Overview
What is Vena?
Vena Solutions provides a financial process automation solution to automate Corporate Performance Management, accounting and budgeting, Regulatory & Compliance, and other finance-related processes. It is scaled for medium to large-sized organizations.
Easy to use....
Nimble but Robust Software
Vena Review
Vena - Great, versatile and effective FP&A solution
Great FP&A tool
Happy Vena User.
Vena for Finance and beyond!
Perspective of seasoned Vena adminitrator
Vena! Great for centralizing data and easy-to-use for end users
1. we use for budgeting and forecast twice a year of operating and capital expenses and workforce. I …
Vena Review
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Vote Vena for non profits!
Vena - A Timely, User Friendly Budgeting Solution
Vena has been helpful with our financial reports and budget process
How Vena Differs From Its Competitors
Full-Cycle Support
Full-Cycle Support
Finance-Informed Decisions
Full-Cycle Support
Finance-Informed Decisions
Full-Cycle Support
Finance-Informed Decisions
Full-Cycle Support
Finance-Informed Decisions
Finance-Informed Decisions
Full-Cycle Support
Finance-Informed Decisions
Finance-Informed Decisions
Full-Cycle Support
Finance-Informed Decisions
Full-Cycle Support
Finance-Informed Decisions
Full-Cycle Support
Finance-Informed Decisions
Full-Cycle Support
Finance-Informed Decisions
Full-Cycle Support
Finance-Informed Decisions
Full-Cycle Support
Finance-Informed Decisions
Full-Cycle Support
Finance-Informed Decisions
Full-Cycle Support
Full-Cycle Support
Finance-Informed Decisions
Full-Cycle Support
Finance-Informed Decisions
Full-Cycle Support
Finance-Informed Decisions
The integration with long-term demand/attendance …
Full-Cycle Support
Full-Cycle Support
Finance-Informed Decisions
Full-Cycle Support
Finance-Informed Decisions
Full-Cycle Support
Finance-Informed Decisions
Finance-Informed Decisions
Full-Cycle Support
Finance-Informed Decisions
Awards
Products that are considered exceptional by their customers based on a variety of criteria win TrustRadius awards. Learn more about the types of TrustRadius awards to make the best purchase decision. More about TrustRadius Awards
Popular Features
- Excel-based Reporting (194)9.393%
- Financial budgeting (202)9.292%
- Management reporting (199)8.888%
- Forecasting (193)8.686%
Reviewer Pros & Cons
Video Reviews
1 video
Pricing
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Complete
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Entry-level set up fee?
- Setup fee optionalOptional
Offerings
- Free Trial
- Free/Freemium Version
- Premium Consulting/Integration Services
Features
BI Standard Reporting
Standard reporting means pre-built or canned reports available to users without having to create them.
- 8.6Pixel Perfect reports(48) Ratings
Pixel Perfect reports are highly-formatted reports with graphics and ability to preview the report before printing.
- 8.8Customizable dashboards(75) Ratings
Customizable dashboards are dashboards providing the builder some degree of control over the look and feel and display options.
- 8.7Report Formatting Templates(82) Ratings
Ad-hoc Reporting
Ad-Hoc Reports are reports built by the user to meet highly specific requirements.
- 8.7Drill-down analysis(167) Ratings
Drill down analysis is the ability to get to a further level of detail by going deeper into the hierarchy.
- 8.4Formatting capabilities(166) Ratings
Ability to format output e.g. conditional formatting, lines, headers, footers.
- 6.9Integration with R or other statistical packages(48) Ratings
Integration with the open-source R predictive modeling environment.
- 8.4Report sharing and collaboration(144) Ratings
Report sharing and collaboration is the ability to easily share reports with others.
Report Output and Scheduling
Ability to schedule and manager report output.
- 9.2Publish to Web(62) Ratings
- 9Publish to PDF(91) Ratings
- 9.1Report Versioning(109) Ratings
Report versioning is the assignment of version numbers to each version of a report to help in tracking.
- 8.7Report Delivery Scheduling(98) Ratings
Report Delivery Schedule is the ability to have reports delivered to a destination at a specific data and time.
Data Discovery and Visualization
Data Discovery and Visualization is the analysis of multiple data sources in a search for patterns and outliers and the ability to represent the data visually.
- 8.5Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)(69) Ratings
Pre-built visualization formats are canned visualization types that can be selected to visualize different kinds of data.
- 7.3Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization(53) Ratings
Location analytics is the visualization of geographical or spatial data.
