Side by side, capability by capability
Everything in Joiin's column comes from Joiin's own pages, plan matrix, help centre or blog, checked 22 September 2026. Where Joiin does not publish something we mark it "not published". That is not the same as saying the product cannot do it.
| Capability |  Joiin |  dataSights |
|---|---|---|
| Management reports and board packs | Does this Financial reports, dashboards and report packs | Does this Customisable management reports and board packs |
| Custom report development | Does this Custom report layouts, on every plan See note 1 | Does this Unlimited, built over your own SQL database in Excel, Power BI or AI See note 2 |
| Board pack export to PowerPoint | Not published Not published See note 3 | Does this PowerPoint and PDF See note 4 |
| Scheduled report delivery by email | Does this Report packs emailed on a weekly or monthly schedule See note 5 | Data refreshes on a schedule, and packs are exported and shared See note 6 |
| Budgets | Does this On every plan | Does this Consolidated budget and budget variance reports, where budgets are enabled |
| Forecasting | Higher plan only Three-way forecasting on Pro and above See note 7 | No forecasting module |
| Consolidation across entities | Does this Chart of accounts mapping, on every plan | Does this Multiple Xeros, any chart of accounts |
| Mixed-ledger group | Does this Consolidates Xero, QuickBooks and Sage into the management reports | Consolidates multiple Xeros, and other ledgers sync into the warehouse as data only |
| Multi-currency | Higher plan only Pro plan and above See note 8 | Does this Included |
| Intercompany eliminations | Does this Elimination groups, on every plan | Does this From account codes you nominate |
| Excel | Higher plan only Add-In listed on Pro and above, though its Add-In page says all plans See note 9 | Does this One-click refresh, and post back from a sheet |
| Power BI | Higher plan only Through its API, listed on the Max plan though its API page says any plan See note 10 | Does this Import or DirectQuery against your database See note 11 |
| Writes data back to the ledger | Not published Not published See note 12 | Does this To Xero See note 13 |
| Transaction-level drill-down | Does this Click a report figure to see the journals behind it See note 14 | Does this The whole transaction table sitting in your database to query, join and automate against See note 15 |
| Non-ledger data sources | Higher plan only Stripe, plus anything pushed in through its API or Zapier See note 16 | Does this 160+ connectors See note 17 |
| A database you own | Not published Not published See note 18 | Does this Dedicated Azure SQL, ours or your own Microsoft account |
| Connect your own AI assistant | Higher plan only MCP on the Max plan, for querying See note 19 | Does this Claude, ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot via MCP, build reports and post journals from chat, no extra cost. Plus report development, where the AI saves SQL views and mapping tables back into the platform, so it builds reporting assets that persist, not one-off answers |
| Month-end automation from AI | Not published Not published (read-only connections, no journal posting) See note 12 | Does this Query transactions, calculate prepayments and deferred revenue, post to Xero, sync and validate, in one loop |
| AI inside the product | Does this AI chat and summaries on every plan, AI agents on Pro and above See note 20 | Does this AI-drafted board pack commentary |
| Plans | Three plans: Core, Pro and Max | One tier per package: every feature in, you pay for data scope |
| Entry price | From US$28 per month for one company on Core See note 21 | From A$80 per month See note 21 |
Notes and sources
- Joiin's plan matrix lists custom report layouts and dashboards on all three of its plans. Report pack and dashboard templates built for sector and regional reporting are listed on its Max plan only. Joiin pricing page, checked 22 September 2026.
- Every dataSights customer gets a dedicated Azure SQL database, so custom reports are built over that database in Excel, Power BI, any other tool that speaks SQL, or an AI assistant, with no per-report or per-seat limit and nothing held back for a higher tier. The data is what is priced: account transactions, payroll and fixed assets are additional to the base Xero Consolidation price, and non-Xero connectors are priced per source system.
- Joiin's plan matrix gives its export and share formats as PDF, CSV and Excel, and its report pack guide describes presenting live or exporting to PDF or Excel. PowerPoint appears in neither. That is not the same as saying Joiin cannot produce one. Joiin pricing page and help centre, checked 22 September 2026.
- dataSights board packs export to PDF in A4 landscape or PPTX in 16:9 widescreen. Management reports separately export to Excel or PDF.
- Joiin's report pack guide describes scheduling a pack to be emailed weekly or monthly, with options to send now, edit or cancel a schedule, and for recipients to unsubscribe. Joiin help centre, last updated 17 September 2026.
- dataSights refreshes your data on a schedule rather than emailing reports out. Scheduled intraday syncs are available on request at no extra cost on Xero Consolidation, manual refreshes are unlimited, and packs are exported or shared once they are published.
- Joiin lists budgets on all three plans and forecasting on its Pro and Max plans. Its forecasting guide describes an indirect, month-by-month three-way forecast for medium-term planning, typically 12 to 24 months. Joiin pricing page and help centre, checked 22 September 2026.
- Joiin's plan matrix gives reporting currency as single on its Core plan and multi on Pro and Max, and puts advanced FX with your own rates on Max only. Joiin pricing page, checked 22 September 2026.
