Melissa Waters: Alright, thank you for joining us. So today we're presenting finance and board-ready reports at your fingertips with Vena solutions.

My name is Melissa Waters and I'm the manager of events and programs at JM T consulting

Wanted to go through a couple housekeeping tips with you and then I will turn it over to our presenter drew McDonald.

At first this is being recorded so if you have to hop off for any reason. Today we will send you a copy of the recording. Following the webinar.

If you have questions at all. There's a Q AMP a box at the bottom of your control panel. Make sure to submit your questions there. And we will answer them at the end of the webinar.

And with that, I'm going to introduce drew Drew is joining us today from then solutions. And we are so thankful that he is here so I'll turn it over to you drew

Drew MacDonald: Awesome. Thank you, everyone. I'm Drew McDonald. I've been with Vena for roughly two and a half years now and I began as a consultant in the professional services team so I was a part of a number of implementations, ranging from budgeting and forecasting up to large scale consolidations multi year PS multi currencies. So a lot of exposure and happy to share with you on reporting today. So just want to make sure everybody can see my screen here.

In the share second

Can I get a thumbs up or an okay from you Melissa that you can see?

Melissa Waters: Yep, we can see it.

Drew MacDonald: Perfect. Okay. So for today's focus, be it around reports and reporting packages for board meetings. I'm going to stay

High level on some different areas, but I still want to review some of the areas within the application so that everybody is familiar

Just so I don't gloss over anything and then I'll kind of dive into taking a look at data models, so we can get a visual on how you know we structure our database.

From there on a login as what I would refer to as a

Business user. Some people might say an end user, it's within the contributor role the application and we'll open up some reports that we have built just to see, you know, the functionality.

Of how we build reports and then how the application does all that heavy lifting for us with regards to data aggregation or consolidation.

And from there, I will open up a PowerPoint deck in a word deck and we can speak to how we connect reports that exist within our files library to PowerPoints.

PowerPoint decks, as well as word decks and make data tables and data visuals refresh, as well as

Specific words update based on what resides within a report obviously values looking to see things like that change. I also hope to speak to ad hoc report building and then maybe briefly touch on Power BI. Okay.

So just logging into a secure browser here I'm accessing Vienna as a super user as I would like them to because they have every single role within the application. And so to just do a quick review.

Of the roles within Vena we have our manager role. And this is really specific to

An individual who's got responsibility for creating and maintaining different processes, whether it be month and close process that consolidation process or an annual budget process.

We also have the workflow within that screen. And this is where we maintain our files and our input templates and reports for we build them maintain them.

Inventory them from existing files that are part of individuals processes. From there, we have that contributor rule that I was

Speaking to and that's where all individual tasks are assigned as well as different report packages that individuals can access

The model role that's data everything. So I'm going to step into their momentarily and just speak to the data model area within the application.

Reports is a report publication tool than the admin role is very much data and application security permissions now focusing within the modeler role.

This is again data everything. And I just want to touch over this so that when we do start opening up reports.

When we're speaking to different dimensions will then it kind of clicks back to what we're looking at here now.

This is our data model. So these are the dimensions that make up our data model and effectively. The way I liken this to is each of these dimensions is a column header from a

Extract that is coming from our solar system. Okay, now, not always, is an extract going to match perfectly. So we have the capability to do integrations in the background, just to do any sort of

Data transformations, you know, parsing at dates to be able to associate a specific year or period to a value now.

This is where we have our chart of accounts. So just expanding on some of these roll ups I can right click in expand our entire hierarchy here now resides under net income, just a view all the different accounts as part of our business structure.

The same holds true if I click over to our entities, I can decide to look at our business by function. So different roll ups retaining pertaining to, you know, manufacturing centers and sales and distribution.

Or we have the flexibility to build our alternate hierarchy. So we have the structure based on region. So we can look at different entities that roll up to US and Canada.