- 8.4Predictive Analytics(59) Ratings
Predictive Analytics is the ability to build forecasting models based on existing data sets.
- 8Pattern Recognition and Data Mining(6) Ratings
Pattern recognition and data mining mean the ability to recognize hidden patterns in large quantities of data.
Access Control and Security
Access control means being able to determine who has access to which data.
- 9Multi-User Support (named login)(157) Ratings
Named model access means that users have access based on name and password.
- 9.2Role-Based Security Model(156) Ratings
Role-based access means that access to data is determined by job or position in the corporation.
- 9.3Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)(159) Ratings
Multiple access permission levels means that different levels of users have different rights.
- 9.2Report-Level Access Control(22) Ratings
Report-level access control means that the type of report determines who has access to it.
- 9.2Single Sign-On (SSO)(116) Ratings
Allows users to use one set of login credentials to access multiple applications
Mobile Capabilities
Support for mobile devices like smartphones and tablets.
- 9.2Responsive Design for Web Access(77) Ratings
Web design aimed at producing easy-to-read sites across a range of different devices.
- 8.9Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile(66) Ratings
In-app dashboard reports and data visualization.
Budgeting, Planning, and Forecasting
These activities are designed to assist with both data-driven operational, short-term planning and strategic long term planning
- 8.7Long-term financial planning(187) Ratings
3-5 year financial plan with cashflow.
- 9.2Financial budgeting(202) Ratings
Annual budget for revenue and operating expenses, headcount/compensation, capital expenses, projects, etc.
- 8.6Forecasting(193) Ratings
Combining actuals and budgets, rolling forecasts, driver-based models.
- 8.1Scenario modeling(172) Ratings
Financial or operational modeling of alternate future states and planning for each.
- 8.8Management reporting(199) Ratings
Budget vs. actual or forecast, P&L’s, performance over time, between products etc.
Consolidation and Close
Consolidation of data from multiple entities with currency management, reporting and audit trails.
- 9.2Financial data consolidation(155) Ratings
Consolidating data from several entities into a single statement using US GAAP, IFRS or other standards.
- 8Journal entries and reports(110) Ratings
Ability to enter journal entry adjustments and produce reports showing all journal entries for a specific period.
- 7.2Multi-currency management(103) Ratings
Ability to handle foreign currency conversions during consolidation.
- 8.2Intercompany Eliminations(102) Ratings
Matching and elimination of intercompany revenue, expenses, and balance sheet accounts.
- 8.6Minority Ownership(66) Ratings
Consolidate financials full or partial ownership of subsidiaries, equity pick-up.
- 8.5Local and consolidated reporting(134) Ratings
Ability to report against individual business entities and the consolidated umbrella entity.
- 8.9Detailed Audit Trails(161) Ratings
Tracing changes to data and processes that were run.
Financial Reporting and Compliance
Financial statements and regulatory filings
- 9Financial Statement Reporting(180) Ratings
Creation and production of balance sheets, income statements, cash flows, other schedules
- 8.7Management Reporting(185) Ratings
Tools facilitating creation of internal ad hoc or standard reports.
- 9.3Excel-based Reporting(194) Ratings
Ad hoc or formatted reports using MS Excel.
- 8.8Automated board and financial reporting(139) Ratings
Tools to help automate creation of regulatory reports such as SEC filings and board books.
- 6.4XBRL support for regulatory filing(45) Ratings
Support for the XBRL standard reporting format for exchanging financial data.
Analytics and Reporting
Dashboards and scorecards for KPI monitoring and benchmarking
- 8.4Personalized dashboards(121) Ratings
Create custom dashboards and reports without the help of IT or administrators.
- 8.9Color-coded scorecards(90) Ratings
Track and analyze performances with interactive, color-coded balanced scorecards.
- 8.9KPIs(105) Ratings
Select from a library of more than 6,000 key performance indicators, and incorporate KPIs into your planning process.
- 7.9Cost and profitability analysis(116) Ratings
Cost and profitability analysis provides data for business decision making.
- 9.1Key Performance Indicator setting(103) Ratings
Ability to set key performance indicators for measuring progress towards goals.
- 8.8Benchmarking with external data(77) Ratings
CPI, daily exchange rates, industry KPIs. with scheduled data refreshes.
Integration
Ability to integrate with external applications.
- 9.4Flat file integration(156) Ratings
Integration of flat files like text documents and comma separated files
- 8.8Excel data integration(180) Ratings
Ability to integrate directly with Excel data.
