Planful has added a mode to its finance AI assistant that tackles multi-step questions, work the company says used to take hours. Here is what it does and what to check.
Planful, a company that makes cloud software for budgeting and financial reporting, has added a new feature called AI Thinking Mode. It sits inside the company's AI Analyst Assistant. The company says it can work through multi-step finance questions and return a detailed analysis that previously could take hours. Planful announced it on Nov. 10, 2026.
Instead of answering one narrow question at a time, the tool is built to handle a chain of related questions. Users can analyze several reports and data sets with a single prompt. They can then discuss the result, adjust it and refine it. Planful says all of this happens securely inside its platform.
The feature also lets teams save, share and reuse what Planful calls recipes. A recipe captures the prompt threads, the data referenced and other instructions. A team can then run the same analysis on demand or on a regular schedule. That matters for work that repeats every month, such as closing the books.
Planful also offers a Model Context Protocol (MCP) Server. The company says it lets users work with their Planful data beyond the platform.
Adam Hoffer, a senior financial planning and analysis manager at Integrate, a Planful customer, said his team treats the assistant like another analyst. He said that with Thinking Mode, its day-three accrual reviews during month-end close are dramatically faster and provide more detail. That is one customer's account, shared in the company's own announcement.
Planful's chief technology officer, Sanjay Vyas, said finance leaders need transparent reasoning and fully explainable answers they can trust in the boardroom.
The announcement does not give pricing or say which customers get access and when. It also offers no independent test of how accurate the answers are. The speed claims come from Planful and one customer. Teams that try it should check the numbers against their own records before relying on them, especially for board or lender reports.
Planful is holding a webinar on AI Thinking Mode on Nov. 17, 2026. More information is at planful.com/ai. The company says it is a private firm with more than 1,500 customers in over 100 countries. It also offers an AI Planner Assistant, which brings planning and forecasting into a conversational format.
If your team loses days to budgets and month-end reports, this may save time, but verify every AI answer against your own numbers first.
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