Updated: August 28, 2023 |
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Jim Bullis has over 13 years of experience implementing CPM/EPM tools and other finance software, as well as consulting and supporting a wide range of clients from Fortune 500 organizations, to privately held corporations generating over $100M in revenue, to public sector entities.
If you're on this page, then you've heard about Datarails.
They're an Excel-based FP&A solution that automates financial planning, reporting, analysis, and data gathering.
Whether you've seen their advertising and you're curious about their product...
...or you heard something worrisome about them via word-of-mouth...
We're here to share the Datarails pros and cons to help you decide.
Keep reading.
Head of Pre-Sales & Solutions, Cube Software
Datarails promises to "transform your Excel into a lean, mean FP&A machine." Their biggest selling point is that they help you automate repetitive processes in Excel.
As spreadsheet fans ourselves, we have to give Datarails credit for this. After all, 90% of FP&A teams supplement financial planning platforms with spreadsheets.
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…So you might as well make the spreadsheet your financial planning platform.
On their website, Datarails lists key use cases like:
They also promise to help you "spend more time analyzing data and less time collecting it."
And that sounds great.
But how do they deliver on their promise? Let's take a look at some reviews.
DataRails does several things well. They pull your data into a single place. They make it easy for you to visualize your data in a dashboard. They're hard at work on building better predictive analytics functions.
Several FP&A pros indicated that Datarails:
But like any tool, Datarails has limitations. Reviewers in 2023 mentioned that:
A TechCrunch article detailing its Series B raise says, "Datarails will continue to focus squarely on SMBs."
So if you're a larger company (or trying to grow or scale into a larger company), Datarails may not be the right solution for you.
That's not just positioning. Growing companies will find there are operational challenges to using Datarails, too.
Here's a quick example:
You're more likely to have more internal stakeholders who prefer to use Google Sheets—they might not even have Excel on their machines.
So buying a solution with Excel tunnel vision could create anti-synergy between the office of the CFO and the rest of the company.
…Not ideal, especially when quick conversations between Finance and other departments, like during budget reviews, need to happen.
Here's what Datarails does well:
That said, Datarails has plenty of areas to improve.
That Datarails is built on legacy tech explains many of the frustrations people have with it:
There are all symptoms of an outdated base tech stack.
Modern tools like Cube create native connections with Excel and Google Sheets using a JavaScript API. This means:
Datarails uses licenses to keep your sensitive financial data on lockdown. So you can't see a report without a Datarails license.
Makes sense, right? After all, that's your company's financial data. It should be secure.
…But if that were the case, why not just use something like the Google Drive permissions model? Why require extra seats?
For companies trying to stick to responsible software spending, it's hard to justify extra seats just for viewing reports.
Here's an example:
As a CFO, you want to send your VP of People a hiring budget. You create it in Datarails and share it. You had to buy an additional Datarails license and connection for this use case.
The workaround?
Use the Datarails-provided templates, formulas, and formatting. Share your budgets and reports within the web portal.
And while that sounds great, it creates procedural problems.
If the person without a license makes an edit, it breaks the model. And then you can't see their changes.
What would this look like if it were easy? (And cheaper?)
Use a modern solution like Cube to fetch your Excel reports into Google Sheets, which has built-in permissions and version control, with a single click.
(And your VP of People uses it.)
Because Datarails was built on a legacy tech stack, its formulas are complex and easy to break. They rely on hidden columns and brittle cell references.
So being a Datarails power user requires learning those proprietary formulas.
…or eschewing them altogether and using Excel workarounds, which defeats the point of buying FP&A software.
Here's an example of what these formulas look like:
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The formula in this screenshot from a Datarails video, @DR.YTD, takes 9 optional arguments.
As you know, there are plenty of easier ways to calculate YTD.
Likewise, the Datarails proprietary formulas are just that: proprietary. You can't tweak them.
Imagine this:
All of your reporting is built on brittle formulas like this. But you want to change some of your reporting templates.
Now, instead of self-serving, you have to embark on a project with a Datarails CSM.
So all the time you think you've saved with this new tool gets eaten up in learning how to use it.
We couldn't find pricing on Datarails's website, although reviews have said they're more expensive than comparable SMB options.
FP&A software should make your life easier.
It should save you time, automate repetitive tasks, and eliminate the no-value-add work that burdens many finance teams.
But how do you evaluate FP&A software?
Let's go over some quick highlights.
(Here's a more comprehensive checklist for picking FP&A software.)
The world is your oyster. Build and maintain reports without the need for consultants.
Unlike a tool that spotlights rigid reports with proprietary formulas and complex underlying logic, great FP&A software empowers and augments your existing and preferred workflows.
You should be able to spin up your own reports or dashboards and share them with whomever you need.
…without waiting for consultants or troubleshooting formulas.
That's one of the best things about Cube, you know.
Because Cube works with the tools you already know how to use, it makes much of the grueling work simple.