Or Europe now thinking about, not for profit structure and perhaps these dimensions aren't exactly

In line with how you currently have your, your build or would envision to build perhaps it's more surrounding projects or grants. So not necessarily entities.

But, as well as like departments, your period scenario those different staple dimensions that you need to store data.

Plan by data and report on data. And so if we take a look at period roll up you can see we can have different roll ups for half years quarters, just to give you a visual on the structure within this data model.

Okay. I think there was a question here.

A question regarding NetSuite report writing

Melissa are you able to take that one away.

I will follow up with them after the webinar.

Gotcha. Okay, perfect.

Alright, so again overview of the data modular components. I'm going to step over to a business user. So logging into that task management screen under the contributor rule.

And really focusing on reports so selecting in here and taking a look at some of our operational reports. I did want this first speak to our actual corporate dashboard. So I'm going to open this up and we'll take a look at the

The file and how we then would connect it back to PowerPoint and Word documents and so general theme.

You know, just trying to not assume that everybody on the call has seen everything that I'm speaking to

We we leverage centralized reports and templates. So you'll notice there's a structure in the background for this report.

However, we have yet to retrieve any data because we first need to confirm what sort of data. We want to be able to consume in this report.

And so thinking back to that data model or role. The, the model or tab within the application where we are looking at our data model. These are the dimensions that we've

Elected to have that additional flexibility to filter by. And so if I select into entity. Again, this is the same hierarchical structure we saw within that

Data Model. And so I can select a number of different roll ups or individual entities to be able to consume data by again we can look at alternate hierarchies and see the aggregation of all the data for

These entities that roll up to the parent be completed based on our selection. So if I select organization by function.

I'm going to capture all the bottom level entities and all the data that pertains to every single department for 2021 for this specific period and this scenario that being budget.

And so once I do select okay this is where the report is calling back up all that information for us to then be able to report now.

The reason I'm showing you this is because I want everybody to get a visual on some of our reports that we have here. And this is one of our

You know, corporate dashboards. Right. And so effectively once a dashboard or any form of charts or bar graph pie chart, whatever it is, data table that needs to be connected to a PowerPoint.

Deck or a word deck for reporting purposes, simply being able to leverage those those data visuals by copying and pasting them into one of your PowerPoint or work files.

And the great part is once you connect. For instance, if I were to connect one of these data visuals and simply copy and paste it into a PowerPoint that I intend to use of the board deck.

I event based in the application. So within Venice, I have the flexibility to choose, same, same feature here that you see I'm able to choose how I want the information to appear within my PowerPoint file or my Word file. And so I'll get to that now.

So stepping back to the browser here.

If we think about the corporate dashboard. If I select to view this dashboard. This is giving me the flexibility to leverage three different

Dimensions from my data model. And so that I have the flexibility to change what entity view. I want to look at. So how I want to consume.

Data in this PowerPoint. Well, it's going to do all the aggregation for me if I select all entities. If I select 2020 then that's the data, it will will retrieve from within banner, as well as the full year.

And so once you've established what data visuals that you want to connect into your PowerPoint and the, the system will recognize which report that it's being built off of

You can choose to download a copy viewed on line or in PDF. So if I go PowerPoint online. A second browser tab will open up and I'm going to be able to consume.

This slide deck online to see what our business looks like based on how I structured my report. And so in this example we have three slides.

We're pulling in income statements on our p&l structure here based on a full year and by quarter basis. And we have some basic charts down below to reference and make comparisons for

What appears to be budget versus actual

And then final tab here. So thinking about what you first really need to establish within a report and the data visuals that you have within those reports you then simply connect them to that PowerPoint via a copy and paste

Stepping back to the browser closing out of our dashboard here for our PowerPoint deck. I can take a look at our executive report.

And so this is going to be a little bit different. I can filter again by different entity. So I can choose sales and distribution. As an example, this time and if I'd like I can do a download, so it's going to go to my desktop.

