TrustRadius
Vena Solutions provides a financial process automation solution to automate Corporate Performance Management, Regulatory & Compliance, and other finance-related processes.https://media.trustradius.com/product-logos/K0/bg/0ZXHVCE0ZJPA.JPEGVena SolutionsVena: Welcome Excel Wizards2019-03-02T18:04:30.974ZVena Solutions is being used by my company as a business intelligence tool. User representatives from every department participate. In most cases, we only make Vena available to department/site leaders. Although, we have made the tool available to all providers/doctors working for the company. Vena helps us automate the Export Transformation Load (ETL) process associated with aggregating our various source systems into a single cube.,Degrees of Freedom: Vena is extremely malleable. The majority of reporting/input functionality is orchestrated via MS Excel. If one is fairly well-versed with Excel, they will find Vena to be very powerful.
Updates: The Vena team always has new features in the hopper. Furthermore, these features seem to be focused on their points of weakness (e.g., addition of web-based dashboards)
Patrick Gibbs: The integration specialist dedicated to my team, Patrick Gibbs, was extremely helpful. While developing business rules surrounding our ETL process, Patrick was very engaged in the process. At times, I expressed the desire to understand the underlying SQL code and Patrick was happy to walk through things with me. Now, when I want to add new features, I am able to step through the code to better understand what I looking to ask the Vena development team.
Support: The support team is very responsive.
Automation: Vena automates processes that would normally take hours to complete manually. I should note, some of the load processes still take a few hours to complete (due to the size of our data set), but we have stored jobs set to run after-hours.,Web-Based Features: Vena still has room for improvement in proliferating their catalog of web-based features. As I write this, I am slightly worried that there are features available that I am unaware of. More modules like their "Dashboard" module would be helpful. Clicking through tasks -> task forms -> opening MS Excel document is too cumbersome for most busy individuals (doctors, executives, etc.).
Pricing: For the most part, Vena is much less expensive than most "premier" business intelligence tools on the market. That said, I recently struggled a bit with adding user subscriptions. I was unaware that after we added a certain number of licenses and/or after our initial subscription agreement matured, we would be subject to a SIGNIFICANT price hike. The increase in pricing was steep enough that we are looking currently on the hunt for an alternate solution.
Scale: This is probably an unreasonable expectation, but it might be worth including. It would be great if Vena offered to help make sure a project scaled well without charging their consultant fees. In other words, once a data set's size has become an issue (load times exceeding 3-4 hours), it would be nice if they helped to optimize the ETL process. I was able to accomplish much of this by restricting the initial data set, but I am far from an expert.,8,Vena has had a GREAT return on investment thus far. We have built out fantastic board packets, KPI dashboards, ad hoc dashboards, etc. We understand our business better than we ever have before.
Part of why Vena's ROI has been so positive is due to the investment being so low. We have 40 users and have integrated with 4 different softwares. Despite the investment being low for the first 3 years, it appears that we will be facing a rate hike in the near future.
Vena is the FIRST tool that has been successful in teaching our site managers about their department income statement(s). I feel that most of those individuals would agree that this was no easy task (why should it be? These folks are primarily trained to care for patients).,Tableau Online,DocuSign, ADP TotalSource, Kareo Medical Billing, NextGen® Practice Management Solutions, Expensify, Microsoft Dynamics GP, AdvancedPM (formerly ADP AdvancedMD), TeamGantt, KACE Endpoint Systems Management Appliance, Adobe Acrobat DCVerified UserVena is the Batman of budgeting.2019-01-31T18:58:01.978ZWe use Vena across our entire organization for budgeting and forecasting of all financial metrics. Department owners input their budgets, finance reviews inputs and then creates quarterly forecasts based on actuals that roll into Vena. Most recently we have started to use Vena for monthly variance analysis as well as income statement analysis.,Integration with Excel is seamless. I can use the newest formulas and functions as well as macros in my workbooks in my workbook without running into vena limitations. In fact, Vena makes excel better with additional easy to use and very powerful functions.
Very quick and easy to update with daily accounting software updates.
User-friendly process mappings that run the show.,Permissions for power users is underdeveloped. For example, no permission for a power user to act as admin in all groups but their own. - you can’t make someone an admin over certain groups without giving them the rights to change their own permissions.
Vena is always rolling out new functions and views making it difficult to have consistency in some of the tools you use regularly in Vena. It just requires that you read every update summary.
