Knowledge Center

EBITDA calculation: formula, margin and growth

EBITDA calculation explained: the formula step by step, EBITDA vs net profit, how to calculate EBITDA margin and growth, plus adjustments and pitfalls.

The AI controller: what AI in Smartbooks does for your finance team

From intercompany mismatches to forecasts and reports: discover how the AI controller in Smartbooks makes finance teams faster and sharper.

Smartbooks vs Lucanet

Lucanet is a strong enterprise consolidation tool with heavy governance. Smartbooks covers the complete financial and business control process for the larger SMB — faster to implement and lower in management effort.

Smartbooks vs Bright Analytics

Bright Analytics combines BI with financial reporting and consolidation. Smartbooks goes further with planning, month-end close, and finance-specific workflows — built around the daily processes of controllers.

Smartbooks vs Finstack

Finstack helps SMB organisations professionalise from Excel with standard reports. Smartbooks supports the complete financial and business control process with more depth in consolidation, planning, and analysis.

Smartbooks vs Visionplanner

Visionplanner is strong at periodic reporting and collaboration with the accountant. Smartbooks supports active financial and business control: planning, consolidation, month-end close, and analysis in one platform.

Smartbooks vs Speedbooks

Speedbooks pulls accounting data efficiently into Excel for reporting. Smartbooks replaces Excel architectures with a professional financial and business control platform covering consolidation, planning, and month-end close.

Smartbooks vs Power BI

Power BI is a powerful analytics platform, but not a finance solution. Smartbooks offers finance-specific logic for consolidation, planning, and month-end close — without heavy data modelling or IT dependency.

The best software for financial and business control

Business control software compared on consolidation, planning, AI, and cost — 7 EPM tools for Dutch SMBs side by side.

Smart Story Introduction

Discover in 4 minutes how financial storytelling with Smart Story generates your monthly variance analysis, explanations, and management presentations.

Alex — Financial Controller

Meet Alex, the virtual business controller

Alex, the virtual business controller, can assist with many of your financial processes.

Alex — Virtual Business Controller

Is AI Mature Enough for Serious Finance Tasks?

AI in finance is evolving rapidly, but is it ready for high-stakes tasks? Discover how to reliably deploy AI for business control today and what it requires.

13-week cash flow planning: peace of mind for you and your bank account

13-week cash flow planning in Smartbooks gives you real grip on your liquidity, so you stay ahead of surprises and cash shortages every single week.

Splitting General Ledger Accounts for Accurate Analyses

Splitting general ledger accounts by customer or supplier enables precise intercompany eliminations and deeper data insights — fully automatic, without Excel.

How AI Will Transform the Month-End Close and Financial Reporting

AI month-end close: explore 10 ways AI is set to revolutionize the month-end close and financial reporting for the modern finance manager.

Smartbooks vs. Lucanet: Which Financial Software Best Suits Your Organization?

Choosing consolidation software? Compare Smartbooks and Lucanet on functionality, budgeting, ease of use and price to find the best fit for your business.

Settlement of exchange rate differences in Smartbooks.AI

Settlement of exchange rate differences: learn how Smartbooks.AI automates foreign currency translation and posts exchange rate gains and losses accurately.

Smart financial consolidation and reporting with Power BI

Financial consolidation with Power BI: discover how combining Power BI and Smartbooks delivers reliable reporting and complex group consolidation.

AI-supported analysis of Profit & Loss reports

Profit and loss analysis with AI: Smartbooks automatically detects potential bookkeeping errors and pattern deviations in your P&L reports.

Reporting from Smartbooks with Excel

Financial reporting in Excel: export and synchronize your Smartbooks financial reports directly into Excel using our specialized add-in.

Month-End Closing

Month-end close: compare soft close, hard close, fast close and no close, and find out which closing method best fits your organization.

Smartbooks 2-minute introduction

Smartbooks introduction in 2 minutes: discover in this short video what Smartbooks can do for your workflow and organization.

Smartbooks 6-minute introduction

Smartbooks explained in 6 minutes: discover what Smartbooks does with a brief introduction to the core functionalities.

