Vena vs. Prophix: Comparing Features, Integrations, Reviews and More

In some respects, it’s never been easier to be a member of a finance team or a CFO. That’s because there are so many tools on the market that can help make the work more fluid and efficient than ever before.

However, the process of choosing the right platform for your corporate performance management (CPM) needs can present its own challenges. It can take a long time, for starters, since there are so many potential solutions on the market—each with its own strengths and weaknesses. 

You’ll want to do your due diligence, interact with as many tools as you can and figure out which features are critical to your unique business’s success. You’re not trying to create more work for yourself, after all—but making a wise choice of CPM provider may require a little heavy lifting. 

We want to shoulder a bit of that burden. That’s why in this blog, we’re comparing two of the most popular FP&A solutions choices on the market: Vena vs. Prophix. 

Read on to see how Vena and Prophix stack up against one another on several fronts, including key features, integrations, ease of use and more.

Vena vs. Prophix: At a Glance

Key Features and Use Cases

Vena

For many finance teams, Vena feels like a natural upgrade given that it’s built on the tool they know and love—Excel—backed by a centralized database. It’s also versatile and can be used for all your business planning processes, from budgeting and forecasting to sales and revenue planning.

Here’s a brief rundown of Vena's potential use cases and features. 

• Budgeting and planning: Vena can help reduce budget cycle times, helping you create top-down, bottom-up, zero-based or driver-based budgets with less pain and fewer version control issues.

• Financial close process management: The platform can help manage the financial close management process, shortening the close cycle and improving transparency into financial consolidations, reconciliations and tax provisions. 

• Forecasting and modeling: Vena empowers rolling forecasts, integrated financial statements, and what-if analysis.

• Reporting and analysis: Vena users can build accurate reports in less time, with interactive dashboards and drill-down capabilities for further insights and analytics.

• Workforce planning: Vena integrates data from HRIS systems to help with the labor planning process, including expense forecasting and reporting, along with automated variance analysis. 

• Sales and revenue planning: Vena can centralize and integrate revenue data from your CRM system, and help you gain faster insights to help optimize sales performance.

Prophix

Prophix’s financial performance platform can concentrate business’s financial data in one place, helping accelerate their finance team’s FP&A processes. It can also streamline collaboration with key stakeholders.

Prophix is a viable solution or tool in the following use cases: 

• Budgeting and planning: Squaring away budgeting and financial planning processes is Prophix’s bread and butter, allowing users to create their own financial models, and what-if scenarios, and distribute them automatically to stakeholders.

• Forecasting: Prophix incorporates dynamic, rolling forecasts into users’ workflows, allowing for the development of quicker, more accurate forecast development, more frequently.

• Reporting and analytics: Prophix allows users to optimize their reporting and analysis by creating reports, automating updates and distribution and using Prophix One Dashboards to help identify and understand data trends.

• Workforce planning: Prophix can automate headcount forecasts and related calculations (payroll taxes, bonuses, etc.), and can integrate workforce plans into overall financial budgets.

Integrations

Vena

Vena integrates with a number of source systems through a combination of APIs, native connectors, ETL (Extract, Transfer, Load)  and Microsoft PowerAutomate.

Integrations include:

• General ledger and ERP: Vena users can integrate with NetSuite, Microsoft Dynamics GP and SL, Sage Intacct, QuickBooks, Oracle and more, so finance teams can be sure they’re working with the most recent data and figures.

• Data warehouses and homegrown systems: Users can upload data into Vena quickly and securely from data warehouses, homegrown systems and SQL databases.

• Excel, CSV and flat files: You can import Excel, CSV and flat files from local systems or numerous cloud storage applications, including Dropbox, OneDrive, SFTP and SharePoint.

• Microsoft PowerPoint: Users can give their data-driven storytelling abilities a shot in the arm by integrating live Vena data directly into PowerPoint presentations.

• Microsoft Power BI: Vena allows users to create better data visualizations, share dashboards and access wider data sources through the integration of Power BI.

• CRM: Vena can connect to CRM tools like HubSpot and Salesforce, which allows users to incorporate customer, prospect, pipeline and marketing data into their planning.

• HRIS: To support their planning processes, Vena users can bring in data from several HRIS and payroll systems such as ADP, Ceridian, Workday, Peoplesoft, Paylocity, Paycomm and BambooHR. 

Prophix

Prophix, likewise, has many integration options via APIs to accounting, ERP, HRIS and CRM systems, as well as flat files and more across various business solutions and tools.

Those include, but are not limited to:

• Accounting: Prophix can connect with numerous accounting and resource planning tools, such as Sage, Dynamics 365 and NetSuite.

• Sales and marketing: Including Zendesk Sell.

• Business intelligence: Including Deltek and Acumatica.

How the Technology Works

Vena

Broadly, Vena offers organizations a single unified platform for many use cases, all built around a native Excel interface. Vena’s online analytical processing (OLAP) database technology enables multidimensional analysis of large volumes of business data. In a nutshell, that means users can analyze their data through several different lenses. 

