Do AI-native ERPs like Rillet and Campfire replace FP&A software? (2026)

No. AI-native ERPs like Rillet and Campfire automate the general ledger, revenue recognition and the month-end close, and both are adding reporting and AI that explains variances. They don't replace driver-based planning, scenarios, headcount plans or the board forecast, so most finance teams that move to an AI-native ERP still pair it with an FP&A layer that reads its actuals.

That split is how the vendors position themselves too. Rillet sends ledger actuals to planning tools through integrations, and Campfire's newest forecasting feature projects where the current month will land rather than building next year's plan. The real question isn't ERP or FP&A, but which FP&A tool connects cleanly to your new ledger. Aleph connects to both Rillet and Campfire.

Bottom line: An AI-native ERP is a better system of record, not a planning tool. Use Rillet or Campfire to close the books faster, then plan, model scenarios and build the board forecast in an FP&A platform that syncs their actuals automatically.

What is an AI-native ERP?

An AI-native ERP is a general ledger and accounting system built from the start around automation and AI, rather than an older ERP with AI features added later. The pitch is a faster close: transactions coded automatically, reconciliations and flux analysis drafted for review, revenue recognized from billing data, and real-time reports without a month-end scramble.

The category is moving fast and attracting serious capital:

• Rillet raised a $100M Series C led by ICONIQ at a $1B valuation in August 2026, reported by The Next Web, with more than 600 customers at the time.
• Campfire raised a $35M Series A led by Accel in June 2025, when TechCrunch reported it was winning startups away from NetSuite, and a $65M Series B co-led by Accel and Ribbit that October.
• Incumbents are responding. NetSuite launched QuickStart, a free AI-first financials product for US early-stage tech startups, in October 2026, according to diginomica's SuiteWorld coverage.

What do Rillet and Campfire cover today?

Both cover the accounting system of record well; neither covers driver-based planning. Here's where each sits as of November 2026, next to what an FP&A platform adds:

Both vendors ship quickly, so check the current feature list before you decide. The pattern has been consistent, though: each new release makes the close faster or the reporting richer, and planning stays with a separate tool.

Where does the ERP end and FP&A begin?

The ERP records what happened; FP&A decides what should happen next. The Association for Financial Professionals describes FP&A as the function that drives strategic decisions through planning, forecasting and performance analysis, in contrast to accounting's focus on the historical record. That line maps neatly onto software:

• The ERP owns the books. Journal entries, the chart of accounts, revenue schedules, intercompany, the close and the audit trail.
• FP&A owns the plan. Drivers such as pipeline, hiring dates, pricing and churn; budgets by department; scenarios; the rolling forecast; and the narrative behind the numbers.

The two meet at budget vs actuals. The ERP supplies the actuals, the FP&A tool supplies the budget and the forecast, and the variance between them is where finance earns its seat in the room. For a fuller map of where planning, CPM and EPM tools sit, see our explainer on FP&A vs CPM vs EPM and our guide to what FP&A software does.

Can Campfire's Forecast replace an FP&A forecast?

No, and it isn't designed to. Campfire's Forecast, launched in September 2026, projects where the current month's income statement will land, using actuals so far, committed subledger items and AI estimates. It answers "how will this month close?", which is useful for a controller mid-month.

An FP&A forecast answers different questions: what next quarter and next year look like, what happens if you hire ten more engineers or a large customer churns, and how much runway each scenario leaves. Those forecasts run 12 to 36 months out and are built from drivers that never touch the ledger, such as CRM pipeline, HRIS start dates and pricing assumptions. Our guide to scenario planning software covers what that modeling involves.

Why don't AI-native ERPs just add full planning?

Because planning needs data and users the ledger doesn't have. Three reasons the line holds:

1. Planning drivers live outside the ledger. Bookings forecasts come from the CRM, hiring plans from the HRIS and ATS, and usage from the product database. An ERP sees transactions after they happen.
2. Planning has different users. Budget owners across the company contribute to a plan; only finance and accounting post to the ledger. Collaboration, permissions and version control work differently.
3. Finance teams model in spreadsheets. Most FP&A teams still build models in Excel or Google Sheets. In Aleph's 2027 Finance Hiring Index, Excel appears in 52% of US finance job postings, more than any other tool. A planning layer has to work with that habit, not against it.

Some ERPs will add lighter budgeting over time, as NetSuite did with NetSuite Planning and Budgeting. Even then, many teams outgrow it; see our guide to NetSuite Planning and Budgeting alternatives for why.

What does an AI-native ERP change for FP&A?

Mostly good things, as long as the connection is live. A faster close means actuals arrive days earlier, so the forecast can be refreshed on real numbers sooner and variance reviews happen while the month is still fresh. Continuous close goes further: when the ledger is reconciled throughout the month, FP&A can look at mid-month actuals instead of waiting for a final close.

Cleaner coding helps too. AI-native ERPs classify transactions consistently, which means fewer reclasses that break the mapping between the ledger and the planning model. And because both Rillet and Campfire put reporting on top of the ledger, controllers can answer routine "what did we spend?" questions themselves, which frees FP&A for "what should we spend?".

