Microsoft Excel and Power BI are two of the business world’s most used and most powerful data analytics tools. Today, you’d be hard pressed to find a business that doesn’t use Excel in some capacity, and Power BI owns more than a third of the data analytics market. In the FP&A world, debate rages on about which tool is better and in this guide, we’ll get to the bottom of it (spoiler alert: the answer is both). First, we’ll cover features of Excel vs. Power BI in seven key areas. Then, we’ll dive into how you can leverage both tools as complementary solutions that enable data-driven processes and decision making across your organization. 💡Key Takeaways:   Power BI offers greater capabilities for data visualization and sharing. Excel allows for more flexibility around data manipulation. Excel is best for tabular reporting used often by FP&A professionals. Power BI offers automation and alert options not possible in Excel. Organizations don’t have to choose between Excel vs. Power BI, and the best strategy is to use both programs as complementary tools. Excel vs. Power BI: How They Compare in 7 Key Areas 1. Data Size If we’re talking winners, Power BI comes out on top here. It has a much larger capacity for handling large datasets than Excel, and it can connect to multiple data sources to automate the collection and analysis of separate datasets in a centralized place. Excel, on the other hand, is more limited in its ability to integrate with other data sources and has no standalone automation capabilities. 2. Data Manipulation This one’s a win for Excel. It offers greater flexibility to manipulate data in a variety of formats, perform searches, do calculations and apply mathematical formulas. While Power BI offers powerful visualizations and sophisticated analysis capabilities, actual data is much more static once it’s on the platform. This video outlines some of the most important formulas business and finance professionals can use to manipulate and analyze data in Excel, VLookup and XLookup: 3. Data Sharing Power BI’s cloud-based platform and report publishing capabilities give it the edge over Excel when it comes to data sharing. Excel also requires sharing the actual source data along with dashboards and visualizations, while Power BI allows easy sharing of reports separate from their original data. Power BI also offers the huge advantage of real-time visibility (more on that later) and shared dashboards for anytime data accessibility. 4. Data Visualization Data visualization has become an essential capability for contextualizing data and powering greater organizational data literacy—the ability to use data insights to make decisions. Excel and Power BI are both designed to empower data visualization, but if we’re really comparing, Power BI is a clear winner. The options for visualizing data are simply much greater and combined with its ability to collect data across sources, Power BI can support a much wider range of datasets and types of analyses. Power BI also allows you to add custom third-party visuals through its marketplace feature, while Excel is limited to its internal program options. Here’s a helpful walkthrough of some powerful Power BI visualizations that go beyond the capabilities you’ll find in Excel: 5. Tabular Reporting  Excel is the ideal tool for tabular reporting, a common format used in FP&A. While Power BI has some tabular capabilities, they’re much more limited and less flexible than what you can do in Excel.  Plus, given that tabular is Excel’s primary format, it’s the most sensible tool to use if you’re doing a strictly tabular analysis and/or prefer to view your data that way. 6. Automation and Alerts Automation has become an essential part of doing business—it’s required to keep up with the sheer amount of data companies now use on a daily basis and the increasingly rapid pace of business operations. Excel, as we’ve mentioned, is quite limited in its automation and alert capabilities. Power BI, on the other hand, executes automatic updates when source data changes and can send automatic, custom-set alerts about changes to important KPIs and metrics. 7. Shared Visibility Power BI comes out on top when it comes to shared visibility—and this is one of the reasons it has become such an essential tool for businesses in every industry. Especially given the rise of remote and hybrid work in recent years, organizations need a cloud-based platform where employees and stakeholders can view shared data in real time. Furthermore, shared visibility of critical data builds common understanding across finance and FP&A teams, as well as other business units, which powers a culture of greater collaboration across the organization. So Which Is Better for Your Business? This is a question we hear all the time from clients and one that you’ve probably heard too as an FP&A professional. Most often, it comes in the following form: “Is Power BI better than Excel?” While we’re not surprised with the question—Power BI certainly aligns more with trends such as cloud operations, AI and use of data visualizations—it’s important to note that Power BI and Excel do not have to compete. In other words: You don’t have to choose one or the other.  In fact, smart FP&A teams use both tools in a complementary way. For example, you can leverage data manipulation capabilities in Excel, then upload your datasets to create powerful visualizations in Power BI. You can use Excel for tabular reporting, then view multiple worksheets in a single interface in Power BI. Finally, you can use a complete planning platform, such as Vena, to access both of these tools (and others) in totally seamless, integrated ways for powerful analysis.  Did you find this comparison helpful? If so, you might enjoy this related content: How To Create a Dashboard for Power BI in 10 Minutes 5 Advantages of Excel With Microsoft 365 Advanced Power BI Features in Vena: 6 AI Tools You Need To Try  

Modern finance needs modern tools.  To empower finance teams today, this means implementing a financial planning and analysis (FP&A) platform that delivers. But what exactly should you be looking for to keep your business on track? As the heartbeat of financial planning and business analysis, FP&A processes are critical to organizations today—keeping your business running smoothly by enabling planning, forecasting and analysis. But to drive invaluable data-driven decision making and ensure your team has everything they need to thrive, those FP&A processes must rely on a financial platform that’s powerful, function rich and intuitive to use. So how do the current FP&A solutions on the market measure up? How do you know which one is the best for your business needs?  Keep reading for an overview of seven of the top FP&A and financial planning software tools on the market—and the pros and cons of each. What Is Financial Planning and Analysis (FP&A)? Financial planning and analysis (FP&A) comprises the planning, budgeting, forecasting and analytical processes that together support your organization’s business and financial decision making. Through cross-functional analysis, it helps you build your future goals, measure ongoing financial performance and forecast upcoming results.  To achieve all of that, modern FP&A teams rely on financial planning software. Gartner defines financial planning software as “a key tool that enables organizations to manage their enterprise-wide financial planning, forecasting and budgeting process.” It empowers businesses to “plan and analyze business financial strategy for the organization across all three financial statements (profit and loss, balance sheet and cash flow).” Typically, financial planning software also supports scenario modeling, collaboration, analytics, budgeting and performance reporting.  