- 8.9Direct links to 3rd-party data sources(143) Ratings
Integration with external applications like ERP, CRM, HCM
Product Details
- About
- Integrations
- Competitors
- Tech Details
- Downloadables
- FAQs
What is Vena?
Vena is a Native Excel Complete Planning Platform used for budgeting and forecasting, for business leaders and finance and operations professionals.
Vena boasts users among more than 1,350 companies such as Nike, Coca-Cola Consolidated and the Kansas City Chiefs. In addition, Vena works with over 100 Partners.
Vena Features
Budgeting, Planning, and Forecasting Features
- Supported: Long-term financial planning
- Supported: Financial budgeting
- Supported: Forecasting
- Supported: Scenario modeling
- Supported: Management reporting
Consolidation and Close Features
- Supported: Financial data consolidation
- Supported: Journal entries and reports
- Supported: Multi-currency management
- Supported: Intercompany Eliminations
- Supported: Minority Ownership
- Supported: Local and consolidated reporting
- Supported: Detailed Audit Trails
Financial Reporting and Compliance Features
- Supported: Financial Statement Reporting
- Supported: Management Reporting
- Supported: Excel-based Reporting
- Supported: Automated board and financial reporting
- Supported: XBRL support for regulatory filing
Analytics and Reporting Features
- Supported: Personalized dashboards
- Supported: Color-coded scorecards
- Supported: KPIs
- Supported: Cost and profitability analysis
- Supported: Key Performance Indicator setting
- Supported: Benchmarking with external data
Integration Features
- Supported: Flat file integration
- Supported: Excel data integration
- Supported: Direct links to 3rd-party data sources
BI Standard Reporting Features
- Supported: Pixel Perfect reports
- Supported: Customizable dashboards
- Supported: Report Formatting Templates
Ad-hoc Reporting Features
- Supported: Drill-down analysis
- Supported: Formatting capabilities
- Supported: Predictive modeling
- Supported: Integration with R or other statistical packages
- Supported: Report sharing and collaboration
Report Output and Scheduling Features
- Supported: Publish to Web
- Supported: Publish to PDF
- Supported: Report Versioning
- Supported: Report Delivery Scheduling
Data Discovery and Visualization Features
- Supported: Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)
- Supported: Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization
- Supported: Predictive Analytics
- Supported: Support for Machine Learning models
- Supported: Pattern Recognition and Data Mining
- Supported: Integration with R or other statistical packages
Access Control and Security Features
- Supported: Multi-User Support (named login)
- Supported: Role-Based Security Model
- Supported: Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)
- Supported: Report-Level Access Control
- Supported: Table-Level Access Control (BI-layer)
- Supported: Field-Level Access Control (BI-layer)
- Supported: Single Sign-On (SSO)
Mobile Capabilities Features
- Supported: Responsive Design for Web Access
- Supported: Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile
Vena Screenshots
Vena Videos
Vena Integrations
Vena Competitors
Vena Technical Details
Deployment Types | Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based |
---|---|
Operating Systems | Unspecified |
Mobile Application | You don't need to download an app or change a setting to use Vena on your mobile device: just open your browser, go to Vena (vena.io), and log in as you normally do. The Contributor interface is fully responsive, so it can adjust to any size screen, regardless of the type of device you have. |
Supported Countries | United States of America, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, South Africa, Europe |
Supported Languages | Vena supports any localization capabilities already native within Excel. Vena Cloud supports English, Spanish, and French. If a specific language is required please don’t hesitate to ask. |
Vena Downloadables
Frequently Asked Questions
Vena Customer Size Distribution
Consumers | 0% |
---|---|
Small Businesses (1-50 employees) | 19% |
Mid-Size Companies (51-500 employees) | 55% |
Enterprises (more than 500 employees) | 26% |
Comparisons
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Reviews and Ratings
(307)Attribute Ratings
- 8.6Likelihood to Renew18 ratings
- 8.8Availability6 ratings
- 8.5Performance6 ratings
- 9Usability25 ratings
- 10Support Rating95 ratings
- 8.9Online Training3 ratings
- 9In-Person Training3 ratings
- 7.5Implementation Rating4 ratings
- 8.2Configurability3 ratings
- 8.8Product Scalability6 ratings
- 8.9Ease of integration3 ratings
- 8.9Vendor pre-sale3 ratings
- 8.8Vendor post-sale3 ratings
Reviews
(51-75 of 214)Vena is a great tool for your company, it offers many more than what you can expect!