Doesn’t play well with Mac. They are getting better at this but for a long time Vena was inaccessible to Mac users and is really only available on a basic user level for Mac.,9,Allows for for department heads and budget owners to be more active in the budgeting process
Created source of truth for budgeting and forecasting that prevents errors and centralized information,Microsoft Power BI and Tableau Online,Tableau DesktopTravis TingeyFlexibility, Performance, and User Adoption2018-09-28T06:36:00.582ZVena is being used as our annual budgeting, forecasting, consolidation, management reporting and financial analysis tool. Vena is used heavily on a daily basis by the finance team as we perform analysis and drive insights to our business and is the tool the entire business uses to plan on an annual basis and forecast periodically. Vena was implemented to provide a consolidated planning tool where we could eliminate disparate spreadsheets and control the process much easier. In addition, Vena gave us the flexibility in reporting financial results in our business that our ERP system was not well equipped to do. We expanded the use of Vena to consolidations recently given the positive experience we've had with the tool.,Flexibility - Vena is incredibly flexible for a changing business environment. The user interface allows the data model to be adjusted to meet the changing needs of thee business. In addition, the ability to create reports and templates and manipulate data is incredibly easy. It has helped us get to insights through analytics much quicker than we have been able to before.
Performance - Vena's speed reliability is great. We have several data sources and allocations/calculations we preform in the tool that require a lot of data and power and the tool's ability has not disappointed. One of the projects we implemented required data files with data files that were very large and Vena's performance is top notch.
User Acceptance / Adoption - The user interface of native Excel allows for widespread adoption of the tool across a large user base. Because the tool uses a software that nearly everyone in the business world is comfortable with, adopting the tool is easy. By placing a database on top of Excel is nearly invisible to the users of the product, it provides the value of real-time data availability in a comfortable interface.,Vena has met my needs all along the way. I've had several requests for development in the tool that I've submitted through the interface that the product team has taken into account and put on their development path. They have taken customer feedback very seriously and improve every day based on the feedback they receive.,10,I attribute some of the quicker business decisions we've been able to make to the ability of getting data and insights quicker using Vena. Our ability to analyze data has enhanced with the tool.
We've been able to streamline our business planning cycle significantly with the use of Vena. All of our annual planning runs through the tool and we've automated portions of our planning to help with the efficiency of the process. The workflow capability has also helped us hold our users accountable and understand where a process is at any given point in time.,Anaplan, Oracle Hyperion Enterprise Performance Management, Adaptive Insights and SAP BPC (Business Planning and Consolidation)Matthew BlickleyVena is great for budgeting2019-01-25T22:39:38.273ZVena Solutions is used for budgeting at our company. It is primarily used by the accounting department with a little input from some department heads. I wouldn't say it addresses any problems, but it key in creating our budget for the year.,Vena Solutions has completely streamlined our budgeting process. It allows each department to see what was actually spent in a year in their department and plan for the future. I think this is important so each department head can account for what they spend and have a better control on it. I think my favorite part of Vena is just how easy it is to use. The team their was able to design templates perfect for our business and it was simple to update the following year.
The greatest strength of Vena Solutions is their customer service. The program alone is easy to use but if we did run into any issues, we had a response that day to help.,The only issue I've had with Vena is a few glitches in our templates. The problem was when we went to use it the following year, some of the formulas didn't calculate correctly. I'm not sure how it happened but they were quick to help resolve the issues. I think since we've only had it for a little over a year, it will get better in time and with more use of it.,9,Using Vena for our budget has been extremely helpful and provided very accurate numbers for the year for us.,,BizNet SoftwareVerified UserA Simply Amazing Consolidation Tool2018-05-29T17:44:46.700ZWe acquired a couple of companies in different geographies. Each of these companies' finance departments uses different IT systems, however, the common thing among all finance teams is the use of Excel. We chose Vena Solutions for the very reason, familiar Excel look and feel and its compatibility with Excel. Vena easily integrates with Microsoft Excel. All our finance teams across the world like Vena and import their financial statements from different ERP systems into Vena. The corporate will consolidate all these financial statements, do variance analysis using Vena.
We developed some fancy dashboards using Vena too. Finance controllers are assigned tasks in Vena and they are tracked for timely consolidation of financial reports. The audit trail feature in Vena is robust, if any data is changed, Vena will show the name of the person who updated it.,Easy integration with Excel. The tool looks familiar as it looks similar to Excel.
Great customer support from Vena support team.
It has all the advantages of Excel without the limitations of Excel like the audit trail, version control etc.
Audit trail feature helps in identifying the source of updates on the data.
Efficient aggregation and consolidation tool. The volume of data we handle could not be handled by Excel efficiently. Vena solved the problem.,Like any tool, it takes some time to use the advanced features in the tool. It took me some time to master the report building from scratch.
People who know Excel love this product. People who are not familiar with Excel find it difficult.
The user experience can be improved. The tool can be made more intuitive.,9,We are able to meet our deadlines without increasing the headcount. It made our financials controllers and financial analysts more effective.
We did not spend much time on training our users. As the tool is very similar to excel the finance users started using it from day one.