Let’s dig a little deeper into FP&A and how to choose a financial planning software that truly supports it. How Do You Do FP&A? As strategic partners to the entire business, FP&A teams are responsible for communicating and collaborating across departments. That means collecting company-wide data to fuel organization-wide planning,  look ahead and contribute to strategic decision making. It also means making informed financial decisions to ensure your business continues to thrive. Several key duties are taken on by the FP&A team, including: Analyzing assets, investments and your current return on investment (ROI) Deciding how to use cash flow Calculating key financial ratios to determine financial health Analyzing your products and services to see where the most net profit is made and which products have the highest and lowest profit margins Determining the cost efficiency of each department and whether resources are allocated in the best possible way—and working with those departments to build effective budgets Reporting to leadership and building out the financial models and forecasts that support their ongoing decision making Comparing budgets and forecasts against historical results, mapping out growth plans and looking for expansion opportunities To build efficiencies into the key processes that support those duties, organizations need an FP&A platform that fits their needs. How To Choose the Best FP&A Platform To empower your FP&A processes, you require a technology platform that will drive confident and connected decision making and ensure business-wide accountability. One that offers data analytics, guides business intelligence, lets you share actionable and scalable insights across your organization and drives strategic business planning and up-to-the-minute analysis. To achieve that, your financial planning platform should have:  Powerful BI cloud and AI capabilities Access to real-time analytics at scale  Functionality that drives operational alignment and accountability  Collaboration tools that let you share insights across cross-functional teams  Multidimensional modeling and scenario analysis capabilities Unified data control and security to ensure your data is protected An intuitive, easy-to-use interface  Ultimately, the tool you choose should connect your data, be intuitive for users and stay scalable to your business needs—letting you remain agile and proactive as you continue to grow. The Best FP&A and Financial Planning Software 1. Vena An out-of-the-box, no-code solution, Vena’s FP&A platform brings your financial and operational data to life with interactive visualizations that improve the way your teams communicate, collaborate and find creative solutions to complex business problems.   Vena empowers confident and connected decision making and business-wide accountability. It makes it easy to share actionable, scalable, AI-driven business insights and empowers strategic planning and agility at every level with guided business intelligence. And with extensible APIs, native integrations and multidimensional modeling capabilities, Vena enables you to go from data readiness to deep insights to peak business performance in an instant—all within a secure, complete planning platform. Key Functionality and What Makes Vena Easy To Use Built around a familiar Microsoft Excel foundation, Vena is flexible and intuitive, empowering FP&A teams to: Enhance strategic decision making, with self-serve access to data analytics and instant AI-powered insights using configurable dashboards that answer critical business questions, find creative solutions to complex problems and power proactive decision making Drive operational alignment and accountability, to easily communicate the impact of investment decisions, enhance visibility into business performance and help teams determine what drivers they need to focus on to optimize operations with effective data management and easy-to-understand visualizations Future-proof analytics and insights by leveraging out-of-the-box embedded and guided business intelligence, with instant access to Microsoft’s ongoing artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) updates Centralize data in a secure environment, with unified data control and security, including sensitivity labeling, end-to-end encryption and real-time access monitoring Empower cross-departmental collaboration, enhancing the visibility of business performance and supporting communication to all stakeholders Vena’s Complete Planning solution is self-service, secure and interactive—connecting teams, enabling collaboration and facilitating data-driven cultures. All with Excel at the core, meaning you don’t have to abandon the tools you’re comfortable with in order to scale.    Vena Native Microsoft Excel User Interface Offers a native Excel experience, including all formatting and custom formulas ✅ Collaboration and Sharing Lets you collaborate, tag and comment directly in Excel ✅ Central Database Provides a unified solution that’s centrally architected and designed to support minimal system maintenance ✅ Integrations Offers native API integrations to industry standard systems (GL/ERP/CRM) as well as publicly available API integration to hundreds of additional source systems ✅ Process Management Includes flexible and visual workflows for all input, business rules, review and reporting tasks across any process ✅ Security and Compliance Provides a single, integrated security model with auditability ✅ Modeling Offers integrated and common data models for financial and operational forecasting, budgeting and reporting  ✅ Microsoft Power BI Embedded Has natively built reporting and insights with an industry-leading business intelligence tool ✅   Want to see Vena in action? Sign up for a 7-day Vena Preview. 2. Planful Used to streamline business-wide planning, consolidation, reporting and visual analytics, Planful lets you see performance data at scale, automate, improve reporting and align planning processes. Their financial performance management software is meant largely for bigger FP&A teams and CFOs looking to streamline their planning efforts.  Key Functionality and What Planful Does Well: Offers collaboration and sharing tools with a web-based user interface Adheres to common security and compliance requirements Provides consistent and customizable financial reporting  Planful Weaknesses: Fragmented platform and disconnected planning and reporting, mixing legacy database technology with different database for dynamic planning Challenging to maintain, requiring significant IT and technical support Data modeling is complex and challenging to configure Requires third-party technology for full breadth of FP&A and financial close processes Limited Excel add-in, with no way to easily export live reports into Excel.  Does not support Mac operating systems How Does Vena Compare With Planful?   Planful Native Microsoft Excel User Interface Offers a native Excel experience, including all formatting and custom formulas ⚠️ Collaboration and Sharing Lets you collaborate, tag and comment directly in Excel ✅ Central Database Provides a unified solution that’s centrally architected and designed to support minimal system maintenance 🆇 Integrations Offers native API integrations to industry standard systems (GL/ERP/CRM) as well as publicly available API integration to hundreds of additional source systems ✅ Process Management Includes flexible and visual workflows for all input, business rules, review and reporting tasks across any process 🆇 Security and Compliance Provides a single, integrated security model with auditability ✅ Modeling Offers integrated and common data models for financial and operational forecasting, budgeting and reporting  ⚠️ Microsoft Power BI Embedded Has natively built reporting and insights with an industry-leading business intelligence tool 🆇 3. Anaplan Anaplan is a web-based, enterprise-level business modeling and planning platform. It serves multiple areas across the business, including finance, marketing, sales, supply chain and workforce management. Anaplan offers forecasting and scenario modeling capabilities, with real-time access to data and collaboration capabilities.  