That I'm able to then provide out to the team. So opening this up.

I have my homepage.

And then just scrolling down based on the information that I've selected in the drop down menu. I'm able to produce the data that resides within our data model. And so any standard data visuals that have been established within those reports again are then connected into the file.

Any, any questions, as far as I know I can speak continuously, but I'm happy to answer questions along the way, or save until the end.

Melissa Waters: We don't have any questions just yet, but just remember you can you can submit them in the Q AMP a box.

Drew MacDonald: Perfect. Okay.

So that would be, I would say the, the basics of what a PowerPoint and a Word document that has been created within Vana would look like to an end user. So, given my access and the application. I can go in and view those those decks.

If I were, you know, and you know, just thinking about being able to build a report on the fly.

We do have our ad hoc reporter here.

And so what this is going to do is it's going to give me some flexibility into really retrieving data that I really want to be able to consume quickly and easily in a format that I so choose. So

Based on the data model that I had shown from within the the data modeler, I'm going to select the the Bennett demo model here and hit apply

And just thinking about, you know, standard pivot table. I just need to define what I want to see in the Rose, so we could state that we want to see some accounts in the roads.

And we'd like to see our periods in the columns and then we can hit the pencil icon. So I'll just expand this out.

And further define based on our chart of accounts, what it is exactly that we want to see. So we'll take a look at net income as an example.

And select the sentence. And so we have 73 accounts selected and I hit OK.

And then in terms of our period. Well, I'd like to see something a little more in depth than just four years. So I'm going to also select to see the different halves quarters and bottom level members. And so now we have 19 members selected I hit okay and I come up to the refresh button.

And the system does all the aggregation for all the different entities in my business structure departments groups subgroups years

Based on this view. And if I want, I can begin throwing on some filters, maybe I don't want to look at the data as a total department view. But I want to break it out.

And just be more specific, right, so I can select that and I can just take a look at sales and service hit refresh. So just another way to quickly and easily consume data and a report format for your, your team, whether it be on the fly or the report.

You know, the intention is to use this on an ongoing basis. So the individuals can save it locally, they can share it to other Members, at which point that connector screen will appear and they can to work within that reports.

So I'm going to close out of this.

And I'm going to quickly step over to Power BI.

Just speaking here briefly, I know. Again, it's more focused on the reports and the packages that we produce. However, we do have a native connection to Power BI.

And so all the data that resides within your data model can effectively be connected to Power BI and then consumed data sets can be produced data visuals within the application here and obviously Power BI is a very powerful tool. And so thinking about just anomaly detection.

You know, future forecasting insights and analysis, being able to key in certain freeform text to produce

You know suggestions to how your business is performing. If I want to select in here I can see if I right click, I can analyze data and then the

Tool will analyze why we had a decrease in 7.7% and provide me a further in depth analysis that it's based on one of my subgroups within my my business. Okay, so just giving a quick little visual into Power BI there.

Now I'm going to drop this down stepping back to, I'm going to step back into our super user view within the application. And as I mentioned before, under the manager role here.

My back in

Stepping under the manager role, I just have some files library created under my annual budget process.

And under my reports folder. So we have the files over here on the left and I have reports folder. So this is, I would say a little more

In depth into how we go about making the connection. I have a very basic, I would say dashboard report right here for today's example. And so if I open this up, you're going to see something

It's, it's not, you know, fancy by any means, but I have the flexibility to choose what entity. I want to consume data for and what department. And so I'll select. Okay.

And you see here I have two pie charts, one for my actions and one for my forecast and looking over here we're just doing a comparison of actions to forecast for two different accounts.

Based on our choose options that were for New York and our sales and service department. Now when I was mentioning before, it's a matter of simply

copy and pasting into a PowerPoint file. Well, that's, that's what exactly what I meant. So if I open up my test presentation here. I'm going to just slide this over onto my screen.

