Introducing Projects: Collaboration Tools to Make Data Migration More Precise

Imagine a world where data exchange projects don’t feel like wrangling chaos, but instead like conducting a symphony. That experience will soon be a reality for data migration teams.

On the final day of Flatfile’s Launch Week, we unveiled a suite of Collaboration features, including Comments, Mentions, Threads, Presence, and Reactions that will tighten your team’s workflow.

Data is no longer just about organization — it’s about working together to solve complex problems faster, and collaborating to super-charge your onboarding process.

In our last session, Flatfile team members – including Vice President of Product Jon Bell, and Front-end Engineering Lead Henry Jordan – took attendees through an in-depth overview and hands-on demo of each new feature.

Read our recap to see how Collaboration tools will streamline your projects.

Bringing Collaboration to Life

Every data exchange team has experienced a miscommunication that sidelined a project. Our new Comments feature fills in information gaps by providing real-time communication capabilities directly in the project. 

Now, you can dive into a data set, drop a comment exactly where it matters, and instantly connect with your team member to solve an issue.  

You can now add a comment directly in your projects

“You can leave comments on sheets, records, or even specific cells, and every comment is tied directly to the data point of preferences so that feedback, questions and instructions happen exactly where they're needed,” Jordan explained.

With this new tool, feedback is no longer left to linger. Every question or instruction will be attached to the specific data point in question – helping your team make better, more informed decisions faster.

There may be times when a Comment isn’t enough to move a project forward. Enter Mentions: a new feature that allows you to at-mention one of your collaborators to bring them into the conversation.

Mention a teammate in a project to expedite communication

“Now you can loop in the right person right where the issue is so that problems are resolved faster and with less friction,” added Jordan.

Your team no longer needs to wait for emails to cross, or endlessly search for the right data. They will be notified instantly, keeping momentum high and resolutions swift.

However, it can be easy for information to get lost in back-and-forth conversations with several collaborators. That’s where Threads can help keep discussions organized and linked directly to their relevant data points. This feature alleviates clutter and confusion and your team will have clarity where they need it most.

Keep conversations organized with Threads

Jordan added in his presentation that “Threads keep discussions organized by allowing replies to specific comments so that longer conversations stay connected to the data point that started them. You can have a focused back-and-forth without cluttering the entire space.”

And with Presence, collaboration becomes even more seamless. Presence lets you know who is currently active in your sheet so you can see who is making real-time changes alongside you. 

You’ll know who is active in your data set at any given moment, allowing for real-time feedback and collective problem-solving without missing a beat.

See which team member is in your project with Presence

Streamlined Reactions and Shared Views: Keeping It Simple

There may be occasions when a full comment isn’t necessary, or you may want to send a quick signal of acknowledgement. For quick feedback, Reactions provides an intuitive way to send an emoji – a small gesture that moves communication and the project  forward.

Easily give feedback with Reactions

For large-scale projects with massive data sets, teams must stay aligned on the data sets that matter. Our new tool, Shared Views, keeps the team focused on the important data points by allowing them to apply filters and search criteria to projects and then save them as shareable views. 

“Once saved, a view can easily be applied to your data set at any time, and they can also be shared with members of your team, which keeps everyone in sync and ensures everyone can view the data in the same ways,” said Jordan.

Now, everyone sees the same data similarly, which is critical when precision and consistency are essential.

Enhanced Security to Prevent Data Leaks

Rest assured that data and conversations within Flatfile are secure. By keeping all discussions inside the platform, we minimize the risk of data leaks or accidental exposure through external tools. Only authorized users can access and make changes, ensuring privacy and control over the data. 

Jordan reinforced that the platform “lets you control who sees and interacts with your data, ensuring that only authorized team members, clients or partners can view or make changes. This guarantees that collaborative conversations are private and restricted to the right individuals.”

Data Clips: Solving Problems Without Disruptions

What if your team could isolate a challenging data issue and resolve it without disrupting the project? Our new tool, Data Clips, enables this.

Data Clips is a faster, secure solution within Flatfile. With this tool, you can quickly sort through reams of data, select problematic or incorrect records (manually or with advanced filtering), and share them with team members or customers for review.

Users can comment, edit and transform data directly in the interface, making updates easy to review and merge back into the original dataset – all without leaving the platform. 

“Once the data updates are made, you can review the final changes and merge them back into the original set of data,” explained VP of Product, Jon Bell.

Your team no longer needs to use their bandwidth to download and send over files, wait for replies and then re-import the corrections.

Additionally, Data Clips operates in Flatfile’s secure environment with the “same access controls provided in the space to ensure maximum data privacy,” continued Bell.

Designed for flexibility, transparency and security, Data Clips streamlines your project’s workflows and gives visibility into changes – allowing your team to focus on progress. 

Pre-processing: Smarter Data from the Start

During the presentation, Jordan pointed out that starting a migration project can be the source of several challenges. The reason: Initial data tends to be messy, non-uniform, and nuanced, making mapping extremely difficult.

Flatfile’s Workbook reduces this complexity but we boosted these pre-existing features with Pre-processing.

Pre-processing automatically changes any file you upload into a fully featured, configuration capable, AI-powered workbook – giving you access to tools such as manual edits, searching, filtering and AI Transform.

Change files into a configuration-cable workbook with Pre-processing

Treating all uploaded files as workbooks means we have unlocked the entire suite of tools that were previously reserved for mapped data. You can now create custom jobs and actions exclusive to uploaded files, you can run AI transformations, or use our new set of native column actions to address your specific needs.

Additionally, we want you to be in full control of your data configuration and output, so we’ve built in the ability to revert or restore your file to its original state. 

“We've never made it our mission to tell you how to run your migration projects. We provide you with powerful, industry-leading tools that allow you to automate, streamline and simplify your processes according to your specific needs,” Jordan said.

The Power of AI at Your Fingertips

For years, Excel has been the incumbent for building data exchange projects. The application required manual edits, scripted workflows and complex formulas, which took hours. As the data becomes more complex, the need for technical expertise becomes more urgent.  

We built AI Transform to let you manipulate data by describing what you want using natural language instructions — no coding required. Whether you're merging values, cleaning data or performing calculations, AI Transform works at the speed of thought, writing code and delivering results in just a few tries.

AI Transform lets you manipulate data using natural language instructions

“[At the core of AI Transform]  is Natural language input,” said Bell. “Whether you need to merge values, clean up data, run calculations or format fields, all you have to do is describe it.”

When you give AI transform instructions, it's actually writing and running code to execute your instructions, and we believe that this is the most practical, efficient and safe way to transform your data,” he concluded.

AI Transform is intelligent and precise. It targets specific fields, handles multi-step transformations and understands instructions in any language. Features like Smart Fill predict your next move, and Snapshots let you roll back changes easily. It's more than a feature — it’s your assistant, who can streamline data migration and empower smarter, faster decisions.

Stay Tuned. This is Only the Beginning

We have more AI-powered solutions and automation on the horizon. Stay tuned for our Winter Release to see how we’re tackling data transformation challenges.  Eager to learn more or see the full Projects presentation? Watch the recording.