BankBI gives community bank finance teams multi-year strategic plans, annual budgets, and rolling forecasts in the same platform as their daily financial reporting, built from core banking and general ledger data.
Planning suites such as Jack Henry’s Financial Performance Suite, Plansmith, and Empyrean tie the forecast to asset liability management for interest rate risk, and Vena keeps planning and rate scenarios inside Excel.
In many community banks, the board asks how the balance sheet would look over five years if rates move, deposits shift, or growth speeds up. The Controller or vice president (VP) of finance rebuilds those scenarios in Excel each budget cycle, and forecasting can take weeks. The chief financial officer (CFO) then presents them to the board. Each type of tool fixes a different part of that problem:
- The plan is rebuilt from spreadsheet exports: a planning platform built on core and general ledger data holds the budget, forecasts, and multi-year plan next to the actual figures.
- Interest rate risk drives the plan: a planning suite links the budget to asset liability management (ALM), which measures how rate changes affect earnings and the value of the balance sheet.
- The team wants to stay in Excel: planning inside Excel keeps the spreadsheet as the interface, with a central model behind it.
- The board needs rate shock studies: ALM software or an outsourced ALM service runs them for the asset liability committee (ALCO).
This guide compares five options on five points:
- Planning horizon and scenarios
- Where actual figures come from and how forecasts update
- Interest rate and balance sheet modeling
- Board-ready output
- Who runs the system day to day
Five-Year Forecasting and What-If Planning Tools for Community Banks Compared
The table sets out each option and the kind of community bank it suits.
| Provider and type | Ideal for |
|---|---|
| BankBI, reporting and planning platform | Multi-year plans, budgets, daily reports, and profitability from core and general ledger data |
| Jack Henry Financial Performance Suite, planning and risk suite | Balance sheet forecasts alongside asset liability management and profitability |
| Plansmith, budgeting and rate risk software | Budgeting and asset liability management combined in one module |
| Empyrean, planning and risk platform | Budgets kept in step with asset liability management results |
| Vena, planning inside Excel | Rate and funding scenarios in governed Excel templates |
In short: BankBI plans from the same data as its daily reporting, planning suites link the plan to interest rate risk, and Vena keeps the work in Excel.
How We Compared These Planning Tools
- Criteria: planning horizon and scenarios, where actual figures come from, interest rate and balance sheet modeling, board-ready output, and who runs the system.
- Method: a review of public sources, mainly each provider’s own website. We didn’t test any product ourselves, and we give no scores or rankings.
- Date: November 2026. Features change, so check each vendor’s current information.
- Sources: each provider’s facts come from the page linked in its entry. Regulatory facts come from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC): its Part 363 filing summary, last updated March 24, 2026, and its training material on managing interest rate risk, both checked November 2026.
The Five Forecasting and Scenario Planning Tools for Community Banks
1. BankBI
BankBI gives community bank finance teams planning and reporting in one platform. Its Planning, Budgeting & Forecasting application is built for banks and credit unions, and it sits next to BankBI’s daily balance sheet, income statement, and ratio dashboards.
- Multi-year plans: strategic plans that align financial targets with long-term business goals, with scenarios across several years to model growth strategies and the impact of key initiatives.
- Flexible scenarios: budgets and forecasts built on flexible scenarios, with driver-based planning that links assumptions directly to financial outcomes.
- Rolling forecasts on your actuals: actual figures uploaded from your general ledger and loan and deposit data, with forecasts updated during the year and compared with actual results.
- Ratios in the scenarios: a What If Strategic Planning dashboard runs scenarios of future financial performance and shows the effect on key ratios, such as the capital ratio.
- Daily interest rate exposure: Asset & Liability Reporting gives insight into assets, liabilities, liquidity, and interest rate exposure, with reports refreshed every day.
- Profitability after funding costs: Profit Analyzer, BankBI’s funds transfer pricing application, assigns funding costs and fee income across products, branches, and segments, so profitability shows after funding, not before.
