RunSmart

Syft Analytics

A Syft Analytics Alternative for QuickBooks Advisory Firms

Syft Analytics helps firms create financial reports, dashboards, forecasts, benchmarks, and consolidated views. RunSmart helps firms turn QuickBooks month-end close work into forecasts, financial health insights, risk alerts, budgets, and client-ready advisory reports.

How Syft Analytics and RunSmart Are Fundamentally Different

The Core Question:

Are you looking for a reporting and analytics platform to explore, visualize, and present financial data, or are you looking for a more automated way to turn completed QuickBooks close work into forward-looking advisory insights? That distinction explains many of the differences between Syft Analytics and RunSmart.

Who Each Platform Is Built For

Each platform supports a different workflow. Understanding who it is built for is often the fastest way to determine which one fits your firm’s needs.

When Syft Analytics Is the Better Fit
Syft Analytics is best suited for users who:
Need flexible dashboards, visual reporting, and financial analytics
Work across multiple entities, business units, or reporting structures
Need consolidated reporting, benchmarking, and KPI analysis
Want to explore financial data through charts, reports, and visualizations
Are comfortable interpreting and presenting financial analytics
Syft Analytics excels at:
Financial reporting and dashboards
Consolidated reporting
Benchmarking and KPI analysis
Data visualization and financial analytics
If your primary goal is to analyze, visualize, consolidate, and present financial performance, Syft Analytics may be the better fit.
When RunSmart Is the Better Fit
RunSmart is better suited for users who:
Serve QuickBooks clients and want to turn month-end close into advisory insights
Need automated forecasts, health scores, risk alerts, budgets, and client-ready reports
Want to quickly identify which clients need attention after close
Help clients evaluate decisions around hiring, spending, financing, pricing, payroll, and growth
Want to reduce manual spreadsheet work around forecasting, planning, reporting, and monthly review
RunSmart emphasizes:
QuickBooks-based advisory forecasting
Automated financial health insights
Client risk alerts and financial signals
Operational planning and decision modeling
Client-ready reports after month-end close
If your primary goal is to create a repeatable advisory workflow around QuickBooks clients, RunSmart is typically the better fit.

Key Difference: Analytics vs Advisory Workflow

Syft Analytics and RunSmart both help users get more value from financial data, but they support different parts of the advisory process.

Syft Analytics
Syft’s Orientation
“How is performance trending?”
“What do the dashboards, KPIs, and reports show?”
“How do entities, locations, or business units compare?”
“How should financial performance be visualized and presented?”
RunSmart
RunSmart’s Orientation
“Which QuickBooks clients need attention after close?”
“What risks or financial signals are starting to emerge?”
“How may hiring, spending, financing, pricing, or growth decisions impact future cash flow and profitability?”
“What should we discuss with the client next?”
Both platforms work with financial data, but they are built around different outcomes.

Operational Planning Is Where the Tools Diverge Most

One of the clearest differences is how each platform supports forward-looking business planning.

Syft Analytics
Syft Analytics Reporting
Provides dashboards, reports, visualizations, and analytics for performance monitoring
Supports forecasting, budgeting, benchmarking, and consolidated reporting
Helps firms present financial data clearly to stakeholders
Strong fit when reporting, visual analysis, and consolidation are the primary needs
Primarily answers: “What does the data show, and how should we present it?”
RunSmart
RunSmart
Includes planners and forecasting tools for:
Hiring & payroll impact
Expenses and spending plans
Loans and debt
Pricing and revenue assumptions
Growth initiatives
Models how those decisions affect:
Cash flow
Profitability
Margins
Financial health over time
This makes RunSmart useful when firms need to help clients understand what may happen next before decisions are made.

Business Health: Metrics vs Interpretation

Another difference is how insight is delivered:

Syft Analytics
Syft Analytics
Syft Analytics provides dashboards, KPIs, financial reports, benchmarks, forecasts, and visualizations that help users analyze performance and present financial results.
This is useful for firms and finance teams that want flexible tools to explore financial data, compare results, and build polished reports.
RunSmart
RunSmart
RunSmart translates QuickBooks data into financial health assessments, risk alerts, forecasts, budgets, and reports that indicate where performance is improving, stable, or weakening over time.
This is useful for firms that want to quickly identify which clients may need attention and turn monthly financial review work into clearer advisory conversations.

Summary Comparison

Decision Factor

Choose Syft Analytics If…

Choose RunSmart If…

Primary User

You are an accountant, advisor, or finance team focused on reporting and analytics

You are an accounting, bookkeeping, or advisory firm serving QuickBooks clients

Main Goal

Financial reporting, dashboards, analytics, benchmarking, and consolidation

Turning month-end close into forecasts, insights, alerts, budgets, and advisory reports

Comfort with Finance

Your team wants flexible analytics and reporting tools

Your team wants automated insights that reduce manual review and spreadsheet work

Entity Structure

You need multi-entity reporting, consolidation, or comparison views

You primarily work with single-entity QuickBooks clients

Output Style

Dashboards, visual reports, KPIs, benchmarks, and financial analysis

Client-ready advisory reports, forecasts, health scores, and risk alerts

Planning Focus

Forecasting and budgeting within an analytics and reporting workflow

Operational decision planning around hiring, payroll, expenses, financing, pricing, and growth

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Conclusion

Syft Analytics and RunSmart are not substitutes in the traditional sense. They reflect two different approaches to financial data.

