CFO Leadership

Today, Excelerate =SUM(it) was all about agility, adaptability and staying ahead of the curve. From contemporary skills for strategic finance professionals to best practices on effectively implementing change within your organization, our thought leaders provided plenty of food for thought on powering your personal and professional growth while driving optimal business outcomes—even in the face of today’s challenging market conditions. Our all-star speaker lineup included Microsoft MVP Megan Strant, “The FP&A Guy” Paul Barnhurst, Vena VP of Finance Muneerah Kanji, Vena Senior Consultant Vern Redwood and a panel discussion led by Vena VP of Sales Shaun Jansen, featuring Venanites Tom Seegmiller, Burzin Contractor and Laura Victoria. Read on for our highlights from day four of Vena's third annual virtual conference. Missed a session? Register now for Excelerate =SUM(it) 2022 to watch all content live or on demand. 1 Agile Business Forecasting Best Practices 2 Contemporary Skills for Strategic Finance Professionals 3 Evolving Relationships With Change Management Methods 4 Vena's Change Management Playbook Agile Business Forecasting Best Practices     Speakers: Laura Victoria, VP, Global Talent Acquisition, Vena; Burzin Contractor, CPA, VP, Revenue Operations and Strategy, Vena; Tom Seegmiller, CPA, CA, VP, FP&A, Vena; Shaun Jansen, VP, Sales, Vena Today, finance teams are at the forefront of change—leading their businesses as they plan for today and tomorrow. With this responsibility comes the need for a new way of working: an agile methodology for business forecasting.  Agile business forecasting is about more than just informing quick decision making. It’s about planning differently, growing smarter and harnessing change. In today’s session, led by Vena VP of Sales Shaun Jansen and featuring fellow Venanites VP of FP&A Tom Seegmiller, VP of Revenue Operations and Strategy Burzin Contractor and VP of Global Talent Acquisition Laura Victoria, the panelists shared best practices for connected planning across finance, human resources and revenue operations to drive agility and resilience in the face of ever-changing business conditions.  Throughout the lively session, the trio (or the “three legs of a stool that support the business''—we’ll get to that shortly) shared their own personal experiences of achieving cross-functional alignment at Vena and how adopting an agile approach to business forecasting helped them get to where they are today. Shaun kicked off the conversation by asking the panelists how they define agile business forecasting through the lens of their respective functions—finance, human resources and revenue operations. “To me, agile forecasting means keeping up with the times,” said Tom. “It means not tethering yourself to a plan that you perhaps set at the beginning of a fiscal year and instead adopting and adapting as a business to ongoing changes in the macro economic environment. This includes changes in competition within your industry, regularly looking for new opportunities within the business, mitigating against any potential risks that could pop up and ultimately updating your plan on a regular basis so that it reflects the realities of your business.” So does the way in which agile business forecasting is defined depend on which function you work in? Laura weighed in with her definition from a human resources perspective. “You know, it actually doesn't differ at all. I think what Tom said is entirely spot on. When I think back over the last two years from a talent perspective, I don't think we could have necessarily anticipated the labor market conditions that we find ourselves in right now—and I think this is universal across industries,” Laura explained. “I've been part of organizations that have had a single forecast or plan for talent for the year and have ultimately had to throw it by the wayside because the market conditions simply no longer allowed for it. So it has this downstream impact with regards to our ability as a talent function to support the business because there was no agility with regards to the forecast. We were entirely unprepared for the market conditions we found ourselves in.” Lastly, Burzin weighed in through the lens of revenue operations. “The way I see agile forecasting is as a ‘play’ to ultimately achieve our desired business outcomes. It allows us to make business decisions on a more timely basis, deploy resources and react accordingly to business information in real time as we receive it.” By exercising a finance muscle that many other companies simply aren’t yet using, agile forecasting gives finance teams an advantage—ensuring the best processes and practices are in place to anticipate and adapt to whatever uncertainty arises throughout the course of the fiscal year, as Tom explained. “Working within a business with all the dynamics and assumptions at play over the course of a year—and then expecting to be correct at the outset—is probably not an accurate assumption on our part,” he said. “You’re obviously going to try to achieve the best plan based on the information that you have today, but I think it’s good to acknowledge that what you have is imperfect information and the world is going to change and you're going to get better information over time—and you're going to want that opportunity to be able to course correct and tweak your plan accordingly.” When asked how businesses can get started with agile business forecasting, Tom recommended beginning by sharing your vision and getting buy-in from your cross-functional partners in crime.  “I think the starting point is to make that decision yourself to say, ‘I want to operate differently as a finance organization,’ and then start with your partners in crime. In this instance, I'm calling my partners in crime the people team and the revenue operations team. I think about us as sort of ‘three legs of a stool’ that are supporting the business,” Tom explained. “So go to your partners in crime and share your vision with them. Tell them how you see operating differently and get their buy-in. Then, if all of you approach the business with a united front and say, ‘We truly believe that this is the optimal way to operate our business,’ the likelihood of the business accepting that in light of all of the changes that will have to occur to make it happen increases in leaps and bounds.” And what about the benefits of agile business forecasting? Tom focused on two elements in particular: risk mitigation and having the ability to be opportunistic. “There are really two things that agile planning or rolling forecasts bring to the table. One, it gives you the opportunity to be opportunistic. How do you not miss out on extraordinary business opportunities through being too tied to a past plan?” Tom explained. “The second is risk mitigation. Over the past couple of years, some organizations have had to course correct just to survive. So [agile planning and rolling forecasts] are equally as valuable and equally important to an organization. I think the risk in not running an agile planning forecast is that your organization remains stagnant and you're either exposing yourself to risk or missing out on awesome opportunities because you failed to adapt.” Beyond the obvious benefits of agile planning, Burzin also discussed the more intangible benefits that improved agility can bring to an organization. “There's certainly a lot of ‘intangibles' to having a strong agile process,” Burzin explained. “For example, from the employee side, I think you see it in their overall sense of happiness. At Vena, we conduct people surveys on a regular basis. And when we've got a strong process in place, strong data for people to work with and when people know how we're doing as a company, the results speak for themselves. They’re more positive. So there's definitely that intangible element to getting this process right.” The conversation then turned to getting buy-in from key stakeholders across the organization and helping them see the advantages of adopting a more agile planning process.   “As things evolve and grow and improve, you find budget owners coming to you saying, ‘I want to talk to you about my next forecast. How do we shave this? How do I help?’ There's an element of excitement that starts to enter the mix,” Tom explained. “To me, that's the point at which you know you've achieved a strong level of business partnering within your organization. When you're no longer begging the business for their time and they’re coming to you instead and saying, ‘I really want to engage you because of the value you bring to this conversation’.” In short, by adopting agile business forecasting best practices, as Tom, Burzin and Laura have demonstrated through Vena’s own experience in achieving cross-functional alignment, you too can turn change into an opportunity to realign your business plans and chart the best course for the future—no matter what that future might look like. Excelerate Your Growth Right now, 5,000 professionals are excelerating their personal, professional and business growth at Vena’s third annual virtual conference, available live and on demand. Don’t miss out. Contemporary Skills for Strategic Finance Professionals     Speakers: Paul Barnhurst, The FP&A Guy; Muneerah Kanji, MBA, CPA, CA, VP, Finance, Vena; Olivia MacDonald, CA, Senior Manager, Financial Systems and Operations, Vena; Truman Tang, VP, Customer Lifecycle and Community Marketing, Vena To be a strategic finance professional, which contemporary skills do you need? Vena VP, Customer Lifecycle and Community Marketing Truman Tang who moderated this panel began by asking this question before polling the panelists for what they believed is the most important skill for strategic finance professionals to have in order to thrive right now. The “FP&A Guy” Paul Barnhurst said business partnering, Muneerah Kanji picked leadership and Olivia MacDonald chose agility. Each panelist shared anecdotes about their journey to finance. Olivia discussed her path from auditor to consultant because she wanted to learn about Vena’s Excel-native automation before moving into financial systems and operations. Paul talked about starting in government procurement and Muneerah shared that she first graduated in forensic science. It was a diverse panel—while they share little academic and early career overlap, the one thing they all have in common is they’ve become strategic finance professionals. In a recent FP&A Trends report, it was described that there were five emerging FP&A roles that teams must play to be successful in planning and forecasting to fulfill the demands of the business: architect, analyst, data scientist, storyteller and influencer. Which of these five do our panelists play? For Paul, none of them. He believed that there’s a sixth—interpreter—and a seventh—connector. Paul said he’s a connector and that he’s been doing this for a long time. Olivia saw herself as a connector-architect hybrid (she said they’re in high demand lately because there’s a growth in the volume of finance data and organizations are becoming more siloed). While Muneerah never “claimed” a role, she said teams need every role fulfilled to succeed. This steered the conversation toward additional contemporary skills. The panel seemed to agree on the theme of partnerships and relationship building. They talked about overcommunicating, automation and change management, mentors and mentees, telling a story with data visualization, the many layers of asking “why”—beyond that first, surface-level “why”—and partnering with internal teams. Evolving Relationships With Change Management Methods Speaker: Megan Strant, Microsoft MVP Microsoft MVP Megan Strant led us through the relationships and the different ways in which we can create effective change. She talked about change theories and models, the “Learning Pit,” change agents and concluded by providing change management templates. She defined a change agent as “anyone in an organization who is a catalyst or advocate for change” and change management as the “structured strategic management approach aiming to implement changes effectively.” Megan said anyone can be a change agent. She explained the differences between a change theory and a change model, walking us through three theories—the Bridges Transition Theory, the Kubler-Ross Change Curve and the Nudge Theory—and three models—Lewin’s Change Model, McKinsey’s 7-S Model and ADKAR. As Megan guided us through these, she outlined situations where each would be effective. For example, Lewin’s doesn’t fit today’s world of ongoing change, but it’s effective for creating drastic change. ADKAR isn’t effective for a major transformation, but it’s great for the “people journey.” To Megan, the people journey is crucial to consider in change management. She asked, “What is your role in supporting the journey of others?” As a change agent, you need to acquire trust and to give support. “In your role, you could be explaining data, charts, forecasting or details about ledgers. You’re the expert on that detail and people need to understand and trust you. And supporting them will drive stronger change and results,” she said. “If you’re doing a change management review and an impact assessment, talk to people and support them on their journey.” These were Megan’s five qualities of a successful change agent: Demonstrate flexibility and resilience Recognize growth opportunity Stride for results Lead courageously Gain buy-in Her provided templates—which included detailed program plans, micro/macro impact assessments, the Stakeholder analysis RACI Matrix and more—followed a “plan, assess and teach” approach. Megan’s session taught us a lot about evolving relationships and change management methods, but most importantly, she taught us that anyone can be a change agent. Training: Vena’s Change Management Playbook       Speakers: Vern Redwood, CPA, Senior Consultant, Vena; Naman Gupta, Senior Lifecycle Marketing Manager, Vena Change and adaptability are necessities in any business or industry in order to thrive. As technology disrupts and simultaneously ameliorates our workplace practices, it’s essential for businesses to be prepared to navigate change at both macro and micro levels. Today, Vena Senior Consultant Vern Redwood and Vena Senior Lifecycle Marketing Manager Naman Gupta walked us through exactly how to implement change management processes to ensure that your organization's adoption of Vena is seamless and rewarding. Building upon the principles of change management to further strengthen partnerships, Vern stressed the importance of storytelling to operationalize the process of adopting Vena. The story goes like this: The Prologue: Set the stage for change, including: Define reasons and goals for change Build out clear, visible project sponsorship Introduce Vena to employees Outline how the system works, how it integrates and the key foreseen benefits Share an estimated roll out date Act 1: Generate desire for change, including: Have a call to action by main finance leader in your organization which reiterates support for change Appoint Vena Champions (employees designated to facilitate the transition) Identify who will require training Act 2: Enable and ensure everyone is involved in the change, including: Schedule training Build a knowledge base of Vena Ensure everyone is able to demonstrate a working knowledge of the software Have training follow ups Create user acceptance testing Act 3: Ensuring the change sticks, including: A clear “Go-Live” announcement Get feedback from users Take stock of what is working and what needs improvement Monitor usage over time Schedule Vena quarterly business reviews According to Vern, the implementation of well-structured storytelling surrounding the implementation and adoption of Vena at your organization ensures that the value of Vena’s functionalities is fully understood and that your team is fully prepared for the change. In doing so, you can preemptively address hesitancy and give your company a proactive stance toward preventing resistance to change.   Don’t Miss Day Five of Excelerate =SUM(it) Learn from former FBI Lead Hostage Negotiator Chris Voss why “yes” is the last thing you want to hear, get best practices for hiring for the new world of work and hear how Vena can help your Plan To Grow

