Pigment turns spreadsheet chaos to scalable clarity
Key Takeaways
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A New Hope for SaaS Enterprise Performance Management
If you’re a CFO, CRO, or CPO at a SaaS company, this scene might feel painfully familiar: dozens of spreadsheets, each with different numbers, flying between finance, sales, and HR teams. Last-minute board meeting? Cue the frantic email threads to reconcile version 27 of the “final_final” forecast. In today’s fast-paced SaaS world, planning can feel like juggling chainsaws – one slip in your data or process, and growth goals are at risk.
Enter Pigment, the enterprise performance management (EPM) platform that’s quickly becoming the secret weapon for SaaS companies seeking sanity and agility in their planning.
Pigment offers a way out of spreadsheet chaos, giving SaaS leaders a single source of truth and dynamic toolkit for forecasting revenue, headcount, and everything in between. And with Embark’s help, implementing Pigment doesn’t have to be another headache – it can be a game-changing opportunity. In this blog, we’ll explore why SaaS companies are flocking to Pigment, how it supports CFOs, CROs, and CPOs in planning and forecasting, the challenges to expect in implementation, and how Embark, a people-first Pigment consultancy, makes those challenges vanish. Let’s dive in.
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Why SaaS Companies Are Embracing Pigment for Business Planning
The pressure on SaaS leaders is unprecedented. CFOs are no longer just number-crunchers – they’re expected to be “the center of decision-making” across the business. CROs must deliver predictable revenue growth in volatile markets, and CPOs have to scale (or right-size) teams in real-time to support strategy. Traditional tools haven’t kept up with these demands. Excel models break under complex SaaS metrics like ARR, churn, and LTV:CAC.
Legacy planning systems from the likes of Oracle and SAP are often clunky and siloed. The result? Fragmented data and slow decisions. In fact, Pigment’s co-CEO notes that in most companies, critical data “lies in between dozens of different models,” making it hard for finance chiefs to respond quickly. It’s no wonder SaaS execs have been on the hunt for a better way.
Pigment EPM Platform arrived as that better way, and the market is taking notice. In just a few years, Pigment has attracted big attention – and big funding – by promising to transform business planning. (How big? The startup tripled its revenue and doubled its customer base in 2023, winning over clients like Datadog, Kayak, and Unilever. It even earned a Visionary spot in Gartner’s 2024 Magic Quadrant for Financial Planning Software, a strong validation for a newcomer.
SaaS companies are turning to Pigment because it directly tackles the modern planning challenges they face:
All Your Data, Unified in Real Time
Pigment connects to your key systems (CRM, ERP, HRIS, billing, you name it) and pulls data together continuously. Instead of manually consolidating Salesforce pipeline reports, NetSuite financials, and HR spreadsheets, SaaS leaders see a live holistic view. Finance, sales, and people teams finally work off the same numbers at the same time – no more dueling versions of the truth. As Pigment’s platform says, “integrate anything, understand everything,” enabling plans built on the most up-to-date information.
Scenario Planning at SaaS Speed
SaaS business models are highly dynamic – new pricing strategies, a surprise churn spike, or an economic downturn can all upend your forecast. Pigment was built for rapid what-if analysis. Finance teams can instantly model scenarios (e.g. “What if our Q3 sales drop 15%?” or “What if we hire 10 extra engineers for the new product?”) and see the impact on ARR, burn rate, and cash runway in real time, before making decisions. This agility is critical in a world where plans change fast.
“We chose Pigment for its flexibility… allowing us to run multiple what-if scenarios in a post-Covid and changing environment,” says Nicole Wittlin, VP of Strategic Finance at Figma. In short, Pigment lets SaaS leaders stay ready for change rather than be blindsided by it.
Cross-Functional Collaboration (CFO + CRO + CPO = One Team)
Unlike siloed tools of the past, Pigment brings finance, revenue, and HR plans together on one collaborative platform. The CFO can adjust a revenue forecast, and the CRO and CPO will immediately see the ripple effects on hiring plans or sales quotas. Pigment’s cloud platform allows simultaneous input from different teams, with clear ownership and role-based access. This breaks down planning silos and fosters accountability.
“Sales, finance, and revenue teams work together in real time [in Pigment], eliminating version control issues and disconnected workflows,” Pigment notes about its collaboration features. Kathy Young, VP of Strategic Finance at Miro, said Pigment brought “a single source of truth… and really brought together teams across the people team as well as the sales operations team.” When was the last time a spreadsheet did that?
