Too Many Spreadsheets, Too Little Time
When Jeremy joined Zehnder, he was immediately disappointed by the reporting capabilities of their general ledger system. Month after month, he found himself repeating the same intensive manual steps – downloading data into Excel, manipulating it and running the same analysis. The process was repetitive, time-consuming, and unsustainable.
But the challenge didn’t stop at inefficient reporting. Jeremy also had to communicate his financial insights to a team of creatives – people who aren’t naturally fluent in balance sheets or P&L statements – in a way that was both digestible and actionable.
He quickly realized improvements were needed and created a variety of Excel templates, Google Sheets models, and Slides presentations. But with every slight change, he’d have to manually update everything. Looking for a better solution, he even purchased a new GL system, but it didn’t help.
Right Place, Right Platform
I wish we’d found Datarails before we had the failed implementation with the GL system. That’s a good lesson I’ll take with me.
Jeremy HunnewellCFO
After a “serendipitous” call with the Datarails team, he chose the FP&A solution, which quickly proved to be a game-changer – providing game-changing customer service, reporting and actionable insights.
He noticed a difference from day one. “We got so much attention and time from the Datarails team,” he says. “It was weekly meetings – an hour at least every week”. Issues raised at the end of one call were often resolved by the next, thanks to his dedicated customer success manager.
With the support of the Datarails team, Jeremy recreated and improved his reports within the platform. Datarails made them more dynamic, robust, and far easier to update.
His “a-ha” moment came with the automation of his monthly utilization report.
I don’t touch it anymore, it’s zero time on my part. People are getting timely information in a timelier manner than I would have been able to pull together.
From there, Jeremy expanded his use of the platform to all aspects of his work, building a monthly KPI dashboard and a payroll comparison tool to quickly spot changes and their sources. “Okay, well what else am I using Excel for? There’s probably a Datarails solution for that too”.
Datarails in Action
Datarails has been good from day one, and it’s only gotten better.
As Zehnder’s reporting needs grew more sophisticated, Datarails’ features more than met this challenge.
Storyboards & AI Insights
With Storyboards – a tool allowing engaging presentations and reports – he finally found a way to present complex financial data in a clear, compelling way that his non-finance colleagues could easily grasp. Datarails’ AI insights have also become a regular part of Jeremy’s process, providing a great starting point for Jeremy and his team to identify trends and gain clarity faster.
Workflows
The introduction of “workflows from Datarails” – enabling users to manage processes involving multiple individuals – was another meaningful shift. Instead of a laundry list of disconnected manual tasks to perform – refresh this file, update that sheet – Jeremy’s been able to streamline it all into one place
Drill Down
Drill Down – allowing users to dive deeper into data by selecting specific data points and breaking them down with filters and dimensions – has helped Jeremy and his team dig deeper into their data, without losing the big picture. He can zoom in on a certain month, client, or department – quickly and effortlessly. “It’s insightful,” Jeremy says, “and has led to good discussions in our executive team meetings, where we’re able to see what happened and why, and better decide what to do next month and beyond”.
What Better Looks Like
It’s made for better reporting, for a better leadership team, for a better experience – it’s made us better.
Since adopting Datarails, Jeremy has seen major improvements. What once took days now takes hours (or less). Reports refresh in real-time, and data is always up to date when it comes time to make decisions.
Overall, Datarails provides his team with insights for better decision-making.
It frees us up to get to the ‘why’ and to understand what the data actually means.
Jeremy HunnewellCFO
Built to Last
With Datarails in place, Jeremy knows his team is set up for long-term success. “It’ll be the infrastructure through which they can be successful…and will provide confidence that we’re going to be able to continue getting good financial insight.”