This tool is the best value for money when compared to other products in the market.,,Oracle Accounting Hub Cloud, Oracle Product Hub Cloud, Oracle Project Portfolio Management CloudVerified UserHarness the Power and Flexibility of Excel with a Vena Solutions Database and Workflows!2016-03-17T14:34:02.985ZWe use Vena Solutions for budgeting, forecasting and salary increase planning. Vena Solutions allows us manage our spreadsheet distribution and data collection from all departments across our university. We collect department data for each of these processes and save the data into the Vena Solutions database. Data is automatically consolidated and aggregated per our requirements for use in advanced management reports as well as ad hoc reports.,Vena's strength is allowing the use of all features and functionality in Excel while also providing workflow and approval processes that can be managed on a department by department basis.
Having the database with saved data behind the Excel interface allow for consolidation of data and reporting at multiple organizational levels, along with providing the flexibility needed to build reports exactly as needed for each financial process.
Intuitive and powerful workflow functionality allows us to pre-determine our distribution cycle for spreadsheets including managing the review process, which also captures full auditing. As administrators, we can view the status of each department's work and the point at which each is in the workflow using the easily navigated management tools.
Version and change control of spreadsheets allows us to track changes made to spreadsheets from one year to the next as new requirements surface.
End users who have been accustomed to using Excel for budgeting and other processes required very little training, and we were able to enhance our previous blank Excel templates with pre-filled data for actuals, prior year budgets and personnel budgets. This allows department managers to focus on creating an accurate budget rather than spending time doing data entry and off-system analysis (which they often don't do). Users commented that implementing Vena was the best implementation we've had.
Customer support is great and very responsive! The training consultants are also very knowledgeable in Excel functions and provide ways to enhance templates and reporting by providing a combination of Vena and Excel solutions.
Vena Solutions provides users with extended Excel functionality and flexibility, especially for spreadsheet-driven processes. Vena can store a wide variety of data, allowing us to use Vena for financial processes, reporting, operations planning and human resource planning.,When first learning to use Vena, it may seem that reports can't be created as easily as in other solutions - there's no drag and drop from a selection of fields. However, once the Vena tool is learned, reporting becomes much easier.
The flexibility of Vena may also be a downside for some administrators. A vision for what a template or report should look like and do is needed as building a template or report starts with a blank Excel workbook.
Vena isn't the flashiest budgeting tool available, but we believe the flexible functionality outweighs the looks of other software.,10,Vena Solutions has allowed us to automate and consolidate our budgeting and forecasting processes, thereby reducing manual data entry time, spreadsheet consolidation time and human error, resulting in improved turnaround time and more accurate budgets and reporting data. Budget administrators no longer have to check each worksheet for accuracy of accounts used and can easily see where more budget balancing work is required.
Providing current financial information to users within the budgeting template has helped users create more accurate budgets.
Our previous approval process required passing around of paper Excel documents for signature. This can all be done within Vena now, so paper movement is no longer required. Managers can also request department users to resubmit budgets as necessary through the approval process.
We estimate the ROI for Vena became positive between year 2 and 3. The savings is mainly due to lower labor costs as we had not invested in any budgeting solution prior to using Vena.,Adaptive Suite, Xlerant, Alight Planning and IBM Cognos,IBM Cognos,275,3,Annual Budgeting - We have a two step process that uses assumptions to create tuition, fees, enrollment and other revenue budgets, as well as apply inflation increases to expense lines. The second phase uses the first phase to allocate portions of the first phase to departments and serves as a target budget for each department.
Annual forecasting - We require departments to estimate fiscal year end revenue and expense amounts based on actuals and budgets through a portion of the fiscal year.
Salary Increase Planning - Managers allocate salary increases (based on an allocated amount) to personnel within the departments using percentage changes, flat changes or hourly dollar amounts.,We did not expect to be able to use data collected from one process for a different process, but with the flexibility of the Excel templates and Vena solution, we have been able to do so. Previously, we had to reconstruct data from one process for use in another. For example, we use the salary increase planning data collected in the Fall in our annual budgeting process for the following year budget.
Being able to create very customized reports that don't aggregate data on the same level - we can include data at the revenue or expense account level and also at the department level in the same report to meet our internal reporting requirements.,We would like to use Vena for our annual audited financial statements so that we won't have to manually update stand alone spreadsheets, statements and footnotes when our actuals are updated during the financial statement preparation time period.
We would like to use Vena to collect interdepartmental billing data on a monthly basis, which would be able to validate data in ways that isn't possible with standalone spreadsheets.,10,Implemented in-house,Yes,Change management was a small part of the implementation and was well-handled,When interviewing users of other solutions during reference calls, we found that none of the users were able to make any updates to their solutions - they all had to go back to the software company for any changes. This also did not allow them to use the solution for other processes without the software company being involved in the solution. Vena was able to train our main Vena administrator during the implementation (administrator built the templates with guidance from the Vena consultant) and has since been able to roll out new templates, reports and new processes with minimal help from Vena.
The main Vena administrator was able to train other administrators in template and report building via 1 hour training sessions over about an 8 week time period. Other training has been done on an ad hoc basis as necessary.
