Jirav is Just Not Quite There Yet
Use Cases and Deployment Scope
My predecessor used to use a 40+ tab Excel for all financial modeling and planning, which was a pain to update every month-end close for me and made it more difficult to provide real-time reporting for our team members in the company. After he left our company, I decided to implement software to prevent the need for time-consuming and tedious manual processes of combining information with our GL accounting system in Excel. I wanted to find software that would allow for seamless integration with our GL and make planning easier, faster, and more collaborative across our 9 departments. There was a study done that over 90% of Excels have errors, mainly because of user error and lack of data validation. I heard through several accounting webinars that Jirav was a top product being used by accounting advisory firms and the most robust in the industry, so I decided to give it a try.
Pros
- Jirav integrates well with Quickbooks Online (QBO), and I like how you can easily customize the reporting presentation by combining GL accounts and showing more or less details as needed for managerial reporting
- I like that Jirav is browser-based and that I can easily share reports with internal and external parties for comments
- I feel more confident using Jirav than I do with Excel because there is more data validation, and some notifications will appear if there are errors in the model
- The sales capacity model and ramping employees schedule that their implementation / professional services team built for us works well overall (with some limitations)
- Ideally, having a direct integration into Jirav would be great for all our data. However, some of our software didn't have a direct integration, so I was glad that Jirav offered the ability to use a connected Google Sheet that lets me input data that can be imported directly into the system
Cons
- At times, I feel that Jirav is too customizable. It would be great if they could tailor the system to be more industry-specific. For example, if the system could provide standard formulas for SaaS industry metrics already within the system, then that would have saved me a ton of time with having to create the metrics myself. The formula creation for metrics is quite tedious as well because you can only do simple calculations, such as A + B or A x C. You cannot do A + B + C or A x B x C.
- I struggle with the way they have their staff planning set up because I have to reimport an Excel every month with all the changes (new hires, terminations, pay changes), and the changes appear to be retroactive on reports, which doesn't make sense if someone receives a raise or pay change during the year. It would be much easier for planning for bookings if they could add a column for quota by salesperson.
- If there are notifications of errors in the model, then the notifications will continue to present themselves after I resolve the issue. It would be nice if I could clear out notifications I know are not relevant anymore. I also still find errors in the system that I would have expected the system to notify me about, such as Assumptions that are set up but they are not included in any formulas, so I should delete that assumption to prevent anyone from thinking changing that assumption will impact the model.
- There is some functionality for sharing reports and information, but there is not enough granularity in security settings to allow me to share certain information easily. For example, if I want to share information with managers to manage their departments' budget, but also not see their boss' compensation, then it takes some work to set that up. Or, if I want to share a report with a recruiter of planned headcount and salary, then I need to export it to Excel first and delete Actual headcount and salary, so they don't see current employees' compensation (including the person's boss' salary).
- Customer and vendor names do not import, only the totals, so if you look at Actuals vs Plan, the actuals will show a total figure and the plan will show detail, creating the need for an external and manual reconciliation
- There is no multi-currency available
- Scenario analysis can be difficult to do quickly. For example, if I want to see the plan with planned hires and without planned hires, then I would need to create two separate plans, individually select and delete the planned hires in one plan and keep then in another plan, which is time-consuming
- Using Google Sign-In causes the system to time-out frequently for me, so I get kicked out of the system and have to log back in. If I have multiple tabs of Jirav open, then re-logging in sometimes doesn't bring me back to where I was originally at.
- You can export reports to Excel, but there are no formulas of the calculations, which makes it more difficult to understand how calculations are being performed unless you look in the browser and dig into the calculations. This also might make it more difficult if you decide to go to another software in the future since you may need to start from scratch in the next software
- Seasonality has been difficult to model. For example, the way our model is set up, I can use an assumption for Q1, Q2, Q3 and Q4. However, if I update Q3 for this year, then it also updates Q3 of all subsequent years, which I don't want. A more complex model and additional maintenance would be needed to accomplish more accurate seasonality planning
Likelihood to Recommend
I feel that Jirav would be best suited for companies with less than 75 employees that need a more robust software than Fathom (Quickbooks Onlne integrated FP&A tool based in Australia) that is very customizable, with simple revenue modeling, few personnel changes every month, few departments, no multi currency, and need collaboration only with top-level personnel. I think Jirav is a product that is being highly recommended in the accounting industry for outsourced accounting firms, but accounting only looks at historical information and there needs to more finance industry influence, approval, and input so they can improve their product.