We’ve officially reached the halfway point of Excelerate =SUM(it) 2022 and what a week it’s been so far.  Today’s all-star lineup of speakers included Strategic Advisor and Bestselling Author Priya Parker, Vena Chief Marketing and Ecosystem Officer Allison Munro, Vena VP of Sales Shaun Jansen, Vena Solutions Consultant Nolan Southfield, Vena VP of Product Andrew Stanbridge, and a panel discussion featuring Venanites, including Senior Manager of FP&A Thomas Krolak, Director of Sales Operations Ruslan Valeev and Director of Marketing Operations Andre Proulx. Read on for our highlights from day three of Vena's third annual virtual conference. Missed a session? Register now for Excelerate =SUM(it) 2022 to watch all content live or on demand. 1 The Art of Gathering 2 Vena for SaaS 3 On the Road to Growth 4 Agile Revenue Planning Best Practices   Keynote: The Art of Gathering     Speakers: Priya Parker, Author of The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why it Matters; Allison Munro, Chief Marketing and Ecosystem Officer, Vena On Monday, as we all gathered once again to learn, connect and grow for our annual digital conference experience, Vena CEO Hunter Madeley kicked off Excelerate =SUM(it) with an important message about community: “Our purpose is to excelerate your growth through the power of community.” There’s a purpose for gathering, but as Facilitator and Author Priya Parker explained in her keynote today as she was joined by Vena Chief Marketing & Ecosystem Officer Allison Munro for a lively discussion, there’s also an "art" to gathering—and it has everything to do with how we meet and why it matters. So what’s a gathering and how is it different from a community? Priya defined a gathering as “anytime three or more people come together for a purpose with a beginning, middle and end.” As she explained, people come together for a shared purpose—whether that’s to identify with a community or vision. In this respect, gatherings can be seen as a tool and are shaped (think of weddings, funerals, conferences, etc.). It’s significant to understand when, why and how communities come together, but it’s also just as important to understand how they fall apart or dissolve.  This is something Priya learned early on in life after her parents divorced and she came to understand how conflict resolution worked through the contrasting experience of living with both her parents. And as a facilitator, she helps groups understand not only the “how” of coming together, but the “why” as well.  In helping people come together, Priya explains that we should consider: What it means to “host” well What it means to “guest” well Then there’s also the structure, journey and start of a gathering to consider: The structure of a gathering involves: Getting off autopilot and being intentional about how we gather Establishing the purpose of why we gather The journey of a gathering involves: Assuring a purpose is obvious and shared Creating moments in the making (What is the need at this moment for the community?) Identifying the need/purpose of your gathering (Your community wants to come together to help you do something.) Having your community come around and asking them for help, advice, etc. Asking questions such as: Should only women be allowed at baby showers? The start of a gathering involves: Not starting with logistics Building a temporary world  Inviting people to come to your gathering (what Priya calls the “cold open”) Addressing why you have all gathered Then doing logistics The Art of Gathering in a Virtual World Priya wrote her book in 2018 and as she helped audiences understand the art of gathering, two years later, the pandemic changed everything. “It helped us see gatherings when we weren’t allowed to gather anymore,” said Priya. The pandemic changed the way we gathered and the form of gathering. “When we couldn’t have the hardware, we went to the software for connecting.” There’s still an art to gathering in a virtual world, but as the pandemic taught us, it’s made us think differently about how we meet and why it matters. For instance, who we include or exclude matters for different reasons in a virtual environment. Some of these reasons include: More isn’t necessarily better Group size matters When we don’t know why we are gathering, we tend to over include Great conversations happen with six people Most of us are overbooked, in back-to-back meetings or Zoomed out Be mindful and give people back some of their time  The art of gathering in a virtual world involves: Helping people settle and land in the environment Turning off mute Connecting your guests Using the chatbox and starting conversations Being mindful of purpose and time Remembering that a gathering is a temporary social contract where everyone has rights, responsibilities, etc. Being clear about roles and terms (tell people their roles at meetings and provide terms) Remembering that every gathering is about power Establishing how decisions are made Determining collectively the need and purpose of the meeting/gathering Deciding when and how you meet Establishing team agreements (people join groups of gathering because they want to grow, be relevant, build something they couldn’t do on their own) Protecting, connecting and equalizing your guests Gathering becomes even more complex in a hybrid environment because, as Priya explains, a hybrid meeting is not one meeting—it’s three meetings: Virtual In-person (deal with each other’s dynamics) Choice (mix of virtual and physical) And what about the disputable voices? Conflict and confrontation is hard on Zoom, but not impossible. How can we make conflict resolution work in a hybrid environment? Here are some of Priya’s tips: Have regular confrontations that address conflict Create a culture of normalcy around disagreements (Example: ask everyone about their “rose and thorn”) Normalize thorns (it’s normal to not have things go well) Remember that politeness is a killer of creativity Facilitate ideation and rejection As a leader then, what can you do to make gatherings more purposeful for your teams? Priya suggests, “Ask them. Create a safe place for them to tell the truth (in polls, surveys, etc.) then determine the shared sacred text that will work for everyone. And remember, training is a shared experience that allows a group to gel.” Which ties nicely into one of Allison’s favorite quotes of Priya’s, “Training changes the metabolism of a team.” But the conversation doesn’t end there. What else did Allison find out about Priya’s research, experiences and upcoming work? And what else can leaders and facilitators do to drive more meaningful interactions in today’s world? Watch Priya’s keynote on demand to catch the entire conversation.  Excelerate Your Growth Right now, 5,000 professionals are excelerating their personal, professional and business growth at Vena’s third annual virtual conference, available live and on demand. Don’t miss out. Demo: Vena for SaaS       Speakers: Shaun Jansen, VP, Sales, Vena; Nolan Southfield, Solutions Consultant, Vena Vena VP of Sales Shaun Jansen asked Solutions Consultant Nolan Southfield, “What makes SaaS finance unique?” Nolan, a veteran of the SaaS industry, said it’s the wealth of data. In SaaS, there are so many disparate data sources with finance data coming from your ERP and opportunity data from your CRM. The trove of disjointed data creates challenges for detailed revenue planning. Finance professionals need to bring together multiple Excel files, tie them together and slice and dice thousands of lines of data from slow, mammoth spreadsheet files. Organizations try to leverage Excel as a data warehouse, but it’s not designed to do so for that volume. Nolan said that revenue recognition in SaaS is different from other industries and that revenue recognition varies widely between SaaS organizations. One of the major reasons SaaS organizations’ KPI—annual recurring revenue, churn and customer acquisition cost, to name a few—vary is that much of the revenue is subscription based. When SaaS businesses offer software service bundles and non-fixed implementation prices, that’s when revenue planning becomes very difficult to forecast. That’s why businesses need a flexible, agile process to develop a scalable solution to plan subscription revenue. He demonstrated that, with Vena, you can drill down revenue by account, account group, customer group or entity and more parameters to gain a granular view and perform scenario analysis. And like every one of Vena’s pre-configured solutions by industry, the SaaS pre-configured solution has AI features, including predictive forecasting and analysis. With a trove of data, Vena is the Excel-native central database that can store your wealth of data—which Excel wasn’t designed for—and help you bring it together to slice and dice for generating instant insights. Nolan said, “What you’re doing right now can be replicated in Vena.” On the Road to Growth Speaker: Andrew Stanbridge, VP, Product, Vena Vena VP of Product Andrew Stanbridge—along with Vena experts Cindy Alberta, Luana Faria-Fichelli, Manksh Gupta, Carter Russell and Jenny Crawford—led us through Vena’s latest—Spring ’22—quarterly release and a pair of customer stories. Launching May 16–17, Vena customers will see enhancements to their Vena instance that will help excelerate their growth with a more seamless user experience and greater access to business insights. These were some highlights of the updates customers can expect in the spring season: Integrations Upload data and files in both CSV and JSON formats Retrieve information on ETL (extract, transfer, load) jobs, templates and statuses Manage ETL processes across different data models Upload multiple CSV files and JSON datasets into an ETL job Updated UI in Vena to support new ETL statuses from Public API API documentation for developers Modeler  Cleaner, intuitive design Bulk move members Bulk attach/detach attributes Filter by attributes Save versioning configurations Enhanced keyboard accessibility Automatic Calc Triggers Faster, partial deploys Increased data integrity Bulk update support Reduce data validation time Improved logging in ETL History Key Themes Vena Product Managers took us through the three key themes of the quarterly release: Faster Workflow and Budgeting Cycles Statics Task Binding Configuration, the new, easy-to-use UI, is now available in Vena.io to simplify the template workflow and reduce the time to implementation. Data Validation Rules enable managers to establish guardrails around what data contributors can enter, gives the flexibility of Excel to enter any logic the manager wants and reduces the back and forth that causes errors in data. More Granular and Detailed Planning Staging Queries enables users to pull transaction-level tables in Vena templates to do more granular, detailed and accurate planning. Customizable Templates To Meet Multiple Use Cases  Expand & Collapse (formerly Zoom-In / Zoom-Out) expands nested member hierarchies within Dynamic Rows to prepare detailed reports tailored to your audience or investigate variances with a single click.   Agile Revenue Planning Best Practices     Speakers: Thomas Krolak, CPA, Senior Manager, FP&A, Vena; Ruslan Valeev, Director, Sales Operations, Vena; Andre Proulx, Director, Marketing Operations, Vena; Howard Dresner, Chief Research Officer, Dresner Advisory Services LLC In this panel discussion hosted by Howard Dresner of Dresner Advisory Services and featuring Venanites Thomas Krolak, Ruslan Valeev and Andre Proulx, the panelists discussed the benefits of agile revenue planning, sharing best practices on how to align finance, marketing and sales departments to power organizational growth.  Howard kicked off the conversation with a simple question: Why is it important to have an agile revenue process?  There was a general consensus among the panelists. Thomas, Ruslan and Andre each stated that the finance team plays a pivotal role in building out an organization’s growth journey, leading it through change and determining its future success. But when market conditions change unexpectedly, finance teams need to adapt quickly, consistently and intelligently in order to provide the right information to key stakeholders across the organization, allowing them to make more informed decisions in the face of heightened volatility. And during such times, agile revenue planning processes are key to empowering teams to adapt with speed to unexpected events and shifts in market conditions. “The way I view agile revenue planning is that it’s all about continuous improvement—how do we keep getting better at what we’re doing and drive more results and more efficiency,” said Thomas. “The agile planning process really encourages speed. It helps with making decisions and allows us to course-correct along the way.”  