Vena

It's a reliable tool for creating and managing financial budgets.
It's reliable with cash flows management.

We were able to streamline and centrally collect data for our budgeting process, which save considerable time for the budget administrator and other admin assistants across our university. We created Board-level reporting templates that can be re-used every year to report the results of the budget process with only changes made as necessary for the format of the current reporting year. We collect forecasting information from over 330 departments and compile all the information within one template to estimate the financial outcome for the fiscal year. We have been able to include data in planning of various kinds in ways that we weren't able to by just using Excel, resulting in better planning results. We can create new planning or reporting processes and have the flexibility to save additional data input that isn't part of our ERP data. Overall, we have saved time, improved processes, created one version of the data visible to all involved in the process and created efficiencies by being able to share data across processes.

I have used a handful of popular systems in my 10-year career. When I first heard of Excel focused planning tools I was at first excited. How can a system that solves for the very tool that all of finance uses go wrong? In the beginning, FPA wanted to get out of Excel and have one version of the truth. Then the industry pivoted back to Excel with a bunch of intermixed features between Excel and cloud solutions workflow. With that, issues arise such as..If everything is Excel based, is it just easier to use Excel?

Sadly Vena, and many others like them, fall short with the basic product offering equation. What problem are you actually solving for?

The balance between a native Excel feeling and the Vena software controlling it feels under-developed. And how can it not be? If you solve for Excel then you stray from the Vena platform, if you focus on Vena platform you move away from Excel. The result is a mediocre product at best. Here is a basic example. In Excel you can group columns, easy. In Vena, you can write simple code on the report to hide a column. In the same report you can use one or the other, or both, the results are reports with frustrating formatting quirks.

Though there are some pluses to Vena, I would think twice about committing to it as it is not a robust planning tool. The main question you, the user, should ask is the following.” Do I buy into the future where Excel (a system owner my Microsoft) really the future of financial planning software?

Overall I really liked working with Vena. It housed some very key templates and data for budgeting, forecasting, and cash flow analysis. It may only be my company, but our workflows never seem to work correctly. The templates and background data integrate well and are easy to use, though. Wouldn't be upset at all if my next company utilized Vena.