Fintech data analysis platform TagniFi made room to scale its business by upgrading from Excel to Zoho Billing.

Chad Sandstedt, the CEO and co-founder of TagniFi, has been in the tech industry for two decades. When Sandstedt noticed there were no complete data analysis solutions for financial experts, he knew it was an opportunity that he could leverage—that's when he decided to develop a financial database superior to market standards.

Sandstedt established his bootstrapped startup, TagniFi, in Florida in 2012. TagniFi provides a modern financial data platform and analysis tool for finance and investment professionals, and has run on a subscription business model since its inception.

The challenge:

Before switching to Zoho Billing, Sandstedt's team used Excel to track customer subscriptions. Recording customer and subscription details, entering the payment information and follow-up details—all these had to be done manually.

Eventually, this manual process became too time-consuming and overwhelming.

Additionally, manual data entry made it easy for minor errors to slip through the cracks, which led to billing delays and an increase in involuntary churn. The whole process was not good for business, so they started looking into automation to save time and effort.

Sandstedt was looking for a cost-effective platform that offered API integration capabilities and supported online payments. After carefully comparing the features of the major providers in subscription management and recurring billing, he decided that Zoho Billing was the ideal solution for TagniFi.

The solution:

Getting started was easy, all Sandstedt's team had to do was import their Excel file records into Zoho Billing. The self-explanatory sample files and the seamless data import capability of Zoho Billing helped their team finish the process quickly.

After migrating their data, the TagniFi team started using Zoho Billing actively to manage their customers. In a typical subscription billing cycle for a customer, all they have to do is create a subscription (either directly via Zoho Billing or via API) and set the frequency in which the subscription should be renewed. Zoho Billing took care of the rest, from creating the invoices, to emailing them automatically on renewal, to charging the customers' credit card, until finally recording payment for the invoice.

Zoho Billing' powerful integration with Stripe was another reason Sandstedt chose Zoho. He found this integration instrumental in streamlining their payment process, as most of their customers prefer to pay using credit cards. The integration with Zoho Books was an added value for the TagniFi team, as it synchronizes TagniFi's invoices and receivables and makes bookkeeping a breeze. They've also integrated Zoho Billing with Zoho CRM to handle their customer data and give their sales team better insight about customers' subscription statuses and up-selling opportunities.

Why TagniFi loves Zoho Billing:

While looking for a subscription platform, Sandstedt wanted a tool that fit their business process, met customers' expectations, and integrated with Stripe. He's thrilled that Zoho Billing fulfills all their needs and is looking forward to continuing growth with a solid system to support TagniFi along the way.

"We're a self-funded company. So, we are very cautious with our expenditures. I love that Zoho Billing is dynamic, yet cost-effective. I've been using it for more than four years now and I highly recommend it!" - Chad Sandstedt