The conversation then turned to one of the central components of adopting a successful agile revenue planning process: technology. In order to plan for today and be ready for tomorrow, finance teams require agile planning solutions that enable them to keep moving forward and building towards a successful future. However, while having the right technology in place is important, it’s not the only consideration to make. “Technology should be viewed as an ‘enabler’,” suggested Howard. “The change agents are ultimately going to be the people within the organization—the ones who leverage the technology to improve and transform that organization.” This led the conversation to the subject of change management. While the panelists acknowledged that during the early days of any organizational change, people might initially feel uncomfortable, they agreed that over time the benefits would soon become apparent. “What helps [with change management] in my opinion is transparency,” Ruslan said. “As long as you’re transparent with your team as to why you’re making the changes, that helps people feel more comfortable with it.”     However, it’s important to remember that agile revenue planning isn’t a process that’s adopted overnight. “Even when I think about my time here at Vena—it’s been almost four years now—it’s insane to think about the amount of change that’s occurred within the finance department,” Thomas explained.  “When I think about where we were when I started to where we are now, the two companies that I’m describing are like night and day. Just completely different. But what I’ve realized is that change happens over time—it’s not like you can just snap your fingers and suddenly you’re doing agile revenue planning. It truly is an evolution and it involves constant iterations and the desire to constantly make things better. It’s also about the time, effort and willingness to team up and partner up that really drives that journey to agile revenue planning—and of course all of that takes time.” So what were the key takeaways from the discussion? To sum up, with the right technology, data and processes in place, you can start to identify and address any unknowns in an agile fashion—long before they run the risk of negatively impacting your business. And that’s exactly why agile business planning is so important to master: it puts finance teams in the driver’s seat as you plan for today and tomorrow.   Don’t Miss Day Four of Excelerate =SUM(it) Build your key contemporary skills with “The FP&A Guy” Paul Barnhurst, get agile business forecasting best practices from Vena experts and learn about change management from Microsoft MVP Megan Strant.

Today marked day two of Excelerate =SUM(it). It was an action-packed day filled with insights, inspiration, networking and of course, plenty of opportunities to learn and earn CPE/CPD credits to power your personal, professional and business growth. Today’s lineup of luminaries included Vena CTO Hugh Cumming, Microsoft’s Chief Financial Planning & Orchestration Officer Wendy Braithwaite, the Kansas City Chiefs’ finance team, Chief Excel Officer Purna Duggirala (a.k.a. Chandoo), Microsoft MVP Parvinder Chana and more. Read on for our highlights from day two of Vena's third annual virtual conference. Missed a session? Register now for Excelerate =SUM(it) 2022 to watch all content live or on demand. 1 The Future of Planning Technology 2 The Power of Vena and Microsoft 3 The Future of Vena Complete Planning 4 Kansas City Chiefs Excelerator Showcase 5 Power BI Embedded Pre-Built Dashboard Showcase 6 Data Visualization in Excel 7 Advanced Data Visualization in Power BI Keynote: The Future of Planning Technology Speaker: Hugh Cumming, Chief Technology Officer, Vena Vena CTO Hugh Cumming began his keynote by sharing a quote from Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum, “In the new world, it is not the big fish which eats the small fish, it’s the fast fish which eats the slow fish.” So how does this relate to finance and the future of planning technology? Hugh believes that during this fourth industrial revolution—enabled by the democratization of large-scale computing—technology and humanity are coming together to advance humanity. As technology transforms finance organizations globally, he’s seen the profound impact finance has had on the rest of the business, too, affecting how organizations think about the role of finance and how finance teams influence business strategy. The finance team no longer only reports—they bring data, enable strategy and move companies from being intuition- and instinct-driven to insight-driven. And accordingly now, the company no longer budgets and plans once a year—it’s a part of the everyday. Hugh talked about how the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated businesses’ digital transformations toward working digitally, collaborating in real-time and unlocking human creativity to make powerful, faster and insight-driven decisions—which aligns with the number one priority on the CFO agenda, found in the most recent Gartner study: creating insights. So how is this changing what Vena customers are saying about what they need? Hugh discussed three important factors coming together to shape the future of planning technology: Usability and flexibility Scalability and extensibility Advanced data and analytics These three factors will create insights faster—so that Vena customers can swim faster. Keynote: The Power of Vena and Microsoft       Speakers: Hugh Cumming, Chief Technology Officer, Vena; Wendy Braithwaite, Chief Financial Planning & Orchestration Officer, Microsoft In this joint keynote by Vena CTO Hugh Cumming and Microsoft Chief Financial Planning & Orchestration Officer Wendy Braithwaite, the pair discussed how businesses are benefiting from the latest product advancements in Microsoft Excel, Microsoft 365, Power Automate and Power BI, and how these capabilities are empowering finance teams to solve complex real-world problems.  On the Vena side, Hugh and Wendy explained how the Vena platform helps orchestrate complex financial workflows, creates relationships between data across the organization and turns static financial planning processes into dynamic, agile business management processes.   To kick off the keynote, Hugh began by asking Wendy how she thinks the role of finance is evolving at Microsoft.  “Microsoft started our journey of digitally transforming our own finance function some years ago. Why did we head down this path? Because to be successful in the fast-paced modern business environment, finance teams must reclaim time and deploy their focus on things that matter most to their organizations,” she explained. “We must minimize manual effort and speed up time to critical decisions and action.”  Wendy added that by incorporating Microsoft Azure Machine Learning into the organization’s own revenue forecasting process, it allowed the team to cut forecast variance by 50% and augment the work of their analysts to lock financial outlooks faster and with more confidence. “What has changed in the finance function is that we’ve evolved from being a ‘transactions’ finance office to a 'strategic' finance office, from being backward-looking to being forward-looking, and from being internally-focused to being customer-obsessed,” she explained.   When asked how she thinks Microsoft’s finance team has evolved, Wendy discussed the development of her team’s skill set. “I imagine a classic before and after picture—pick your image. Before, our people were operational thinkers with transactional expertise. Now, several years after our digital transformation, people within the Microsoft finance function are deep, analytical, strategic thinkers—skilled at influencing and negotiating with an advanced knowledge of the business.” In order to navigate today’s climate of increased volatility and uncertainty, Wendy explained how her team is currently racing to harness ever-growing amounts of data and derive forward-looking insights. “Machine learning is a critical tool for predicting outcomes and managing risk, and we’re now using machine learning and Microsoft Azure AI across the organization to stay ahead of our business,” she said.  As a result, the Microsoft finance department has advanced the business conversation from describing what has happened (descriptive analytics), to what will happen (predictive analytics). “That’s where the power of AI and machine learning comes in,” she added.   The conversation then turned to how businesses can transform their finance departments in a similar way to Microsoft’s own finance team’s evolution. When Hugh asked Wendy for tips and best practices to share with the audience, she was happy to provide guidance based on her own experience.  “A key best practice that is always top of mind for me is data hygiene. Poor data hygiene will destroy trust and undermine your strategic finance office really quickly,” said Wendy. “Poor data hygiene is what makes people like me who grew up with Excel want to stay with Excel instead of leveraging the great possibilities of Power BI and data visualization. We need to know that the underlying data quality is robust before we can trust the visualization, machine learning and AI.” Wendy’s last tip was around “actionable insights”. “At your last webinar one of the speakers said something that really resonated with me: ‘The data you present must be useful.’ Real-time data visualization is more than transferring the basic data into charts or graphs. It’s about seeing the interconnectedness of data, the comparisons and anomalies, and that’s how you really leverage the power of the data visualization to create actionable insights that advance the business.” Keynote: The Future of Vena Complete Planning Speakers: Andrew Stanbridge, VP, Product, Vena; Rachel Taguicana, Senior Product Manager, Vena; Cindy Alberta, Product Manager, Vena There’s a transformation taking place in the Office of Finance and many organizations are already reaping the benefits. Finance teams are moving from static back-office processes into more strategic, business partner-oriented roles. Gartner describes this transformation as “the evolution of planning, combining financial and operational planning on a single composable platform.”  It extends beyond traditional FP&A solutions focused on finance and into other enterprise planning fields—such as workforce, sales and operations planning. In other words, this approach to financial planning enables organizations to to drive agile, business-wide planning, resilience and growth.  Here at Vena, we refer to this holistic approach as “Complete Planning.”  In Vena VP of Product Andrew Stanbridge's keynote, “The Future of Vena Complete Planning,”  he shared the vision behind Vena’s Complete Planning platform and how it’s been designed to power the transformation of the strategic Office of Finance.  So what is Complete Planning? In a nutshell, Complete Planning is a framework for financial planning and decision making in business that elevates the financial intelligence of an organization. It increases the speed and accuracy of insights and empowers the entire business to respond with the agility they need to succeed in today’s ever-changing market conditions. Complete Planning automates laborious, manual tasks to save time, money and effort that can be spent on higher value and more strategic priorities. By adopting a “Complete Planning” approach, you’re positioning your finance department to become strategic partners to your business by providing the simplest, easiest means to automate complex data processes—providing instantaneous insights, data storytelling and business intelligence at the exact moment other departments in your organization need it most.   “Vena is the only Complete Planning platform with a native Excel user interface, supporting you in your finance function and beyond,” Andrew explained. “As companies deploy Vena from finance-led planning to extended planning and finally to beyond planning, they organically build a ‘data warehouse’ in Vena—connecting systems, disparate data sources and multiple users to be able to provide strategic value for their organization.” However, you can’t have truly effective “Complete Planning” without the right technology to help drive your business forward, Andrew explained. “Vena is the only vendor that truly balances flexibility and usability to provide customers with a platform that allows them to plan the way they want, while ensuring cross-functional users can seamlessly participate in planning cycles.”  In his session, Andrew also discussed some of the handy innovations that are now available in Excel, including Office Scripts and Analyze Data (formerly known as “Ideas”). “Vena continues to invest in enabling customers to leverage these features to help them plan to grow,” he added. Excelerate Your Growth Right now, 5,000 professionals are excelerating their personal, professional and business growth at Vena’s third annual virtual conference, available live and on demand. Don’t miss out. The Kansas City Chiefs Excelerator Showcase     Speakers: Michael Ragsdale, CPA, Director, Strategy and Analytics, Kansas City Chiefs; Rebecca Swank, CPA, Senior Business Intelligence Analyst, Kansas City Chiefs; Jenny Crawford, Customer Success Manager, Vena  The Kansas City Chiefs finance team was using data from disparate systems for budgeting, forecasting and reporting. They couldn’t upload their Excel spreadsheets themselves. Their users called their Accounting department to whom they then emailed their information. The accountants would then upload the data to their ERP on behalf of the finance team before converting the reports to PDF. There was no user buy-in for their then-ERP. The tipping point to find a new solution? Version control problems and inefficiencies when producing budgets and reports for the monthly reviews to the executive team. When these poor user reviews reached their Chief Financial Officer Dan Crumb, he assigned Michael Ragsdale to evaluate vendors. Michael said he was looking for a “one-stop shop” and wanted better structure and communication to gain oversight of user access (which they didn’t have) and data transfer (which had occurred primarily through email). He chose Vena for its security, collaborative capabilities and familiar Excel-Native interface. They had had a poor implementation process prior to Vena. “We wanted to work with a great group,” he said. As the Chiefs’ use of Vena grew and transformed, so did Rebecca Swank’s career. She began as one of their external auditors before supporting the Chiefs’ implementation of Vena.  