the cfo’s guide to enterprise budgeting ... - vena...

® Copyright Vena Solutions Inc.® Copyright Vena Solutions Inc. 1• ® Copyright VenaTM

THE CFO’S GUIDE TO ENTERPRISE BUDGETING WITH EXCEL ® TEMPLATES

Presented by Rishi Grover

President, Vena Solutions

May 12, 2016

HOW TO TURN YOUR SPREADSHEETS INTO AN ENTERPRISE-CLASS FINANCE SOLUTION

® Copyright Vena Solutions Inc.

RISHI GROVER

As President, Rishi is responsible for the day-to-day operations and continued success of client implementations at Vena.

Rishi has helped many Fortune 500 companies re-engineer and optimize financial processes including:

- Budgeting and Planning

- Rolling Forecasts

- Management Reporting & Analysis

- Strategic Planning and Balance Scorecards

- Regulatory Reporting and Disclosure Management

2

President & SVP Solutions Engineering

Vena Solutions


AGENDA

3

• Why do we use Excel for Budgeting?

• Problems with Excel for Budgeting

• Best Practices to Enable Excel for Budgeting (Structure & Design)

• Technology Options to Automate Budgeting

• Replace Excel vs. Embrace Excel

• Key Features to Look For

• Vena Technology Overview

• Quick Demo: Enterprise Budgeting with Excel

® Copyright Vena Solutions Inc.® Copyright Vena Solutions Inc.

VENA. THE WAY YOU THINK.

4

Created to make businesses work smarter, Vena uses a surprisingly convenient

approach to simplify complex enterprise processes.


WHY DO WE USE EXCEL FOR BUDGETING?

5



Pros:

• High user adoption

• Highly configurable

• Flexible

• Strong modeling

• Powerful calculations

• Strong data tables

More Pros:

• Conditional formatting

• Icon sets

• Spark lines/trend icons

• Top X rules

• Advanced charting

• Pivot tables and Power BI

• Sorting & filtering


PROBLEMS WITH EXCEL FOR BUDGETING

8

G/L

Sub-Ledgers

Other Systems

Cons:

Data integrity issues

No source system

integration

Manual consolidations

Version control

No process management

Source Data Numerous e-mails and

versions of each

document

Budget

Inputs

Review

and Approval

Manuallyextract data& re-key intospreadsheets

PROBLEMS WITH EXCEL FOR BUDGETING



BEST PRACTICES TO ENABLE EXCEL FOR BUDGETING

10


DATA INTEGRITY ISSUES

11

Recommendation Description

Data Validations To ensure entries are in the right format, and within an acceptable set of

values/ranges. (Data > Data Validations)

Conditional Formatting To flag any exceptions or missing information.

(Home > Conditional Formatting)

Checklist / Homepage Include a ‘Home’ worksheet that summarizes all validation rule results and

includes a checklist the preparer must complete.

IFERROR() Avoid #REF, #NA calculation results, which can have a ripple effect of

errors.

Workbook Protection /

Range Protection

Password protect the workbook, worksheet and/or ranges as required.

Create ranges for calculations versus input and protect accordingly.

(Review > Protect Sheet, Protect Workbook, Allow Users to Edit Ranges)


NO SOURCE SYSTEM INTEGRATION

12


Import Worksheet Create a dedicated worksheet called ‘Import” that allows you to paste in the

source system data. Use an Excel table.

Data Connections Alternatively use the Data Connections to retrieve data from a staging

environment, text file, Access dB into the Excel table in the ‘Import’

worksheet. Queries can be dynamic.

(Data > From Other Sources)

Pivot Table Use the pivot table to summarize the source data (if required). Other user

worksheets should use pivot table formulas to bring in data as opposed to

R1C1 formulas.


MANUAL CONSOLIDATIONS

13


Standardize Worksheets Input Excel templates should have the main worksheets (either input or

summary) that is always standards for each submission.

‘start’ and ‘end’

Worksheets

Create a ‘Consolidating’ workbook that has a ‘start’ and ‘end’ worksheet.

Copy user submitted worksheets between these two worksheets.

=Sum(start:end!G20)

OR Leverage Pivot

Tables to Aggregate Data

Each input template should have an ‘Export’ worksheet that puts all the

user inputs into a ‘Fact Table’ format. This can then easily be grouped

together in a consolidating report and then leverage a Pivot Table to

perform the aggregation.


VERSION CONTROL

14


Track Changes Enable Track Changes. This will track who changes what, when.

(Review > Track Changes)

Standardized Naming

Convention

Ensure there is a consistent standard for naming Excel files when being

submitted.

I.e. Dept 101 Budget v2_YYY_MM_DD.xlsx

The final version should always be a certain name as well.

I.e. Dept 101 Budget FINAL.xlsx

Change Table Create a worksheet called ‘Change Table’. This should be an Excel table

with the fields User, Date/Time, Change Description.


TEMPLATE DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS…

15


TECHNOLOGY OPTIONS TO AUTOMATE BUDGETING

16


WHAT ARE OUR OPTIONS?

17

Pros:

• Flexible

• Strong modeling


• Rich presentation


Cons:

• Data integrity issues

• No source system integration

• Manual consolidations

• Lack of audit-ability

• No process management

Spreadsheet Environment

Pros:

• Controlled environment

• High data integrity

• Database centric

• Workflow management

• Auditable

Cons:

• Takes you away from spreadsheets

• Rigid, lack of flexibility

• IT/consulting intensive

• High cost of ownership

Budgeting

Applications

Financial Close

Applications

Reporting

Applications

Consolidation

Applications

“Excel-like Look &

Feel”

“Excel-like

Functionality”

Flexible

“Replace Excel” Application Environment

Controlled


WHAT ARE OUR OPTIONS?

18

Pros:

• Flexible

• Strong modeling


• Rich presentation


Cons:

• Data integrity issues

• No source system integration

• Manual consolidations

• Lack of audit-ability

• No process management

Spreadsheet Environment

Pros:

• Controlled environment

• High data integrity

• Database centric

• Workflow management

• Auditable

Cons:

• Takes you away from spreadsheets

• Rigid, lack of flexibility

• IT/consulting intensive

• High cost of ownership

Budgeting

Applications

Financial Close

Applications

Reporting

Applications

Consolidation

Applications

“Excel-like Look &

Feel”

“Excel-like

Functionality”

Flexible

“Replace Excel” Application Environment

Controlled

81% of companies that have a performance

management solution…supplement it with

spreadsheets.

Pulse Survey


VENA TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW

19


THE VENA APPROACH

20

Flexible

MS-Excel

Environment

Controlled

Application

Environment

EASY TO START

• MS-Excel for input, modeling

& reporting

• Controlled & dynamically

connected to a central database

EASY TO COMPLIMENT

• Functionality built to automate

and provide visibility for:

• Planning & Forecasting

• Financial Close & Report

• Other MS-Excel

Processes

EASY TO USE

• Intuitive graphical user

interface to manage the

process, data

and business rules

• Managed by the finance user

• Keeps users in a familiar

environment

• High adoption rate

• Quick template/report build

• Powerful process manager

• Enhanced Excel

• High performing

in-memory database

• Automate any spreadsheet-

based process

• “Ultimate Starter Kit”


QUICK DEMO: ENTERPRISE BUDGETING WITH EXCEL

EXCEL SUPERCHARGED!

21


THANK YOU!

22

the cfo’s guide to enterprise budgeting ... - vena...

Documents