novacly

Novacly brings close management, consolidation, reporting, and planning together for finance teams coordinating work across several entities. It is aimed at mid-market companies, private equity portfolios, and real estate funds. Its broad workflows and free beta are appealing, but the unfinished compliance audits make it a poor fit for teams that need audited controls.

Overview

Novacly covers recurring close work, trial-balance preparation, financial reporting, and forecasting in one platform. That combination can help finance teams keep multi-entity processes connected rather than splitting close, analysis, and planning across separate tools. The trade-off is material: Novacly has not completed SOC 2, ISO 27001, or other formal compliance audits, and its beta guidance advises against using it as a system of record until certifications are achieved.

Key features

Close coordination and data preparation

Task templates, dependencies, deadlines, team assignments, status dashboards, and activity audit trails give teams a structured way to organize recurring close work and see its progress. Multi-entity support makes that workflow relevant to organizations closing books across multiple entities. Trial balances can come in through CSV, Excel, or API, then be handled with direct, split, formula, or bypass transformation rules. Those options give finance teams flexibility in preparing balances, though they do not change the product's beta compliance status.

Reporting and planning

Reports can be filtered and organized by entity, period, scenario, layer, and dimensions, with drill-down to source transactions and export to Excel or PDF. This should suit teams that need to move from consolidated views to underlying activity without leaving the reporting workflow. FP&A covers driver-based plans, rolling forecasts, actuals-based seeding, cost allocations, and segment submission and approval workflows. That makes the platform more than a close tracker, especially for teams seeking a connected process from actuals through forecast.

Excel and AI assistance

The Excel add-in includes 11 custom NOVACLY formulas for retrieving financial data and refreshing it within Excel. AI can suggest account mappings, draft variance commentary, answer natural-language questions about data, and match intercompany items. Users review and decide on AI output, so it assists rather than replaces finance judgment. Google and Microsoft OAuth sign-in are listed alongside Excel connectivity and CSV, Excel, and API ingestion.

Security and compliance

Novacly says it encrypts data at rest with AES-256-GCM and in transit using TLS, and enforces tenant isolation with PostgreSQL Row-Level Security. Those are concrete security measures, but they are not substitutes for formal audits: the product has not undergone SOC 2 Type I or Type II audits and is not SOC 2 Type II certified. Organizations with audit requirements or a need to designate the tool as their system of record should wait or choose another product.

Pricing

The current Beta plan costs free, is billed free during beta, requires no credit card, and includes full platform access, unlimited usage, multi-entity support, and priority support with direct access to the team. The breadth of access makes it useful for evaluating the workflows without usage caps, but it does not resolve the compliance caveat.

Two future price points are targets rather than current charges. Early adopter pricing is targeted around $50/mo, with a discount intended for beta users when pricing launches; launch pricing is targeting ~$250/mo. Neither has a listed current price, and neither should be treated as an available paid plan today. There is no free trial because the current offer is a free beta.

Platforms

Novacly is available on the web and through an API. Excel connectivity is provided by its add-in, while data can be ingested from CSV, Excel, or API sources. This suits finance teams working in spreadsheets and integrating data programmatically; no mobile platform is indicated.

Who it's for

Novacly is best suited to mid-market finance teams managing several entities, including multi-entity companies, private equity portfolios, and real estate funds. It is particularly relevant when the same team wants to coordinate close tasks, prepare trial balances, report results, and build plans in a connected workflow. It is not the right choice for organizations that require completed compliance audits or need a formally audited system of record now.

Pros and cons

• Pro: Close, reporting, and planning functions share one platform, which can reduce workflow fragmentation for multi-entity finance teams.
• Pro: The free beta includes unlimited usage, multi-entity support, and priority support, making it possible to evaluate the full platform without a credit card.
• Pro: Reporting supports drill-down to source transactions and Excel or PDF export, useful for tracing figures and sharing results.
• Con: The product has not completed SOC 2, ISO 27001, or other formal compliance audits, ruling it out for teams that require that assurance.

Alternatives

Financial Close Software is the category directory for comparing close products. Choose Mayday if its free Basic plan's three same-currency intercompany balances, unlimited users, and live-chat support fit a narrower need; it also offers a free trial and a £10/mo Flux plan. Consider OneStream if you want a paid platform with Android, iOS, Windows, web, API, and self-hosted availability, and are willing to request a demo for pricing. Nordavix is another web-based beta option, with a free Founding firms beta covering unlimited companies, unlimited team seats, and every module.

FIS Data Integrity Manager is a paid web option without a free plan. Double is a paid alternative with a free trial, web and mobile apps, and an annual flat-rate plan whose price requires contacting sales. Eagl and Stacks Financial Close are paid web alternatives. Taxilla Financial Close Task Management is worth comparing if entity and close-task caps are central to the decision; its Essentials plan supports up to five entities and 300 close tasks per period, while Growth supports up to 15 entities and 1,500 tasks per period.

Verdict

Choose Novacly if your multi-entity finance team wants close, consolidation, reporting, and planning in one platform and can use a beta product without completed formal audits. Its free full-access beta is the strongest reason to evaluate it. Look elsewhere if audited compliance or a dependable system of record is a requirement today.