Key Functionality and What Anaplan Does Well: Can be scaled across the organization Supports complex calculations Is highly customizable to accommodate multiple use cases Anaplan Weaknesses: Steep learning curve for modeling and configuration Configuration solutions can be complex and challenging to maintain There are no pre-configured starter models Modeling is complex and difficult to use and maintain How Does Vena Compare With Anaplan?   Anaplan Native Microsoft Excel User Interface Offers a native Excel experience, including all formatting and custom formulas  🆇 Collaboration and Sharing Lets you collaborate, tag and comment directly in Excel  ⚠️ Central Database Provides a unified solution that’s centrally architected and designed to support minimal system maintenance ⚠️ Integrations Offers native API integrations to industry standard systems (GL/ERP/CRM) as well as publicly available API integration to hundreds of additional source systems  ✅ Process Management Includes flexible and visual workflows for all input, business rules, review and reporting tasks across any process 🆇 Security and Compliance Provides a single, integrated security model with auditability ✅ Modeling Offers integrated and common data models for financial and operational forecasting, budgeting and reporting  ✅ Microsoft Power BI Embedded Has natively built reporting and insights with an industry-leading business intelligence tool ⚠️ 4. Prophix Prophix’s corporate performance management (CPM) software is designed mostly for finance teams at mid-market organizations. It improves profitability and minimizes risk by automating budgeting, forecasting, reporting and consolidation-to-close processes for better decision making. Prophix is available in the cloud or on premise. Key Functionality and What Prophix Does Well: Supports multiple use cases Makes it easy to build custom reports Has 20+ years of category and industry experience Prophix Weaknesses: Limited Microsoft Excel integration Weak business intelligence and machine learning integrations or tools Template creation is cumbersome and difficult to use The combination of cloud and on-premise deployments are not at feature parity Rigid and inflexible workflow, not adaptable for different business processes How Does Vena Compare With Prophix?    Prophix Native Microsoft Excel User Interface Offers a native Excel experience, including all formatting and custom formulas ⚠️ Collaboration and Sharing Lets you collaborate, tag and comment directly in Excel ⚠️ Central Database Provides a unified solution that’s centrally architected and designed to support minimal system maintenance ✅ Integrations Offers native API integrations to industry standard systems (GL/ERP/CRM) as well as publicly available API integration to hundreds of additional source systems ⚠️ Process Management Includes flexible and visual workflows for all input, business rules, review and reporting tasks across any process ⚠️ Security and Compliance Provides a single, integrated security model with auditability ✅ Modeling Offers integrated and common data models for financial and operational forecasting, budgeting and reporting  ⚠️ Microsoft Power BI Embedded Has natively built reporting and insights with an industry-leading business intelligence tool 🆇 5. Workday Adaptive Planning Workday Adaptive Planning is an enterprise planning and analysis solution designed to empower collaboration, insights and agility. It offers modeling and analytics functionality for organizations of all sizes, with customizable offerings for different use cases.  Key Functionality and What Workday Adaptive Planning Does Well: Has brand recognition and a large customer base Is customizable to certain use cases, including workforce planning, sales planning and financial planning Offers flexibility to create sheets and views based on the needs of business users Workday Adaptive Planning Weaknesses: Not a native Microsoft Excel integration, but instead uses proprietary modeling and formula language Has a steep learning curve, with weak support and implementation services Has performance issues and system limitations   How Does Vena Compare With Workday Adaptive Planning?   Adaptive Native Microsoft Excel User Interface Offers a native Excel experience, including all formatting and custom formulas 🆇 Collaboration and Sharing Lets you collaborate, tag and comment directly in Excel ⚠️ Central Database Provides a unified solution that’s centrally architected and designed to support minimal system maintenance ⚠️ Integrations Offers native API integrations to industry standard systems (GL/ERP/CRM) as well as publicly available API integration to hundreds of additional source systems ⚠️ Process Management Includes flexible and visual workflows for all input, business rules, review and reporting tasks across any process ⚠️ Security and Compliance Provides a single, integrated security model with auditability ✅ Modeling Offers integrated and common data models for financial and operational forecasting, budgeting and reporting  ⚠️ Microsoft Power BI Embedded Has natively built reporting and insights with an industry-leading business intelligence tool 🆇 6. Datarails Datarails is a financial planning and analysis platform that offers automation, visualization and consolidation capabilities. Finance teams can benefit from the spreadsheets and financial models of Excel while automating their financial reporting and planning. Key Functionality and What Datarails Does Well: Offers a low-cost option that makes it a good starter solution Offers a point solution for financial budgeting, planning and reporting Connects to Microsoft Excel using legacy desktop ribbon technology Datarails Weaknesses: Does not support extended, scalable planning use cases beyond traditional financial budgeting, planning and reporting Flexibility and modeling is difficult and requires Datarails support to aid in setup and maintenance The product is in development and has performance issues, with key features and capabilities missing The Excel add-in requires installation How Does Vena Compare With Datarails?   Datarails Native Microsoft Excel User Interface Offers a native Excel experience, including all formatting and custom formulas ✅ Collaboration and Sharing Lets you collaborate, tag and comment directly in Excel ⚠️ Central Database Provides a unified solution that’s centrally architected and designed to support minimal system maintenance ✅ Integrations Offers native API integrations to industry standard systems (GL/ERP/CRM) as well as publicly available API integration to hundreds of additional source systems 🆇 Process Management Includes flexible and visual workflows for all input, business rules, review and reporting tasks across any process 🆇 Security and Compliance Provides a single, integrated security model with auditability ⚠️ Modeling Offers integrated and common data models for financial and operational forecasting, budgeting and reporting  ⚠️ Microsoft Power BI Embedded Has natively built reporting and insights with an industry-leading business intelligence tool 🆇 7. Cube Cube is an FP&A platform that provides real-time financial and operational data access. It enables strategic planning, reporting and analysis within a spreadsheet environment, with flexible use cases across functions. Key Functionality and What Cube Does Well: A niche FP&A solution, it lets you get started fairly quickly Provides customizability and flexibility Offers top-rated customer service and support Cube Weaknesses: Has limited security with no way to restrict what users can access The product is relatively newer and immature technology, with a limited feature set and functionality that's still lacking There are modeling limitations, with a limited number of dimensions your organization can have How Does Vena Compare to Cube?   