Spreadsheet templates and legacy tools aren’t cutting it anymore. Find out why thousands of teams are turning to Flatfile instead.
When teams come to Flatfile, it’s usually because their data workflows are broken or inefficient. These are the most common reasons our customers have sought us out.
Because . . .
your team has better things to do
Stop burning your team's hours on data cleanup and back-and-forth with customers. Your services team should be building relationships with customers, not begging them to follow your schema templates. Your analysts should be uncovering insights to drive your business forward, not re-formatting Excel sheets. Flatfile gives your teams their time back.
"I slacked everybody after I had done the first onboarding like, 'This is amazing!' I even recorded a video and it was a huge celebration because we’d gone through so many spreadsheets and Flatfile was just so simple."
Because . . .
you can’t effectively onboard customers due to capacity or cost inefficiencies
Migrating customer data from their former systems can drag on for weeks, months, or even years. You either absorb the cost and complexity of handling it in-house, or risk handing off a frustrating task to your customers. When data prep eats up your team’s time, it puts a hard cap on how many customers you can serve at once. Flatfile takes this burden off everyone’s plate, accelerating time-to-value by up to 70%.
"It’s one of the more important tools in our implementation toolbox. Without tools like Flatfile, scaling would be almost impossible."
Because . . .
you spend too much time in back-and-forth
When collaboration happens over email, onboarding slows to a crawl. Flatfile brings everyone into the dataset—where you can leave comments, tag the right people, and review updates in context. Share just a slice of data when you need focused input.
"We went through the pains of importing data, but when we learned about Flatfile, we realized their platform was a good way to save serious time. As a startup, time is precious. We looked at some other open source solutions for importing data, but they didn't stack up. However, Flatfile’s level of execution was much better than anything else we found."
Because . . .
you’re sick of writing scripts, or waiting for an analyst
Data prep shouldn’t be limited to those with coding skills or advanced Excel fluency. Yet for many teams, transforming messy data still means writing Python scripts or waiting for analyst bandwidth. Flatfile’s AI features change that dynamic, allowing anyone to manipulate and validate data through simple natural language inputs.
"There is sometimes a perception of an implementation hurdle with a new platform, but that wasn't true with Flatfile. With their documentation, you can get Flatfile's data importer going in a matter of days. The implementation process was easy."
Because . . .
you’re limited in the volume of data you can import
Manual cleanup doesn’t scale. When every import requires engineering hours to fix formats, validate fields, or chase down missing values, there’s a hard ceiling on how much data your team can handle. By automating data cleanup, you can ingest far more data without adding project time, headcount, or complexity.
"Unfortunately, we were spending a lot of time shaping data. With Flatfile, we have a tool that provides immediate input on problem files before we import them. We get nearly instant feedback that we can use to format the data in a different way to quickly correct formatting errors.
Just not having that drain on our resources has been really helpful; it has made us more contemplative about the data we are asking clients for. We no longer have to avoid asking for data that may require too much time to fix. Flatfile eliminates that problem and has improved our willingness to experiment with different types of data we can incorporate into our analyses. The more time we spend tinkering with different data types, the more likely we are going to uncover the insight that produces additional value in the marketplace. That is indispensable for a startup like us.”
Because . . .
you can’t justify the build or maintenance cost of an in-house custom importer
What starts as a “simple” importer quickly grows into a complex system that needs ongoing upkeep. Mapping logic, error handling, version control, data standard enforcement—each layer adds work your team shouldn’t have to maintain. Flatfile’s team excels at solving these hard problems, delivering a production-ready data preparation platform that saves engineering time, improves data quality, and delivers a polished experience to your users.
“I was excited to leapfrog using Flatfile rather than start from scratch on our own.”
"We home built our uploader. It was very problematic if customers uploaded files that didn’t meet our requirements. We had to give them our exact specifications, which ended up being a huge bottleneck. Any time someone would upload a file that was not encoded properly, everything would break.
We were in such a bind—we bought Flatfile’s data onboarding platform immediately after a quick demonstration and a look at the API documentation. It was really easy once we got it up and running and a huge time saver across the board. It didn't make sense to continue to invest our resources on building and maintaining this core yet secondary part of our product. We stopped spending time on data import issues, and now see a 100% data import success rate. Flatfile exceeded our expectations."
Because . . .
you need to have a human in the loop
Not every data decision can—or should—be automated. When context matters, edge cases appear, or the stakes are high, human judgment is essential. Flatfile is built for exactly that. It gives your team full visibility into every change—whether made by a person or AI—so nothing slips through unnoticed. With that level of oversight, you can trust that the data entering your system meets your standards.
"Flatfile has a great mix of human-in-the-loop operation and deeply embedded APIs that make using it easy, flexible, and powerful."
Because . . .
you’re using another tool but spend too much time prepping files for import
If your data onboarding tool still makes you clean up files before you can use it, it’s not doing its job. Flatfile accepts whatever format your data arrives in, then uses AI agents to handle the prep.
When is Flatfile not the right fit?
We know we’re not a fit for everyone, and we’re happy to direct you to the right solution if that isn’t us.
If . . .
you’re working on a single project (or have very low project volume)
Flatfile is designed for teams that regularly run data onboarding or migration projects. If you’re only tackling a single project or handle imports infrequently, it’s probably not the right fit. But for organizations that repeat these workflows for each new customer, Flatfile delivers serious leverage by turning manual processes into a scalable system.
If . . .
you’re looking for an ETL solution
Flatfile isn’t built for high-volume, backend data processing or automated system-to-system transfers. It’s designed for frontend data collaboration—where business users prepare and validate data in real time, often during onboarding or customer setup. While ETL tools run in the background, Flatfile operates in full view, with human-in-the-loop transformations that are meant to be reviewed and approved before import. If your workflow depends on automated pipelines and code-only logic, you’ll benefit more from an ETL tool.
Learn moreIf . . .
your data isn’t row-and-column friendly
Flatfile is ideal for working with tabular data—things like customer records, product catalogs, transactions, and metadata. If your data lives mostly in long-form text, documents, interviews, or open-ended survey responses, Flatfile isn’t the right tool for you. While we excel at cleaning, validating, and mapping fields (even from unstructured sources!), we’re not optimized for analyzing sentiment or parsing narrative content.