Example Workflows

Use Case 1: Month‑End Variance Analysis & Executive Commentary

Summary

Use an MCP‑enabled agent during financial close to quickly explain actuals vs. budget, identify material drivers and anomalies and generate consistent, CFO‑ready commentary. By connecting to Vena via MCP, users can reference live financial data, hierarchies and finance standards—reducing cycle time and rework while improving narrative quality.

Example Prompts

• Show Actual vs Budget for April by department and rank the top 10 variances.
• Identify any unusual OpEx spikes in April compared to the trailing six‑month average.
• Why is IT Software over budget this month? Break it down by vendor.
• Create a waterfall chart explaining total OpEx variance for April.
• Draft CFO‑ready commentary for the top three unfavorable variances using our standard format.

Capabilities

• Natural‑language querying of actuals, budget and forecast data
• Variance calculation (absolute, percent, favorable/unfavorable)
• Dimensional drill‑down across entity, department, account and vendor
• Automated anomaly and outlier detection
• Financial visualization generation (variance charts, trends, waterfalls)
• Executive‑level narrative generation aligned to finance commentary standards
• Explainability and reconciliation to source data (read‑only, close‑safe)

Use Case 2: Rolling Forecast Update & What‑If Scenario Modeling

Summary

Update rolling forecasts, test what‑if scenarios and immediately understand the impact of changing assumptions. Users can leverage internal and external drivers and write back inputs with full auditability, enabling finance teams to move from analysis to action without breaking controls.

Example Prompts

• Compare the current forecast vs the prior forecast for Q2 by department.
• Increase cloud hosting unit costs by 6% for May–July and recalculate the forecast.
• Spread the $120K migration cost evenly across May and June.
• Create a downside scenario assuming revenue is 3% lower and hiring is delayed by one month.
• How should we adjust our revenue forecast if GDP growth slows by 1.5% and consumer spending contracts in our core markets next quarter?

Capabilities

• Driver‑based forecast updates (rates, volumes, headcount, timing)
• Spreads and allocations across periods, entities or regions
• Scenario creation, cloning and comparison
• Automatic recalculation and impact analysis on EBITDA, margin and cash
• Sensitivity analysis (rank drivers by impact on EBITDA or cash, one variable at a time)
• Goal seek and back‑solving to achieve a target outcome
• Likelihood‑weighted best/base/worst cases for decision‑relevant expected values

Use Case 3: Create Vena‑Ready Templates

Summary

FP&A teams often need new or updated planning templates (Budget, Forecast, Headcount, OpEx) that are consistent, auditable and ready to map to Vena. An MCP‑enabled agent can streamline this process by generating standardized Excel workbooks and validating readiness for Vena mapping before build begins.

Example Prompts

• Create an OpEx budget template for next fiscal year. Include tabs for Inputs, Assumptions, Checks, and Output Summary. Make it ready to be mapped in Vena with columns for Entity, Department, Account, Period, Scenario, and Amount.
• Generate a Headcount planning template with drivers (FTE, Avg Salary, Start Date), monthly phasing and a validation section for missing cost centers.
• Build a depreciation schedule in a new tab using stored asset data (name, cost, useful life, in‑service date).

Capabilities

• Build templates that conform to Vena’s native Excel interface requirements (structured input blocks, locked/unlocked cell logic, separation of inputs and calculations)
• Analyze existing templates and identify changes required to be Vena‑ready (tab structure, named ranges, input blocks, formula dependencies)
• Flag cells, ranges and formulas that conflict with Vena mapping requirements before build begins
• Detect hardcoded values, broken references or consolidation logic
• Validate mapping to Vena CubeFLEX dimensions (account, entity, department, scenario, year, period)
• Check for missing, duplicate or misaligned dimension members that would break writeback or aggregation
• Apply organizational template standards (naming conventions, tab order, color coding, input/output formatting)

Use Case 4: Query Transaction and Operational Table Data

Use MCP to go beyond aggregated, intersection-level data and investigate the details behind your results. For example, you can retrieve a marketing spend variance with get_report_data, then investigate the transactions, invoices or other records contributing to that variance.

Transactional Data

Use Transaction and Staging Table data to investigate what is driving a value in your model. Start with list_transaction_tables to identify the available drill-through tables, then use query_transaction_table to retrieve the relevant records.

This works best as a targeted follow-up to an existing result. Use specific criteria to narrow your query rather than requesting all transactions for a broad period.

Example prompts:

• What's driving the Travel expense variance (Actual vs Plan) for January 2026 in my Finance Model? Show me the underlying transactions.
• Which vendor invoices contributed to the Marketing department's expense variance in September 2026?
• Show me the transactions behind January 2026 Travel expenses for the Sales department, sorted by amount.
• Do the transactions behind Q1 2026 Sales revenue for Toronto add up to the amount in the model?

Operational Data

Use Operational Table data when you need detailed records that are not part of the drill-through workflow. Start with list_operational_tables to identify the tables and columns available to you, then use query_operational_table to retrieve the relevant records.

You can select specific columns, filter the results and limit the number of rows returned.

The following examples are for reference only and will vary depending on the data available in your Operational Tables.

Example prompts:

• Show me the open purchase orders over $25,000 for the Marketing department.
• List all capital expenditure requests that are approved but not yet in the 2026 budget.
• Which vendor contracts expire in the next 90 days, and what's their annual value?
• Pull the FX rates we used for the 2026 Plan and compare them to the rates in the latest forecast.