She said, “I originally started as an external auditor. As I was gaining familiarity with Vena and helping others use the platform, I realized what I could do and shifted my role to strategy.” Today, along with budgeting, forecasting and reporting, the Chiefs use Vena for their 20-digit general ledger structure. They also use Vena for OPEX and salary planning, which includes their players. They assess injury probability per player and if the team needs to take out insurance policies for injury. If they don’t, then that opens up the budget for other areas. Michael said, “Vena makes life easier for the guys on the football field to focus on their side.” He said that people ask him what it takes to win a Super Bowl. How does he answer? Michael humorously noted that the Chiefs won the Super Bowl in 2020—a year after they implemented Vena—and that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers won the Super Bowl in 2021—again, a year after they implemented Vena—defeating the Chiefs in the big game. As of late, the Chiefs have been winning on—and off—the field. They’ve significantly improved how their users consume information by growing their use of Power BI to produce different ways of consuming information. He’s excited to show their leadership as they plan, maintain and grow their data-driven strategy. Michael said, “We want to be leaders in the sports industry, but also in business in general.” Demo: Power BI Embedded Pre-Built Dashboard Showcase Speaker: Rishi Grover, Chief Solutions Architect, Vena Rishi Grover showed us how fast and easy it is for users to gain actionable AI-powered insights from Vena with Power BI Embedded. It’s data done differently—self-service, instant insights for a data-driven culture in a secure and collaborative way. This means out-of-the-box and no coding. He walked through visualizations for analyses of scenarios, profitability, revenue, OPEX and more—all with predictive forecasting capabilities. Rishi said, “The only limit of Vena with Power BI Embedded is your own imagination.” He took us through some AI features available, such as Key Influencers, the Decomposition Tree and Anomaly Detection, and then demonstrated how the best data visualization solution in the marketplace makes intuitive assumptions to visualize your data the way you want it. For every pre-configured solution offered by Vena, users receive industry-agnostic pre-configured workflows and pre-configured Power BI dashboards that follow best practices to provide quick time-to-value. He demonstrated with a decomposition tree of Net Interest Margin Rate—that drilled down into Earning and Loan Closing Volume as well as Deposits and Loans Volume—for the pre-configured Banking and Credit Unions solution. He then drilled down further by filtering to only Commercial Loans and then analyzing Gross Margin Predictive Forecast. “What we’re doing here is creating a strategic data hub,” Rishi said. It’s a hub that’s only limited by our imagination. (Want to learn more from Rishi? You can watch recent videos of him guiding us through six advanced Power BI features or new videos of him teaching us how to create a dashboard in Power BI in 10 minutes.) Workshop: Data Visualization in Excel       Speaker: Chandoo (Purna Duggirala), Microsoft MVP Back by popular demand, Purna Duggirala (a.k.a. Chandoo), took the virtual stage for his second year in a row. Chandoo led a fun and interactive workshop on building dynamic budgets in Excel that incorporate the latest best practices in data visualization. Here at Vena, we can’t resist a good Excel joke, which is why we knew Chandoo was off to a good start when he kicked the session off with some finance-based fun. As any finance professional knows, data visualization is a skill that’s highly in demand. During his workshop, Chandoo shared his top tips on “how to create magic” using Excel charts and graphs. “Dynamic and interactive charts are one of my favorite Excel tricks. I use them in almost all of my dashboards and Excel models and my clients are always wowed by them.” Workshop: Advanced Data Visualization in Power BI Speaker: Parvinder Chana, Microsoft MVP Microsoft MVP Parvinder Chana led us through best practices for creating a scalable solution in Power BI during his workshop, providing tips on data preparation, choosing options and settings, data modeling and data visualization. Parvinder spent most of the time speaking about data preparation because he felt this step was the “make or break” stage of your Power BI use. He offered practical tips, such as labeling your columns consistently and hiding unwanted columns to improve user experience. Parvinder also advised us to bring only columns needed for visualization and to convert numbers to whole numbers or fixed decimal numbers when possible. He said it’s easier to transfer data from development to production than it is to remove data. These two tips reduce data size and preserve memory to accelerate your performance and save you time from watching your data visualizations load and update after every click. Another tip that saves data file size is turning off the global auto time/date setting, because “you always want to create your own data dimension table,” the Microsoft MVP said. Parvinder finished by highlighting the importance of creating theme files and report templates. This means consistently using your corporate colors in your data visualizations and reports. Inconsistent design decreases user adoption, while consistent design increases users’ ownership of the data. Don’t Miss Day Three of Excelerate =SUM(it) Learn about "The Art of Gathering" from New York Times bestseller Priya Parker, discover best practices for agile revenue planning from Vena experts and find out how you can build engaging and interactive dashboards to easily communicate business intelligence throughout your organization using Power BI.

Today was the first day of Excelerate =SUM(it), and we had some inspiring sessions led by our all-star lineup of speakers, including Vena CEO Hunter Madeley, Dr. Robert Cialdini, Paul Barnhurst (The FP&A Guy), Vena Chief Solutions Architect Rishi Grover and many more.  Read on for our highlights from day one of Vena's third annual virtual conference.  Missed a session? Register now for Excelerate =SUM(it) 2022 to watch all content live or on demand. 1 Excelerate Your Growth 2 The Science of Ethical Influence 3 The Complete Planning Advantage 4 Introduction to Financial Modeling Keynote: Excelerate Your Growth Speaker: Hunter Madeley, Chief Executive Officer, Vena Vena’s very own Hunter Madeley kicked off day one of Excelerate =SUM(it) 2022 with an inspiring keynote that set the tone for an action-packed week of personal, professional and business-oriented growth. With more than 50 speakers and sessions, 10 keynotes, 20 instructor-led training sessions, interactive workshops and product demonstrations—plus the opportunity to earn over 25 CPE/CPD credits—Hunter elaborated on Vena’s mission to elevate the Office of Finance and enable organizations to drive operational excellence through both technology and methodology. Hunter also discussed last year’s conference theme, “Strength in Numbers,” which was all about connecting attendees from all over the world to share stories of transformation, resilience, growth and innovation. He then brought up one of this year’s core conference themes—"community"—and how it felt like a natural evolution from last year's virtual event. “Community is powerful. It’s essential. It drives innovation, supports rapid learning and extends the value of one to many well beyond our individual networks,” he explained. “There’s strength in numbers, and that’s why we’re here. Our purpose is to excelerate your growth through the power of community.” On the subject of “community,” Vena spoke with some finance professionals and asked them what the word means to them. Here’s what they said: Additionally, Hunter unveiled some exciting new initiatives designed to power your growth and help achieve Vena’s mission to build the industry’s most engaged community: Our all-new PlanToGrow.com, featuring live and on-demand content including livestreams, monthly meetups and more.  Vena Plan To Grow Forum™, where you can dive deeper into the topics that matter most to you while conversing and exchanging ideas with your peers.  The brand new Vena Academy, featuring instructor-led training and CPE/CPD courses on demand. Vena Templates, where users can share and leverage best-practice templates for a variety of use cases. Keynote: The Science of Ethical Influence       Speaker: Dr. Robert Cialdini, PhD New York Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today Bestselling Author, World-Renowned Psychologist How do the principles of ethical influence apply to work? Dr. Robert Cialdini, world-renowned psychologist and author, explained that having the ability to influence your team and others helps you outpace your competitors who can’t do this. While you may exert influence through power, compensation and penalization, those methods have a cost: financial and/or social capital. He discussed changing the way we present the merits of our case, our language and its sequence—and applying influence and persuasion ethically to “get a yes.” Dr. Cialdini took us through his seven principles of ethical influence—the first four reduce uncertainty and give greater confidence, the last three build and strengthen relationships: Scarcity Authority Social Proof Commitment/Consistency Reciprocating Liking Unity Using stories from research cases, Dr. Cialdini presented evidence of increased ROI gained by Bose, Mcdonald's, restaurants in Chicago and China and other businesses. He talked about the “Moment of Power” after someone thanks you, the three qualities of giving that increase the likelihood of reciprocation (and why you should give first) and the worst platform on which to negotiate. Excelerate Your Growth Right now, 5,000 professionals are excelerating their personal, professional and business growth at Vena’s third annual virtual conference, available live and on demand. Don’t miss out. Keynote: The Complete Planning Advantage Speaker: Rishi Grover, Chief Solutions Architect, Vena In his keynote, Vena Co-Founder and Chief Solutions Architect Rishi Grover explored the Strategic Office of Finance and the transformation of finance as a critical business partner through the power of people, process and technology. “We’ll go ahead and kick off today with this really simple idea,” he began. “The reason we’re all here today is because we recognize that businesses cannot change, adapt or ultimately grow without a strategic mindset. And at the heart of that strategic mindset is finance. And that’s because more than any other executive, the finance mind—with your comprehensive view on strategic priorities, capital allocation and financial performance—is best positioned to challenge the business on both short-term and long-term decisions.” In his keynote, Rishi also shared some of the most common questions he hears from today’s finance leaders who are confronted with constant change and complexity, such as: How do we remove data silos and improve collaboration while ensuring accountability and accuracy?  Where can we “lean in” with data and expertise to guide the business even further than where it is today? How do we go deeper with data to understand the “why” and “how”? How do we address change management and navigate the landscape of change throughout the organization? How do we help extend the reach of the current decision-making process and strategic execution of the business? Where do we need more control and where do we need greater agility? Lastly, Rishi touched on the evolution of the finance-business partnership—beginning with the role of “Reporter” all the way up to the elevated role of “Strategic Partner”. "By repositioning Finance as a Strategic Business Partner, the department will be empowered to guide more informed, agile and proactive decision making with a focus on value creation and growth," he explained.   Workshop: Introduction to Financial Modeling       Speaker: Paul Barnhurst, Founder, The FP&A Guy Paul Barnhurst, also known as “The FP&A Guy” in the finance community, delivered an Introduction to Financial Modeling workshop which he alternatively named, “What I Wish I’d Been Taught.” Paul defined a financial model and presented eight common types of financial modeling. Earlier in his career, he designed and built financial models that weren’t good practice, describing them as “barely held together.” Paul highlighted the importance of simple formulas and not overwhelming your users with excessive assumptions in your financial model. (He once came across one with more than 6,000 assumptions.) Paul took us through elements of a poorly designed financial model—such as using hard-coded numbers, not linking to other sheets and what he felt was most consequential: not telling the user what questions it’s trying to answer. So, what are the steps to designing a good financial model? According to Paul, there are nine—each of which he offered its own parallel to homebuilding.   That first step—planning your financial model—is akin to designing the blueprint when building a home.” Paul estimated that approximately 70% of financial models start without planning—”What is the question being answered?” He said if his nine-step process had a tenth, it would be maintenance, much like updating your budgeting and forecasting model with your actuals. What else is in a good financial model? A few include: adding a minimum of three cases—best, base, worse—color coding, but most importantly a good user experience. He said this means “thoughtful and laid out in a way that’s very easy to follow.” Paul advised us to fully understand the business first, by conducting a SWOT analysis, before designing a financial model. He advocated speaking up and not accepting assumptions that you’ve inherited if you don’t think they make sense.   Don’t Miss Day Two of Excelerate =SUM(it) Learn about the future of planning technology from Vena Chief Technology Officer Hugh Cumming, hear about the Kansas City Chiefs’ transformation story and attend workshops on data visualization led by Microsoft MVPs.

