17 years helping British businesses
choose better software
What is Datarails?
Datarails is a financial planning and analysis platform for Excel users. It automates data consolidation, reporting and planning, while enabling finance teams to continue using their own Excel spreadsheets and financial models.
Automating these manual processes paves the way for finance teams to spend more time analyzing data and less time collecting it.
It also empowers them to answer essential strategic questions like what their organization can do to increase revenue and reduce expenses.
Who Uses Datarails?
Finance teams of small, medium enterprises (50-2000 employees).
Where can Datarails be deployed?
About the vendor
- Datarails
- Located in New York, US
- Founded in 2015
Datarails support
- Phone Support
- Chat
Countries available
Canada, United Kingdom, United States
Languages
English
Datarails pricing
Starting Price:
- No free trial
- No free version
Datarails does not have a free version and does not offer a free trial.
Pricing plansAbout the vendor
- Datarails
- Located in New York, US
- Founded in 2015
Datarails support
- Phone Support
- Chat
Countries available
Canada, United Kingdom, United States
Languages
English
Datarails videos and images
Features of Datarails
Reviews of Datarails
Datarails is a great time saver
Comments: I love datarails. The implementation team was fantastic and I haven't found anything lacking. We even asked for some functionality to be added to our implementation team, and a few months later they rolled it out as a feature for all users to enjoy.
Pros:
Datarails integrates into our accounting system and we upload our operational data via Excel so we can see our whole workspace in 1 place - the best part is the ad-hoc reporting ability in native Excel.
Cons:
The dynamic ranges we use are massive and can bog down Excel so we had to upgrade our computers......pretty sure this is an Excel issue vs a Data Rails issue though.
Experience with DataRails
Comments: The overall experience with DataRails has been positive, but the company seems more interested with automating as much as possible rather than in teaching and empowering customers to become super users of the software.
Pros:
Once set up, DataRails is an effective tool to manage our regular as well as ad hoc financial reporting. It has saved time in constructing standard reports, thus freeing up time for deeper analysis.
Cons:
The process of setting up the environment can be tedious and confusing. Troubleshooting errors can be time consuming, particularly if your inputs are larger files (Any change to the Data Mapper needs to process to all files within a File Box) or if you have multiple inputs with different mappers (When input files are not uniform in structure, attempting to construct uniform mappers across inputs can be maddening). There is no readily available resource that can thoroughly or effectively explain the flow of data or how to construct a Data Mapper to specific needs.
VIN Product Assessment
Comments: The customer support and response is excellent
Pros:
Easy to navigate and set-up the dashboards
Cons:
It doesn't work well with Quickbook Desktop. It requires a lot of manual processes. It does not automatically integrate with the QB desktop version. It's too cumbersome.
Alternatives Considered: Microsoft Power BI
Reasons for Switching to Datarails: It was recommended by some of the accounting professionals at the AICPA conference
New FP&A user at a public company
Comments: I really like it, I would recommend it to a friend in and instance if they work in FP&A.
Pros:
The ability to immediately see real time KPis update automatically from integrations from CRM and Sage Intacct is incredibly valuable and saves a lot of time.
Cons:
The set up and learning process is lengthy and quite complicated. I don't know how to solve it but just know it takes time.
Alternatives Considered: Cube, Prophix and Vena
Reasons for Switching to Datarails: We ultimately chose data rails due to the customization aspect and ability to use excel as a key part of the data.
Fantastic and Flexible Reporting Software
Comments: Our setup and integration was extremely easy and fast. I was the dedicated builder and PM for the implementation for a 200+ store retails company and we were able to sync, validate and build out of data in just under 7 weeks. We've only had a few system hiccups along the way that Datarails has fixed or addressed with reasonably speed. We've been very happy with the decision to work with Datarails and foresee that that feeling will remain for a long time to come.
Pros:
Datarails' direct integration with Excel has allowed our team to pick up using the system very quickly. It gives us the flexibility of Excel without having to worry about massive data tables or SQL pulls to get the data to represent in a proper manner. Datarails is constantly improving and they continue to work with their customers to advance their software and address needs. The sky is the limit for cuts of data that Datarails can provide, and with nearly constant improvement over our now two years of use, our satisfaction with the software grows with each passing month.
Cons:
It's strength with Excel is also it's weakness. Reports are only as good as the logic that is layered into Excel, so it necessitates numerous data checks to ensure that our numbers are accurate. Fortunately, Datarails makes those overall checks simple. I really want to love the Dashboards and Storybook functions, but the overall functionality of their graphing does need some improvement. Their dashboard have a really amazing variance analysis tool, but it needs updating and resources to be fully fleshed out and used as intended.
Alternatives Considered: Workday Adaptive Planning and Anaplan
Reasons for Choosing Datarails: Management Reporter (not listed) simply did not have the tools to produce the reports that we needed. Datarails has actually filled a number of holes within our accounting software, as the lookup tables have allowed to create dimensions that would be VERY difficult to manage within the ERP itself. It has taken our financial reporting from the Dark Ages and very much been a proven resource for both internal and external reporting.
Switched From: Microsoft Excel
Reasons for Switching to Datarails: Datarails is far more flexible and its ability to seamlessly integrate with a very old ERP system is unmatched. We also felt that the bells and whistles of the other systems were very expensive and more flashy than practically useful.