Avenue One is a New York City-based real estate services company founded in 2020 with a team of over 200 professionals. The company offers a full-service investment platform for rental properties, having deployed over $2.2 billion across 20+ U.S. markets and invested over $400 million in local businesses. Michael Stachera, Assistant Controller, oversees financial operations, including reporting, budgeting, and Month-End Close.
Spreadsheet Struggles
Michael knows what it’s like to spend hours wrestling with Excel, as the finance team at Avenue One used to rely solely on spreadsheets for reporting and planning. Month-end closes often stretched to the last day, or even beyond, and each report demanded tedious manual work, from pulling data from multiple sources to hardcoding numbers, double-checking formulas, and ensuring nothing broke along the way.
“With Excel, it was very manual. Every tweak meant almost redoing the process,” Michael explained.
Mistakes were easy to make, version control was a constant headache, and adapting reports to changing business needs often felt like starting from scratch. The team needed a solution that would save them time, reduce errors, and make reporting more efficient and flexible as they scaled.
From Chaos to Clarity
To tackle the Excel chaos, Avenue One turned to Datarails. The platform centralizes all the company’s financial data, pulling directly from their ERP and other sources, freeing the team from hours of manual consolidation and report building each month.
The impact was immediate. Reporting became faster, more accurate, and far less stressful.
We hit that refresh button, and everything is updated exactly the way we want it. It’s a huge improvement for our entire team.
Michael StacheraAssistant Controller
The improvements didn’t stop at reporting. Budgeting became far smoother and more efficient. Managers could now enter updates directly into Datarails, avoiding the hassle of disconnected spreadsheets.
Instead of sending tens of copies of the same spreadsheet to every manager, we have this one platform that they can go in and make their edits. It’s been very helpful for our data accuracy.
Positive ROI
Since implementing Datarails, the Avenue One team has cut its Month-End Close from weeks to just five days, saving tens of hours a month.
It’s incredible how much time our team has saved, upwards of 40 hours a month.
Accuracy and consistency have improved dramatically as well. With centralized data and built-in checks, human error is minimized and the team no longer has to chase different Excel files or worry about conflicting versions.
Everything is in one place and everyone is working in the same platform, so our reports are consistent and reliable every month.
Freed from repetitive manual tasks, Michael and his team can now focus on deeper analysis like reviewing balances, variances, and trends, which gives them better insight into the business.
It’s been helpful, accurate, and easy to use. Datarails made our processes smoother and saved us time. It’s been a huge benefit, very positive ROI.
A Strategic Advantage
With Datarails, Avenue One has turned finance into a strategic advantage. By freeing the team from manual reporting, they can focus on analyzing trends, uncovering insights, and making decisions that drive growth. Michael and his team feel confident that as the company evolves, Datarails will continue to keep them agile, informed, and ready for what’s next.
With all our data in one place and the ability to tailor reports to what we need, we can finally spend more time on analyzing trends and making strategic decisions. It’s empowering to know we have a system that grows with us.
Michael StacheraAssistant Controller