Built for SaaS Metrics and Models
SaaS companies live and die by metrics like Annual Recurring Revenue growth, Rule of 40, customer acquisition cost (CAC) ratios, and retention rates. Pigment natively supports multi-dimensional modeling needed for subscription businesses – think deferred revenue schedules, cohort analyses, and SaaS funnel conversions – all in one place. It’s a “modern SaaS tool” for planning, not a generic one-size-fits-all spreadsheet. For example, Pigment can help a CFO model how improving net retention or lowering CAC will affect the burn multiple or cash runway. A Pigment blog highlights that SaaS planning has unique drivers (like Burn Multiple and LTV:CAC) that differ from traditional models – Pigment’s templates and flexibility reflect that reality. In practice, this means SaaS finance teams can focus on strategic analysis instead of wrestling with Excel gymnastics to accommodate ARR-based revenue recognition or usage-based billing forecasts.
User Experience that Teams Actually Like
Let’s face it, enterprise planning tools historically haven’t been synonymous with “beautiful” or “easy.” Pigment changes that. Its interface is often praised for being intuitive and visually engaging – “The tool itself is beautiful and well designed, which… I’ve honestly never seen in a financial planning tool before,” notes Figma’s finance team. While any powerful platform has a learning curve, Pigment’s modern UX (think drag-and-drop dashboards, interactive charts, and even natural language queries via Pigment AI) helps drive adoption across departments. In fact, Pigment’s AI and automation further flatten the learning curve by assisting with formula writing and surfacing insights, so even non-technical users can contribute to planning. The result: teams actually enjoy using the tool, rather than avoiding it.
As Algolia’s Director of Sales Operations observed, Pigment eliminated the old process of her pulling numbers from spreadsheets into slide decks – now stakeholders directly “use Pigment, getting their insights firsthand and actually contributing, which is much more scalable.” In other words, Pigment empowers teams to engage with the data themselves.
| The bottom line: SaaS companies are embracing Pigment because it aligns perfectly with their needs for agility, data-driven insight, and cross-functional alignment. CFOs gain a cockpit for scenario planning across the entire business, CROs can plan and adjust revenue targets on the fly, and CPOs can hire confidently with full visibility into budget impact. Pigment isn’t just another software – it’s a planning paradigm shift for SaaS. But, as with any transformative tool, getting the most out of Pigment requires the right approach to implementation. That’s where the real work (and reward) begins. |
The Implementation Challenge: Ensuring Pigment’s Success in Your Organization
Adopting a powerful EPM platform like Pigment is a bit like upgrading from a compact car to a high-performance racecar – the potential is huge, but you need to know how to drive it. SaaS leaders considering Pigment should be aware of a few implementation challenges upfront (so there are no surprises later):
Change Management & Team Buy-In
The greatest EPM tool in the world won’t deliver value if your people don’t use it. Often, finance and ops teams have clung to their spreadsheets for years; sales managers might still trust their homegrown pipeline trackers. Moving to Pigment means changing processes and habits. This kind of change “requires some change management,” as Pigment’s CEO, Eléonore Crespo, points out. It’s critical to get teams on board early – communicate the “why” (faster insights, less grunt work, one source of truth) and provide training so everyone feels confident in the new system.
Crespo notes that CFOs need to ensure cross-department collaboration with the CFO as the “nexus point” to make tools like Pigment successful. In practice, that might mean updating an outdated process that was once owned by one gatekeeper and instead encouraging a more collaborative workflow in Pigment. The good news: when done right, the cultural shift is worth it. Many companies report that once their teams see Pigment’s capabilities, they never want to go back. (“We have those people actually using Pigment…which is much more scalable,” as the Algolia team put it.)
Technical Integration & Data Consolidation
To realize Pigment’s promise of real-time planning, you must integrate it with source systems – CRM, financials, HR, etc. That can be a complex project depending on your tech stack. Data might need cleaning and mapping to flow correctly into Pigment. Many CFOs discover just how many disparate data sources they have only when trying to plug them into one tool. Consolidating data into a single source of truth is “a top challenge for today’s finance chiefs.”
Pigment provides robust connectors and APIs to ease this but configuring them properly (and ensuring ongoing data quality) is a key part of implementation. Without expertise, companies could struggle with initial setup – or worse, integrate incomplete/incorrect data and undermine trust in the tool.
Plan for a thorough integration phase and consider expert help to streamline it. The payoff is huge: once Pigment is pulling clean data from, say, Salesforce and your billing platform, the CFO and CRO can slice-and-dice live revenue forecasts by product, region, or sales team in seconds, with full confidence in the numbers.