Cube Native Microsoft Excel User Interface Offers a native Excel experience, including all formatting and custom formulas ✅ Collaboration and Sharing Lets you collaborate, tag and comment directly in Excel ✅ Central Database Provides a unified solution that’s centrally architected and designed to support minimal system maintenance ⚠️ Integrations Offers native API integrations to industry standard systems (GL/ERP/CRM) as well as publicly available API integration to hundreds of additional source systems ⚠️ Process Management Includes flexible and visual workflows for all input, business rules, review and reporting tasks across any process 🆇 Security and Compliance Provides a single, integrated security model with auditability ⚠️ Modeling Offers integrated and common data models for financial and operational forecasting, budgeting and reporting  🆇 Microsoft Power BI Embedded Has natively built reporting and insights with an industry-leading business intelligence tool 🆇 Conclusion To get the most out of your FP&A team and processes, you need a financial planning platform that will enable those processes, empower your team and help you exceed your business goals.  That makes choosing the right solution crucial. Understanding what you hope to achieve, the functionality you need to accomplish those goals and the learning curve to expect for your team should all play a part in making that decision. From there, it’s all about carefully comparing the pros and cons to make sure you get the solution that best meets all your needs—then putting your new platform to use to make your organization’s objectives a reality. Frequently Asked Questions What should I look for in FP&A tools? What you should look for in your FP&A tools depends on your most pressing needs and the planning processes you have in place. You should also consider your people and the change involved in bringing in any new technology investment. Look for a familiar, flexible interface that lets your team stay agile and proactive, is scalable as your business grows and connects your data for more informed analysis and decision making. Automation, collaboration and visualization functionality are also key if you hope to fully empower your FP&A team. What does FP&A software do? Gartner says financial planning and analysis (FP&A) software supports “the office of finance’s budgeting, planning and forecasting efforts. Many also supplement the office’s budgeting and planning process support with modeling, collaboration analytics and performance-reporting capabilities, to increase its ability to manage performance by linking corporate strategy and execution.” It empowers you to better understand your business’s overall financial health, look ahead to make better decisions for the future and collaborate on budgeting and planning. What is xP&A and how is extended planning different from FP&A? According to Gartner, extended planning and analysis (xP&A) “extends” traditional FP&A solutions focused solely on finance into other planning domains—such as workforce planning, sales, operations and marketing. Solutions that enable xP&A help organizations exploit the challenges faced when introducing new cloud-based business processes and navigating economic uncertainties. In other words, this tech-powered planning approach enables finance teams to build agility, resilience and alignment into financial, strategic and operational planning. What other solutions does Vena provide? Vena offers solutions across FP&A, sales performance management and financial close management. We also have pre-configured industry solutions designed specifically for banking and credit unions, SaaS, insurance, manufacturing, real estate, hotel and lodging, higher education, healthcare, professional sports, not for profit and professional services.  

Account reconciliation periods are notorious for being stressful, time consuming and full of unexpected surprises. But in today’s technology-driven business landscape, this doesn’t have to be the case.  With the right tools, processes and approaches, you can execute an account reconciliation process that’s built on automation and high levels of collaboration across your finance team. In this blog, we’ll provide actionable solutions to some of the most common reconciliation challenges companies face today. 💡Key Takeaways: Manual account reconciliation processes can no longer keep up with data volume or the pace of business. That’s why automating account reconciliation through cloud-based solutions is essential. Excel is a powerful tool, but siloed spreadsheets lead to data inconsistencies and too much time spent collecting and combining data versus actually analyzing it. Cloud-based planning solutions provide a single source of truth for your finance team throughout the reconciliation process, with shared interfaces that encourage collaboration.  5 Account Reconciliation Process Challenges (and How To Solve Them)  1. Manual Processes Slowing You Down Finance teams handle a lot of data. This presents a particular challenge for account reconciliation because of the disparate nature of the data sources finance teams must pull from to close, including the GL as well as sub-ledgers such as accounts receivable, accounts payable, fixed assets and more.  When these live in separate systems and spreadsheets, the data collection process is time consuming, difficult and riddled with manual, error-prone processes.  For financial reporting, this simply isn’t an option. Manually updating data in your templates leads to incomplete reporting and inaccurate forecasting. Not to mention, it significantly slows the account reconciliation and period-end close processes as your teams search for missing information. Research confirms how critical this challenge can be. According to SAPinsider’s most recent Financial Close Transformation Benchmark Report, 75% of finance professionals rated more unified data and automated reconciliations their companies’ top current priorities to drive transformation and improvement. The Solution: Integrating GL and Sub-Ledger Data in One System SAPinsider also found that improving efficiencies, eliminating manual and spreadsheet-heavy tasks and consolidating financial operations into a single system are the top actions companies are taking to transform their overall finance and accounting functionality.   Image Source: SAP Insider With a cloud-based solution that seamlessly integrates with your GL and sub-ledgers, your workflows can be largely automated, data can easily be pulled from multiple sources and centralized and inefficiencies can be eliminated from your processes. Cloud-based financial close management solutions enable you to streamline data flow across your organization and eliminate the manual processes that slow your account reconciliation process down. A faster close also powers more active planning, so you’ll depend less on stressful quarterly reconciliations and more on collaborative, updated numbers and plans. 