Data comes in through pre-built connections. For Fiserv DNA, BankBI supplies the fields for a scheduled daily DNA query, with no dedicated connection to the core. For Fiserv’s Prologue Financials and Financial Accounting Suite (FAS), daily standard extracts keep your general ledger codes, so figures trace back to the general ledger.
Other cores on BankBI’s integrations list include Fiserv Premier and the PhoenixWorx Phoenix core banking system; if your core isn’t listed, BankBI asks you to get in touch. Setup needs no upfront infrastructure investment: BankBI’s implementation team does a one-off data mapping, and your team confirms the reconciled results.
2. Jack Henry Financial Performance Suite
Jack Henry’s Financial Performance Suite (FPS) is a set of cloud-based financial management tools for banks and credit unions, used mainly in the finance department. Its Forecasting and Financial Reporting module is a flexible budgeting system for strategic planning and balance sheet forecasts. The suite also includes:
- Asset Liability Management, for interest rate, market, and liquidity risk, with “what if” scenarios tracked through strategic monitors
- A Daily Dashboard, refreshed by a nightly feed from multiple core sources
- Organizational Profitability, and solutions for current expected credit loss (CECL), the accounting standard for loan loss reserves
Jack Henry states that FPS works with all core vendors, so a bank can use it whoever its current core provider is.
3. Plansmith
Plansmith serves banks and credit unions, with a team of former community bankers. Its Compass software automates budgeting, forecasting, and reporting, and Plansmith has combined budgeting and asset liability management into one module that works with your core system.
The features it lists include budget and forecast modeling, interfaces with core systems, automated rate risk, and board reporting, and its site also lists ALM advisory and outsourcing services. For a bank whose budget and rate risk work run side by side every cycle, Compass keeps both in one module.
4. Empyrean
Empyrean builds software for community banks and credit unions, with modules for budgeting and planning, ALM, liquidity, CECL, and profitability. Its Budgeting and Planning module replaces the spreadsheet process and compares budget, forecast, and actuals, with variance analysis built in.
- Linked to ALM: budget assumptions flow to ALM, and ALM’s rate and scenario outputs flow back into the plan.
- Run by finance: Empyrean describes the platform as cloud based, with the finance team owning the planning process after setup.
- Outsourced option: its practitioners can run balance sheet risk and ALCO reporting on Empyrean’s modeling engine.
5. Vena
Vena offers financial planning and analysis software for banks and credit unions, built on governed Excel templates for collecting budgets and forecasts across branches and departments. It connects ALM, balance sheet, and financial planning. On rate and funding questions, Vena lets a team:
- Stress-test interest rates, deposit behavior, and funding scenarios
- Model rate shifts and their impact on net interest margin, liquidity, and balance sheet exposure
- Forecast net interest income and non-interest revenue from balance, rate, volume, and product assumptions
Board and management presentations draw on the same connected data, so a team that lives in Excel keeps its working habits.
What to Look For in Five-Year Forecasting Software for a Community Bank
A Multi-Year Plan Built on Your Actual Figures
A five-year plan starts from this year’s actual figures. If those come from a spreadsheet export, every scenario starts from numbers someone copied by hand.
The standard to ask for is a plan that projects the balance sheet, income, and capital together, with actual figures loaded from the general ledger and core banking system and forecasts you can update during the year.
- Actuals from your systems: BankBI uploads actual figures from your general ledger and loan and deposit data, and compares forecasts with actual results through the year.
- Checked data: BankBI reconciles data from your core banking system with your general ledger. Its connections are listed on its integrations page.
- A question for any vendor: does the plan project capital ratios, and how do actual figures reach it?
Scenarios You Can Change and Compare
Boards want to compare a base case with alternatives, such as faster loan growth, slower deposit growth, or a different rate path. The plan should let you change the assumptions behind each scenario and see the result in the statements and in the ratios the board watches.
BankBI builds budgets and forecasts on flexible scenarios, and its driver-based planning ties each assumption to the financial results. Its What If Strategic Planning dashboard shows how a scenario moves key ratios, the capital ratio among them. Ask each vendor:
- How many scenarios can you keep at once: two, three, or more?