Model Design & Best Practices
Pigment is extraordinarily flexible – you can model virtually any scenario or custom metric. But with great power comes the need for great design. How you structure your Pigment models (the dimensions, modules, and formulas) can make the difference between a system that’s fast and user-friendly, and one that’s sluggish or confusing. Some new users jump in without guidance and inadvertently recreate the same complexity of their old spreadsheets, just in Pigment’s interface. Others may underutilize Pigment’s capabilities by trying to force-fit old processes.
There’s also a learning curve for those new to advanced FP&A platforms – some users note Pigment “can be challenging to master” at first. It may require developing new skills (even a bit of SQL or Python, in certain advanced modeling cases) and rethinking how you approach planning. This is normal! But it underscores the importance of having the right expertise during implementation.
The goal is to configure Pigment in a way that’s tailored to your business yet follows best-in-class planning principles. That might include building driver-based revenue models, automated headcount forecasts linked to hiring dates, and interactive dashboards for executives. Done right, Pigment will feel like it “fits” your organization like a glove; done haphazardly, users might find it “less intuitive” until refinements are made.
Governance & Continuous Improvement
Rolling out Pigment is not a one-and-done event. As your SaaS company grows and changes, your planning models should evolve too. It’s wise to establish governance early on – who will own the models? How will changes be requested and documented? Some Pigment users note challenges with tracking model changes or audit trails if not managed properly. Setting up good practices (like naming conventions, change logs, and periodic model reviews) keeps the platform clean and scalable.
Additionally, consider how you will continuously improve your use of Pigment. New features (Pigment releases updates frequently), new business needs, and user feedback should feed into updates. Without an ongoing improvement mindset, there’s a risk of plateauing and not fully exploiting the platform’s potential – or worse, letting models become outdated as the business moves on.
It sounds like a lot, but don’t be discouraged. Yes, implementing Pigment requires effort – planning, technical work, training, and process changes. However, “implementing new solutions can often be simpler than many finance chiefs think,” says Crespo. The key is having the right plan and the right partner. Many SaaS firms underestimate the internal bandwidth or expertise needed for an EPM rollout. That’s where Embark comes in to make the path smoother.
Embark – Your People-First Partner for a Smooth Pigment Journey
Implementing Pigment doesn’t have to feel like herding cats or navigating uncharted waters. Embark specializes in doing exactly this for SaaS finance, revenue, and people teams – and we do it with a people-first, strategic approach that sets us apart. We’re not just software consultants; we’re former finance, sales, and HR operators who understand the realities of running a SaaS business and the nuances of SaaS metrics. Our mission is to take the heavy lift of Pigment implementation off your shoulders and turn it into a transformative experience for your organization.
Here’s how Embark ensures your Pigment project delivers the value you expect (and then some):
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Deep Pigment Expertise with SaaS Focus |
Our team lives and breathes Pigment. We’ve spent countless hours implementing and optimizing Pigment models for tech companies, so we know the platform’s ins and outs. More importantly, we know SaaS. We know that forecasting ARR isn’t the same as forecasting one-off sales, that workforce planning for a SaaS scale-up involves tracking things like engineering vs. sales hiring ratios, and that revenue ops leaders care about things like quota attainment and pipeline coverage. We tailor Pigment to your business model and KPIs. Embark provides customized solutions that fit your unique needs and objectives – you won’t get a one-size-fits-all template dumped on you. Whether you’re a Series B startup needing a lightweight budgeting tool or a public SaaS company revamping your entire planning process, we adjust our approach accordingly. |
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Proven Implementation Methodology |
Over dozens of Pigment projects, we’ve developed a playbook that balances speed with thoroughness. We’ll start with a roadmap aligned to your priorities – for example, maybe Phase 1 is financial forecasting and headcount planning (to get Finance and HR in sync), Phase 2 adds sales capacity and quota planning (bringing in RevOps). Our experts guide you through every step, from initial design to go-live and beyond. We help integrate your data sources securely and efficiently, leveraging Pigment’s connectors and some custom ETL where needed. We apply modeling best practices to set up your Pigment workspace, so it’s organized and scalable. And we don’t just configure and disappear – we rigorously test everything with your team to ensure accuracy and buy-in. Embark’s strategic approach is all about maximizing your success with Pigment, not just getting the software up and running. |
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Training and Change Management (We Bring the “People” Element) |
Remember that change management we talked about? Embark has you covered. We know that a fancy new platform means little if your people are in the dark or resistant. Our consultants are fanatical about hospitality and knowledge-sharing – we’ll handhold your users, build confidence, and even inject some fun into training sessions (yes, it’s possible!). From day one, we work to understand your team’s comfort levels and craft a training program that meets them where they are. Maybe your FP&A analysts need advanced Pigment formula workshops, while budget owners just need to learn how to input and review numbers in Pigment dashboards. We create tailored training for each audience. And because Embark is a people-first consultancy, we approach every interaction with empathy, patience, and a dash of wit – turning skeptics into champions. The result? By launch time, your team isn’t just ready for Pigment, they’re excited about it. As one of our guiding principles says, “care starts with curiosity” – we take time to get to know each person we’re helping and make the experience positive for them. This high-touch enablement is a big reason our clients see strong adoption and quick wins from Pigment.