Alex Johnson — Product Specialist

Smartbooks demo - 12 min

Smartbooks demo: watch how the platform makes month-end closing, budgeting, consolidation and reporting easier and better.

Month-end closing demo - 3:30 min

Month-end close demo: watch how Smartbooks makes the month-end closing process easier and faster.

Budgeting demo - 5 min

Budgeting software in action: demo video showing how to budget easier and smarter with Smartbooks.

Alex Johnson — Product Specialist

Consolidation demo - 3:30 min

Consolidation without Excel: demo video showing how to fully automate consolidation with Smartbooks while gaining deeper insights at group level.

Reporting demo - 4 min

Reporting software in action: demo video showing how to fully automate your reporting process with Smartbooks, fully customizable to your needs.

Not Specified — Product Specialist

Accounting as a Record-to-Report Process

Record-to-Report: discover how the R2R process forms the backbone of modern financial administration, from transaction to reporting.

Internal Editor — Financial Specialist

Budgeting as a Plan to Perform Process

Plan to Perform: transform budgeting into an integrated process that improves agility, financial control, and business performance.

John Doe — Financial Consultant

Rapid Implementation of Smartbooks

Consolidation software implementation doesn't have to take long: with Smartbooks you are often live within a week. Here is the step-by-step plan.

What does Smartbooks cost?

What is the cost of consolidation software? Smartbooks offers three transparent packages for reporting, consolidation, and budgeting.

Mastering Financial Consolidation: Practical Steps for Success

Is financial consolidation really as complicated as it seems, or can anyone learn it? Discover the essential steps, obligations, methods, and challenges to fully master the process in this blog.

Not Specified — CFO

When Spreadsheets are Less Suitable for Complex Financial Analyses

Is Excel still suitable for your financial analysis? We discuss when spreadsheets fall short for complex financial analyses.

The Power of Smartbooks: An Interview with Fractional CFO Marcel Vlug on Innovation in Consolidation Systems

In this interview, fractional CFO Marcel Vlug discusses how innovations in consolidation systems, such as automation and data integration, are helping companies improve their financial processes.

Marcel Vlug — Fractional CFO

The 4 Core Competencies of a Best-In-Class Finance Organization

What are the core competencies of a best-in-class finance organization? Discover how looking back, understanding, and looking ahead are essential for strategic success and informed decision-making.

Not Specified — Not Specified

To Interface or Not, That is the Question

Connecting financial systems: is full integration always necessary? We weigh the pros and cons of interfacing with your FP&A solution.

Jan de Vries — Head of Integration Strategy

Automated consolidation without Excel; fast and error-free

Automated consolidation without Excel: faster and error-free. Discover how automation improves financial consolidation for medium-sized companies.

Efficiency and Effectiveness in Reporting and Analysis

Financial reporting and analysis: learn how Best-in-Class organizations become both faster and more effective.

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Design your annual planning cycle and monthly budget update as an end-to-end process

Designing your annual planning as one end-to-end Plan-to-Perform process: the 5 core steps, the requirements, and why people, system and data make the difference together.

Differences and similarities between FP&A and EPM

FP&A vs EPM: discover the similarities and differences between both financial disciplines and how they reinforce each other.

Modernizing the Finance Function with AI

Modernizing the finance function with AI: how AI makes your financial planning and analysis faster and more accurate.

Best practices in reporting

Financial reporting best practices: which figures and ratios reveal whether your company is on track or needs intervention.

ESG Reporting

ESG reporting focuses on the non-financial metrics: Environment, Social, and Governance. It shows how future-proof your organization really is.

The importance of a business plan

Writing a business plan takes time, but delivers insight into cash flow, objectives, and financing. Here are the key reasons to invest that time anyway.

The Difference Between Planning, Budgeting, and Forecasting

What is the difference between planning, budgeting, and forecasting? Reports show the past; these three techniques help you look ahead and adjust in time.

Rolling Forecast

A rolling forecast lets you and your team look forward every month instead of back, continuously adjusting to the latest figures and market developments.

Planning and Budgeting: Top-down, bottom-up, or business model-based?

Top-down, bottom-up, or business model-based budgeting? Smartbooks supports every method and instantly recalculates changes to your annual plan.