Sometimes it was hard to communicate over webex what our requirements were so the consultant would know how to guide us in template building, but this was not a significant problem especially considering the very large and complicated standalone workbook we had been using.,10,9,Yes,Our data, data model and reports were inadvertently deleted by our IT department. Vena provided excellent support in trying to help us recover the data and were available as needed to help with the restoration. Early in our use of Vena, we encountered a bug that disconnected some of the data details from the main data elements, and the Vena consultant worked over the weekend to restore the links in the data and fixed the bug as well. We were very appreciative and do not receive that kind of service from most software providers. We haven't encountered any major problems with the Vena solution in the last couple of years, but I would expect excellent customer service if we do in the future.Lori LambertVena Solutions in Animation Accounting2017-01-16T21:44:37.614ZWe utilize Vena for both budgeting/tracking production expenses and managing our monthly financials. Consolidation of several dozen companies is a daunting task (one that we previously attempted only on an annual basis) but Vena enables us to carry out on a timely basis each month. This in turn gets more reliable data to senior management within a short enough time frame that it remains relevant to the current situation of the company.
We also use it to track employee costs in our technical and corporate departments, and currently have a long list of additional endeavors we want to use it to expand into for projections and project capacity management.,Monthly financials - Vena accurately ingests numeric totals which you can arrange through templates to quickly process financials in a consistent and timely manner. Through use of scenarios, we can use the same template and data to close out a period or calculate our tax return for the year.
Budgeting - The ability to calculate reams of data and move it between templates is hugely beneficial. We can version up, adjust a few line items in a template and then flow those changes back to production within minutes. This helps avoid different versions on separate machines or an employee leaving a file open and locking it for everyone else.
Cost reporting - By segmenting division costs in a periodic basis, we can give our managers a living snapshot of a production, allowing them to see the biweekly costs of each employee and budgeted line item.,Loading speed - the cloud may be the future, but our #1 user complaint is the time it takes to refresh and get to work.
Learning curve - a specialist is certainly recommended to setup and administer Vena, and my colleagues run all requests for changes through me rather than have the confidence and ease to dive it and fix things personally.
Tethered by plugin - many users find it cumbersome to use both a web login and configure an excel add-in just to access a report.,10,Faster financial reporting - Previously, consolidated reporting took place only annually or quarterly, with a significant time requirement. Now we perform a monthly consolidation within a few weeks of each month end.
Cost efficient cost reports - We do a biweekly cost report on each production which previously took someone a full day to perform and is now largely done automatically, freeing up time for our staff to do other work.,SAP Business One, Sage 50 AccountingGeorge TaylorVena Solutions Review2017-01-03T16:12:11.073ZOur organization uses Vena solutions for the following:
1) Monthly account reconciliations across all our subsidiaries and assets
2) Consolidation, statement of cash flows and other adhoc reporting requirements.
3) Reporting on standalone financial statements for all our entities,Dashboard provides a good summary of report status as well as prompting reviewers when individual reports are ready
User-friendly as it integrates Excel in providing database solutions.
Workflow tool is extremely helpful, identifying key points in a particular report process,Data loading and refreshing - Ultimately Vena was implemented to create capacity for team members performing monthly reconciliations. While the preparation time has gone down with the implementation of Vena, it has been below expectations.
Template building - Designing and building a template is time consuming and furthermore advanced reporting requirements will require consultant help.
Data issues - there have been months where we have encountered data issues whereby Vena would not pull data from our data warehouse correctly.,7Devendra Kalwani, CPA, CAGreat product and excellent customer service.2016-11-30T22:53:58.956ZWe use Vena for budget and forecasting. Vena helps us manage our spreadsheet distribution and data collection. It takes our data and puts it into a database that automatically consolidates and aggregates our data, where we could build advanced management reports as well as easily create ad hoc reports.,Vena’s strengths are its power in consolidation and aggregation of data. Vena provides instant visibility into data from multiple business dimension levels.
Intuitive and powerful workflow allows us to pre-determine our distribution cycle for spreadsheets including managing the review process, which also captures full auditing.
Version and change control of spreadsheets help us feel like we know where all of our spreadsheets are at all times.,We have a significant amount of data in our database. In order to increase speed in some of our Excel templates we had to sacrifice a few of our initial requirements.
Reaching out to customers to share new features.,10,Positive impact is felt in reducing manual distribution and collection of Excel spreadsheets, as well as manual aggregation of data. Human time and effort was reduced significantly thereby reducing human error and which ultimately results in more accurate reporting data.,Host Analytics Cloud EPM Suite and Axiom EPM,Microsoft Access, Microsoft Exchange, Oracle JD Edwards WorldJeff DeaneGreat cloud based software2016-09-15T14:45:22.339ZIt is being used by our accounting and finance departments to manage our entire monthly and quarterly closing process. All our closing schedules are included in Vena Solutions and are submitted and reviewed. It helps us with our SOX controls by showing proof that the schedules have been reviewed.,Vena allows you to pull in general ledger data into Excel. This has allowed us to automate many of our spreadsheets and speed up the closing process.
