Accounting practice management software (APMS) is a type of software designed specifically for certified public accountants, accounting firms and other financial professionals to manage their day-to-day front and back office business operations. Its primary purpose is to help accounting professionals streamline their workflow, increase productivity, manage client relationships, and ensure that all tasks are completed in a timely and efficient manner. It also helps in organizing and retrieving essential documents and also seamlessly integrates with other CRM tools and accounting softwares. APMS can help accounting firms save money by reducing the need for manual labor and thereby improves overall efficiency and employee satisfaction.
Internal auditors play the critical role of being the third line of defense. When risk owners and management do not identify risk or adequately mitigate the risk, it is imperative for the internal auditors to provide independent and objective insight on risk. The audit management solutions market caters to this need by automating internal audit operations through its primary and secondary offerings. Audit management solutions help manage the complexity of the auditor's role, not the organization's risk.
Cloud xP&A is a platform-centric enterprise planning strategy to extend financial planning and analysis (FP&A) with multidiscipline planning capabilities that are packaged, marketed and sold as an integrated operational planning solution. xP&A solutions must include a cohesive, composable, data-harmonized vendor platform that can accommodate emerging technologies, horizontal functional and vertical-specific solutions for their target market(s)
Gartner defines contract life cycle management (CLM) market as a solution that proactively manages contracts from initiation through negotiation, execution, compliance and renewal. In this context, a contract is any agreement or contractual document containing rights and obligations that affect an organization now or in the future (e.g., a nondisclosure agreement). CLM solutions allow organizations to create, negotiate and store contracts in a centralized repository. Using these solutions helps mitigate organizational risk by enabling regulatory and policy compliance, providing governance over what is signed and with whom, and role-based access to terms and obligations with third parties. CLM solutions drive visibility, consistency and efficiency in the contracting process across an enterprise. Use cases are primarily aligned to parts of the process, such as presignature and postsignature. Different departments often prioritize a certain use case based on their involvement in the contracting process.
EHS software provides the data collection, management, analysis and reporting necessary to design, implement and measure programs that enable operational compliance with environmental, occupational health and workplace safety regulations. Decision support and analytics capabilities help to identify opportunities for improvement and actions that advance performance of EHS programs.
Finance refers to the products and services that support the planning, management, analysis, and optimization of financial operations across enterprises and financial institutions. This category includes markets that support core accounting, financial planning, treasury, tax, audit, compliance, investment management, and digital banking—enabling organizations to maintain financial integrity and ensure regulatory compliance.
Gartner defines financial close and consolidation solutions (FCCS) as tools that help CFOs manage group close, consolidation, and reporting. FCCS enables organizations to (1) manage financial close with collaborative, auditable workflows and dashboards, (2) consolidate financials across multiple legal entities and geographies, (3) comply with accounting standards for currency translation, intercompany elimination, and adjustments, and (4) generate reports meeting generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), and regional requirements.
Gartner defines financial planning software (FPS) as the key tool that enables data-driven financial resource allocation, investment and spending decisions by supporting effective planning, budgeting and forecasting processes. FPS enables organizations to link their strategies to financial and operational plans through cloud-based software. It facilitates the creation and management of financial plans, budgets and forecasts by breaking down information silos and integrating operational KPIs. FPS analytics and reporting features offer a holistic performance view, connecting both operational (nonfinancial) and financial metrics, enabling stakeholders to make data-driven decisions.
Gartner defines Integrated risk management (IRM) as the combined technology, processes and data that serves to fulfill the objective of enabling the simplification, automation and integration of strategic, operational and IT risk management across an organization.
Legal spend management software is a specialized management solution designed to help legal departments and law firms control, track, and optimize their legal expenditures—especially those related to outside counsel. It plays a key role in Enterprise Legal Management (ELM) strategies by increasing visibility into legal spend, improving budgeting, and enabling data-driven decision-making. This software automates e-billing and invoice processing, supports standard formats like LEDES, and enforces billing guidelines by flagging non-compliant charges. It also provides real-time spend analytics through dashboards that track expenses by matter, vendor, or region. Typical users of legal spend management software include in-house legal teams, finance departments, and law firms. They use it to manage legal budgets, enforce billing compliance, and analyze spend data for better decision-making.
Gartner defines supply chain planning (SCP) solutions as platforms that provide technological support to help companies manage, link, align and share planning data across an extended supply chain. SCP solutions support a wide range of planning activities, from demand planning and detailed supply planning, to strategic and execution-level planning. They establish a single version of the truth for planning data and decisions, regardless of the underlying execution technology environment.
Tax software solutions help businesses manage and file their taxes, stay compliant with tax laws and regulations, and reduce the risk of errors and penalties. The primary functions of tax software include calculating tax liability, generating tax forms and reports, and electronically filing taxes with domestic and cross-border tax authorities. It includes collaboration tools to allow tax teams to work together on tax preparation and filing and can be integrated with other applications to streamline the tax compliance process. Additionally, the software can be an integrated compliance suite or specific to individual processes such as provision, indirect tax, and transfer pricing.
The third-party risk management (TPRM) technology market offers solutions to identify, assess, manage, monitor and report on third-party risks associated with vendors, suppliers, distributors, agents, partners or other third parties. Solutions in this market can support a wide range of TPRM workflows across various risk domains. TPRM platforms in this market address the needs of a diverse range of customers and risk domains, including legal, compliance, procurement, supply chain, IT, cybersecurity and other teams that work with or provide routine oversight of third parties. Some technology solutions offer enterprise third-party risk management workflow as a feature, along with risk tiering, due diligence, risk mapping, metrics and reporting mechanisms. Other platforms may facilitate integration with risk data subscriptions, data aggregators or other subscriptions. The TPRM technology market is a complex array of solutions servicing many business functions across an enterprise. TPRM solution providers can be categorized into technology platforms and tools, or risk-domain-specific data and insights.