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
Trust Vena
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
Finance-Informed Decisions
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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
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Pricing
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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
(1-25 of 99)A great reporting time-saving tool
- Mapping of SAP source data
- Quick Reporting
- Allows for calculations within Vena for Standard Costs
- Having the ability to refresh data with mapping changes without reloading it.
- Having end user able to set up/manipulate the system without a consultant's help
Easy to use....
- Real time data refresh - reports are updated immediately; no lag
- Link to the excel - useful for combining the offline and Vena functionality of excel
- Dimension management - easy to update and maintain
- Large and complex files are slow to open and save
Could be made simpler for versioning scenarios by applying a logic to data contained within a scenario for example.
Vena Review
- Budget process
- Allocations
- Financial Reporting
- Data model
- Creating reports
- Updating templates
Vena - Great, versatile and effective FP&A solution
- Data visualisation
- Consistent Finance outputs
- Easy read/write interface with the data cube
- High ROI / value proposition
- Integration to older accounting software
Vena for Finance and beyond!
- Allows us to create just one template that will replicate based on which business segments we want to report on
- Allows end-users to dig into transaction details (our staff love this feature!)
- Very flexible in the way you can slice and dice data
- Enabling the print area setting on the Page Layout to flow to all worksheets in a report book
- Enabling bulk sharing of dimension members (we currently have to do this one at a time)
- Ability to drill transactions on calculated members
Perspective of seasoned Vena adminitrator
- Ease of use for end users as it is Excel based
- Cloud based access, uses-role based security and utilizes SSO
- Good ETL tools
- Dependencies on Macros in Excel which is a limitation when using Web Excel.
- Lacking ability to throttle updates to the Vena user webpage.
- No out of the box reports for site level workflow activity updates.
- Creating/updating report books can be cumbersome when you want to schedule or distribute reports to users.
Trust Vena
- Budgeting at a detail level
- Reporting and instant refresh and updates
- Versioning are a huge time saving
- Reconciliation are easy
- Adhoc reporting can be done very quickly
- Allocations are very effective and time saving
- Security works well and can be managed easily
- Advanced mapping can get tricky
- Learning how to use Vena, the knowledge base platform can have videos more than screenshots
- HR module takes a long time to run, save and refresh
- Cascading a report is generally slow
- Vena support can be even better. More training materials can be useful
Vote Vena for non profits!
- Easy to manage and maintain
- Provides a better end user experience
- Workflows and automatic emails make the budgeting process much easier to manage/complete
- API integrations with important tools such as Power BI, Sage Intacct, and Salesforce
- Easier for Finance to "own" the tool and troubleshoot data issues without having to rely heavily on internal/external Data teams
- It would be great if the templates didn't have to be launched from the download folder for end users. This concept is often confusing for end users and they don't always understand why they can't open the file back up from their downloads folder later on. Might be better if the templates opened in Excel online for end users when a workflow is in play.
- The data integration (API) is a bit confusing. All the steps and stages are hard to follow. It would be great if this area could be "dumbed" down a bit further for us non-data people.
- Permissions are a bit tedious to set up. We decided to set up permissions using permission user groups instead of task bindings because it would be easier to manage and not accidentally mess up but it still is really tedious because pretty much each person in our organization has to have a separate user group set up for them.
- The report books don't seem to work consistently and don't always follow our permission set up so they've not been useful. This is a feature I'd really like to take advantage of but it just isn't quite where I need it to be yet.
- The formula (DAX) building feature in Insights is not great. It would be more helpful if it showed you the same tooltips that PBI desktop shows you when you start typing out a formula.
- It would be very helpful to be able to drill down on a budget/forecast number and see the LID (line item detail) beneath it and not just the dimension details.
Vena - A Timely, User Friendly Budgeting Solution
- Seamless user interface as it is leveraging the well-known Microsoft Excel interface
- User friendly mapping/template building. While it can seem complex at first, it really is a simple mapping exercise once the 'cube' has been built out.
- Customer service and ongoing support have really stood out throughout this process as well.