The countdown is on. We’re less than three weeks away from Excelerate =SUM(it) 2022—Vena’s third annual virtual conference designed to power your personal, professional and business development—and we’re excited to share the action-packed week we have in store for you. At Vena, we know you’re so much more than a “bean counter.” We believe the finance team of the future employs forward-thinking change agents who drive optimal business outcomes in increasingly dynamic and challenging environments. That’s why we’ve planned a week of learning and growth opportunities for finance, accounting, operations professionals and business leaders just like you—to not only level up your existing skills, but also to help you hone new ones that will empower you to thrive in your organization and prepare for whatever challenges may lay ahead in the post-pandemic business environment. Along with three world-renowned guest keynote speakers set to inspire you throughout the week of May 9–13, we have 50+ sessions on the Excelerate =SUM(it) agenda you won’t want to miss. With unlimited live and on-demand access to keynotes, panel discussions, workshops, training sessions and product demonstrations, it’s your chance to learn the latest in-demand skills, knowledge and best practices you need to stay at the forefront of financial and operational planning. Ready to excelerate your Plan To Grow? If so, read on to get to know some of our inspirational speakers gearing up to take the virtual stage at Excelerate =SUM(it)—and discover ahead of time some key learnings you can expect to walk away with from the conference. Vena Expert Sessions Connect with Vena experts at Excelerate =SUM(it) 2022 to see interactive product demos and the latest Microsoft advancements embedded directly in Vena. The Complete Planning Advantage Speaker: Rishi Grover, Chief Solutions Architect, Vena Date: Monday, May 9, 2022 at 11:30 AM EDT | 60 Minutes In his keynote, Vena Co-Founder and Chief Solutions Architect Rishi will explore the strategic office of finance and the transformation of finance as a critical business partner through the power of people, process and technology. He’ll discuss where the heart of strategy lies, how to reposition finance as a strategic business partner, and the pain and fear of choosing technology. Did You Know?: Rishi grew up in Pinawa, a small town located 1.5 hours northeast of Winnipeg, and it’s the coldest place he’s ever been. When attending elementary school there, he won gold medals in gymnastics. The Power of Vena and Microsoft        Speakers: Hugh Cumming, Chief Technology Officer, Vena; Wendy Braithwaite, Chief Financial Planning & Orchestration Officer, Microsoft Date: Tuesday, May 10, 2022 at 11:30 AM EDT | 30 Minutes In this keynote, Hugh and Wendy will examine how Vena customers are benefiting from the latest product advancements in Microsoft Excel, Microsoft 365 and Power BI. They’ll explore the shift in strategic finance and the power of the partnership, and how they’ve changed workflows, data sets and data relationships across organizations. They’ll also discuss the role of finance evolving at Microsoft, and how that’s affected business agility, big data management, data hygiene, Microsoft’s own transformation and more. Did You Know?: Hugh has published two middle-grade fantasy adventure novels and has his grade eight Royal Conservatory in piano. Hiring for the New World of Work Speaker: Tracey Mikita, Chief People Officer, Vena Date: Friday, May 13, 2022 at 11:00 AM EDT | 60 Minutes In her keynote, Tracey will discuss organizational values, growth, talent attraction, talent recruitment and talent retention. You’ll learn best practices in attracting, recruiting and retaining professionals who will help build a differentiating modern workplace culture that thrives in the face of ongoing change. Did You Know?: Tracey learned to downhill ski five years ago (“I'm a late bloomer,” she says) and now skis in the winter months every weekend.   Workshops and Microsoft MVPs Learn powerful tips on financial modeling, data visualization, change management and more from finance leaders and Microsoft MVPs. Advanced Financial Modeling       Speaker: Ian Schnoor, CFA, CFM Executive Director, Financial Modeling Institute Resident and Founder, The Marquee Group Date: Monday, May 9, 2022 at 3:00 PM EDT | 60 Minutes Ian founded The Marquee Group in 2002 to provide Excel-based financial modeling training to finance professionals. He’s built the group into a leading provider of financial modeling training, consulting and accreditation. He’s taught thousands of business professionals and students in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Mexico. He teaches at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, and has been named “Instructor of the Year” in the Master of Finance program there. The Marquee Group was one of the founding organizations of the world-renowned Financial Modeling Institute, where Ian serves as Executive Director. The institute provides internationally recognized credentials for financial modeling skills. Ian holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Manitoba. In his workshop, Ian will discuss common problems, challenges and frustrations faced when working with financial models built by others. You’ll discover powerful tips on checking and auditing your financial models, learning how to ensure accuracy, eliminating errors and instilling confidence in your decision makers. Data Visualization in Excel Speaker: Chandoo (Purna Duggirala), Microsoft MVP Date: Tuesday, May 10, 2022 at 3:00 PM EDT | 60 Minutes Purna launched Chandoo.org in 2004. After three years, his website began focusing on Microsoft Excel, and he started sharing new ideas about the computer program and discussing problems he’d been solving. His full-time entrepreneurial journey leading Chandoo.org started in 2009. Today, the website generates approximately 500,000 monthly views and boasts 160,000 active members. It’s become a passionate community where he—now referred to as “Chandoo”—shares Excel tips, charting tutorials, visualization ideas and downloadable tutorials. Chandoo holds an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Indore and a Bachelor of Technology degree in Computer Science and Engineering from Andhra University. He’s been a Microsoft MVP since 2009. In his workshop, you’ll learn best practices in data visualization using Excel charts and graphs, as Chandoo strives to fulfill his own mission to “make you awesome in Excel and Power BI.” (Chandoo’s words, not ours.) Advanced Data Visualization in Power BI       Speaker: Parvinder Chana, Microsoft MVP Date: Tuesday, May 10, 2022 at 3:00 PM EDT | 60 Minutes Parvinder is a Microsoft Power BI consultant and architect at PeryTUS IT Solutions, where he implements Power BI solutions for clients ranging from small to large enterprises. He focuses on end-to-end implementation—from data modeling to data visualization—and scalable BI models. Parvinder has more than 20 years of industry experience. He’s been a Microsoft Data Platform MVP since 2018 and holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar. In his workshop, you’ll learn best practices and tips to create scalable Power BI models with a focus on optimization techniques for data preparation, modeling and advanced visualization without compromising on performance. Parvinder will discuss the top considerations for a successful implementation, as well as the most common errors in implementation to help you save time and money. You’ll also learn how Power BI fits into the finance world, how the finance world fits with the Excel world and how Power BI adds value to both of those worlds as a single source of truth. Evolving Relationships With Change Management Methods Speaker: Megan Strant, Microsoft MVP Date: Thursday, May 12, 2022 at 2:30 PM EDT | 60 Minutes Megan is the Principal Consultant of Strant Consulting. She’s been enhancing the end-user experience across organizations for more than 15 years. She’s worked across a number of Microsoft partners, building and managing their change management practices and learning strategies. She drives organizational innovation and learning and reduces work-day stress and complexity. Megan strives to “empower people to move beyond an implementation with training, to longer-term approaches for innovation in process, embedded behavior change and greater value and satisfaction.” A Microsoft MVP since 2020, Megan holds a Master of Education degree from the University of Technology Sydney and a Certificate in Deep Learning and Transformative Pedagogy from the University of Queensland. She also holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology, Sociology and Philosophy from Monash University. In her session, you’ll learn the five core change management methods that will help you address all preparation areas, from support to reinforcement to deliver organizational change with a more positive outcome. Megan will discuss the role of a change agent, conditions needed for success and building partnerships within an organization to drive change. You’ll learn about methods, commonalities and key tools—such as the Learning Needs Analysis (LNA)—to ensure your next project delivers a positive outcome.   Panel Discussions Get best practices in connected planning across your organization—aligning finance, marketing, sales, human resources and revenue operations—to drive agility and resilience in the face of increasing business uncertainty. Agile Revenue Planning Best Practices     Speakers: Thomas Krolak, CPA, Senior Manager, FP&A, Vena; Ruslan Valeev, Director, Sales Operations, Vena; Andre Proulx, Director, Marketing Operations, Vena; Howard Dresner, Chief Research Officer, Dresner Advisory Services LLC  Date: Wednesday, May 11, 2022 at 2:00 PM EDT | 60 Minutes In this panel led by Howard Dresner, Vena experts—Thomas, Ruslan and Andre—will discuss market research on agile revenue planning and analyze the benefits of employing an agile revenue process. You’ll learn how Vena delivers connected revenue and expense planning, along with best practices in aligning finance, marketing and sales. You’ll also learn about agile scenario modeling and forecasting, and then get a deep dive on templates and processes for best practices in revenue planning, workforce planning and incentive compensation management. Agile Business Forecasting Best Practices Speakers: Laura Victoria, VP, Global Talent Acquisition, Vena; Burzin Contractor, CPA, VP, Revenue Operations & Strategy; Tom Seegmiller, CPA, VP, FP&A, Vena; Shaun Jansen, VP, Sales, Vena Date: Thursday, May 12, 2022 at 11:00 AM EDT | 60 Minutes In this panel led by Shaun Jansen, Vena experts—Laura, Burzin and Tom—will discuss the benefits of employing agile business forecasting. You’ll learn how Vena delivers connected planning across finance, human resources and revenue operations, and how you too can drive agility and resilience in your own organization in the ever-changing, post-pandemic business environment of remote work, supply chain issues and more.   The Kansas City Chiefs Excelerator Showcase       Speakers: Michael Ragsdale, CPA, Director of Strategy and Analytics, Kansas City Chiefs; Rebecca Swank, Senior Business Intelligence Analyst, Kansas City Chiefs; Jenny Crawford, Customer Success Manager, Vena  Date: Tuesday, May 10, 2022 at 1:00 PM EDT | 30 Minutes The Super Bowl-winning Kansas City Chiefs have been a customer of Vena’s since 2019. As leaders in strategic planning and analysis in professional sports, the Kansas City Chiefs have created a collaborative data-driven culture that’s taking them even further on the cutting edge of strategic finance and analytics. In their keynote led by Jenny, you’ll hear about the team’s transformation story—their challenges before Vena, the tipping point for their transformation, where they are now and where they want to go—and then we’ll hear the transformational stories of Michael and Rebecca’s careers. You’ll learn how the 2020 Super Bowl champions streamlined business-wide budgeting and reporting and their workforce and revenue planning, as well as how they deployed Vena with Power BI Embedded to drive financial and operational excellence in their strategic planning. Earn 25+ CPE/CPD Credits Level up your existing skills and learn new ones at Excelerate =SUM(it) 2022—Vena’s annual live and on-demand virtual conference—taking place from May 9–13. Sign up today and secure your virtual seat.