The version control is another great feature. It allows you to see what has changed since the last time a spreadsheet was saved.
The process audit is great feature. It is used as a SOX control to prove that schedules have been reviewed by the appropriate individual.,The speed could be improved. Since we have so many schedules in the workflow it can run slowly at times.,9,It has helped us decrease the amount of time that it takes to prepare closing schedules.
It has also helped us manage our closing process.,,MRI Residential ManagementMichelle Canada, CPAGreat Product and Amazing Customer Service!!2016-03-23T17:36:04.716ZVena Solutions is being used agency wide as our primary budgeting tool. Utilizing Vena we have replaced a 24 spreadsheet inter-linked internally developed budget tool. Previously we were unable to allow many users to update our spreadsheets because of the danger of breaking the links but with Vena we are able to include multiple managers in the budget process and allow them to work directly with their people to develop a budget that more accurately reflects reality. To be honest we completed our first budget in Vena this past August. Due to unanticipated funding changes we were notified of in September we had to completely rework the budget in less than a month and were able to do so. Vena allows us to shorten our budget process significantly and produce more dependable and accurate results. We are required to submit budgets with the many funding requests we prepare...mainly to government agencies. Vena will allow us to more easily create these budgets based on our overall agency budget. By using scenarios we can use existing budget data to produce these new and updated funding budgets.,Maintains integrity of front end spreadsheets because inter-linking the various templates is done outside of Excel.
Allows us to import data directly from our accounting and payroll system to populate templates.
Provides flexibility through multiple scenarios ....allowing several versions of a budget to exist concurrently.
Template control allows us to engage multiple managers in the process, each working on their own program template without impacting the work of other managers.,Sometimes developers do not get a clear idea of what is needed before attempting to design a solution.
Because the system design allows for such flexibility it can be difficult for support to fully understand what my issue is. No two budgets are designed exactly alike so it is understandable that troubleshooting can be a challenge. Having said that...I have never encountered a more supportive and helpful support staff.
In my opinion the process of rolling forward budget versions and scenarios is not intuitive and seems cumbersome.,10,We are experiencing decreased time spent in our annual budget process. Since we have only completed our first budget (although done twice) we have not established a track record but the process has been smoother and quicker.
Less manual entry means fewer mistakes.
The same base data is used for multiple budgets and scenarios allowing us to be more consistent across the board. We can create more accurate projections. We are also able to do respond more quickly when needing to look at a various scenarios when experiencing funding changes...both positive and negative.,Prophix,Abila MIP Fund Accounting,16,2Jay ScheumackA fantastic and cost-effective way to fill in the gaps left by some other large software packages!2016-03-15T21:29:45.570ZAlthough we are aware of Vena Solutions' capability to support forecasting and budgeting processes (and are looking into that, too), we use the software primarily as month-end close and consolidation tool, as well as for process flow and access control. This software has substituted a series of stand-alone and disjointed Excel files and currently allows us to streamline month-end financial close activities; have "one source of truth" with no risks of corrupt links between files or multiple inconsistent versions. Implementing Vena Solutions software has allowed us to shorten month-end close activities by about 50% - we use it extensively to easily produce comparative financial statements, different management reports, dashboards and even automated sub-ledger reconciliations. It does not substitute, but perfectly complements our core ERP system (primary book of record) and fills in the gaps related to subsequent reporting and analysis in a very cost-effective manner. The ease of use and seamless transition from Excel allows for an in-house template and process development subsequent to initial implementation.,Segregation of data from templates (where Excel files serve as a front-end for accessing data saved into a separate database) allows us to implement proper segregation of duties and reuse the same set of data and the same data model in different templates that may refer to the same numbers. Retaining the familiar Excel interface, Vena Solutions software does not impair, but enhances common Excel functionalities to incorporate additional layers of control, traceability and workflow control. We were even able to incorporate Excel VBA/macros that work in synergy with core Vena Solutions functions to take template automation to the next level.
Audit Trail is an excellent feature that allows us to compare current and all prior versions of the same templates and highlight changes at the click of a button - in a dynamic environment, where things change and get revised often, this is an immensely useful function to properly keep track of such changes - especially in complex multi-worksheet models with a large number of variables to track.
Equally useful is the drag-and-drop WYSIWYG process designer that we use to quickly set up new tasks and activities, branch existing ones and incorporate review activities directly into the process flow, to be controlled automatically behind the scenes. This allows us to always keep track of current status of all activities within the process, make sure that only approved changes go through into the final version of all reports and even provide a good platform to transfer knowledge about a specific task/activity to any new members of the team (given that you can incorporate additional comments and extra attachments - such as process narratives - directly into tasks).