Syft Analytics helps firms and finance teams analyze, visualize, benchmark, forecast, consolidate, and present financial performance.
RunSmart helps firms turn completed QuickBooks month-end close work into forward-looking forecasts, financial health insights, risk alerts, budgets, and client-ready advisory reports.

Understanding that difference usually makes the choice clear. If your firm needs flexible reporting, dashboards, benchmarking, and consolidated financial analysis, Syft Analytics may be the better fit. If your firm wants a more automated way to identify which QuickBooks clients need attention, refresh forecasts after close, surface financial risks, and prepare advisory reports without building spreadsheets manually, RunSmart may be the better fit.

Disclaimer

This comparison is based on publicly available information and our understanding of each platform’s intended use cases. Product features, pricing, packaging, and capabilities may change over time. Please review each provider’s website for the most current information.

Real insights. Real decisions.

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"What impressed me most is how easy it is. I don't have to build complex models again."
Brad Kingsford
CPA
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"I can scan my entire client base and quickly spot where margins are projected to tighten without digging into each set of financials."
Ashley Chen
CPA
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"I’m not building models or digging through reports anymore—it’s already laid out for me."
Brian O’Connor
CFO
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"I don’t have to rebuild models just to answer basic ‘what happens if this changes’ questions."
Samantha Lee
Bookkeeper
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"I save a ton of time on monthly reviews now. Most of the work is already done when I log in."
Daniel Brooks
Accounting Firm Owner
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"It’s straightforward and easy to use. I didn’t have to spend time figuring things out."
Michael Patel
Small Business Owner
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"Portfolio View is probably my favorite part. I can quickly see what’s going on across all my clients."
Misty Callen
Senior Advisor
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"The forecasting alone is a game changer. I don't have to build or model anything manually and its so much more reliable then what I've seen from others."
Kassi Ramirez
Fractional CFO
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Frequent Asked Questions

More asnswers to common questions about how RunSmart works and what you can expect.

How do you compare against other financial planning & analysis (FP&A) software?

Many FP&A platforms are built for dedicated finance teams and require significant setup, configuration, and ongoing financial modeling. RunSmart is designed to give business owners powerful financial intelligence and planning capabilities without the complexity of traditional FP&A software.
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Simply connect your QuickBooks account and RunSmart automatically analyzes your financial performance, generates forecasts and insights, monitors your financial health, tracks budgets, and produces professional reports without requiring you to build or maintain complicated financial models.

Do I need a strong background in finance or accounting to understand RunSmart's results?

No. RunSmart is designed to make complex financial information easier to understand, even if you don't have a background in finance or accounting.
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Plain-language insights, helpful tooltips, and an extensive library of help articles explain financial concepts and results throughout the platform. RunSmart also includes an AI-powered chatbot that can answer questions and explain unfamiliar financial concepts in simple terms whenever you need additional help.

What makes RunSmart’s forecasts more reliable than other tools?

RunSmart's forecasts are built from your historical QuickBooks data using advanced statistical forecasting techniques widely used by Fortune 500 organizations. Instead of relying on simple growth assumptions or fixed percentage increases, RunSmart automatically selects and applies statistical forecasting models tailored to your business's historical data to produce more reliable financial forecasts.


By continuously analyzing historical business performance, RunSmart generates rolling financial forecasts that help you evaluate hiring, pricing, borrowing, spending, expansion, and other important business decisions with greater confidence.

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Can businesses with less than 2 years of history use RunSmart?

Standard and Premium plan users can begin using RunSmart with less than 24 consecutive months of QuickBooks history. While financial forecasting will not be available until 24 months of historical data are available, you can still analyze your historical financial performance, monitor your business's financial health, review key financial metrics, compare your performance against industry benchmarks, and generate professional reports.


Once your business reaches 24 consecutive months of historical QuickBooks data, financial forecasting is automatically enabled. This allows RunSmart's statistical forecasting models to identify longer-term trends and seasonal patterns, helping produce more reliable forecasts.


Pro plan users require at least 24 consecutive months of historical QuickBooks data before using RunSmart. The Pro plan is designed for businesses that need advanced forecasting, scenario planning, budgeting, workforce planning, automated reporting, and other forward-looking financial planning capabilities, all of which depend on sufficient historical data to produce reliable results.

Does RunSmart support consolidations or class tracking for budgeting?

No. RunSmart is intentionally designed for single-entity businesses and does not support consolidating multiple companies or budgeting by class.


RunSmart focuses on helping firms analyze each client independently so trends, risks, and performance changes are easier to detect, explain, and address.

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Does RunSmart work without QuickBooks Online?

At this time, RunSmart only supports QuickBooks Online.

Ready to Take the Next Step?

Put your financial data to work with a platform built to forecast performance, evaluate decisions, and gain clearer financial direction for your business.

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Dashboard for Bayside Construction showing seasonality, growth, health grade A, trends, KPIs, and revenue charts.Dashboard for Bayside Construction showing seasonality, growth, health grade A, trends, KPIs, and revenue charts.