- Great representation of data
- ETL can be done from many different ERPs which is great
- Facilitates data analysis
- Can create many different types of templates (Financial, Labor, Time tracking)
- LIDs I find really confusing because they don't often work on the same way
- Validation rules have issues when you add more than one
- Form block expansion
Automates Excel Reports Seamlessly!
- Seamless integration with Intacct
- Reports are easy to use in Excel
- Automation of reports saves time
- Reports can be difficult to create without extensive training
- Protecting a sheet to eliminate end user errors is important, but it would be nice to still be able to make cosmetic changes easily
- There is sometimes a delay in opening reports and loading new reports
Vena is the Robin to Excel's batman.
- Flows changes and updates to our forecasts seamlessly where we know the numbers are reflected in all of our reports.
- Ability to create ad hoc custom reports.
- Having the ability to pull different scenarios, periods, and years easily to have comparatives for better analysis.
- Integrated well into excel where you don't feel like you're using a completely different tool.
- Inability to collaborate with a teammate in the input templates.
- Not integrated with word documents which would be helpful for our MD&A report.
Vena is a great tool for Budgeting and Forecasting.
- Simplified the budgeting and forecasting process.
- Allows end users to run certain reports as needed.
- Significantly reduced time and errors from manual processes.
- Wish there was an option for multiple people to use a check-in and checkout file like a shared file.
- Speed of report writing is not bad but could always use improvement.
- Wonderful product that really does not need many things to improve on in the way that we currently use it.
It is fine
- Easy reporting
- Drill Down capabilities
- Separating Departments
- The setup - the product needs to be set up properly to gain full functionality
- Hierarchy isn't always conducive to company hierarchies
- It would be nice to be able to drill down into the ERP detail
Vena, ad-hoc for your company.
- Excel functionality for performance management tools.
- Cloud computing.
- Data integration from many sources.
- Some functionalities are limited - minor bugs to improve.
Forecasting made easy with Vena
- Eliminate the need for messy Excel workbooks
- Connecting data with ERP system like Oracle for financial data
- Ability to share with multiple different users
- "Contributor" only access limits information transparency and may not help the contributor understand the entire picture
From a Contributor perspective, my experience so far with Vena has been smooth and easy to understand and pick up without having to go through hours of training.
Pretty cool
- Task list
- listing out tasks and who is doing it
- check in files
- UI is clunky
- Downloading files takes long
- ability to communicate
Quick and short.
- Vena is able coordinate budget users through workflow and setting deadlines.
- Financial reporting is done through excel.
- Vena is able to integrate with our custom software.
- There is a steep learning curve for new users.
- Interface can be more user friendly.
- Need more help to address mapping issues on reports.
Efficient scenario generator.
- Roll ups.
- Capture inputs.
- Easy to see the end product.
- Takes time to extract information.
- More insurance specific metrics.
- Simpler user guide.
In dept review of Vena from daily use.
- Helps in managing demand and connects with Power BI
- Let's us review Forecast and multiple users are able to upload it in the same time.
- Pull reports and prepare strategy for both short term and long term.
- Get automatic notifications for pending task.
- I get frequent errors while check in of the file.
- Vena Tab in MS Excel doesn't provide any information.
Vena Review
- Versatile
- Maps various data sources
- Drag & drop functionaility
Easy to use and maintain, all the stakeholders in the business love it!
- Control of Month-end close
- Drill down of accounts
- Consolidating
- Controls of users and users group
- Allow to flip the sign on balances
- Easier copying and pasting of a whole sheet and the mapping
Vena - Cannot be compared!
- Consolidation
- Integration
- Planning/Budgeting
- Support
- Export features
- Business Intelligence
Good product overall!
- Flexibility
- Adaptability
- Excel Add-In support
- Lacking modeler flexibility
- Mappings time consuming
- Speed of intersections
Vena is a great tool for managers
- Forecasting
- Month to month tracking
- Review and approval
- Comments being saved from one fiscal year to the next
- Flexibility - design the data model, templates, and permissions your organization needs
- Usability - the Vena web portal is clean and easy to navigate, checking files in and out is straight forward, and users have adopted templates quickly
- Community - from training, knowledge base, discussion boards, webinars, and repeating Customer Success calls, Vena stays in touch with customers regularly and uses feedback to improve the platform and partnership
- Macros to Product features - some customers may need to build VBA macros within their templates to supplement specific actions within a template, though Vena actively reaches out to understand those use cases and considers adding those most common as product features
- Integrations - Vena has been building native integrations to major systems over the past several years, but my team would have preferred an option to more simply connect to a SQL database and define all of the mapping ourselves (Vena API's were just announced so we might not be far away, but as yet have not been able to implement this type of integration)
- Workflows - it might just be that my organization doesn't like to adhere to formal workflows processes, but we have yet to adopt them within Vena because the user's changes are committed to the database before approval and we don't want unapproved changes flowing into our data warehouse. If we could easily have unapproved data tagged in a way to keep it filtered out, that would make workflows more enticing
Vena Template Automation is worth the $$!