We like the flexibility behind the data model. The ability to define your own dimensions (and add future dimensions to the data model as you go along) allows you to adapt the software to your needs, regardless of whether you are looking to use it for working with financial or non-financial measures, or whether you want to work with actual, budgeted or any other information. The hierarchical organization of the data model (which consolidates children items into parent items automatically) allows us to maintain the familiar Financial Statement (and other) roll-ups directly within Vena - all this is an added bonus in making sure all numbers integrate and tie properly.,Option to indicate to a manager when a template is open by contributor (or block save for a manager, if a contributor has it open). Currently, simultaneous access by two contributors is restricted, because until the file is checked in by one, edits by the other will not be possible. However, a manager can open the template that is already open by a contributor and modify it at the same time. This may lead to save conflicts and unwanted changes. It would be nice to have some sort of an indication for a manager that the template is being used by a contributor (and vice versa, too – that way a contributor would know to contact the manager if he/she is opening the template that is currently open in the manager’s view)
Option to add/remove users to processes that are currently active, to grant on-the-fly permission to view current tasks – i.e., it would be nice to modify access irrespective of the process status. My understanding is that this option has already been implemented in later Cloud versions (our company is currently using OnSite version).
When tracing mapped data – ability to focus on the source cell, as opposed to just highlighting it (currently the cell is being highlighted, but it can be in any of the worksheets in the source file and needs to be manually located).,10,We shortened the month-end close time by about 50%.
We were able to incorporate more processes than what we originally started with, which, in addition to time savings, ensured error-free reporting and seamless integration of various sub-processes (in the end - resulting in higher-quality deliverables).
The ability to maintain and analyze the Audit Trail significantly shortened the analysis of changes and error-checking.Teymur Mammadov, CPA, CA, FCCA (UK)Work Life Easier2016-03-21T14:51:05.921ZVena Solutions helps us manage our business. We use Vena for our department budget and monthly outlooks. Vena Solutions is an effective tool which manages the workflow process, updates, collection and storage of changing data. Vena Solutions gives us the advantages of database storage (including easy aggregation) while utilizing the analytical and data visualization power of Excel. Our time turn around for gathering data request from upper management and other departments has improved greatly with the use of Vena.,The workflow process simplifies our review and approval process. It also allows one to see immediately at what point the process is and if there is a particular task that is holding up the completion of the process.
Visualizations by graphs, charts, tables are easy to set up and maintain while easily keeping the integrity of the data. In addition, using ETL functionality, we can layer on more daily data for the last decade for historical series in graphs.
We can easily have an aggregation view or a drill down view which allows for robust reporting.
The process is easy to maintain including version control and dynamic updates. Once set up it is not labor intensive.,While the customer support is excellent, the only way to contact support is via email or text messages. I would prefer to have a direct line where someone is immediately available. (Unfortunately, the truth is that immediately reaching a support person is become less and less the norm.)
It would be helpful if there were hyperlinks to the documentation while in Vena.
Another nice feature would be to have more robust functionality with due dates and email notices.,10,There has been a positive impact in our time management of the monthly process of updating our monthly expectations.
The understanding of the variances from budget expectations and/or last month’s expectations is now a relatively easy exercise, saving us time and thus saving us money.,Mapping is very easy and not complicated.
Setting up the workflow process is very logical.,Setting up a Form Variable is not intuitive.,No,10Megan Bladen-BlinkoffIf you can think it in Excel - Vena can make it happen!2015-11-20T17:46:10.029ZWe currently use Vena Solutions for our budgeting process for 270 restaurants spread across 4 legal entities. We will begin rolling out reporting processes to executive and other end users soon, but are currently only using them inside our department.,Vena Solutions is super flexible - if you can think it in Excel, you can make it happen in Vena.
Having an online process and file management system is excellent for keeping everything together and organized. We have cut down the amount of emails back and forth tremendously.
User acceptance has been extremely high as people are working in a tool they are familiar with.
Support is very responsive and the company seems to truly care about the customer experience.,As great as the tool is, there is very little "out-of-the-box" functionality - you and your consultant will have to build everything from scratch (We took an assisted implementation approach, so we did much more of the set up than some companies do from my understanding). The process is quick and helps you understand the product, but it takes a some thinking.
The company is relatively small and a relatively new player in the market, so the user community and support forums are not very useful.
The developers are constantly updating the product, but the company doesn't do a great job of communicating new features to the users.
I would really like to see some more built in calculation features (spread methods and such) without having to build long excel formulas.,10,We're still within the first round of budgeting with Vena Solutions, but so far it has increased efficiency by quite a bit just in not having two points of data calculation as we did with our previous software.
