The Challenge
Solv’s FP&A team relied on spreadsheets to execute its most essential tasks. The team performed forecasting, revenue tracking, expense accounting, and more, directly in Google Sheets. However, the process of wrangling the necessary data into Sheets was very manual and time-consuming.
Before Coefficient, the FP&A team had to export CSV files from Salesforce, Looker, and QuickBooks and copy the data into Sheets by hand. This wasted an enormous amount of time, and also caused spreadsheet issues, such as column changes. As a result, the FP&A team only had time to update their metrics and dashboards sporadically.
“Before Coefficient, I was doing multiple data pulls a day,” said Christian Budnik, FP&A Analyst at Solv. “If you just add up those hours, week over week, month over month, it’s a huge time sink. It also disrupts your flow while analyzing data.”
Lack of access to real-time data also created issues for the business as a whole. Without live reports and dashboards, teams could not make decisions based on fresh insights. There was a lag between the facts on the ground, and the dashboards that leadership relied on. This led to suboptimal decisions.
That’s why Solv turned to Coefficient.
The Solution
Solv needed a way to pull real-time Salesforce, Looker, and QuickBooks data into Google Sheets automatically. The solution presented itself during a video call, when one of Christian’s colleagues imported, almost magically, Salesforce data into Sheets in one click.
Christian learned the name of the tool: Coefficient. He started a free trial that day.
“The benefits of Coefficient were super obvious,” said Christian. “I got hooked immediately. We researched other solutions, but none of them came close to Coefficient.”
It took less than five minutes for the FP&A team to get started with Coefficient. After installing Coefficient, the team connected to Salesforce, Looker, and QuickBooks and started incorporating Coefficient into existing workflows right away. The team started seeing the impact immediately.
“After setting up Coefficient, I instantly felt an incredible amount of peace of mind,” said Christian. “All I had to do was click a button, and in seconds, all my Salesforce data appeared in Google Sheets.”
With Coefficient, Christian and the team could not just pull live data into Sheets in a click. They could also set up automatic data refreshes, so that the data in their Sheets always stayed up to date.
This meant that the dashboards, reports, and models that the team produced remained fresh and ready to share. They could present them with stakeholders, at any time, without needing to rebuild or update the Sheet.
“Coefficient automated everything,” said Christian. “Instead of manually exporting or importing into Google Sheets every day, and making sure none of the formulas broke, I can just sit back and watch the data update automatically. That means I don’t have to rebuild dashboards before I share them.”
The FP&A team soon saw the impact across the organization as well. Now teams across the company could access real-time financial insights from their spreadsheets and make instant decisions with the most accurate data. The result was a faster, more efficient company, driven by data at every level.
And the Coefficient team was there for Solv every step of the way. Solv continues to have a direct line of communication with the Coefficient support team, including a private Slack channel. The Solv team can ask questions in the channel, and get answers right away, whenever they need assistance.
“Working with the Coefficient team so far has been fantastic,” said Christian.
The Result
By eliminating manual data imports, Coefficient saved each finance team member at Solv an hour a week. With 7 analysts on the FP&A team, this translated into 364 hours saved per year. As a result, analysts now spend more time on mission-critical tasks, and focus on higher strategic priorities.
But the time and resources saved was just one part of Solv’s success story. Coefficient’s seamless integration of real-time Salesforce, Looker, and QuickBooks data into Google Sheets allows stakeholders to make decisions based on the best possible data. This, in turn, made the business more responsive and profitable.
As for Christian, his advocacy for Coefficient on the FP&A team did not go unnoticed. In fact, he was promoted not long after he incorporated Coefficient in his department’s spreadsheet workflows. And to him, this is not a coincidence.
“I’d like to think Coefficient helped me get here,” said Christian.
