Joiin vs LiveFlow

A reporting app versus live data in your spreadsheets.

By the ConsoHQ editorial team. Updated 4 November 2026.

The short version

• Accountant producing group packs for clients: Joiin.
• In-house team without a spreadsheet specialist: Joiin.
• Fractional CFO or FP&A analyst who models everything in Google Sheets: LiveFlow.
• Bespoke investor reporting no packaged tool can produce: LiveFlow, or Joiin's Excel Add-In feeding your own model.
• Group with companies on Sage or MYOB: Joiin.

App versus spreadsheet: the real trade-off

This comparison is really about where your consolidation logic lives.

With LiveFlow, the logic lives in your spreadsheet. You decide how accounts map, how eliminations work and how currencies translate. That's maximum flexibility, and it means you own the maintenance. When someone adds a new account in QuickBooks, your mapping has to catch it. When an intercompany balance changes, your elimination row has to pick it up.

With Joiin, the logic lives in the app. You set up mappings and eliminations once, and the software applies them every month. A new, unmapped account shows up as something to deal with rather than vanishing from a SUMIF. You trade some flexibility for less upkeep and less risk.

Spreadsheets aren't bad. Plenty of excellent finance teams run on them. But a consolidation spreadsheet tends to be fragile in exactly the places that matter: mapping, eliminations and currency. Our LiveFlow review includes a checklist for building one safely.

Consolidation compared

Joiin handles mapping into a group layout, eliminations between specific companies or at group level, ownership percentages, nested groups, mixed ledgers and, on Pro, multi-currency translation. LiveFlow brings the data into your sheet and lists multi-entity consolidation among its features, but the rules are yours. Ask LiveFlow whether consolidation is included in your quote, as third-party reviews suggest it may be priced separately.

Pricing and buying

Joiin publishes its prices: from $23 a month for one company on annual billing, $57 for five and $139 for twenty, with unlimited users and a self-serve 14-day trial. LiveFlow requires a demo and quote, usually on an annual contract, with third-party estimates ranging widely depending on entities, users and implementation. If you need to get budget approval quickly, a published price helps.

The middle path: Joiin's Excel Add-In

If you like spreadsheets but don't want to maintain consolidation formulas, Joiin's Pro plan includes an Excel Add-In. The consolidation happens in Joiin, and the consolidated figures flow into your own Excel models for scenarios, investor views or charts. On Max, the API and Zapier push data into BI tools and data warehouses.

Three real-world scenarios

How to run a fair side-by-side trial

Both tools offer free trials, so the fairest way to decide is to give each the same job. Pick a month you've already closed and reported, so you know what the right answer looks like. Then, in each tool:

• Connect every company in the group, including dormant or newly acquired ones
• Map the accounts and check the group trial balance equals the sum of the company trial balances
• Set up intercompany eliminations and check they net to zero
• Translate any foreign subsidiaries and compare with your existing workings
• Rebuild the board or client pack you sent last month
• Time how long each step takes, and note anything you had to work around
• Invite the person who reads the reports and ask which version they'd rather receive

Do this within the same fortnight so you're comparing like with like. The tool that gets you to the right numbers fastest, with the fewest workarounds, is usually the right answer. Price matters, but an hour saved every month is worth more than a small difference in subscription.

What a year really costs

Subscription price is only part of the cost. Over a year, the bigger numbers are usually setup time and the hours spent each month producing reports. Here's a simple way to compare, using a five-company group as an example.

The practical lesson: choose the tool that removes the most manual work for your situation, then check the price is sensible. Don't choose on price alone and then rebuild half the process in Excel.

Integrations in practice

LiveFlow centres on QuickBooks Online and Xero, feeding Google Sheets and Excel. Joiin connects to those two plus Sage, MYOB, FreeAgent, Zoho Books, Pennylane, Puzzle, Fortnox, Stripe and spreadsheet uploads, and exports to Excel and PDF. On higher plans it adds an Excel Add-In, an API and Zapier for BI tools. If your group is entirely on QuickBooks or Xero and your team works in spreadsheets, LiveFlow's focus is a fit. Otherwise Joiin's breadth matters.

Who maintains it when people change?

This is the question that should decide most comparisons between an app and a spreadsheet. Finance teams change. The analyst who built a beautiful LiveFlow model leaves; the fractional CFO's contract ends; a new bookkeeper inherits month-end. With a spreadsheet, the knowledge of how the consolidation works goes with the builder unless it's carefully documented. With an app, the rules are visible in the software and any trained user can run month-end. If continuity matters, and it usually does, factor it in.

Accuracy controls

Whichever you choose, insist on a few controls: the group trial balance must equal the sum of the company trial balances plus eliminations, eliminations must net to zero, and there must be no unmapped balances. In Joiin these checks are part of how the app works. In a spreadsheet you build them yourself, and our LiveFlow review includes a checklist.

Reporting outputs compared

The pattern is consistent: Joiin gives you finished outputs, and LiveFlow gives you raw material. Decide which your team needs.

Security and access control

Financial data deserves care whichever tool you choose. Joiin says its connections to your ledgers are read-only, and it uses encryption, multi-factor authentication and secure cloud hosting, with user management to control who sees which reports. When you evaluate LiveFlow, ask the same questions: Is access to your ledger read-only? Is multi-factor authentication available and enforceable? Can you restrict a subsidiary manager to their own company's reports? Where is data hosted, and what happens to it if you cancel? If you'll use AI features, ask how your data is processed and whether it's used for model training; Joiin says its AI runs inside its own AWS environment and your data isn't used to train external models.

When a spreadsheet really is the right answer

We don't want to oversell apps. A spreadsheet consolidation fed by live data is the better choice when your reporting is genuinely bespoke: investor views that change every quarter, allocations no packaged tool supports, or models that blend accounting data with product, sales or operational data in unusual ways. It's also reasonable when the group is small, stable and maintained by one experienced person who documents their work. In those cases LiveFlow removes the worst part of spreadsheet consolidation, the monthly exports, and leaves you the flexibility you need. Just build in the checks.

Our verdict

LiveFlow is a strong choice for spreadsheet specialists who want full control. Joiin is the better choice for most accountants and in-house teams who want accurate group reports without maintaining formulas, and its Excel Add-In keeps spreadsheet users happy too.

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Full reviews: Joiin review and LiveFlow review.

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