Virtual has become the new normal. The hybrid/remote work environment has affected how we work—and it’s changed how we learn, connect and grow with one another. But transitioning from physical to virtual doesn’t have to mean fewer opportunities for growth. At Excelerate =SUM(it) 2022, Vena’s third annual virtual conference for finance, accounting, operations professionals and business leaders, you’ll have the opportunity to network in a diverse community of 5,000+ like-minded executives, allowing you to power your personal, professional and business growth while sharing ideas and forming new connections. If it’s your first virtual conference, we’ll be on hand all week—from Monday, May 9 to Friday, May 13—to support you on your learning journey. Here are seven ways to get the most value out of this year’s Excelerate =SUM(it), all from the comfort of your own environment.   1. Plan Your Digital (and Physical) Environment Are you “digitally” prepared for Excelerate =SUM(it) 2022? Here are a few tips: Ensure that you’re using Zoom version 5.5.0 or higher (no need for a corporate account). Test the radius of your wi-fi strength from wherever you’ll be virtually attending the summit. Block off calendar times for the sessions you want to attend.  Build your very own personalized agenda. Physically? Get comfortable. Assemble your refreshments and snacks, wear whatever feels right and inform everyone in your household that you’ll be attending a virtual conference and will have your “learning” cap on.  Lastly, your health is important. If you feel the need to move around and stretch but don’t want to miss out on our world-class lineup of live and on-demand conversations, workshops, instructor-led training and product demonstrations—we’ve got you covered. Vena’s very-own certified yoga teacher, Pam DeMesa, will lead yoga breaks on select days. In these sessions, Pam will show you how to increase range of motion, improve blood circulation, reduce stiffness and stress levels, build better breathing habits, achieve better sleep and more. 2. Gather Your Team This year’s third annual virtual conference is your chance to excelerate your team’s personal, professional and business growth. With this in mind, as you level up your own learning and development, why not invite the rest of your team to master new skills? That way, you can all come away feeling equally inspired and armed with new ideas and expertise to help prepare your organization for whatever the future holds. After all, why should your learning journey end after the Excelerate =SUM(it)? If you needed one more reason to invite your teammates—or friends in finance—we have just the thing for you. When you register five of your teammates or colleagues in finance, you’ll be automatically entered into a contest for your chance to win one of our Vena “Excel Nerd” graphic tees. For contest rules, visit the Excelerate =SUM(it) 2022 homepage. 3. Earn CPE/CPD Credits Earn while you learn. You can earn 25+ CPE/CPD credits at Excelerate =SUM(it) 2022. By attending at least 50 minutes and answering at least three polling questions at eligible events, you’ll earn credits. Just ensure you’re attending live (not viewing on demand later) and you’ll receive your credits via the email address you provide during the polling. 4. Prepare Questions Sure, you’ll earn credits by answering questions, but why not ask some yourself? Research your favorite speakers from the Excelerate =SUM(it) 2022 agenda. Think about what you want to know more about to assist you on your journey to personal, professional and business growth, and ask away—our speakers are waiting to hear from you. With more than 50 speakers—including three special guest luminaries, Microsoft MVPs, Vena experts, FP&A trailblazers from the Super Bowl-winning Kansas City Chiefs and LinkedIn influencers such as Paul Barnhurst (The FP&A Guy)—you’ll likely have questions, so start making some notes. 5. Grow Your Network and Connect Once Excelerate =SUM(it) 2022 has wrapped up, follow up with your favorite speakers, send LinkedIn invitations and email any burning questions you may have after the event. Excelerate =SUM(it) 2022 has been specially designed to facilitate virtual networking with a diverse community of finance, accounting, operations professionals and business leaders, but the networking opportunities will continue long after the event is over. Head over to Vena’s Plan To Grow forums, where you can create a profile and continue to grow your network, discover other attendees’ key takeaways, share your learnings and virtually meet other professionals who share your passion for finance, operations and business excellence. 6. Win Prizes Learn how to score points and win with those points—because who doesn’t love free stuff? There’s a chance to win cool tees, books from our special guest keynotes, board games, gift cards and other great prizes. The top prize is a Microsoft Surface Laptop Go! For the latest Excelerate =SUM(it) 2022 contests, games and swag news, follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram. 7. Don’t Forget To Disconnect Finally, just enjoy the moment. Whether you’re attending all 45 sessions or just a few, don’t forget to “disconnect” from regular life, your daily activities and devices to get the most value from this leading-edge virtual conference experience. Be truly present. Be in the moment. This is your chance to “be a student again” and elevate your skills—all from the comfort of your own working environment. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to continue your journey of lifelong learning while building lifelong connections. BONUS: Access Content Live and On-Demand The virtual environment at this year's Excelerate =SUM(it) will make it easy for you to access the insights you’re looking for and customize your own personal schedule for the week. Additionally, in order to make your virtual conference experience as comfortable and as convenient as possible, all sessions will be available on-demand to everyone who registers. We hope to see you at Excelerate =SUM(it) 2022. Here’s to your growth! Excelerate Your Growth Join 5,000+ professionals at Vena’s third annual virtual conference to excelerate your personal, professional and business growth.

“Learn continually. There’s always “one more thing” to learn.” —Steve Jobs   If you ask any seasoned business leader about the key to success in their roles, they’ll likely emphasize the importance of learning—and with good reason. According to Steve Jobs—American business magnate, industrial designer and veteran keynote speaker—no matter how much you think you know, there will always be more to discover. Acquiring knowledge will always push you to be better, and the pursuit of lifelong learning is never wasted. Lucky for us, in today’s digital world, learning and self-development is now easier than ever before. From webinars to podcasts and virtual events, there are an increasing number of new and innovative ways to help you sharpen your skills as the world of finance continues to evolve. With this “always learning” approach in mind, Vena is excited to be back with our third annual virtual conference next month, taking place live and on-demand from May 9–13—and with a new name to boot. New Year, New Name, New Things To Learn “Vena Nation” week is now "Excelerate =SUM(it)." We like to think of it as an homage to the universal language of finance—spreadsheets. So, what else is new this year? Well, first of all, this year it’s taking place from May 9–13. Excelerate =SUM(it) 2022 will double down on everything attendees have loved about Vena’s previous virtual conference experiences, but with more live and on-demand conversations, workshops, training, product demonstrations, thought leadership, games, prizes and opportunities to network with a community of 5,000+ like-minded professionals. Vena's Excelerate =SUM(it) has been uniquely designed to bring together attendees from around the globe, allowing them to hear stories of resilience and innovation, the ongoing evolution of FP&A, the transformation of operations and how businesses can continue to unite people, processes, technology and data.    Click here to FIND OUT what you can expect from Vena’s Excelerate =SUM(it) 2022     Secondly, for Vena’s customers and community of finance and operations professionals, there will be ample opportunities to connect with and gain insights from your network of peers, unite with other Excel nerds and earn CPE/CPD credits at live conversations, workshops and training sessions. Finally, Vena’s Excelerate =SUM(it) 2022 is all about enabling finance, operations and business professionals to connect, collaborate and excel together as we collectively continue to navigate these challenging times of global uncertainty. Attendees can expect world-class sessions and interactive workshops on the topics that matter most to them—including best practices for agile budgeting, forecasting, scenario modeling, workforce planning, strategic business partnering, change management and more. Last year we saw plenty of energy and engagement at the conference formerly known as “Vena Nation week”, but this year’s event promises to bring even more energy, even more insights, and even more inspiration. Excelerate =SUM(it): Keynote Speaker Highlights In case you haven’t already reserved your spot, this post will highlight just some of the world-renowned keynote speakers we have lined up to inspire you this year.  Without further ado, here’s a sneak peek at just three luminaries who are eagerly waiting to speak to you. Packed with enthusiasm and new ideas, each keynote session promises to deliver insights you can use to help drive creativity, resilience and agility within your organization.  Robert Cialdini, PhD New York Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today Bestselling Author, World-Renowned Psychologist and Keynote Speaker Keynote Title: The Science of Ethical Influence Date: Monday, May 9, 2022 at 11:30 AM ET Dr. Robert Cialdini has spent his entire career conducting scientific research on what leads people to say “yes” to requests. The results of his research, his ensuing articles and New York Times bestselling books have earned him an acclaimed reputation as a respected scientist and engaging storyteller. As a keynote speaker, Dr. Cialdini has earned a worldwide reputation for his ability to translate the science into valuable and practical actions. His on-stage stories are described as dramatic and indelible. For this reason, he’s frequently regarded as “The Godfather of Influence.” In his Excelerate =SUM(it) keynote presentation, Dr. Cialdini will share his tips and best practices for building credibility, developing trusted relationships and how to effectively break down barriers to growth. Dr. Cialdini is known globally as the foundational expert in the science of influence and how to apply it ethically in business. His Seven Principles of Persuasion have become a cornerstone for any organization serious about effectively increasing their influence. In acknowledgment of his outstanding research achievements and contributions in behavioral science, Dr. Cialdini was elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 2018 and the National Academy of Sciences in 2019. His books—including Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion and Pre-Suasion—have sold more than seven million copies in 44 different languages. Fortune Magazine lists Influence in their “75 Smartest Business Books.” Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion is a result of years of study into the reasons that people comply with requests in business settings. Priya Parker Strategic Advisor and Bestselling Author of The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why it Matters             Keynote Title: The Art of Gathering Time: Wednesday, May 11, 2022 at 11 AM ET Priya Parker is helping us take a deeper look at how anyone can create collective meaning in modern life, one gathering at a time. She is a facilitator, strategic advisor, acclaimed author of The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why it Matters and the host of the New York Times podcast “Together Apart”. Priya has spent 15 years helping leaders and communities have complicated conversations about community, identity and vision at moments of transition.  During Priya’s keynote on Wednesday, May 11, she’ll be sharing practical guidance on navigating hybrid work environments—including strategies to cultivate informality, build trust and stop feeling “over-Zoomed”. Expect to hear Priya’s speech in the format of an intimate fireside chat, complete with a lively Q&A session at the end.  Priya’s bestseller, The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters, has been named a business book of the year by Amazon, Esquire Magazine, NPR, the Financial Times and Bloomberg. Additionally, Priya has spoken on the TED Main Stage and her TEDx talk on “purpose” has been viewed over one million times.  