What doesn't change is the need for a model. The plan still depends on assumptions the ledger has never seen, and those assumptions are where finance adds most of its value.

Worked example: a SaaS company moving to an AI-native ERP

Here's an illustrative case. A 150-person SaaS company moves from QuickBooks to an AI-native ERP as it adds a second entity in the UK. The ERP takes over revenue recognition from billing, consolidates the two entities and gets the close down from about ten days to a few.

The FP&A side looks like this:

• Before: the analyst exports trial balances from two QuickBooks files each month, rebuilds the consolidation in Excel and refreshes the forecast in week three.
• After: the FP&A platform syncs consolidated actuals from the new ERP daily, the forecast model updates in the same spreadsheet the team already uses, and the board pack is ready in week one.
• What still lives in FP&A: the bookings forecast from the CRM, the hiring plan from the HRIS, three scenarios for the board, and department budgets that 20 budget owners review.

The ERP made the actuals faster and cleaner; the planning work moved earlier in the month but didn't disappear. Our guide to consolidating multiple QuickBooks companies covers the step before a move like this.

Which FP&A tools connect to Rillet and Campfire?

Aleph connects natively to both. Several other planning tools connect to one or the other:

• Aleph: native integrations with Rillet and Campfire on its integrations page. Pulls actuals into Excel, Google Sheets and the web app alongside CRM and HRIS data. Best for teams that want to keep modeling in spreadsheets with live ERP data.
• Abacum: Rillet has announced a partnership to send GL actuals to Abacum. Best for web-based planning at scale-ups; see our Abacum alternatives guide.
• Cube: listed as a Rillet FP&A integration partner. Cube suits teams that want a spreadsheet-connected planning tool; our Cube alternatives guide compares the options.
• Centage: Campfire offers a native sync of actuals into Centage. Best for budgeting-focused mid-market teams.
• Any tool that reads a warehouse: Rillet also offers a Snowflake connector, so planning tools that read from a data warehouse can use its data indirectly.

Before you buy, ask each vendor how often actuals refresh, whether it syncs entities and dimensions as well as account balances, and whether you can drill from a forecast variance back to the transactions.

Rillet vs Campfire: which fits which team?

Both are credible, and the choice usually comes down to company profile:

• Rillet: positioned for scaling SaaS companies, with strong revenue recognition and continuous close. It says it now also targets more complex companies, including public ones.
• Campfire: strong on multi-entity consolidation and multi-currency, with the Ember AI assistant and a track record of migrations off NetSuite.

Either way, your planning choice is independent: pick the FP&A layer on how your team models, not on which ledger you chose.

Other AI-native and modern ERPs to know

The AI-native set is wider than two vendors, and the established ERPs still dominate:

• DualEntry: AI-native ERP aimed at mid-market companies; raised a $90M Series A co-led by Lightspeed and Khosla in October 2025.
• Light: AI-native general ledger and finance platform covering multi-entity accounting, payments and expenses; raised a $30M Series A led by Balderton in September 2025.
• Numeric: close management and finance automation that sits on top of an existing ledger, not an ERP.
• NetSuite, QuickBooks, Sage Intacct and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central: the incumbents most teams compare against. Our guides cover FP&A tools for NetSuite and QuickBooks.

When do you need FP&A software on top of an AI-native ERP?

Usually once any of these is true:

• You present a forecast to a board or investors and need scenarios behind it.
• Department heads own budgets and need to see their spend against plan.
• Headcount is your biggest cost and you plan hires by start date; see our guide to AI tools for headcount planning.
• You combine ERP actuals with CRM, billing or HRIS data for metrics like ARR, CAC payback or revenue per employee.
• You run more than one ERP or entity and need one consolidated reporting view; our guide to multi-entity consolidation software covers the options.

Teams under about 20 people with a simple plan can often get by with the ERP's reports and a spreadsheet. The trigger is usually the first board meeting where someone asks "what if?"

How to set up the stack

A clean setup keeps one source of truth for each kind of data:

1. Make the AI-native ERP the system of record for actuals, entities and the chart of accounts.
2. Connect the FP&A layer directly, so actuals refresh automatically instead of arriving by CSV each month.
3. Map accounts and dimensions once in the planning layer and reuse the mapping every period.
4. Bring in the drivers from CRM, billing and HRIS next to the actuals.
5. Report budget vs actuals from the planning layer, where the budget, forecast and actuals sit together.

For the wider picture of how these systems fit, see our guide to the modern finance tech stack for SaaS.

Common mistakes when pairing an AI-native ERP with FP&A

• Rebuilding the chart of accounts without telling FP&A. A migration is the moment to clean up accounts, but every change breaks the planning model's mapping unless it's updated at the same time.
• Treating ERP variance explanations as the forecast. Knowing why last month missed budget doesn't tell you what next quarter looks like.
• Keeping the CSV habit. If actuals still move by export, you lose most of the faster close.

Plan on top of your AI-native ERP with Aleph

Aleph connects Rillet, Campfire and 150+ other systems to Excel and Google Sheets, so live actuals, CRM pipeline and HRIS data sit in the models your team already uses, with every number tied back to its source. See how Aleph's data consolidation works, or book a demo to see it on your own ledger.