- Can scenarios be shown side by side in a board presentation?
- Does a scenario recalculate when new actual figures arrive?
Ratios and Profitability Next to the Financials
A five-year plan answers board questions faster when the ratios sit beside the statements. Look for net interest margin, cost of funds, yields, and your efficiency ratio in the same platform as the plan, not in a separate workbook.
- Ratio dashboards: BankBI’s dashboards are configured with the key ratios that track your bank’s strategy, and its financial reporting covers net interest margin and cost of funds.
- Drill-down: KPI Tree Analysis lets you drill down from a ratio into the financial statements behind it.
- Profitability: Profit Analyzer adds profitability by product and branch after funding costs, for pricing and ALCO strategy.
- A question for any vendor: which ratios, such as the efficiency ratio, are projected in the plan itself?
Interest Rate Shocks and Asset Liability Management
Rate shock modeling is its own job. The FDIC’s interest rate risk material describes two measures: income simulation, which measures income if rates change, and economic value of equity (EVE), the present value of assets minus the present value of liabilities. Both rest on assumptions such as prepayment speeds and how deposit rates follow market rates.
Banks run these measures in ALM software or through an outsourced ALM service, for the ALCO. Plansmith combines budgeting and ALM in one module, and Empyrean passes budget assumptions to ALM and the rate results back to the plan. BankBI’s Asset & Liability Reporting gives daily insight into interest rate exposure to support ALCO discussions, and ALM software or an outsourced study is used alongside BankBI’s plan for rate shocks.
How to Choose the Right Forecasting and Scenario Planning Tool for a Community Bank
Step 1: Decide What the Board Wants to See
Write down the questions the board asks each budget cycle:
- Horizon: a one-year budget, a five-year strategic plan, or both.
- Scenarios: how many the board wants to compare, two, three, or more.
- Drivers: rate changes, loan and deposit growth, or an acquisition.
If an acquisition is part of the five-year plan, ask each vendor how it would model the combined balance sheet, and whether the other bank’s figures can be loaded into the same plan.
Step 2: Check Where the Actual Figures Come From
Name your core banking system and general ledger, and ask each vendor how actual figures reach the plan, how often, and who maintains the connection. Bring your information technology (IT) lead in at this step. A plan that loads figures from the general ledger and core saves your team from rekeying them every cycle.
Step 3: Decide Where Rate Shocks Are Modeled
Decide whether the rate shock study must sit inside the budget model, or whether ALM software or an outsourced service can run it next to the plan.
- The shape of the balance sheet and income over five years: a planning platform covers it.
- EVE and rate shocks for the ALCO: add ALM software or an outsourced ALM service.
Step 4: Decide Who Will Run It
Match the model to the people you have:
- A service the vendor sets up: BankBI’s implementation team does a one-off data mapping through its Integrations Hub, and your team confirms the reconciled results.
- A platform finance runs after setup: some planning suites are built for the finance team to own once they’re configured.
- Excel as the interface: planning inside Excel suits teams that want to keep their workbooks.
Ask each vendor for a quote based on your asset size, modules, and users.
Step 5: When to Choose a Planning Platform Built on Daily Core and General Ledger Data
If your five-year plan lives in spreadsheets built from month-end exports, and the board wants scenarios built on current figures, choose a platform that holds the plan next to your daily reporting.
BankBI’s Planning, Budgeting & Forecasting builds multi-year plans, budgets, and rolling forecasts in the same platform as its daily financial reporting. To see how it would work with your systems, book a consultation with BankBI.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who Provides Five-Year Financial Forecasting Tools for Community Banks?
BankBI provides multi-year strategic plans, annual budgets, and rolling forecasts in the same platform as daily financial reporting, built from your core banking and general ledger data. Planning suites that link the forecast to interest rate risk include Jack Henry’s Financial Performance Suite, Plansmith, and Empyrean, and Vena offers planning inside Excel. The right fit depends on whether the plan itself or the rate model is the main job.
