Uplevel Your Financial Analytics with Live Data Connections to the Systems You Use Every Day

We hear from many finance analysts that data can be a key roadblock in getting what they want: clear, consolidated views of revenue trends, expenses, cash flows, forecasts, and more. However, we know it often ends up being a never-ending loop of:

• Manually exporting CSV files from Xero, Sage Intacct, or QuickBooks
• Wrestling with mismatched data schemas between NetSuite and your marketing and sales tools
• Wasting hours reconciling transactions instead of analyzing trends

Sound familiar? You’re not alone. Gartner reports that 76 percent of FP&A leaders want to integrate financial planning with other enterprise planning—but it’s much easier said than done. What if you could skip the spreadsheet slog and access all your data in one place?

CData Connect AI: Your finance “data control center”

Connect AI is a unified data connectivity platform that lets you:

• Query live financial data from Xero, QuickBooks, Sage Intacct, NetSuite, and more than 270 other apps and databases
• Blend financials with marketing, HR, and sales data (e.g., Salesforce, HubSpot, Workday)
• Automate reporting without writing code or waiting on IT requests

No more manual exports. No more stale numbers. Just real-time answers to questions like:

• “How is our current spending tracking to budget?” (Hint: Check real-time reports compared to budget forecasts.)
• “What return are we getting on our spending and investments?” (NetSuite spend + attributed Salesforce new business = instant ROI reporting)

How data-driven finance teams use Connect AI for smarter analytics

Let’s break down how financial analysts use CData Connect AI to make their reporting and forecasting faster and smarter.

Consolidate multi-entity financial data

Many teams manage multiple QuickBooks, Xero, or Sage Intacct accounts—one per subsidiary, region, or business unit. Normally, that means exporting reports from each one and manually stitching them together.

With Connect AI, you can query multiple QuickBooks companies at once and bring all accounts into a single Power BI or Excel dashboard. That means you get instant, real-time consolidation without manual data wrangling.

Example: A small-but-mighty finance team consolidates a client’s complete business financials in one dashboard for real-time cash flow and P&L tracking

Reconcile transactions with external data (Salesforce, ADP, Workday, etc.)

Reconciling revenue and expenses with different data sources can be painful. Whether matching NetSuite transactions to Salesforce invoices or checking payroll expenses in Workday against accounting records, manual work slows everything down.

With CData Connect AI, finance teams can:

• Pull live Workday, Salesforce, or ADP transactions into Excel alongside finance data
• Automatically match transactions between systems (e.g., NetSuite vs. Stripe)
• Spot discrepancies in real time without waiting for month-end reports

Example: A financial consulting firm for non-profits builds holistic CFO-level dashboards for clients that give them real-time insights into their entire business

Forecast with live sales and marketing data

Financial forecasting is only as good as the data behind it. But when revenue teams use HubSpot, Salesforce, Google Ads, or LinkedIn Ads, pulling that data into a unified model is a hassle.

With Connect AI, analysts can:

• Pull live pipeline data from Salesforce into Power BI to forecast revenue
• Blend Google Ads and LinkedIn Ads spend with finance data to track CAC and ROI
• Monitor hiring costs from Workday to adjust headcount budgets

Example: A SaaS company combines Salesforce deal data with NetSuite to track pipeline-to-revenue conversion rates in real time

Finance pro tips for Connect AI

• Template it: Save common queries (e.g., monthly P&L) as reusable templates.
• Schedule refreshes: Auto-update reports in Excel/Power BI daily at 6 AM.
• Go beyond finance: Pull Shopify data to tie inventory costs to revenue or LinkedIn Talent Insights to model hiring budgets.

Get started connecting your data today for free

CData Connect AI offers a clear way to connect to and manage your financial planning and reporting. Sign up for a free trial of CData Connect AI and start connecting your finance data today.