- Joiin's own pages disagree here, so both readings are recorded. Its plan matrix lists the Excel Add-In on the Pro and Max plans, while its Excel Add-In page states the Add-In is included in all pricing plans. Its published Excel functions return trial balance, profit and loss, balance sheet and company data into a worksheet. Joiin pricing page and help centre, checked 22 September 2026.
- Joiin's own pages disagree here too. Its plan matrix puts open data access via API and Zapier, for custom Power BI, Tableau or warehouse builds, on the Max plan, while its Joiin Connect page states the API is accessible with any plan. Either way the route is an API, which moves data both into and out of Joiin, rather than a database you connect to directly. Joiin pricing page and Joiin Connect page, checked 22 September 2026.
- dataSights lands transformed tables in a dedicated Azure SQL database you own, so Power BI connects by Import for the consolidated views, or by DirectQuery against account transactions where that data point is enabled. Account transactions is a paid add-on to the base Xero Consolidation price.
- Joiin describes its accounting platform connections as read-only API connections, audited regularly by Xero, Sage and QuickBooks. Its journals guide states that you cannot add journals directly, that this is planned for a future release, and that adjustments are added inside Joiin as company adjustments instead. Joiin integrations page, checked 22 September 2026, and its journals guide, last updated 13 May 2026. Not publishing a capability is not the same as the product being unable to do it.
- From Excel, dataSights posts eleven record types: manual journals, invoices and bills, credit notes, purchase orders, bank transactions, bank transfers, payments, accounts, contacts, items and tracking categories. Through an AI assistant it posts manual journals, invoices and bills, contacts and chart of accounts changes, and attaches PDFs and documents to records that already exist in Xero. Both routes reach multiple Xero organisations in a single action, and the AI route works in batches of up to 200 records.
- Joiin's journals guide describes clicking a number on a financial report to see the underlying journals, with a link through to the transaction in the source system. It also states that journals are not available for Sage companies or for companies loaded manually from a spreadsheet. Joiin help centre, last updated 13 May 2026.
- dataSights drill-down reaches account transactions where that data point is enabled. Account transactions is a paid add-on to the base Xero Consolidation price.
- Joiin's connections guide states that connections bring non-financial data into Joiin from systems beyond your accounting platform, and that Stripe is the first of these with more to be added over time. Its integrations page describes connecting other sales, marketing and CRM tools through its public REST API or Zapier. Joiin help centre and integrations page, checked 22 September 2026.
- 160+ connectors are available. Some, including additional data connectors, account transactions, payroll and fixed assets, are priced as add-ons rather than included in the base subscription.
- Joiin publishes a public REST API, a Zapier app and an Excel Add-In for getting consolidated data out of Joiin. It does not publish a database that you hold or connect to directly. Joiin integrations page and Joiin Connect page, checked 22 September 2026.
- Joiin's plan matrix lists MCP, for connecting Joiin data to Claude, ChatGPT and other AI assistants, on its Max plan. Its MCP guide describes running reports, searching transactions and looking up its own help articles. Joiin pricing page and help centre, checked 22 September 2026.
- Joiin's plan matrix lists AI chat and summaries on all three plans and AI agents on Pro and Max. Joiin pricing page, checked 22 September 2026.
- Joiin quotes per company consolidated and dataSights per Xero entity, in different currencies, so the two are not comparable without converting. Joiin's pricing calculator defaults to US dollars and also offers GBP, EUR, AUD and NZD. At one company, billed monthly and in US dollars, its calculator gives Core at US$28 per month, Pro at US$34 and Max at US$45. Joiin also publishes a separate table of prices by number of companies, which carries no plan label and no currency symbol beyond a dollar sign. It gives the same figure as the calculator at one company and a different schedule above that, so the two are not interchangeable. The dataSights entry price covers one or two Xero entities.
Software changes often, so check both providers' current pages before deciding. dataSights publishes this page and makes one of the two products compared.
Where dataSights goes further
Six differences that show up in a real month-end, each one checked against what Joiin publishes.
Everything is in the product, not the plan above
Joiin sells three plans: Core, Pro and Max. Its plan matrix puts multi-currency and the Excel Add-In on Pro, and its API, advanced FX and MCP on Max. Its own Excel and API pages say those two are on every plan, so the notes carry both readings. dataSights has one tier per package with unlimited seats and nothing held back for a higher tier. The data is what is priced: account transactions, payroll, fixed assets and extra connectors are add-ons.
Post back to Xero, not only read from it
Joiin describes its accounting connections as read only. Its journals guide states that you cannot add journals directly, and that adjustments are added inside Joiin instead. From an Excel sheet, dataSights posts eleven record types across multiple Xero organisations in one upload. They run from manual journals and invoices through to purchase orders, bank transfers and tracking categories. Through an AI assistant it posts manual journals, invoices and bills, contacts and chart of accounts changes, and attaches documents to records already in Xero.
The database is yours, not only the reports
Joiin publishes a public REST API for moving consolidated data into a warehouse or a BI tool. Its plan matrix lists that API on the Max plan. Every dataSights customer gets a dedicated Azure SQL database, hosted by us or running in your own Microsoft account. Your analysts, your BI tools and your own scripts query it directly, with eliminations and FX already applied.