2. You’re Stuck on Spreadsheets Excel is a powerful tool for finance teams, but an over-reliance on siloed spreadsheets leads to data inconsistencies, time-consuming cross-checking and stressful account reconciliation. In fact, the average FP&A professional spends 75% of their time collecting data and only 25% performing actual analysis that adds value for their organization. This translates to scrambling during reconciliation periods, employee burnout and excessive labor costs for organizations. The Solution: Automated Data Entry Automating data entry with a cloud-based financial management solution eliminates the need to collect and combine data in the eleventh hour. These solutions can pull data from multiple data sources and spreadsheets, streamline formats and centralize everything in a shared database so it’s visible for everyone who needs it during the account reconciliation process. Instead of manually updating your actuals on all your spreadsheets, you’ll be able to spend more time analyzing your accounts and making observations. 3.  Missed Deadlines One missed deadline can create bottlenecks throughout your entire account reconciliation process and make it impossible for other employees to move forward. In reality, enterprises deal with way more than one missed deadline at any given time, which undoubtedly leads to frustration and delays in getting to close. What’s more, those delays have a cascading effect on your processes that depend on having actuals, such as creating forecasts and monitoring the business’s performance. The Solution: Visible Policies, Procedures and Updates Drive accountability across your organization by documenting policies and procedures and sharing them with every employee that touches the account reconciliation process. Keep them visible in shared repositories and detail who is responsible for completing which steps in practice. Leverage comprehensive financial close management solutions that can manage workflows and assign tasks for you and show real-time views into progress updates across teams and departments. Avoid the perception of micromanagement by emphasizing ownership for each employee over their individual responsibilities. Focus on how the completion of individual work contributes to larger company success and celebrate milestones and small wins along the way to build culture and morale. 4. Inconsistent Processes Allowing employees to follow “their own ways” of doing things can have a ripple effect that leads to larger inconsistent processes that fight against each other rather than work together to complete account reconciliation. Often, these inconsistencies begin with leaders who have preferred ways of running their teams or departments. This problem leads to the risk of missed data, gaps in the reconciliation process and ultimately, inaccurate numbers, plans and forecasts that could result in poorly-informed decisions. The Solution: Standardized Templates and Frameworks Use standardized templates for various types of reconciliations to ensure consistency over time and across teams. Look for a financial close management solution that can create and automatically update these templates for you and make them available to all your team members through the cloud. 5. Varied Truths When teams operate in silos, they often have varied views of your organization’s financial and data “truth” at any given time. When people are operating and making decisions based on inconsistent views, this puts your business’s financial state at risk. Silos also stifle collaboration by hindering shared understanding across your finance teams and with business leaders and teams in other parts of your company. The Solution: Version Control Through Financial Systems Integration Cloud-based financial close management solutions provide a single source of truth that everyone on your finance team can utilize to make decisions and reconcile accounts. You can use permissions and access controls to ensure that the right people are able to edit and update particular datasets and dashboards, while still allowing them to be visible to larger teams. This takes the guesswork out of version control, a common challenge created by traditional financial close management processes. With a fully integrated, cloud-based solution, data automatically updates in one centralized place, so you know you’re looking at the most up-to-date version of every report. As a result, your team gains a single, shared understanding of your company’s current financial state. They can also make better decisions and work more seamlessly together to achieve shared goals—such as on-time account reconciliation. Final Thoughts: The Cloud Imperative for Account Reconciliation There’s one primary theme that’s clear across the account reconciliation challenges we’ve covered—the need for automated cloud-based solutions. Given the decentralized nature of operations due to remote and hybrid work environments, cloud-based tools are no longer a nice-to-have but an essential key to business success. As the above account reconciliation challenges and solutions have demonstrated, finance is no exception to this reality. Taking the manual data consolidation out of account reconciliation with automation empowers your finance teams to move past administrative work and to spend more time investigating exceptions and performing value-adding analysis. As a result, you’ll drive greater agility and better decision making. Achieve Faster Account Reconciliations With Vena Vena for Account Reconciliation gives you the shared platform you need to execute an efficient, accurate and collaborative account reconciliation process. Start your free 7-day trial today to explore firsthand how Vena can help you close faster and produce more accurate financial reports. Did you find this article helpful? If so, you’ll also enjoy this related content: The Ultimate Guide to Account Reconciliation 4 Steps To Close Faster With Account Reconciliations in Vena How To Create a Bank Reconciliation Template in Vena

Bank reconciliation is a time-consuming process often prone to human errors. When you compare bank account balances with the organization's books, these figures need to match. If they don't, it could point to a missing transaction or an error in record-keeping. This can leave your company vulnerable to overdrafts, denied payments and bounced checks, to name a few.  Increase the accuracy of your financial reporting and account reconciliation processes with this guide on how to achieve accurate bank reconciliations consistently.  💡Key Takeaways: To mitigate errors in your bank reconciliation process, you must reconcile accounts regularly, compare statements with your cash books and use automation to eliminate the manual tasks that can lead to these mistakes.  Common issues with your bank reconciliations include bank transfers,  returned or voided checks, double or overpayments and missing or uncleared checks.  If your reconciliation doesn't balance, adjust the records to account for any missing data. For example, note uncleared checks and adjust the balance until the check clears.  How To Get Your Bank Reconciliation Correct You can mitigate bank reconciliation errors with an effective reconciliation process. Let's review steps you can take to ensure accurate bank reconciliations and reduce—or eliminate—errors.                                                                          Source: Instructor Brandon Step 1: Reconcile Accounts Regularly   We recommend to reconcile your bank account each time you receive a bank statement, usually at the end of each month, week or even daily in high-volume businesses. Before starting your reconciliation, ensure all transactions up until the end of the bank statement period have been recorded. Organizations using online banking services can upload bank statements for regular reconciliations. Step 2: Compare and Adjust Bank Statements With Cash Books   Match deposits in your business records with deposits on the bank statements. Next, compare each deposit amount recorded in the deposit and withdrawal column of the bankbook with the credit of the deposit and withdrawal statement.  