What What-If Planning Software Do Community Banks Use to Model Interest Rate Scenarios for the Board?
BankBI’s planning application builds budgets and forecasts on flexible scenarios across several years, and its What If Strategic Planning dashboard shows the effect on ratios such as the capital ratio. For rate shocks and EVE, banks add ALM software or an outsourced ALM service alongside the plan. Suites such as Plansmith and Empyrean link the budget and the rate model.
Can the Forecast Update Automatically as Monthly Actuals Come In?
Ask each vendor how actual figures reach the forecast, and how often. In BankBI, actuals are uploaded from your general ledger and loan and deposit data, and forecasts can be updated during the year and compared with actual results. Ask any vendor whether a scenario recalculates by itself or after someone refreshes it.
Can It Produce Board-Ready Output and Compare Scenarios Side by Side?
Board output should come from the same model as the plan, so figures don’t need retyping into slides. BankBI automates management and board pack reporting, with monthly management PDF reports, and reports on branch and departmental budgets. Ask each vendor to show two of your scenarios side by side in the format your board reads.
Does What-If Planning Need ALM Data, or Can It Work from the General Ledger Alone?
A what-if on growth, such as faster lending or lower deposit balances, can start from general ledger and core balances. Rate shock measures need more: the FDIC describes income simulation and EVE, which rely on cash flows, prepayment assumptions, and deposit behavior. BankBI loads both general ledger and core banking data and reconciles the two, so growth scenarios start from checked figures.
Can a Five-Year Plan Show the Impact of Crossing the $1 Billion Threshold?
A plan that projects total assets shows the year the bank is expected to pass $1 billion, and that matters for reporting. Under the FDIC’s Part 363 rules, as its summary page states (last updated March 24, 2026), banks with $1 billion or more in consolidated total assets file an annual report with audited comparative financial statements, the independent accountant’s report, and a management report.
Management’s assessment of internal control over financial reporting applies from $5 billion. BankBI’s multi-year scenarios model growth strategies across several years; ask any vendor whether the plan can flag the threshold year and carry the related audit costs.
Making the Right Forecasting Choice for Your Community Bank
If your five-year plan is rebuilt from spreadsheet exports each budget cycle, BankBI gives your finance team multi-year plans, budgets, and rolling forecasts next to its daily figures, from the same core and general ledger data.
Every option in this guide moves the plan out of loose spreadsheets. The difference is the job each one leads on:
- Planning platforms on core and general ledger data hold the plan next to daily actual figures.
- Planning and ALM suites link the budget to interest rate risk: choose one when rate risk drives the plan.
- Planning inside Excel keeps the workbook: choose it when your team wants to stay in Excel.
Some jobs sit alongside BankBI rather than in place of it. ALM software or an outsourced ALM service runs rate shock and EVE studies for the ALCO, next to the plan your finance team keeps in BankBI.
Why BankBI Is the Right Choice for Community Bank Forecasting and Scenario Planning
BankBI is the right choice for community banks that want a multi-year plan built on the same figures they report every day.
- One set of numbers: the strategic plan, the budget, rolling forecasts, and daily reporting all run on your core banking and general ledger data.
- Scenarios you can change: flexible, driver-based scenarios across several years, for growth strategies and key initiatives.
- Named connections: figures arrive through pre-built connections, such as a scheduled DNA query for Fiserv DNA.
- Profitability after funding: Profit Analyzer shows what products and branches earn once funding costs are counted.
- Set up for you: BankBI’s team handles the data mapping, and your team checks the reconciled results.
BankBI covers the multi-year plan, the budget, rolling forecasts, and daily reporting from one set of core and general ledger data, and ALM software or an outsourced service handles rate shock studies alongside it.
For your CFO, that means the board sees scenarios built on current figures, from a model your finance team updates through the year instead of rebuilding it each budget cycle. To see your own figures in a multi-year plan, book a consultation with BankBI.