When reporting is fully rolled out, it will be fantastic to have budgeting and reporting all in the same system. Just haven't had time to get there yet! We wanted to get comfortable with the tool in a contained budgeting process before rolling it out to reporting users.,Adaptive Suite, IBM Cognos TM1, Host Analytics Cloud EPM Suite and Prophix,Microsoft Dynamics GPCarrie Self, CPAFriendly, Intelligent, and Prompt customer service2016-03-10T18:52:15.876ZWe use Vena Solutions as our tool for quarterly global financial data collection from our regional hubs. It coordinates the orderly collection and review of data from our hundreds of subsidiaries in order to prepare consolidated reports which enable us to file our SEC reports in a timely and organized manner.,The ability to view the consolidated status of a large amount of data collected at a moments notice.
Ability to enforce a workflow, ensuring documentation of review.
A centralized consolidated database for all of our disaggregated and consolidated data submissions.,We are awaiting our implementation of Vena Solutions' latest version of its software solution which addresses our primary functionality of 'requests' and 'wants'.,10,Positive impact is felt in reducing time spent on manual distribution and collection of Excel spreadsheets, as well as manual aggregation of data. Human time and effort was reduced significantly thereby reducing human error and which ultimately results in more accurate reporting data.,David Robbins, CPAVena - Best Bang for your buck. You get a Ferrari for the price of a Honda!2016-02-12T18:52:07.794ZWe are currently using Vena to Budget, Forecast, and Report. Vena is being used across our organization Domestically, with plans to roll it out to our international team during Q1 of 2016.
Vena has been helped us create a single source of truth and achieve rapid adoption due to the nature of it being a technology stack that sits on top of Excel, a platform that everyone in our organization is familiar with and comfortable using.
The ability to both send and retrieve information through report and input templates has really help streamline and automate many of our core FP&A processes.,The ability to to audit changes is a huge help when analyzing multiple iterations of budget submissions. They have built in a really robust audit tool compared to many of the other vendors out there.
The workflow and security is absolutely critical. Having the ability to create one template to leverage across 35 different profit centers based on role based security/access is amazing. The last thing you want to do is maintain 35 different templates to ensure people only get access to the data that is applicable to them. Vena solved this with role based security.
Instant Aggregation. It is very useful to be able to run reports with instant aggregation to see how things are shaping up during a budget or forecast cycle.,I believe it has all the necessities, but of course there are always going to be items on the wishlist. One of the items I recently submitted as a enhancement request is the ability to perform dynamic expansion with nested rows and nested columns.
I would also like to see the ability to created automated report blocks.
The cascade feature is great for blowing out a report that leverages the same format for has multiple views (i.e. different Business Units or Profit Centers). However, I wish you could cascade on multiple tabs at once instead of one at a time.,10,Timeliness. We have recognized a huge savings in the amount of time it takes to close our books and deliver monthly financial reports. Some reports are a whole week sooner, while others are being delivered 2-3 weeks faster prior to Vena.
Vena has helped us remove the bottle neck from accessing data from our ERP system.
Increased productivity from our operations folks during the budget process.,BPC,Deltek Vision, CosentialDominic Di BernardoVena Solutions2016-12-22T16:36:03.473ZWe use Vena for budget, forecasting and long-range planning. Vena helps us manage our spreadsheet distribution and data collection. It takes our data and puts it into a database that automatically consolidates and aggregates our data. We also use Vena to track personnel costs and for forecast timing of new hires.,Vena’s strengths are its power in consolidation and aggregation of data. Vena provides instant visibility into data from multiple business dimension levels.
The workflow functionality allows us to easily manage the ownership and distribution of the spreadsheets supporting our process. The tool is intuitive and the GUI is great.
Version and change control of spreadsheets.,The tool lacks a true personnel module. We needed to build and rely on complex spreadsheets to capture all calculations and run scripts to cost out our actions. It was time-consuming to build, lacks predictable accuracy and is less flexible than I would have preferred.
Vena needs a more mature implementation process and approach. A more formal process and more project management support would be beneficial.
The solution build relies too heavily on future consultant involvement to make changes or leverage functionality.,6,None,ProphixVerified UserThe Vena Queen tells all!2016-03-03T19:13:45.533ZVena is being used to aggregate data from business lines to be used in reporting to regulators. It is being managed by the reporting department with end users across the company. It systematically aggregates data previously manually aggregated and provides a vehicle for analysis as well as workflow, approval tracking, audit trails and controls.,As it uses Excel, it is easy for end users and allows you to use all the functionality Excel has to offer - but makes it better.
It provides controls and auditability of data collection.
With Vena, users stay in Excel when creating templates and reports. This means that all the flexibility that our employees relied on Excel for in the past is available through Vena, with the added benefit of version control, configurable security settings, and audit trails to enhance accountability.,We specifically use the onsite version of Vena and most, if not all of our challenges have been corrected in the VenaCloud.