For example, Cube customer Stephanie, the CFO of SmugMug, had to wrangle the budgeting process for a complex business model. SmugMug had recently acquired Flickr and had a couple of offerings.
The FP&A team at SmugMug had even gone as far as to restructure their chart of accounts to simplify their budgeting process. Then they got Cube.
(Click here to read more about SmugMug.)
As our co-founder 3x CFO-turned-CEO Christina Ross says, having a Plan A and a Plan B is no longer enough.
While the FP&A team works in Excel, many other departments work in Google Sheets or Excel in Microsoft Teams.
Cube works with all these environments. Plus, we're compatible with PCs and Macs.
Since Cube works wherever you work—and because Cube sits natively in the spreadsheet—sharing scenarios, budgets, and reports is easy.
When you buy new software, there's always a learning curve.
The best software hides the complexity from you.
Cube customer Kristina, the VP of Finance and Strategy at 1Rockwell, says the biggest thing Cube gave her was peace of mind. She used Cube to simplify all the complex work she was doing.
In fact, Kristina says that what used to take her hours now only takes 5 minutes.
No need to learn code or complex new systems to do your work.
We like telling new customers to plan a vacation, not an implementation.
While that's partly because Cube has a record of finishing implementations 5x faster than comparable tools…
…it's also because, with Cube, you don't need to pay for extra consulting hours to learn how to use the tool. We've designed and tested it to be intuitive and to grow with your needs.
Because Cube doesn't rip and replace your backend like most legacy tools on the market, setup time is quick.
This means you have more time to get back to the important work.
While Datarails can be a good option for Excel-based SMBs who don't plan to scale, you should know about the other players in the FP&A industry.
And yes, we’ve started with Cube. We’re proud of how well it helps FP&A teams of all sizes plan, analyze, and collaborate to scale their companies smartly, sustainably, and speedily.
Cube is the first spreadsheet-native FP&A platform that empowers finance teams to plan faster, more nimbly, and more scalably without changing how they work.
Our cloud-based FP&A software helps finance teams work more effectively by collecting and centralizing data into a single source of truth.
This empowers teams to create plans and reports based on that trusted data in the spreadsheets they know and love.
Cube transforms FP&A with a spreadsheet-native platform that offers fast, flexible, and scalable financial analysis for continuous collaboration and insights.
Many high-growth companies (like Masterworks and Unqork) use Cube for all their FP&A needs.
Because here's the thing:
Cube can do almost everything Datarails does and then some.
For example, Cube:
Perhaps even more importantly, Cube was founded by a former CFO. The problems and use cases of FP&A have been baked into Cube since its inception.
FP&A teams already know and love spreadsheets. Cube simplifies many of the headaches of the often challenging planning process—like collecting actuals from other departments or checking and verifying that your numbers are correct—and lets teams turn their complicated budgeting process into a lean operation.
Check out all of the 5-star reviews on Capterra.
Sounds like a fit? Book your demo with Cube today. Keep scrolling to learn more.
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Features:
➡️ See all of our features here.
Pros:
Cons:
Pricing:
Best for: Mid-size and enterprise FP&A teams looking to save time and grow. Cube also works for hyper-growth SMBs who want a solution that will scale with their organization's complexity.
Curious to see if Cube is a fit for your organization? Book your demo now.
Vena is a financial planning and analysis solution that allows companies to create a centralized solution with reliable automated workflows for data analysis and decision-making.
Vena supports companies’ financial systems by lessening the workload for manual labor and optimizing overall operational performance. With specific tasks assigned to each team member, automated processes help reduce bottlenecks and increase efficiency.
With the shift towards automation becoming more and more of a necessity for enterprises and organizations, Vena transitions your outdated company spreadsheets into detailed analyses that provide you with more data for strategic planning. With features like visual control, graphical data modeling, project budgeting/forecasting, and more, Vena helps you adapt to modern finances.
Key Features:
Pros:
Cons:
Pricing:
Founded in 2019, Mosaic is a strategic finance platform that creates real-time reporting, budgeting, and planning for better business decision-making. Mosaic allows companies to work in unison in pursuit of organizational goals.
Mosaic consolidates and transforms insights into accessible visuals for stakeholders and management. Like other finance software, Mosaic automates different financial operations to streamline the workflow.
Mosaic's biggest strength is its ability to provide pretty visuals that SaaS companies often want.
Key Features:
Pros:
Cons:
Pricing:
For more information on Datarails, check out these other Datarails reviews:
While Datarails is generally a decent option for your FP&A needs—it'll get the job done—the tool's combinations of shortcomings and complexity make it a tough sell to most FP&A teams.
Ultimately, Datarails works best for this kind of user:
And even then, you're opening a can of worms. Because Datarails has high customer churn.
However, if you’re in the FP&A market and you’re looking for something that:
then Cube might be a good fit for you. Request a demo. and let's talk.
Sources cited:
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