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Time to Value and ROI Focus |
We know ROI is top of mind for SaaS leaders, especially in today’s economy. Pigment’s value proposition is compelling – in fact, a Forrester Consulting study found Pigment can deliver 306% ROI over three years (and pay back the initial investment in under 6 months). Embark’s job is to make sure you realize those benefits as soon as possible. How? We prioritize use cases that drive immediate impact: for example, automating your revenue forecast and reporting might save your finance team dozens of hours every quarter right away. Or creating a unified headcount plan might instantly uncover budget capacity for strategic hires that was previously hard to see. By focusing on quick wins and building momentum, we get stakeholders across the company seeing the value early. And we’re data-driven – we’ll help you measure improvements (time saved in planning cycles, reduction in budget variance, faster reporting turnaround, etc.) so you can concretely demonstrate Pigment’s ROI to your board and investors. Our clients have consistently achieved rapid payback with Pigment, and many cite our partnership as the accelerant for that success. |
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Ongoing Optimization and Support |
Post-implementation, Embark doesn’t just shake your hand and ride off into the sunset. We offer end-to-end support to continuously optimize your Pigment environment. As your business evolves – say you launch a new product line or expand to new regions – we’re there to adjust your models and keep everything aligned. We can also provide managed services if you prefer to have experts on call to handle the heavy lifting of updates, so your team can focus on analysis over maintenance.
Essentially, we strive to be a strategic partner in your planning process, not a one-time vendor. Our goal is to empower your organization to use Pigment to its fullest, long after the initial project. Many of our clients treat us as an extension of their team – the “Pigment gurus” who are always a Slack message away when a question arises or a new idea needs implementing. That trust and long-term relationship are what we pride ourselves on. |
Real-World Wins: How Pigment + Embark Are Transforming SaaS Planning
Still on the fence? Let’s paint a picture (in Pigment’s signature bright colors, of course) of what life can look like on the other side of a successful Pigment implementation, with a couple of real-world examples and outcomes:
Reclaiming Time for Strategy
A high-growth SaaS company’s RevOps team used to spend two weeks every quarter assembling sales performance reports and updating spreadsheets for board slides. After Embark implemented Pigment, that process turned into a live dashboard that updates automatically.
Troels Vejen, Sales Performance Manager at Bitrise, reported Pigment “helped us cut down a lot on the time the Sales Ops team spends on quarterly reporting”, by making it easy to track how sales teams are ramping and hitting goals in real time. Less time compiling data means more time to analyze it – shifting the team from reactive reporting to proactive strategy.
Smarter, Agile Revenue Plans
Gong, a leading SaaS company in revenue intelligence, needed the ability to set sales quotas and targets faster. With Pigment in place, they were able to finalize quotas on Day 1 of the fiscal year, a “best-in-class motion” that many organizations struggle to hit. Gong’s RevOps Director Michael Duncan admits, “I don’t know if I would be able to keep up with that without Pigment.”
The agility Pigment enabled meant Gong could hit the ground running each year, with sellers clear on their targets from the outset – a huge boost to morale and execution. Embark worked with Gong’s team to integrate their CRM pipeline data and design what-if models, so leadership could tweak assumptions (like sales ramp time or win rates) and immediately see if they could push for higher quotas or needed to adjust expectations. The result: more confident, data-backed revenue plans developed in a fraction of the time.
Integrated Finance & HR Planning
At Carta, a fintech SaaS, the finance team once described headcount planning as “a nightmare of spreadsheets and poor visibility.” Planning hiring across dozens of departments and locations was error-prone and disconnected from the financial plan. After adopting Pigment, Carta’s Strategic Finance Manager Kevin Zell said, “We can now understand the impact of org chart restructures on the financials of the company.”