Due to the size of our organization, significant time is spent on workflow maintenance as team members move departments.,10,With Vena, we have significantly streamlined our collaborative report review and submission process. This enables us to spend more time on other projects and initiatives.,SharePoint,680,4,SEC Reporting
Regulatory Reporting
Other ReportingVerified UserUsing Vena to gather data for FR-14A and create .xml for regulators2016-09-29T21:07:52.654ZVena is used to gather the data for the FR-14A submission to the Fed. Vena collects the data from the various groups that model the data and creates the xml file for submission to the regulator. I have used Vena in this capacity at two CCAR banks.,Vena is excellent at tracking the inputs into the 14A. Vena allows for flexible workstreams to track submissions and approvals. It is very easy to see the status of each input and it is very easy to adjust the process as needed.
Vena was developed to be a solution for use within finance with minimal IT support required. A finance analyst can create workflows, add or remove approvers, update data architecture, and roll forward quarterly processes. No IT tickets!
Vena integrates seamlessly with Excel. The integration and setup is a lot of work at first but once it is done maintenance is easy.,Vena is offered (last I heard) as a stand alone product running on a local server or as a cloud based solution. I've used both and the cloud based version is much better! IT Security doesn't like cloud storage of company data however. It would be nice if the locally installed version had the same updates and features as the cloud version.
Updates to the cloud based solution are sometimes a surprise. We never had an issue with an update causing a problem but we were always nervous that the day before our submission was due there would be an update with unintended consequences. I wish Vena had a more formal update process, including the ability of customers to beta test before the update.,10,Vena provided a quick and affordable solution to gather inputs and generate the xml required for the FR-14A. Other solutions required much longer lead times to implement, much more IT support, and were much less flexible.Verified UserFantastic cost effective product that delivers.2016-04-11T19:44:17.557ZWe use Vena Solutions for budgeting, forecasting and reporting of our G&A across our corporate departments.Vena is currently helping us create a one stop shop of all things related to G&A. We envision Vena being used as the primary tool helping users better analyze their G&A, and assisting in consolidation and aggregation for our reporting purposes. Additionally, with Vena it is incredibly easy to create both detailed deep dive reports and high level summary reports. The best of both worlds.,Vena’s strengths are its power in consolidation and aggregation of data. Vena provides instant visibility into data from multiple business dimension levels.
Allowing both in depth and high level summary ad-hoc reports to be built easily.
Intuitive and powerful workflow allows us to pre-determine our distribution cycle for spreadsheets including managing the review process, which also captures full auditing.
Quick and responsive customer service when issues arise.,No available prebuilt templates when building a new report, as each new report/template begins as an empty Excel sheet. Vena does offer an assisted approach where a consultant will work with you to build what you need.,10,Positive impact is felt in reducing manual distribution and collection of Excel spreadsheets, as well as manual aggregation of data.
Human time and effort was reduced significantly thereby reducing human error and which ultimately results in more accurate reporting data.Verified UserVena Solutions - A Solution to our Company's Budgeting and Reporting Problems!2015-11-20T17:27:07.689ZVena Solutions is being used by our company to help with our annual budgeting process and also our monthly financial reports. The product is primarily used by our finance team, but we publish financial reports that are used by our managers company-wide. Our current ERP is not very functional and we were manually inputting data into Excel spreadsheets for reporting. Additionally, our annual budgeting process was very complex as we own multiple entities and trying to consolidate all the budgets was very tedious and time-consuming.,Vena Solutions is able to connect directly to our ERP giving us nearly unlimited potential for customized reports. It has given us a level of functionality we didn't know was possible. We have the ability to manipulate data and reports like we never have before!
Prior to using Vena Solutions we spent an entire day each month converting spreadsheets to PDFs and emailing them out to each of our 40 managers. With Vena Solutions this process is completely eliminated. The specific department that each manager needs to view is available for them to view when they log into their Vena Solutions account. No more converting PDFs and sending emails! Additionally, the drill down feature is amazing. Our managers can look at their reports and drill down on a number on their P&L. This will automatically pull a report of what items were allocated to that particular account. If managers had questions prior to Vena Solutions I would have to look up the information manually in our ERP and get back with them. Now the managers can do it themselves!
Our annual budgeting process has improved drastically. We are able to provide input templates to our managers for them to enter expense and sales projection data. The information is then sent to the CFO for review and then on to our profit budget.,We have only been working with Vena Solutions for a few months but we are very impressed with their customer service and have no complaints or suggestions at this time!,10,Vena Solutions has definitely increased employee efficiency. Spreadsheets that we were spending days preparing and reformatting are now updated within a matter of seconds.
Vena Solutions has also provided more data integrity. We were doing a lot of manual data entry and copy and pasting from Excel. Since moving to Vena Solutions this is not necessary, hence our data integrity is much higher.,Verified User
Unspecified
Vena Solutions
24 Ratings
<a href='https://www.trustradius.com/static/about-trustradius-scoring' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>trScore algorithm: Learn more.</a>