Compare each deposit amount recorded in the bank deposit and withdrawal column, and in the deposit and withdrawal statement. Carefully review transactions that appear in both records. After reconciling bank and ledger balances, the adjusted amounts should correspond. If they don’t, you’ll need to repeat the reconciliation process. When the balances match, document any adjustments made to reconcile the book balances for future reference. Step 3: Reduce Errors With Automation  Companies benefit greatly from an efficient bank reconciliation process. However, this process can be extremely labor-intensive as accountants need to manually analyze data to prepare bank reconciliation reports. Additionally, there may be delays in processing transactions at the bank, resulting in differences between the bank statement and internal cash record. This can lead to numerous errors or discrepancies in bank reconciliation statements.  Let's take a look at the various challenges of the bank reconciliation process and practical examples of bank reconciliation errors: Cash-in transit not reflected on either record: With electronic funds transfers such as ACHs, credit card payments and wire transfers, the cash may not instantly reflect in the bank balance, resulting in a difference between the statement and the cash book.  Outstanding checks not reflected on either record: Uncleared checks can cause many errors in bank reconciliation reports. Delays in depositing or processing checks will prevent your bank statement balance from matching your cash book.  Manual errors linked to bank reconciliations: Accountants may enter inaccurate transaction details or accidentally fail to count bank fees or interest. These human errors can cause issues.                                                                                                   Source: YouTube Automation reduces these errors, making balancing your statement with your cash books easier. For example, Vena Account Reconciliation Software will automatically download statements into the system as it compares transactions, eliminating manual data entry and its risks.  It creates a controlled and auditable environment, allowing you to reconcile balance sheets quickly and correctly for faster onboarding. You can also securely assign duties to specific team members performing reconciliations and control access to sensitive information.  We even designed our program to handle multiple currency reconciliations, making it ideal for organizations that operate globally or have international suppliers.  Common Issues Found During Bank Reconciliation A primary reason for conducting bank reconciliations is to identify any discrepancies or issues, locate the source of the problem and make the necessary adjustments. Here are a few common issues you are likely to face:  Checks that are returned after being deposited Voided checks being cleared by the bank Double payment Missing and uncleared checks Poor controls with EFTs  Examples of a Bank Reconciliation                                                                                                       Source: Vena Let's say a new business opened a bank account on May 2 with a deposit of $10,000. In the same month, the company issued four checks equaling $5,000 and deposited $2,000 by the end of business on May 31.  So, as of May 31, the company's ledger or cash account shows a debit balance of $7,000. However, the bank statement for May 31 shows a balance of $5,975.  The differences in the balances in the ledger and bank statement require reconciliation to determine the cause of the discrepancy. To do this, we need to compare the details of the two records.  For example: The bank has yet to process the $2,000 deposit made on May 31, which is missing from the bank statement. Your bank charges a monthly service fee of $25 that you did not record in the company’s financial records. A check for $1,000 remains uncashed and is not reflected on the company's bank statement. To reconcile your books, you must fill in the missing transactions to balance both your balance sheet and bank statement. You can reduce the cash account balance by adding the $25 service fee. That will bring your new balance to $6,975.  You can also increase the bank balance in your records by $2,000 to reflect the deposit and then decrease it by $1,000 to account for the uncashed check. This adjustment will bring your balance to $6,975, reconciling the differences.  Simplify Your Financial Close With Bank Reconciliation Automation   Eliminate common reconciliation errors with templates designed by finance experts at Vena. Our templates ensure that your bank reconciliations are always correct. To demonstrate our commitment to streamlining finance operations, we offer a free Excel-based bank reconciliation template to show you how Vena can optimize your entire finance department. To learn more about effective bank reconciliations, check out these articles by our experts: What Is Account Reconciliation?  Overcome Barriers to Account Reconciliation 4 Steps To Close Faster With Account Reconciliations  

Business continuity planning aims to prevent disruptions and respond to business interruptions or disasters effectively and efficiently. As such, it typically ensures the safety of employees, customers, contractors and visitors and minimizes the impact of these disruptions.  We recommend doing this by accelerating recovery efforts, and safeguarding the company's operations, reputation and stakeholder relationships.  "Plans are only useful as evidence that planning took place." U.S. military service members often use this quote when discussing "the plan" any mission, tactical plan or even military business administration decisions. That cadence is partially true with business continuity plans (BCPs). A BCP should remain flexible enough to respond to changing circumstances. Organizations should also design them to address the loss of people, work, equipment, IT services and suppliers (or other third parties). Additionally, a business continuity plan should outline how your teams can implement the recovery strategy. 💡Key Takeaways: Threats to business continuity—and the reason you need a business continuity plan—include global crises, natural disasters, utility outages and cybersecurity. There are varying types of business continuity planning, each with its own purpose within your organization’s overall business resilience.  Not having a plan for an emergency can lead to financial loss, loss of consumers (and team members), loss of confidence and brand reputation damage. Creating a business continuity plan is paramount to running a resilient and agile business. Finance teams need to know efficient and agile planning strategies while fostering transparency for effective business continuity planning in finance.   Source: YouTube Threats to Business Continuity We recommend designing a plan for all potential outcomes. Common business disruptors to look out for are as follows: Global Crisis In 2020, we all learned the necessity of a business continuity plan when responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. Employees  were required  to work from home while many employers  were unprepared for a remote workforce.  IT infrastructures were unable to manage people working outside of the office.  Equipment and supplies were scarce. The situation only got worse as shutdowns persisted.  As concerns with the global pandemic began to ease, worldwide inflation, a war in Ukraine and other economic insecurities continued to impact businesses.  