- Flexibility in planning models.
- Report distribution.
- Accurate data.
- Automated processes.
- User permissions.
- Task bindings.
- Changing and moving hierarchy members.
Vena..
- Budgeting
- Planning
- Forecasting
- Managing HRIS.
- User Interaction.
- Latency issues.
- More interactive spreadsheet in Excel.
Vena Solutions: Solid product with room to grow
- Easy to build templates or integrate existing templates
- Workflow creator with approvals
- Security controls - One template with many views based on a user's permissions
- Excel based so easy to make the transition
- Workflow management - The workflow status tracker is only available when logged into Vena and cannot be distributed through automated or scheduled email notification
- Not mobile friendly - Since reports/templates are in Excel and require the add-in to view, you cannot access your data on a mobile device
- Admin support for add-in - The add-in can be cumbersome for end users not familiar or used to working with more advanced features in Excel. Additional support and training are necessary to help users troubleshoot when data does not automatically appear when opening an Excel file.
- License cost structure - Vena recently changed their licenses to include a view only license. This license is extremely limited and will not allow for simple approve/reject reviews. Additionally, the cost of 1 admin license (necessary to build workflows, templates, and reports) is excessively overpriced compared to the other offerings.
Vena, great tool for complex Excel collaboration
- Facilitate collaboration across the company
- Workflow management
- Industry Solutions (Best Practices)
- Reproducing templates
Saint Mary's loves Vena Solutions!
- They are continually investing in the software.
- They listen to their customers and incorporate their feedback.
- They are fully engaged in their customers obtaining the maximum benefit from the software.
- Their customer support team is very responsive and technically sound.
- The introduction of Vena365Connect will solve a major weakness in the software as it will create a platform-agnostic environment allowing Mac users to finally use Vena to its full potential.
- I would like to see more integration and more support with BI tools. They currently integrate with Power BI but beyond the bridge to link it, its really up to the customer after that. Easy linking to Tableau would be phenomenal.
- More partner arrangements with clients to develop APIs for larger ERP systems to allow for the real time transfer for data into Vena.
- Improved mobile experience for tablets.
Vena for Financials
- Budgeting
- Forecasting
- Resource load
- Costing
- Reduce number of steps to be followed.
- File expires too fast.
- No way to retrieve the checked-out file once it expires or close by saying do not save to vena.
- Vena provides all the customizable flexibility and advanced calculation that you can squeeze out of Excel because Excel is used as the front-end. You can tailor the reporting and budget templates to your exact needs and leverage your existing Excel skills.
- Even though you work in Excel, the data is all controlled by a multi-dimensional cloud database. So your work is safe. Changes are auditable, and nobody has to rely on sharing Excel files between each other and tracking the latest version.
- Vena's workflow system can be extremely simple if that's what you need. Or you can build some fairly complex process flows for any task.
- While they are working hard to bring the Mac Excel experience up to parity with the Windows Excel experience, it's not there yet. Mac Excel templates can't leverage all the functions that Windows Excel templates can... Unless you're on the Microsoft 365 platform. The newest version of Vena works in Excel 365 and provides identical experience for PC and Mac end users. Administrators and template designers still have to use the legacy add-in for some features, but they are slowly being migrated to Vena 365.
- Integrations can be challenging to configure and update. Some rely on their own database language that is similar to SQL, but I don't know SQL. I work in Finance. Integrations are the area where I'm most likely to require support.
- Some of our complex reports run and refresh quite slowly. Especially those that are very multi-dimensional and configured dynamically.
Vena is great, Training needs work
- Easy to use.
- Ensures latest version of a spreadsheet is the current version.
- Great for variance analysis.
- Some trainers are hard to understand.
- Closed captioning should be included in all training modules.
- I have only done Vena training, so I can't speak to live usage.