Vena is built to easily combine various data sources, bringing them together for categorization and analysis. This is particularly useful in CPM because it lets you find the data you need from across your data sources to model various scenarios, create budgets, make forecasts, etc. with not only financial data, but operational data too. It also requires less manual maintenance, with no admin necessary to create an intersection of data before it becomes viewable.  

And, as mentioned, Vena also natively integrates with Excel, which means that your established workflow doesn’t need to change much, if at all. 

Curious how Vena’s own FP&A team uses the Vena platform to combine multiple data sources into one view for processes like workforce planning, compensation review planning and quota planning? Dive into it here.

Prophix

The broad concept behind Prophix, from a design standpoint, was to concentrate regular business application tasks into a central application and empower non-technical users. It’s good to note, too, that Prophix recently upgraded to a new and improved product, Prophix One, that built on the existing platform and added new capabilities and tools, such as account reconciliation and disclosure management.

On a more granular level, Prophix uses OLAP technology to allow users to manipulate data. This works with the platform’s “cubes,” which house calculation results for planning models. In contrast to Vena, Prophix users create a standalone cube for each use case.

Prophix does not have a native Excel interface, though it has an add-in that can connect the FP&A platform to users’ existing workbooks for the purposes of collecting inputs from budget contributors outside of Finance, but not for carrying out your work in Excel. 

Ease of Use

Vena

Since Vena has its roots in Excel, there’s generally a short learning curve for many finance users. There are numerous pre-built templates and reports that can be used out of the box, too, created with industry best practices in mind, to help users hit the ground running. 

“For the past 4+ years, I have been using Vena and I can truly admit that it's one of the best and easiest finance and accounts management tools. It is very easy and simple to create sales reports and accounts on Vena and the availability of customer support team is an added advantage. I like its intuitive and user friendly interface which makes it super easy to learn and understand,” one G2 reviewer writes. 

Additionally, Vena earned 4.5/5 stars for “ease-of-use” on Software Advice, and on Capterra.

Prophix

Prophix’s templates, automated workflow capabilities and overall flexibility make it relatively easy to use for finance teams, according to many reviewers.

“Prophix is an amazing tool and has helped to ease all of our pain points throughout the budget process. The end-user experience has also improved vastly and I'm no longer receiving the complaints I used to during budget season. I have not had a scenario where I wasn't able to accomplish something I wanted to within Prophix,” writes one G2 reviewer.

Prophix earned 4.4/5 stars for “ease of use” on Capterra, and 4.5/5 on Software Advice.

AI Capabilities

Vena

When it comes to AI capabilities, Vena offers two tools: Vena Copilot, and Vena Insights. 

Vena Copilot 

Vena Copilot is Vena’s newest AI tool, which uses Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service advanced AI models, including GPT-4, and Vena’s centralized, multidimensional analytical data model, CubeFLEX™. It’s a complete planning AI assistant that allows users to ask questions in conversational language and quickly get insights from their financial and operational data, analyze trends, generate reports and more.

Vena Copilot is easy to set up and lets you create and train custom AI models, making it easy for anyone in your organization to track down and work with financial data. It also integrates seamlessly with Microsoft 365 and provides enterprise-ready security–data never leaves the Vena tenant and will never be used to train public AI models–as well as robust compliance and privacy capabilities. 

Vena Insights 

Vena’s other AI tool, Vena Insights, is an intelligent reporting and analytics solution that incorporates AI and machine learning technology through embedded Microsoft Power BI to empower finance teams with faster insights. It offers tools such as predictive analytics and anomaly detection that can find inefficiencies, isolate key business drivers and more.

Prophix

Prophix launched an AI-powered virtual financial analyst almost five years ago, which helps users with anomaly detection, chart insights, and more. AI capabilities have also been roped into Prophix One and can help users on the fly.

For instance, one feature, Contribution Insights, allows users to instantly spot trends, and input line item commentary into reports. Also, users can have the Task Assistant automate repetitive tasks, saving time.

Where Prophix’s AI capabilities fall short of other FP&A vendors’ offerings is the platform’s lack of a generative AI-powered chat feature, and the fact that its AI tools can serve up insights only for the report a user is viewing or working on.

Pricing 

Vena

Vena has two pricing plans, and further pricing information is available on request. The two plans available are: 

• The Professional Package: Provides a dedicated Customer Success Manager, Standard Support and access to Vena’s Customer Portal.

• The Complete Package: Includes everything in the Professional Package, along with Vena Insights, as well as Premium Support, Expert Managed Services and access to a Sandbox Environment.  

In the 2024 BARC Planning Survey (the world’s largest survey of planning software users), respondents gave Vena a score of 9.5 for price to value, whereas Prophix scored a 6.1. 

Prophix

Prophix’s pricing also varies depending on business needs and is available upon request. It does offer a free trial.

Customer Support 

Vena

In terms of customer support, Vena has a few options available: The Standard Support Plan, and the Premium Support Plan.