Priya is also a founding member of the Sustained Dialogue Campus Network, a member of the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on New Models of Leadership, and a Senior Expert at Mobius Executive Leadership. She studied organizational design at M.I.T., public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School and political and social thought at the University of Virginia. Chris Voss Former FBI Lead Hostage Negotiator, Founder and CEO of The Black Swan Group Keynote Title: The Art of Negotiation Time: Friday, May 13, 2022, 12 PM ET Intrigued to hear what Chris has to share during his Excelerate =SUM(it) keynote speech? So are we. We can’t wait to hear what this expert negotiator and decorated FBI veteran has to share with us in his session, “The Art of Negotiation”, where you’ll learn how to move a conversation along, startle people in the right way, uncover what someone’s real motivation is, and why “yes” is the last thing you ever want to hear. Author of Never Split The Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It, Chris Voss has used his many years of experience in international crises and high-stakes negotiations to develop a unique program that applies these globally proven techniques to the business world. Prior to 2008, Chris was the lead international kidnapping negotiator for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, as well as the FBI’s hostage negotiation representative for the National Security Council’s Hostage Working Group. During his government career, he also represented the U.S. Government at two international conferences sponsored by the G8 as an expert in kidnapping. Additionally, Chris served as the lead Crisis Negotiator for the New York City Division of the FBI. During Chris’s 24-year tenure at the Bureau, he was trained in the art of negotiation by the FBI, Scotland Yard and Harvard Law School. He’s also a recipient of the Attorney General’s Award for Excellence in Law Enforcement and the FBI Agents Association Award for Distinguished and Exemplary Service. Chris has taught business negotiation in the MBA program as an adjunct professor at the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business and at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business. He’s also taught business negotiation at Harvard University, guest lectured at The Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, The IMD Business School in Lausanne, Switzerland and The Goethe School of Business in Frankfurt.    Want to check out the COMPLETE EXCELERATE =SUM(IT) 2022 agenda? Click here   Add Up to More, Together in 2022 With more than 50 speakers, 35+ live conversations, 30 on-demand sessions, 20 live and on-demand training workshops and product demonstrations, 10 keynotes and more—join us at Vena’s all-new Excelerate =SUM(it) for finance, operations professionals and business leaders.  Register for FREE today and prepare to sit back, relax, learn and enjoy the show—all while powering your personal, professional and business growth. Learning new FP&A skills doesn’t get any easier or more exciting than this. Excelerate Your Growth Join 5,000+ professionals at Vena’s third annual virtual conference to excelerate your personal, professional and business growth.

So you’re joining the world of banks and credit unions? If you’re a finance professional new to the industry, chances are you probably already have some ideas on how to build opportunities in your new business. From digital transformation to FP&A, CPM and scenario planning, banks and credit unions offer a lot of potential to financial professionals. While a risk-averse business by nature, new chances for innovation have emerged for the right finance leaders. But before you can jump in, there’s still a learning curve. Banks and credit unions can get lost in a deluge of data across core banking, GL, ERP, ALM, FTP and HRIS systems. That data needs to be integrated, reconciled and analyzed to showcase key figures such as NIM, ROA and ROE in various reports and plans for management, the SEC, IFRS and any other regulatory standards boards.  But first up: What does any of that even mean?  Keep reading for a primer on the statements, systems, rates, regulatory needs, planning and reporting methodologies and tools that are all a day-to-day part of working on a bank or credit union finance team. By the end of it, we hope you’ll be up to date on all of the big-money questions you have entering this new world. The Financial Statements Used in Banking Many of the financial statements used in banking are the same that corporations also use when reporting on revenues, expenses, assets, liabilities, equity and more. So there’s a good chance you’re already familiar with some of them, even if they may draw on slightly different data. Others are completely unique to the banking sector.  The following are some of the line items you can expect to find on a bank’s financial statements. Actuals Actuals are transactions that have occurred and are measured as the revenues coming in and costs going out. Actuals are not the budgeted or estimated amounts, but the actual revenues and costs being recorded at any given point in time. Net Interest Margin Net Interest Margin (NIM) is a measurement that helps banks understand if they are operating profitably by comparing the interest payments coming in and the interest payments going out. A positive NIM indicates profitability whereas a negative NIM is a red flag for investors because it shows the bank is paying more interest on products such as savings accounts than they are making in interest from products such as loans. Assets Under Management Assets Under Management (AUM) refers to the market value of assets managed by a bank or financial services firm on behalf of its clients. Depending on the financial institution, AUM may include bank deposits, investment products and other assets owned by their clients. Since bank fees may be related to Assets Under Management—such as when they are collected as a percentage of investment performance gains—AUM can be an important indicator of financial strength and profitability. Return on Assets Return on Assets (ROA)—calculated by dividing your total assets by net income—indicates how efficiently a bank is generating profits from existing assets. A bank with a higher ROA has made more using less. Return on Equity Return on Equity (ROE)—net income divided by shareholders’ equity—indicates how efficiently a bank is generating profits from existing equity (assets minus liabilities). This measure is similar to Return on Assets (ROA) except that ROE includes debts in the equation. Annualized Interest Rate An annualized interest rate estimates the rate of return on interest for the year based on a periodic rate, such as a monthly or quarterly rate. For example, if you receive a periodic monthly interest payment of 0.125% on your savings account and multiply that rate by 12, you get the annualized rate of 1.5%. Interest Revenue Banks make Interest Revenue by charging interest on borrowed funds, such as loans or mortgages. Interest Expenses Banks pay Interest Expenses to borrow money from depositors, such as when they pay you an interest rate on your savings account. Interest-Earning Assets Interest-Earning Assets are assets that produce income for banks—for example, loans, mortgages and lines of credit. Interest-Bearing Liabilities Interest-Bearing Liabilities are debts that cost money for banks to hold—for example, savings or checking accounts. Olympia Federal Savings and Vena Find out how Olympia Federal Savings cut their budget consolidation times in half with the help of Vena for Banks and Credit Unions. The Systems Banks Rely On Like many businesses today, banks and credit unions rely on a range of systems in order to run smoothly—each providing a source of financial and non-financial data that help finance teams strategize the best way forward (as long as they have a way to integrate that data). Again, some are unique to the banking and financial services industry, while others are the same systems you may have encountered elsewhere. Here are a few you may come across. Core Banking System The Core Banking System is the underlying backend technology that processes all "core" banking activities and transactions, such as new account creation, deposits, withdrawals, interest calculations and so on. General Ledger A General Ledger (GL) keeps track of all bank transactions and categorizes them into accounts, such as assets, liabilities, income, etc. Financial statements are created from the information in the general ledger. Asset Liability Management System Asset Liability Management (ALM) Systems calculate cashflows for individual interest-bearing loans and deposits. By properly managing cashflows, a bank can become more resilient to market changes. ALM frameworks, objectives, risk levels and regulatory constraints can vary between banks. Human Resource Information System A Human Resource Information System (HRIS) keeps track of human capital within the bank, including employee information, applicant tracking, payroll and benefits administration. Enterprise Resource Planning System An Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) System integrates data from a wide range of banking processes to improve cross-functional collaboration between departments, including planning, purchasing, marketing, customer service and human resources. Getting To Know Bank Rates A bank’s profitability is greatly influenced by a variety of rates that set the price for their key source of income—interest. The following are some of the rates that can greatly impact bank loans and their interest rates. Fund Transfer Pricing Rates Fund Transfer Pricing (FTP) is a methodology of assigning fund transfer charges to assets and funding credit to liabilities. FTP rates help determine how each source of funding contributes to the overall profitability of a bank. Banks often use specialized FTP software applications to calculate FTP rates. Interest Rate An Interest Rate is the amount a bank charges for borrowing funds, expressed as a percentage of the principal. A borrower is charged an interest rate based on their level of risk, usually derived from a credit score. Higher-risk borrowers pay higher interest rates. Prime Rate Prime Rate, also known as Prime Lending Rate and Prime Interest Rate, is the lowest interest rate that commercial banks can charge their lowest-risk (usually) corporate customers on loans. Interest rates for other loans, such as personal loans and mortgages, are based on the prime rate and adjusted based on risk. Base Rate Base Rate, also known as the Base Interest Rate or Bank Rate, is the interest rate that a central bank, such as the Federal Reserve, charges commercial banks for loans. If the central bank increases its base rate, commercial banks will increase their interest rates to make up for the increased cost of borrowing. Yield Curve A Yield Curve is a line graph that plots yields to maturity or interest rates across different contract lengths for similar debts and risk levels. The curve shows the relation between the interest rate and the time to maturity. A normal yield curve is upward sloping and shows that longer-term debts are associated with higher yields. Federal Funds Rate The Federal Funds Rate is the target interest rate used by commercial banks to borrow and lend excess reserves to each other overnight, as set by the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), a part of the Federal Reserve System. The Federal Funds Rate can impact short-term consumer loans as well as the stock market and is, therefore, an important influencer of U.S. markets. Accrued Interest Payable Accrued Interest Payable is the amount of interest that accumulates on a loan and gets added to the balance on the account. Accrued interest = (Daily Interest Rate) x (Days Interest Has Accrued) x (Account Balance). Basis Points A Basis Point is the smallest unit of measure for interest rate changes and other percentages in finance. One basis point is one-hundredth of 1%. It’s also known as: bp, bps, bips, beeps and points. ATB Financial and Vena Learn how Vena helped ATB Financial transform its entire budgeting and forecasting process in just three months. Planning and Reporting for the Banking Industry Finance professionals in the bank and credit union space rely on a mix of planning and reporting methodologies and tools that help them make informed decisions throughout every stage of the planning cycle. Some of these include the following: Product Margin Planning Product Margin Planning estimates the profit margins for different product categories at the bank, such as investment products and loan products. Run-On/Run-Off Planning Run-On/Run-Off planning is the planning of: The Run On: The increases in asset balances (through new business origination). The Run Off:  The decreases in asset balances (through prepayments, loan maturities, etc.). Variance Reporting Banks use Variance Reporting to compare budgets against actuals. The difference between the budget and actual result is the variance. Interest Rate Shock Impact Analysis Interest Rate Shock Impact Analysis is used to predict how a bank’s interest income, portfolio value and net asset value would react to sudden interest rate changes. Banking Regulatory Requirements Today’s banks are faced with strict regulatory requirements and need to comply with a variety of standards for all types of planning, budgeting and forecasting data sources. Understanding the regulations you need to comply with is critical if you’re joining a financial team in the banking industry. Here are some you should know: Securities and Exchange Commission The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is a federal regulatory agency designed to protect investors against fraudulent practices and other manipulative practices while maintaining the proper functioning of the securities markets. Call Reporting All commercial banks must file Consolidated Reports of Condition and Income ("Call Reporting") to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) at the end of each quarter to help bank regulatory agencies assess the condition, performance and risk profile of individual institutions as well as the broader industry. Conclusion Phew! There’s a lot to cover, but with an understanding of the unique workings of banks and credit unions, combined with your own financial know-how, we hope you feel ready to join the world of financial services and start putting your mark on it. We’ll be here encouraging you on as you do. Vena for Banks and Credit Unions Learn more about Vena for Banks and Credit Unions, a Complete Planning platform designed for the financial services industry.

