Why FP&A leaders choose Centage over Datarails

Here’s a detailed breakdown of the Centage vs Datarails matchup:

Centage

Datarails

Speeds up budgeting process

Budgeting, forecasting, and variance reporting

Import data from Excel

Notifications when a new account is added to ERP

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Create customized reports shareable via Excel

Reduces manual errors from Excel sheets

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Completely separate from Excel

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Automates financial logic without formulas

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Drag & drop adjustments on the fly

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Integrate with any combination of GL/ERP

Ongoing, in-house expert support & advisory

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User-based permissions & security

Customized reporting dashboards

Trusted FP&A solution for >20 years

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What real users are saying

Read what finance leaders think of Centage

"We use Centage to prepare annual budgets but also for monthly reporting package. We have a complex business with multiple locations and departments across the locations. We budget at a very granular level. We use a lot of dirvers and calculations when preparing budgets. Centage tool offers a lot of flexbiliby to set up the budgets to match the business specific needs."

Read the full review on TrustRadius

We use Centage's Planning Maestro for Annual Budgeting and Reforecasting purposes. It's really good as all the inputs entered by all the budget holders get consolidated in our income statement in real time. We can manage access to specific accounts, cost centers and project codes to each budget holder, which makes the process more efficient and minimizes errors. We also use they allocations methods, which are very useful in our case. There is also the possibility of managing different versions of Budgets and reforecasts.

Read the full review on TrustRadius

Datarails = Spreadsheet-only

Datarails is fundamentally an Excel add-on. Centage’s formula-free FP&A software seamlessly integrates with all major GL and ERP software and allows users to budget and forecast without ever touching Excel if they so choose.

In Datarails everything a user creates — reports, budgets, forecasts, etc — are created as spreadsheets. Datarails doesn’t notify users when a new account is added to the ERP, which leads to inaccurate reporting.

Centage = Formula-free, drag & drop

Centage is the only formula-free FP&A software. Datarails and other competitors essentially function as Excel add-ons and do not solve for formula errors, one of the most common pain points in Excel.

Datarails has a web-based portal database, but everything kicks out to Excel so it still has the fundamental problem of being buggy and occasionally “breaking” spreadsheet-based financial reports.

Excel formulas within Datarails can often be more complex than they are natively in Excel, compounding this problem. Refreshing data takes longer in Datarails than it does in Centage.

The FP&A solution that best fits your needs

We know there are a lot of FP&A software solutions out there — you’re here looking for the one that best fits your needs.

On one side, some of our competitors offer a less robust feature set (basically an Excel add-on) and a quick “set it and forget it” implementation with little to no follow-up support. If you’re a small business with no plans for major growth, these may work better for you.

On the other side, there are high-cost, high-maintenance enterprise software solutions — this will be a better fit if you’re a major company with a huge workforce.

Centage delivers powerful budgeting, forecasting, and data analysis typically only enjoyed by large enterprises, at a price point that makes it accessible for growth-stage businesses. It’s the only formula-free FP&A software.

A comparison graph showing how Centage sits nicely between the less feature-rich, low cost solutions, and the more robust, expensive solutions.

We’ve helped hundreds of global companies

Read what our customers are saying:

We used Centage to do some worst-case scenario planning, such as losing 50% of our revenue and planned hours. It was a huge benefit to forecast the impact on our revenue.

Peter Welch

CFO, Heartland

Because this solution is so easy to use, we have a lot of ownership from the directors. They can easily go in and review and really own their own budget numbers.

Lesley Delaney

CFO, Carroll County Memorial Hospital

It’s made the process much easier when we go to build the budget year-over-year – it’s been a huge help.

Nate Walters

CFO, The Wildlife Gallery

I look at the numbers and quickly have so much more confidence in them… It’s really just a push of the button now.

Jodi Norris

Controller, The Children’s Institute of Pittsburgh

More of my time is spent focusing on analyzing the data rather than spending time entering the data.

Shelly Golly

Price Family Vineyards & Estates

I can change forecasts and get new information faster and without extra headaches... Centage lets us be smart about what we will do in the future.

Joan Edelman

CFO, Wakeland Housing and Development Corporation

We are able to spend less time talking about the numbers in the budget and spend more time on how we’re going to get there.

Scott Coleson

Controller, Four Star Freightliner