In Pigment, Carta’s CFO and CPO can jointly model scenarios – for instance, reorganizing teams or adjusting hiring timelines – and immediately see the effect on burn rate, revenue per employee, and other key metrics. This clarity ensures that people planning aligns with financial constraints and growth goals. Embark helped Carta set up automated workflows: when HR tweaks the hiring plan in Pigment, the CFO’s forecast updates instantly with new salary and recruiting cost projections. The nightmare of version control is gone; Pigment became a source of empowerment for cross-functional decision-making.
One Source of Truth for the Entire Exec Team
Many of our SaaS clients say the biggest win is qualitative – peace of mind. When Pigment is fully implemented, CEOs and execs know they can log into a single platform and trust what they see. No more emailing the finance team for the “latest numbers” or worrying about errors in a cell formula.
“Pigment has brought a lot of stability to the data, a single source of truth… and really brought together teams,” as Miro’s finance leader put it. That confidence in the data changes the game; teams spend less time arguing about whose numbers are right and more time collaborating on improving those numbers. One SaaS CFO told us that after Pigment, their board meetings shifted from tedious number review to forward-looking strategic discussions, because everyone trusted the dashboards. That’s the true power of Pigment with Embark’s touch – it elevates the conversation.
These examples scratch the surface, but they illustrate a consistent theme: Pigment, when implemented thoughtfully, drives real value for SaaS organizations. Whether it’s time savings, faster planning cycles, better alignment, or simply greater confidence, the impact is tangible. Embark has had the privilege of guiding many SaaS clients on this journey, and the results speak volumes.
Ready to Transform Your SaaS Planning? Let’s Talk.
In the competitive SaaS arena, agility and insight are everything. Pigment provides the platform to unite your finance, revenue, and people planning in a way that’s dynamic, collaborative, and insightful. With Embark as your implementation partner, you also get the people-first expertise to ensure this powerful tool is perfectly attuned to your business and adopted enthusiastically by your team. The days of wrestling with spreadsheet chaos or clunky legacy systems can truly be over.
Imagine having the ability to answer any “what if…?” question from your CEO within minutes or confidently rolling out annual plans that all your VPs had a hand in shaping (and actually trust). Imagine board reports that build themselves, and forecast review meetings where you spend time on strategy, not reconciling data. That’s what Pigment + Embark can do for you. And as a trusted, people-first consultancy, we’ll make the process feel less like an implementation and more like an elevation of your entire planning function – because that’s what it is.
Your next step? Take action. If you’re considering Pigment – or even just feeling the pain of your current planning process – let’s have a conversation. Embark offers a friendly, no-pressure consultation to discuss your goals and challenges. We’ll share how we’ve helped other SaaS companies and brainstorm what your Pigment success story could look like.
Ready to embark on a better planning journey?
Book a meeting with our Pigment experts and let’s chart a course to scalable, stress-free growth. We’re here to help you turn planning into a competitive advantage – and maybe even make it enjoyable along the way.
Embark is a trusted Pigment implementation partner with deep experience in SaaS finance, revenue, and HR planning. We combine technical excellence with fanatical client service to deliver transformative results. Get in touch to learn more about our Pigment services and see how we can help your organization shine.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is Pigment, and how is it different from spreadsheets or legacy planning tools?
Pigment is a modern enterprise performance management (EPM) platform designed to replace disconnected spreadsheets and clunky legacy systems with a unified, real-time planning environment. It’s purpose-built for SaaS metrics, scenario modeling, and collaboration across finance, revenue, and people teams. - Why are SaaS companies choosing Pigment over traditional tools like Excel or Oracle?
Because SaaS planning is complex and fast-changing. Pigment offers dynamic scenario modeling, built-in support for SaaS KPIs like ARR and churn, and seamless integration with systems like Salesforce, NetSuite, and Workday—something legacy tools and spreadsheets can’t do effectively. - What challenges should I expect when implementing Pigment?
Key challenges include change management, data integration, and model design. Teams may need to shift old habits, clean and unify data, and learn a new way of structuring planning models. With the right guidance, these challenges can be turned into opportunities. - How does Embark support a successful Pigment implementation?
Embark brings deep SaaS and Pigment expertise, a proven implementation methodology, and people-first change management. We tailor each project to your company’s needs and stay engaged beyond go-live to ensure lasting success and high ROI. - How fast can I expect to see ROI from Pigment?
Many companies see impact within months—automating forecasts, reducing planning cycles, and enabling more confident decisions. A Forrester study reported a 306% ROI over three years and payback in under six months. - Is Pigment suitable for companies at any growth stage?
Yes. Pigment is flexible enough for Series B startups building their first budgeting process, all the way to public SaaS companies managing complex global operations. The platform and Embark’s approach scale with your business.