MRR. ARR. CAC. Unicorns, pipelines and ACS 606. There’s a lot of new terminology that comes with joining a Software-as-a-Service team. Not surprisingly, the industry known colloquially as ‘SaaS’ has a language all its own.  After all, SaaS businesses are known to be fast paced and fast growing. And with a ton of pressure to grow fast, Software-as-a-Service companies have developed their own set of metrics and rules of thumb to drive success quickly. All of which comes with its own lingo, and means there’s a lot to catch up on—from the language to the key financials and KPIs. But there’s not a lot of time for a lengthy learning curve if you want to start adding value right away.  If you’re coming into SaaS for the first time, it might seem daunting. You want to start bringing your own financial prowess to the table as soon as possible and put your own financial planning best practices into place. And because they’re so fast growing, SaaS companies benefit from strong strategic planning and reporting, which makes your role even more critical. But it also means you need a quick way to prime yourself. Don’t worry—we’ve got you covered! Here’s a primer on everything you can expect when you join a SaaS finance team for the first time. Thomas International and Vena Learn how Thomas International built out their FP&A success with the help of Vena. Start with the Basics First things first: What’s so special about a SaaS business? And what makes one tick? While not all of them are unique to SaaS, here are a few basic terms you may hear thrown around the Zoom call your first day on the job. Bonus points if you use one yourself when you start discussing SaaS companies and the recurring revenue model they rely on: Subscription Software Revenue Unlike the one-time fee you might pay for most of the products you buy, SaaS is based around Subscription Software Revenue. Collected as recurring revenue, it’s paid over time based on a long-term contract. That makes it predictable and ongoing, lasting until the subscription term ends (at which time, it may be renewed) or a customer cancels their subscription. Subscriber Count Subscriber count tracks the number of SaaS customers on recurring-revenue plans. Pipeline A sales pipeline helps SaaS companies visualize the journey they take prospective buyers through on their way from initial brand awareness to final sale and further on, to retention. Unicorn A unicorn is a company with a valuation of $1 billion or more. What Are the Key Financials of a SaaS Business? Subscription-based businesses collecting recurring revenue have some unique ways of slicing and dicing revenue numbers for their various reporting needs. To make your mark in the world of SaaS finance, you should understand those revenue numbers. Monthly Recurring Revenue Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) is the value of all SaaS subscriptions stated as a monthly recurring amount. Companies will generally use either MRR or Annual Recurring Revenue (below) depending on a range of factors, including contract length, investor interest and whether they take a short- or long-term view. Annual Recurring Revenue Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) is the value of SaaS subscriptions stated as a yearly recurring amount—even though the subscription price may be set at a monthly, quarterly or annual price. For example, the value of all monthly subscription rates multiplied by 12 would be one way to calculate ARR. ARR and MRR at a Glance New ARR / New MRR: New ARR/MRR is the total amount of ARR/MRR sold to new customers in a specified period of time. Expansion ARR / Expansion MRR: Expansion ARR/MRR calculates the recurring revenue that can be attributed exclusively to upsells and upgrades to existing customers. ARR / MRR Churn: Your churn rate looks at the revenue (displayed as either a percentage or value) you’ve lost due to churning customers over a specific period of time. Net ARR / Net MRR: Net ARR/Net MRR adds your New ARR/MRR to your Expansion ARR/MRR and subtracts any revenue lost from churn or downgrades. Committed ARR / Committed MRR: Committed ARR/MRR (or CARR/CMRR) factors any known bookings or cancellations into your ARR/MRR equation—factoring known new subscriptions and known subscription churn into the ARR/MRR equation by adding them to your actual numbers. How Do SaaS Businesses Measure Success? To maintain and grow subscribers, SaaS companies use a number of KPIs to measure the success and efficiency of their business. These are often key business drivers that factor into bottom-up planning activities and help project operational and financial objectives. These include: Customer Acquisition Cost Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) is the cost of acquiring a customer, including sales, marketing, etc. It’s usually calculated as such: Sales Costs + Marketing Costs / Number of New Customers. Lifetime Value/Customer Lifetime Value Lifetime Value (LTV) (otherwise known as Customer LTV) is the average revenue earned from individual customer relationships, spanning from the moment a customer signs to the moment they churn. LTV-to-CAC Ratio The LTV-to-CAC ratio compares the customer lifetime value (LTV) to the cost of customer acquisition (CAC) in order to better understand the cost of growth. If the LTV:CAC ratio is too low, it’s costing too much to acquire a customer. If it’s too high, not enough is being spent to accelerate growth. CAC Payback Period The CAC Payback Period (also known as the Months to Recover CAC) is the amount of time it takes to recover the cost of acquiring a customer. Average Cost of Service Average cost of service takes into account the total sum of all the expenses a SaaS company takes on to support customers over a period of time—including customer support, account management and even technical support costs such as hosting and R&D amortization—and then divides it by the number of customers to get the average. Average Revenue Per Unit Average revenue per unit (ARPU) measures your average revenue per user (or unit) over a specific amount of time. That allows you to see your growth potential on a per-customer level—something that’s important if you want to model your revenue generation capacities for both the long- and short-terms and identify trends in specific customer segments. Gross Revenue Retention Rate Your Gross Revenue Retention Rate (or Gross Renewal Rate) calculates the amount of recurring revenue (expressed as a percentage) that you’ve retained from existing customers during a specified period of time—factoring in cancellations and downgrades, but not expansion revenue. Customer Retention Since holding onto your existing customers is much easier than acquiring new ones, customer retention is an important way of determining the health of a SaaS business. It refers to the number of customers your company retains over a given period of time and can be calculated by dividing the number of currently active users with the number of active users you had at the start of a specified time period. Watching customer retention closely can help you better understand customer lifetime value and tell you when your marketing or customer strategies may need tweaking. Customer Satisfaction Score The Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) helps SaaS companies assess how satisfied customers are with a product or service, often measured with a quick survey question, such as “How would you rate your experience with us?”. Sprout Social and Vena Find out how Sprout Social broke down their data silos and cut their monthly reporting time with the help of Vena for SaaS. What Systems Does SaaS Rely On? To understand the full picture, SaaS teams need to combine and consider leading and lagging indicators from source systems across the entire company. While many of those aren’t unique to SaaS, some of the core systems this specific industry rely on include the following. Enterprise Resource Planning System An Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system integrates data from a wide range of business processes to improve day-to-day activities such as project management, accounting and supply chain management, as well as cross-functional collaboration between departments, including finance, sales, marketing, customer success, human resources and so on. General Ledger A General Ledger (GL) keeps track of all company transactions and categorizes them into accounts, such as assets, liabilities, income, etc. Financial statements are created from the information in the general ledger. Customer Relationship Management System A Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system keeps track of customer and prospect data, such as contact information, sales history and marketing interactions, to create a 360-degree view of the customer. Human Resource Information System A human resource information system (HRIS) keeps track of human capital, including employee information, applicant tracking, payroll, benefits administration and so on. Planning, Forecasting and Reporting for SaaS If you’re planning, forecasting or reporting for a Software-as-a-Service business, you’ll likely be drawing on data from all of the systems above, to identify growth opportunities and provide insights into the business. An understanding of the following processes will help. Gross Margin Planning Gross margin planning involves forecasting revenues and costs to assess the future outlook of revenue retention and funds available for scaling growth. Revenue Recognition Determining when revenues are officially earned can be complex for subscription-based businesses, since recurring revenue has the potential to be canceled, upgraded or downgraded throughout the contracted period. Subscription revenue recognition—as outlined in the Generally Accepted Accounting Principle (GAAP)—accounts for this, splitting up revenue based on the performance obligations of the SaaS provider in the following way: Deferred Revenue: Revenue is deferred when cash has been received but service obligations have not yet been fulfilled. If you charge $1,200 for a yearly subscription of your SaaS product, for instance, but only receive $100 per month, just that $100 can be recognized as income on a month-to-month basis—even if you’ve been paid upfront. Accrued/Unbilled Revenue: Revenue is accrued when service obligations have been fulfilled but services have not been billed for yet. If you charge at the end of the month, for example, that unbilled revenue is considered a receivable or asset until your customer is billed. ASC 606 ASC 606 is the revenue recognition standard SaaS companies must comply with, developed by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and International Accounting Standards Board (IASB). Conclusion Once you’ve got the lingo down and understand everything that makes it unique, Software-as-a-Service is an exciting, fast-paced place to be (we would know!). And to help them thrive in a competitive business, SaaS companies are ripe for the type of strategic wisdom the best financial professionals bring to the job. We’re confident you’ve got that covered! Vena for SaaS Simplify your reporting and financial planning with tools designed specifically for Software-as-a-Service.