Mostly thanks to vendors mixing terminologies, many people have a hard time distinguishing between dashboards, financial reporting and planning solutions. Here is a simple set of definitions:
Dashboard Tools are usually single screen interactive visualizations, most often focused on summary metrics and KPIs.
Financial Reporting Tools are purpose-built to enable highly formatted reports such as profit & loss, balance sheet and cash flow statements. Usually with functionality for consolidations, currency conversion and other features to help speed up the month-end close.
Planning Tools provide user-friendly data entry input forms to capture annual budgets and forecasts. They use workflow to manage the submission and approval process.