Vena Contributor Introduction

Vena is a cloud-based financial planning and analysis (FP&A) platform designed to simplify budgeting, forecasting, and reporting. It integrates with Excel, which means you can still work in a familiar interface while benefiting from automation and real-time collaboration.

For Budget 2025, Vena will primarily be used to forecast operating expenses/overheads and advertising and promotional spend. We have designed specific templates to ensure you can easily and accurately enter the necessary data. The goal is to ensure that all users, regardless of their role, have the tools needed to succeed in managing their cost centers.

To access Vena please navtigate to https://colart.vena.io

How Vena Will Simplify the Process for Cost Center Owners

Cost center owners will use Vena to track and forecast their expenses. Here's how it benefits you:

Simplified Data Entry: Vena allows you to input forecast data directly into user-friendly templates, reducing the complexity of managing spreadsheets.
Real-Time Collaboration: Updates can be made in real-time, minimizing back-and-forth communications and ensuring that everyone is working from the most up-to-date information.
Task Automation: Vena will handle task lists and due dates so that it is always clear where the process stands.
Visibility into Spend: Vena provides a clear overview of your operating expenses, helping you better manage and understand the financial performance of your cost center.

Training and Support

The training sessions offered here are recordings of sessions that were held live previously. Each one of the live sessions available below cover the same material, we just recorded each instance to ensure full covereage of any questions that come up. This training covers logging in via Single Sign-On, navigating the To-Do list, opening templates, inputting and reviewing data, saving and submitting tasks, and managing template versions through Vena's Excel add-in. Additionally, it explains key functions like adding and removing data, using comments, and reviewing tasks to ensure proper workflow within the Vena system.

Additionally, Vena Academy offers a range of self-paced training resources. Everyone should have access to this platform, and if you’re interested in a high-level overview, you can take the Contributor Experience course by following this link: The Contributor Experience in Vena.

Ongoing support will also be provided by our local finance teams, and for any technical issues, Vena support will be available.

We will ultimately build out the Vena courses in Colart Academy to be more bite sized, targeted bits of information. For the time being we wanted to make sure all information was accessible.