Your organizations must be prepared for global crises and this is where a continuity plan comes in. Natural Disasters and Utility Outages Natural disasters refer to anything related to weather, such as hurricanes, tornadoes, tsunamis or other natural phenomena, including:  Wildfires  Earthquakes  Volcanic Eruptions Meteor Strike These catastrophes are tricky to predict and occur in a matter of moments.  They can cause severe damage to structures and disrupt supply chains in affected areas. Natural disasters can also cause utility outages, such as power, water and communication lines. Cybersecurity Cyberattacks include ransomware attacks, SQL injections, data theft and distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks. At best, until the issue gets fixed, the IT infrastructure may function. At worst, without a backup, all your business’s data can become inaccessible.  Types of Continuity Planning Business continuity planning concentrates on the implementation, management and maintenance of systems designed to protect against disruptions and restore services, resources and activities necessary to maintain critical business functions.    Source: The Hustle Story   Effective recovery strategies can resemble a set of business continuity plans departmental team leads execute in order of priority and revise regularly. There are four major types of continuity plans: 1. Crisis Management Plans Many refer to a contingency plan as an "incident management plan." This provides a structured response to incidents that can lead to devastating consequences for the company if poorly managed. Crisis management plans tell an organization what to do in a disruption. 2. Crisis Communications and Emergency Response Plans Design your crisis communication plan to complement crisis management activities by coordinating with communications stakeholders. Executive management prepares the emergency response plan for the worksite and focuses on ensuring a safe working environment and protecting and sustaining life. Business continuity plans may contain different sets of steps for various threats. 3. IT Disaster Recovery An IT disaster recovery plan focuses on recovering IT systems, telecommunication and data assets. It focuses solely on the IT infrastructure and ways to recover data and get the organization’s tech stack operating again after a catastrophe.  4. Business Recovery A business recovery plan (often the heart of a business continuity plan) focuses on the continuation and restoration of business resources and activities supporting the delivery of goods and services. These often involve manual workarounds, procedures and alternative methods for managing the loss of equipment, personnel, technology and suppliers.  Benefits of Business Continuity Planning A business continuity plan is essential for any business as disruptions are often expensive. We're talking about everything, including DDoS attacks, which temporarily bring down websites, warehouse fires causing loss of products and disruptions in the supply chain. Not having a plan for an emergency may lead to loss of customer (and employee) confidence, financial losses and damage to an organization’s reputation.  Here are some key benefits of continuity planning:  Quickly recovers operations after a disruption Keeps your business operating during and after a disaster Reduces costs and length of any interruptions Reduces financial risks and exposure Safeguards the company's reputation Builds considerable customer trust and confidence Develops confidence within the organization Insures against otherwise unforeseen and unacceptable risks Complies with legal or regulatory requirements Saves lives during hazardous events, such as fire Business Continuity Framework A business continuity plan is paramount to managing a resilient and agile business. Your business continuity team and other employees need to understand the significance of a continuity framework. Here’s how this framework helps your teams: Identify the goals and objectives of the plan Establish an emergency preparedness team Perform a risk assessment and business impact analysis (BIA) Identify essential e-commerce business functions Prepare a plan for each essential function or service Review and make sure every business function has been addressed Train staff, test, revise and update the plan Source: BusinessTechWeekly.com What Finance Teams Need To Know About Business Continuity Planning It’s no secret that the world is still navigating uncertainty today. The ripple effects from the past (almost) two years have upended the economy, forcing companies around the globe to shift strategies, explore alternative business models and make on-the-spot operational changes. For finance leaders, this presents a tremendous challenge. As strategic partners to the business whose insights help influence key decisions, how can finance pros help their organizations weather the storm? And how can they do so while also planning for sustained growth? The answer to this is multifaceted and will vary between companies depending on size, structure and industry. But one key principle rings true—every organization needs to have a BCP. Or at least prepare to develop one quickly. Business Continuity Planning in Finance Business continuity planning involves policies and procedures that keep the company running during transformational periods or in the wake of a major disruption.  For finance leaders, aspects of continuity planning can include realigning capital investments and taking on some debt. Alternatively, it can also include ensuring there’s enough cash on hand to cover any unforeseen expenses.  As resident experts on the drivers of revenue and growth in an organization, finance leaders know how to keep their companies in the black better than anyone. Efficient and Agile Planning Finance pros cannot plan effectively without clear and up-to-date insights into long-term business implications. That is why rolling forecasts are so essential to maintain. Unlike static annual budgets, rolling forecasts are based on real-time financial data. They typically look ahead at least five quarters beyond the original budgeted period.  With rolling forecasts, finance pros have the flexibility to change their plans quickly for easy analysis of how new budgetary assumptions would affect the company’s outlook for the next two to three years or more.  Stay nimble with rolling forecasts. Get started with Vena Rolling Forecast Software. That level of foresight enables leaders to confidently chart the best path forward through uncertain times. It also helps them sleep soundly, knowing they based their decisions on reliable, actionable data.   Perhaps even more essential during times of uncertainty? Fast and efficient integrated planning. And this means aligning every business function toward the same strategic goal.  After all, organizations cannot expect finance leaders to take the helm of a company’s continuity planning process. Especially without support from the entire crew during periods of change.  We break down the basics of extended and integrated planning in this post. How To Foster Transparency AND Prioritize Efficiency in Business Continuity Planning To foster transparency, accountability and collaboration while still prioritizing efficiency, finance leaders need to ensure that: They have a single source of truth for all financial and non-financial company data. All internal stakeholders have visibility into the planning process and the means to actively participate. All of this is much easier said than done, even for the savviest finance leaders out there.  At the end of the day, an effective integrated planning process requires an agile analysis of critical metrics and the ability to consolidate data from multiple sources for fluent, more accurate reporting.  Suppose finance teams are bogged down with manual Excel processes and locked into static annual budgets. In that case, they’ll have a much harder time responding quickly to adverse conditions requiring more forward-thinking analysis.  Discover everything you need to know about financial planning and analysis in this guide. With a clear plan, the proper tools and the right resources at their disposal, finance leaders won’t have to fear periods of uncertainty. Instead, they’ll be able to confidently approach every situation and develop a data-driven game plan—ultimately aligning the entire company on strategy and leading the charge toward updated targets and goals. And, of course—we’re here to help.   Did you learn a lot about business continuity planning in this post? Here are three more to read next: Why are Dashboards Important to Performance? How Vena’s New Modeler Makes What-If Analysis Even Easier The Top 3 Things You Need To Know To Plan for Today and Tomorrow