Power BI against real tables
Joiin's published route into Power BI is its API, which its plan matrix puts on the Max plan. The dataSights database is yours, so Power BI connects by Import for the consolidated views. DirectQuery reaches account transactions, where that data point is enabled. No extract step and no Power Query chain in the middle.
160+ connectors against one native connection
Joiin's help centre states that Stripe is the first of its non-ledger connections, with others reached through its API or Zapier. dataSights runs 160+ connectors into one managed warehouse. Board packs usually stall on the systems that are not the ledger: payroll, inventory, CRM. Some dataSights connectors are priced as add-ons.
Ask in the AI you already use, and act in it
Joiin lists MCP on its Max plan, for running reports and searching transactions from an assistant. dataSights exposes the consolidated layer to Claude, ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot through AI Connect, its MCP connector, included at no extra cost. The same connection posts journals, invoices, contacts and chart of accounts changes back to Xero, under permissions you set.
Who each one is typically used by
Joiin
Founded in the United Kingdom in 2018 and led by its co-founder, with stated focus on businesses and accountants globally. Ten accounting platforms are supported and plans scale by feature across Core, Pro and Max.
Typically used by a group or a practice whose entities sit on a mix of accounting systems. It wants consolidated reporting and report packs, without a data project attached to them.
dataSights
Built for multi-entity finance teams running on Xero, and for the BI and report developers who serve them. Used by 300+ businesses.
Typically used by a group whose reporting problem starts before the report. It is pulling Xero and non-Xero systems together, posting corrections back across every entity, and handing analysts a database they can query directly.
How this page was compiled
Published by dataSights. We make one of the two products compared. This page is written to show where dataSights fits, so read it alongside Joiin's own material rather than instead of it. We have not scored either product or declared a winner. Every statement about Joiin comes from material Joiin publishes itself, not from third-party review sites or our own testing of their product.
Sources, all checked 22 September 2026: Joiin's pricing page and plan matrix, its integrations page, its feature pages, its help centre and its blog. Where Joiin's own pages contradict each other, as they do on which plans carry the Excel Add-In and the API, both statements appear in the notes. Where Joiin does not publish something we mark it "not published" and say so. That is not the same as the product being unable to do it.
If something here is out of date or wrong, tell us and we will correct it. These comparisons are reviewed on a regular cycle and the date is stamped above.
Frequently asked questions
Joiin is a reporting layer on top of your ledgers, sold in three plans. dataSights is a reporting layer plus the data platform underneath it: every customer gets a dedicated Azure SQL database holding consolidated data, which Power BI, Excel, your own analysts and AI assistants can query directly, down to account transactions where that data point is enabled. Joiin publishes a public REST API rather than a customer-owned database, and its plan matrix lists that API on its Max plan.
dataSights does. Joiin describes its accounting platform connections as read-only API connections, and its journals guide states that you cannot add journals directly and that adjustments are added inside Joiin as company adjustments rather than posted to the ledger. dataSights posts eleven record types from an Excel sheet, from manual journals and invoices through to purchase orders, bank transfers and tracking categories, and through an AI assistant posts manual journals, invoices and bills, contacts and chart of accounts changes, plus attachments onto records already in Xero.
Joiin can. Its report pack guide describes scheduling a pack to be emailed weekly or monthly, with send now, edit and cancel options. dataSights does not email reports out. It refreshes your data on a schedule instead, with scheduled intraday syncs available on request at no extra cost on Xero Consolidation and unlimited manual refreshes, and packs are exported to PowerPoint or PDF and shared from there.
Joiin sells three plans. Its matrix puts multi-currency, forecasting, the Excel Add-In and AI agents on Pro, and its API and Zapier access, advanced FX and MCP on Max, though its own Excel Add-In and API pages say those two are available on every plan. dataSights prices two packages, Xero Consolidation by the number of Xero entities and Data Syncing by the number of source systems, with unlimited seats and every feature included in both. Account transactions, payroll, fixed assets and extra connectors are priced as add-ons.
Joiin lists ten accounting platforms: Xero, QuickBooks, Intuit Enterprise Suite, Sage, MYOB, FreeAgent, Puzzle, Pennylane, Zoho Books and Fortnox. dataSights consolidation is Xero-led, and it runs 160+ connectors into the same managed warehouse for payroll, inventory, CRM, e-commerce and other operational systems. If your entities sit on several different ledgers, that is a point in Joiin's favour; if your reporting problem is the systems either side of the ledger, it is not.
Joiin prices by the number of companies you consolidate, and its calculator gives one company on its Core plan at US$28 per month, Pro at US$34 and Max at US$45, with billing available in GBP, USD, EUR, AUD or NZD. dataSights starts at A$80 per month covering one or two Xero entities, with consolidation, multi-currency and AI Connect included, and account transactions, payroll, fixed assets and extra connectors priced as add-ons. The two are quoted in different currencies and on different units, and both change, so check each provider's own pricing page.
