've built solutions for nearly every scenario you can imagine. We know what works, what to avoid, and how to design systems that evolve with your business.
A proven methodology. Our implementation approach was built specifically for Planful—refined across hundreds of projects to ensure faster time-to-value and sustainable results.
Ongoing partnership. We don't think in terms of "projects"—we think in terms of relationships. Our value sprint model means we're here to help you continuously unlock new capabilities and ROI.
Genuine enthusiasm. We love what we do. When your team achieves something great with Planful, we celebrate that success with you. Your wins are our wins.
Building for the Long Term
The traditional consulting model often feels transactional: implement the system, hand over the keys, move on to the next project.
That's not how we operate.
Our specialization allows us to think differently. We're not just getting you to go-live—we're mapping out your journey over the next year and beyond. We're not just building models—we're teaching your team how to maintain and evolve them. We're not just configuring features—we're transferring knowledge so you become self-sufficient.
Because we only do Planful, we can offer something rare: true continuity. When you need us down the road—whether it's in three months or three years—we're not starting from scratch. We remember your setup, your challenges, your goals. We're ready to help you take the next step.
The Power of Commitment
In a world that often values versatility over mastery, our choice to specialize might seem unconventional. But we've learned something important: when you commit fully to one thing, you unlock potential that's impossible to achieve while spreading yourself thin.
Planful isn't just our platform—it's our passion. It's what we study, what we master, what we dream about improving. And that complete dedication is what allows us to deliver exceptional results for our clients.
Every implementation makes us better. Every challenge solved deepens our expertise. Every client relationship teaches us something new about what's possible.
An Invitation
If you're exploring Planful, in the middle of an implementation, or looking to get more value from your existing system, we'd love to talk.
Not because we're trying to sell you something, but because we genuinely enjoy helping finance teams discover what's possible when planning and reporting systems truly work the way they should.
We've seen what happens when FP&A teams get the right platform, the right implementation, and the right ongoing support. It's transformative. Budget cycles that used to take weeks happen in days. Forecasts that were guesswork become data-driven and reliable. Reports that required manual assembly generate automatically.
And beyond the time savings and efficiency gains, something even better happens: finance teams start leading strategic conversations instead of just responding to requests. They become trusted advisors who drive business decisions with confidence.
That's the transformation we're here to enable. And we'd be honored to help your team achieve it.
Ready to explore what's possible?
Book a consultation to discuss your Planful journey. Whether you're just getting started or looking to optimize an existing system, we're here to help.
Have questions about Planful?
We love talking about this platform. Get in touch and let's discuss how it could transform your FP&A function.
Top Down CPM is a Planful 5x Platinum Partner with over 400 implementations completed. We partner exclusively with Planful to help finance teams achieve lasting value from their planning and reporting systems. Our focus is simple: your success.