In our data-driven world, 33% of finance teams are struggling with inaccessible or siloed data.  Companies cannot back well-informed business decisions without accurate reporting from FP&A teams.  Siloed data makes it difficult for finance teams to gather all the information needed for creating accurate reports. Inaccurate reports are just one-way data silos negatively impact business.  In this blog, we're going to cover why exactly data silos are problematic for your organization and how to identify them and find a solution to avoid them. But first, let's discuss what a data silo is. 💡Key Takeaways:  Data silos occur when business information gets stuck somewhere within a network, which is less useful. They create barriers to data collection and reporting. Data silos cause a decrease in efficacy in the collection, storage and management of business information by creating incomplete data sets. It also leads to inaccurate and inconsistent data, causes duplicate information systems and increases your organization's IT infrastructure costs.  It cultivates a siloed mentality between departments making it difficult for various teams to share data or communicate effectively. Most companies experience data silos, and the key to avoiding them is identifying them so that you and your teams can determine a resolution. What Are Data Silos?  Data silos are when useful company data gets trapped within an organization's information network. This data becomes less valuable than it could be otherwise. While these barriers to information may seem innocuous, siloed data makes sharing and collaboration across departments challenging. Video: YouTube Since this data is unavailable to the entire organization, teams, departments and even individual team members get only part of the information. It creates issues for the organization and its customers.  Data silos occur when different departments collect data in their internal systems, leaving information out of a central repository where other departments and team members can access it. Why Are Data Silos Problematic?   Data silos are a problem because they hinder business operations and decrease the efficacy of collected data. They restrict executives from useful information for vital business decision-making.  Siloed information prevents sales reps, call center agents, support professionals and operational teams from accessing pertinent data about products, customers, supplies and more. The following are specific ways data silos are harmful to a company: Creates Incomplete Data Sets      Finance professionals spend roughly 25% of their time on data analysis. Data silos create incomplete data sets, meaning budgeting and forecasting reports do not paint a clear and complete picture. They can impact business internally and can be detrimental to the customer experience.  For example, if a customer contacts support for help with a malfunctioning product and the support agent can't see data from other customer interactions such as sales or billing, support could be missing vital information to assist the customer.  Let's say a customer often speaks to the billing department to pay their bill because they are not comfortable with technology." If support knows that about the customer before taking the service call, they can make a better plan to work with them to resolve their current issue. Incomplete data sets slow down the resolution process, make it difficult to serve customers and create challenges for department heads to gather information, such asFP&A professionals who need to develop monthly, quarterly or annual reports.  Leads to Inaccurate and Inconsistent Data     Incomplete data sets often lead to inaccurate and inconsistent data. Inconsistency occurs between departments creating further data inaccuracies.  For example, if marketing teams format customer information differently than other departments, data errors by other departments (such as sales) are more challenging to identify and fix. Updates to the data in other systems do not get made in a siloed customer service data update. These information inconsistencies create data integrity and quality issues that impact end users in analytics and operations applications.                                                                                                    Source: RkimBall   Causes Duplicate Data Platforms        Data silos occur because there are multiple data systems within your organization. CMSs, CRMs, ERPs and other data platforms create siloed information unless they are integrated. Still, even well-integrated systems can create siloed data.  Siloed data adds to IT costs by increasing the cloud space needed and the number of on-prem servers your organization must maintain.  Often, separate departments deploy and manage their systems instead of the company's data management team, increasing inadequate use of IT resources and unnecessary spending.  Doesn't Support Collaboration     When data gets isolated in silos, it reduces the opportunities for information sharing and collaboration between departments and throughout the organization. It is more difficult for teams to work together effectively when individuals do not have access or visibility into siloed data. Cultivates Siloed Mentalities Between Departments   Siloed data contributes to inter-departmental silos. Departments that safeguard their data closely and are unwilling to share it with other divisions create silos. It almost becomes part of their mentality.  They often oppose data governance programs aimed at breaking down data silos and ensuring data consistency and accuracy across all organizational systems. Data Security and Regulatory Issues When individuals store information on Excel spreadsheets or an online business tool such as Google Drive, they often do so on mobile devices in files that are not shared. Not only does this create data silos, but it also creates data security and regulatory issues. It increases risks to an organization's data security and privacy without suitable controls. Siloed data also complicates measures to comply with data protection and privacy laws. How To Identify Data Silos  Data silos are all too common but can be difficult to identify, especially in larger companies with various business units operating autonomously. While data silos may not be evident, here are a few signs that point to them: Teams can't access or find relevant data. Various departments report inconsistent information. Executives complain about a lack of information for making well-informed business decisions. End users discover data sets are out of date or incomplete. Unforeseen IT costs unexpectedly emerge. Breaking Down Data Silos With Vena  Eliminating data silos enables organizations to collect, store, manage and use data more effectively. It also frequently lowers data management and technology costs. Vena removes silos and connects data assets in one Complete Planning platform to support your business operations better.