And you'll see here, these are the exact pie charts that I have that have been copy and paste it over into the PowerPoint deck.

And so what I've done is I've connected this PowerPoint. Once I loaded into Vienna, it will connect these charts as well as these key highlighted.

Labeled flags. So for entity. Well, I want the selected entity to become an option when I choose my PowerPoint for the department. I want that flexibility to be able to choose the department as well.

And then I want to focus on a specific account and I want to see the actual reporting for 2020 and the the dollar amount for the forecast. Okay, so this is the establishing of this PowerPoint deck I close out of it because it's on my desktop I return here.

And then I'm going to go back to my browser within this manager screen and I'm going to upload that PowerPoint from my local desktop.

And so with those connected visuals from this dashboard data file and those those keywords in the squiggly brackets, as I like to call them.

Once I open up the test presentation. The system recognizes that I have these different areas lit like labeled within my PowerPoint, right. So I'm trying to be able to choose the entity.

I'm trying to be able to choose the department. I'm looking for values related to actual goals and forecast. So I have that flexibility. Now, based on the choose options from that dashboard file in the PowerPoint. And so if I go ahead and select download

I hope to see the New York entity for sales and service. So once I open this up.

You'll notice. Those squiggly brackets no longer appear because the template, the PowerPoint deck is looking up whatever

Option I made in that choose option is placing those words in my titles and the values are returning as they are appearing for that report. So if I change back quickly to my Excel file. You can see here

We're making a comparison between those two values so 94 five and 93 seven so flipping back you can see it's driving those numbers.

If I return to the web.

Again, I have the flexibility to switch between departments. Not sure if I have any data here, but we'll take a look. So department D 20

A lot lower. So department marketing. So marketing and you can see that the amounts of updated accordingly. Now if I return here.

These values, they're still showing for my New York and sales and service. So if I reflect the update here.

I can quickly make that comparison to see that those are, in fact, the numbers on my pie charts match. According to the PowerPoint deck.

And so, establishing the build like this. Once your repeatable board package has been produced, and the visuals have been connected to the source report, then you can begin. You know, building out the report in a way that works best for your team.

So I'm going to pause there. I didn't have too much more to go into unless the team that's listening in has a number of questions to start asking

So feel free to ask away.

Melissa Waters: Well, give it a minute. Any questions that have come in just yet, but we welcome anyone that would like to ask questions, so hang on for a minute.

If not, we can wrap it up so

We'll wait for just a moment.

I don't have any questions coming under it. So, if you have anything else that you want to contribute, you can or if not, and like I said I'll wrap it up and people can have some time back in their day.

Drew MacDonald: I think from my end. I'm, I'm happy with what I've shown, thus far, obviously if individuals would like to, you know, speak a little bit further on the subject, and we can certainly

Have additional conversations are set up additional meetings, but the high level overview of how, you know, building out reports and then connecting them to our respective dashboards and sorry dashboard PowerPoint decks and report packs is yeah it's they've seen me the fundamentals.

Melissa Waters: Wonderful. Well, I will take back control of the screen. If you'll allow me a few more slides to show and

Send them will wrap it up.

All right.

Can everyone see my slide?

Okay. So thank you again for joining us today. We do have a promotion that we are offering if you sign up for a demo. By November 3 you'll receive $1,000 off then

If you do move forward with it. So if you are interested, you can email us at webinars at chante consulting com to schedule your demo, we will also be following up with you.

After the demo, you will see a survey. Once you exit the webinar today we would love for you to contribute feedback to us.

And want to thank you for joining us today and thank you drew for your time here, very grateful that you joined us today and hope that will have everyone on a teacher, rather than. Thank you, and I hope that you have a wonderful day.

Drew MacDonald:Thanks for having me. And again, if there's any other additional questions that done immediately come to mind. But individuals like to speak about, feel free to reach out

Melissa Waters: Wonderful, thank you and everyone. Have a great day.