- Throughout the sales/implementation stage, there were several instances where items we thought were included, were not. More clear definitions would be helpful.
It's the real deal!
- Cleaning, transforming, and consolidating data into a usable format
- Highly customizable and flexible reporting to answer unique business questions
- Amazing on-demand support chat for any technical issues with the platform
- Provide more training resources for using integration channels and leveraging SQL query
- Improve Power Automate connectors to allow for more flat file integrations. Automating flat files into Vena is one of our biggest pain points!
- Improve user friendliness for end users. That is one of the biggest critiques that we receive from budget owners: they are intimated by the platform or simply struggle with using it.
Vena is the anchor of our finance organization
I have experience with other tools, such as Oracle products, and although there are pros and cons to each, I would certainly recommend Vena to others.
- The management of your data model is very user friendly
- Connects you with great partners to address your future needs
- Report/template creation is timely and not intuitive for a new user
- Technical support can be a challenge to work with at times. Issues can take days to be resolved.
Vena is a tremendous tool budgeting and forecasting as well. If you are looking to improve either of these processes, I am confident that this product will be of value to your business.
Vena very helpful for our planning needs
- Updating data/intersections from the cloud.
- Support staff is very helpful including customer success manager and Vena support team.
- Quarterly updates provided and are relevant to our business. There is usually a Zoom meeting to go over them ahead of the launch date.
- The Vena forum and the Vena Academy provide helpful tips and training.
- I like that Vena uses Excel. It's program that most accountants are already familiar with and can manipulate with ease.
- I have trouble logging into the Zoom meetings and have missed several meetings because of not being able to log in. That is likely due to limits from our IT department and probably not a Vena issue.
- Sometimes I need more of an explanation or can't find the article I need in the Vena knowledge base. Also, some of the explanations leave me more confused about what I need to do to achieve my objective.
- When we implemented Vena, the implementation team created a template for our unallocated lab expenses, but I wasn't able to effectively use it.
Vena has been a great resource
- The way it connects data contributors, analysts, and data consumers so there is only one source of truth to maintain
- So far it has been very easy to get non-technical employees comfortable enough with Vena to use it effectively as a contributor
- Documentation and training resources for Vena have been very helpful
- I have some frustrations with the limits of Vena as it is used in Excel. For example, if contributors filter or sort tables in input forms it often causes issues with the dimension mappings.
- Vena appears to limit it's connections to Microsoft products. It could be useful to be able to connect to other software.
- Some aspects of modeling in Vena are very manual, and options to make changes to multiple members at a time is limited.
Good platform
- Vena allows contributors to make live changes, and its powerful data management capabilities make it easier for the finance team to track and consolidate budgeting data.
- Improving Forecasting Accuracy: Utilize analytics and forecasting models
- training and resources: need more training and recourses to utilizes powerful functions in vena
- Excel based financial statement
- System integration
- Data Visualization
- More access to additional reporting
- Support from community and other users
- System speed
Vena Solutions Review
- Consolidation - have saved so many hours by not having to manually consolidate spreadsheets
- Audit trail history - we were able to find out who made a change that was questionable
- Drillable feature that allows our users to drill into the details of financials
- Ease of use
- Sometimes the templates are a bit complicated to use and could be a little bit more straightforward if all the dimensions are defined in the workbook.
- I would make the security easier to use.
- Helpdesk
- Update actuals automatically.
- Forecast individual expenses.
- Maximize detail and value of a single number with Zoom/Drill.
- Flexibility to create anything we need internally.
- I'd like to have notes sections
Vena makes sharing financial statements easy.
- Organize Budget Input.
- Make financials accessible to users.
- Data permissions make read restrictions scoped.
- Vena experts are also financial experts.
- The knowledge base is easy to use and understand.
- It's is not easy to get an agent for immediate help.
- adding licenses should be on the website.
- Available lectures should be more apparent.
- Agile planning
- Version control
- Workflow management
- Issues with installation of desktop excel add-in
- Web based reports/dashboards
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.
- 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 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