Here’s a breakdown of what each includes:

The Standard Support Plan

• Worldwide 24-hour, Monday through Friday online chat and phone support

• Access to the Vena Support Portal, which features videos, FAQs and user guides

• 24/7 application monitoring and unlimited case submissions

• A dedicated Customer Success Manager 

The Premium Support Plan

• Includes everything included in the Standard Support Plan

• After-hours customer support

• Accelerated response times

• 24/7 telephone support hours for critical concerns 

• Access to Vena Academy, which features product education materials, as well as educational content on Microsoft 365 tools such as Excel and Power BI, along with general FP&A content.

Vena scored 4.5/5 stars for “Customer Service” on Capterra and on Software Advice. 

Prophix

Prophix offers customer support 24/7 over the phone, email or chat. They also have a knowledge base and the Prophix Academy which may be helpful, as well as several webinars and product documentation. 

Like Vena, Prophix scored 4.5/5 stars for “Customer Service on both Capterra and Software Advice.

Vena Reviews 

“I love how easy it is to take any of my spreadsheets and integrate them into Vena. Was able to simplify a lot of spreadsheets but bringing the data in via the cloud rather than dropping it from our accounting system. We have also used it for employee reviews bringing in significant amounts of data and making life easier for our operations team. We have our financial reporting moved to Vena and can update it on demand to have instant access to our statements and any reports we have built. Cut down month end close time significantly. We have so many other uses that we can think of and just need the time to implement.”

– G2

“I am thoroughly impressed with Vena as it offers what-if analysis capabilities, allowing us to simulate different scenarios and assess the potential impact on financial outcomes. This functionality helps our business evaluate the effects of changes in variables such as pricing, expenses and market conditions[…]Constant upgrades are a bit annoying although it’s necessary for performance.

– Capterra

“The fact that it leverages the most popular grid in the world - Excel, which has 1.2 BILLION users worldwide. Not only did it accelerate my corporate career, I was able to start, scale, and sell a business deploying Vena at scale to many organizations as a Vena implementation partner. Even when I left corporate to become a Vena partner, I still use Vena to run my business.”

– G2

Prophix Reviews 

“Prophix is user-friendly and intuitive enough for the non-tech savvy end user, yet powerful and flexible enough for creating robust, dynamic models and reports….With automated reports and processes, my team can now focus on leveraging our data to drive the company forward instead of churning through piles of manual reports. Prophix quickly became an integral part of our daily workflow[…] Because Prophix is meant to be a universal tool, it can take some creative problem-solving to adapt it to your needs, based on your company's complexity and data structure.

– G2

“The Prophix Software is very versatile, starting with it creating a web-based platform. This was important for our company and allows the software to be updated quarterly without issue. We are able to use Prophix for Expense tracking, Expense and Capital planning, reforecasting, Compensation planning, Project tracking, Expense allocation, GAAP PLOB reporting, and still have several more tasks to implement through Prophix.[…] There are so many options within Prophix that at times, it can be overwhelming. I think it’s necessary to have a few Admin to create reports and assist users, so that the users do not have to know how to use everything.”

– Capterra

“The consultation and training was excellent. The data management is simple and effective. Easy to browse from different modules and pages. The knowledge bank is large and there is a large customer resource pool […]Some of the graphs and charts have limited accessories and capabilities. Learning curve was high, but this may be the nature of the software.”

– Capterra

Overall Review: Which Is Best for Your Team?

It’s fair to say that Vena and Prophix both offer prospective customers a full-service FP&A platform that can tick many, if not most organization’s boxes. However, there are some key differences in the underlying technology and additional areas that are important to keep in mind.

Perhaps most notably, Vena’s native Excel integration—which ultimately provides greater ease of use and adoption for many finance teams—could be important to many companies. Prophix, in contrast, has an Excel add-in, which is designed for collecting inputs from budget contributors, not necessarily for finance teams to use for modeling purposes. As a result, it may feel restrictive to some users. 

Additionally, there are some other things to note when deciding between the two. Vena is cloud-based first and foremost, for one, whereas Prophix has limited cloud data integration technology—customers may have a hard time migrating from an on-site solution to the cloud.

AI capabilities are another area to think about. While Prophix did roll out an AI assistant years ago, its current AI capabilities are somewhat lackluster compared to Vena’s two AI tools, and Vena Copilot, in particular. 

Prophix’s underlying architecture also requires users to create cubes for each use case, which can muddle processes, whereas users may find Vena’s approach through CubeFLEX, our unified analytical database technology, may be more streamlined and efficient.

With that all in mind, Vena is a strong fit for companies of all sizes looking for a comprehensive and flexible FP&A platform—particularly those operating on Microsoft 365. Vena can support use cases across not just FP&A-led processes, but financial close management and operational planning too, which means the platform can grow alongside your business as you scale.

Prophix has many advantages and upsides, but it lacks the flexibility and performance needed to handle use cases of higher complexity. As a result, Prophix may be a better fit for mid-size and smaller companies.

No matter which platform your company or organization decides to use, if you’re starting from just having disconnected Excel sheets, you’re likely to give your FP&A team a boost. Nonetheless, it’s important to take note of where your chosen platform excels (pardon the pun) or comes up short to ensure you’re choosing a solution that’s going to work for you over the long haul.

Want to see Vena in action? Request a demo.