Skip to main content
TrustRadius
Vena

Vena

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.

Read more
Recent Reviews

Easy to use....

10 out of 10
March 13, 2024
Incentivized
Vena is currently being used by the Finance department with a potential to extending usage further out to other teams in the organization. …
Continue reading

Vena Review

9 out of 10
March 09, 2024
Incentivized
We adopted Vena for the preparation of our 2024 budget. Previously we were using Excel spreadsheets, but needed a more streamlined …
Continue reading

Great FP&A tool

10 out of 10
January 05, 2024
Incentivized
Vena is a fantastic tool for any organization and the Vena implementation team is really helpful. I think its a money well invested for …
Continue reading

Vena Review

6 out of 10
December 29, 2023
Incentivized
Vena is being used on a day to day business to support any ad-hoc requests from the finance/accounting side and constantly updating …
Continue reading
Read all reviews

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

View all 48 features
  • Excel-based Reporting (194)
    9.3
    93%
  • Financial budgeting (202)
    9.2
    92%
  • Management reporting (199)
    8.8
    88%
  • Forecasting (193)
    8.6
    86%

Reviewer Pros & Cons

View all pros & cons

Video Reviews

1 video

Vena Review: Proves To Be Financial Management Solution For Handling Multiple, Complex Accounts
03:21
Return to navigation

Pricing

View all pricing

Professional

N/A

Cloud

Complete

N/A

Cloud

Entry-level set up fee?

  • Setup fee optional
    Optional
For the latest information on pricing, visithttps://www.venasolutions.com/resources…

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services
Return to navigation

Features

BI Standard Reporting

Standard reporting means pre-built or canned reports available to users without having to create them.

8.7
Avg 8.1

Ad-hoc Reporting

Ad-Hoc Reports are reports built by the user to meet highly specific requirements.

8.1
Avg 8.3

Report Output and Scheduling

Ability to schedule and manager report output.

9
Avg 8.2

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.

8.1
Avg 7.7

Access Control and Security

Access control means being able to determine who has access to which data.

9.2
Avg 8.7

Mobile Capabilities

Support for mobile devices like smartphones and tablets.

9.1
Avg 8.0

Budgeting, Planning, and Forecasting

These activities are designed to assist with both data-driven operational, short-term planning and strategic long term planning

8.7
Avg 8.3

Consolidation and Close

Consolidation of data from multiple entities with currency management, reporting and audit trails.

8.4
Avg 8.1

Financial Reporting and Compliance

Financial statements and regulatory filings

8.5
Avg 8.3

Analytics and Reporting

Dashboards and scorecards for KPI monitoring and benchmarking

8.7
Avg 8.0

Integration

Ability to integrate with external applications.

9
Avg 8.3
Return to navigation

Product Details

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

Screenshot of Operation Expenses - Predictive AnalysisScreenshot of Allocations DashboardScreenshot of Vena Add InScreenshot of Power BI DashboardScreenshot of Revenue and Sales PlanningScreenshot of Corporate Dashboard - Workforce PlanningScreenshot of Operational Expenses - Drill through analysisScreenshot of Operational Expenses Planning - Input Excel templateScreenshot of Operational Expenses - Drill through analysisScreenshot of Operational Expenses Planning - Input Excel template

Vena Videos

Introduction to Vena Complete Planning
Introduction to Budgeting in Vena Complete Planning
Vena for SaaS - Financial Reporting and Reporting Made Simple
Vena for Banks and Credit Unions - Budget, Forecast and Plan With Confidence

Vena Technical Details

Deployment TypesSoftware as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based
Operating SystemsUnspecified
Mobile ApplicationYou 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 CountriesUnited States of America, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, South Africa, Europe
Supported LanguagesVena 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.

Frequently Asked Questions

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.

Workday Adaptive Planning, Prophix, and Planful are common alternatives for Vena.

Reviewers rate Flat file integration highest, with a score of 9.4.

The most common users of Vena are from Mid-sized Companies (51-1,000 employees).

Vena Customer Size Distribution

Consumers0%
Small Businesses (1-50 employees)19%
Mid-Size Companies (51-500 employees)55%
Enterprises (more than 500 employees)26%
Return to navigation

Comparisons

View all alternatives
Return to navigation

Reviews and Ratings

(305)

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-25 of 214)
Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • 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
March 13, 2024

Easy to use....

Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • 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
March 09, 2024

Vena Review

Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Budget process
  • Allocations
  • Financial Reporting
  • Data model
  • Creating reports
  • Updating templates
Shelly Sennikoff | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • 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
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • 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.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • centralizing and storage of data
  • automating monthly/quarterly reports
  • easy functionality for end users
  • for financial institutions, it would be nice to see easier functionality for asset-liability management - we currently have a "cube" for this, but not yet in use
  • better coaching for mapping dimensions - certain areas that were a little difficult to understand during the initial implementation
  • more options for email notifications - there are set actions, but some of these don't allow us to notify end user's in certain situations
December 28, 2023

Trust Vena

Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • 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
Stacy Taute | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • 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.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • 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.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Their consultants are great.
  • Vena has helped make our budget process better.
  • Vena's reports are great.
  • Making sure the consultants understand the company's needs.
  • Understand there are companies with different set ups.
December 14, 2023

It's the real deal!

Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • 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.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • 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.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • 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.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Ability to connect to source data
  • Allows for quick analysis and internal development and enhancements of reports
  • Easy end-user interface with Excel functionality!
  • Internet access required to use the software but this is inevitable in our technological age.
Heath Bieker | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Vena has the ability to create dynamic reports and manage our budgets/forecasts in one system while allowing end-user comments within the reports.
  • The end-user interface is intuitive and easy to use, even for those users who don't work with excel.
  • Vena has allowed us to provide the executive team more timely reporting and
  • better transparency.
  • The reports and templates can take up to 1-2 minutes to open, which can be frustrating when you want to pull a number or send a report quickly.
  • The GL data load also takes 20-25 minutes to refresh. So if we post entries to our GL and want to capture them in our Vena reports, we have to manually kick off a refresh and wait 25 minutes to run the new reports.
  • Steep learning curve for the Modeler role.
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Automate reports
  • Combine data across departments such as sales, finance, accounting, etc.
  • The report is easily to generate once it is set up
  • I think the initial set up of the report requires some time. It is not the most user friendly tool to use.
  • It might be difficult to train other users to begin using Vena.
  • There should be templates set up so it could be used from the start.
May 22, 2023

Vena Review

Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Drill to transaction.
  • Auditability.
  • Workflow and task monitoring.
  • Less work on templates saves time for more analysis.
  • Data load needs to be more automated.
  • Need more template library.
Return to navigation