General Discussions

Has anyone had issues with Vena Freezing Excel, or loading very slowly (6-8 minutes to load) or other connection type issues, and if so, how have you solved them?

We are having issues and can not resolve loading and using Vena.

------------------------------
Mar James
Systems and Software Specialist
Highfield Investment Group Inc.
Calgary AB
------------------------------

Good morning,

I've run into similar issues in the past with Vena, and unfortunately the only way we were able to resolve the issue is by upgrading our PC's from dual-core to at least a quad-core processor which can handle running Vena alongside other applications (like running multiple Vena templates at once).

Hope this helps!

------------------------------
Juan Bravo
Sr. Financial Analyst
Beacon Specialized Living
Kalamazoo, MI, USA
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 10-03-2022 23:37
From: Mar James
Subject: Vena speed and freezing issues

Has anyone had issues with Vena Freezing Excel, or loading very slowly (6-8 minutes to load) or other connection type issues, and if so, how have you solved them?

We are having issues and can not resolve loading and using Vena.

------------------------------
Mar James
Systems and Software Specialist
Highfield Investment Group Inc.
Calgary AB
------------------------------

Thanks Juan - we're trying to avoid this as we all run off Surfaces due to our hybrid work set-up.  Hope we don't need to do this.

------------------------------
Mar James
Systems Accountant
Highfield Stock Farm
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 10-04-2022 09:18
From: Juan Bravo
Subject: Vena speed and freezing issues

Good morning,

I've run into similar issues in the past with Vena, and unfortunately the only way we were able to resolve the issue is by upgrading our PC's from dual-core to at least a quad-core processor which can handle running Vena alongside other applications (like running multiple Vena templates at once).

Hope this helps!

------------------------------
Juan Bravo
Sr. Financial Analyst
Beacon Specialized Living
Kalamazoo, MI, USA

Original Message:
Sent: 10-03-2022 23:37
From: Mar James
Subject: Vena speed and freezing issues

Has anyone had issues with Vena Freezing Excel, or loading very slowly (6-8 minutes to load) or other connection type issues, and if so, how have you solved them?

We are having issues and can not resolve loading and using Vena.

------------------------------
Mar James
Systems and Software Specialist
Highfield Investment Group Inc.
Calgary AB
------------------------------

Hey! I've had this before in a template that was previously running perfecting and it turned out I had somehow made a bunch of extra rows active, i.e. even though I was using let's say 100 rows, the template had the last row as like one million. I was getting a pop-up warning when I clicked save but it didn't really register with me. This was thankfully an easy fix. I just had to delete the non-active rows/columns so the scroll bar was back to the expected size (this also should have been the tell-tale sign to me that something was wrong).

Other things that can slow down a template:

• Extremely complex nested formulas - there would have to be a lot of them for it to be impactful
• Custom refresh (this might come into play where you have multiple section or block mappings and you ask vena to do them in a unique order, or double refresh)
• Bringing in more data than needed (e.g. bringing in 5 years of prior year GL data when you normally hide the prior 3 years anyway) - again, there would need to be a lot for it to be impactful
• Then the generic issue of computer speed. I believe the recommended RAM is 16GB and 8GB is the minimum

My fingers are crossed for you that it's the first, easiest issue!

------------------------------
Olivia MacDonald
Manager, Financial Systems and Operations
PwC
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 10-03-2022 23:37
From: Mar James
Subject: Vena speed and freezing issues

Has anyone had issues with Vena Freezing Excel, or loading very slowly (6-8 minutes to load) or other connection type issues, and if so, how have you solved them?

We are having issues and can not resolve loading and using Vena.

------------------------------
Mar James
Systems and Software Specialist
Highfield Investment Group Inc.
Calgary AB
------------------------------

Thanks Olivia.
There were a few extra lines - but not enough to make a difference.
I know about the custom refresh - and have that set-up in about half our templates - but surprisingly, not the slowest one.
The formulas I have been going through to make more efficient for a few weeks now!
Kept data to the minimum - there is so much!  And we do have 16GB ram.

Thanks for replying.  Take Care.
Mar

------------------------------
Mar James
Systems Accountant
Highfield Stock Farm
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 10-04-2022 09:51
From: Olivia MacDonald
Subject: Vena speed and freezing issues

Hey! I've had this before in a template that was previously running perfecting and it turned out I had somehow made a bunch of extra rows active, i.e. even though I was using let's say 100 rows, the template had the last row as like one million. I was getting a pop-up warning when I clicked save but it didn't really register with me. This was thankfully an easy fix. I just had to delete the non-active rows/columns so the scroll bar was back to the expected size (this also should have been the tell-tale sign to me that something was wrong).

Other things that can slow down a template:

• Extremely complex nested formulas - there would have to be a lot of them for it to be impactful
• Custom refresh (this might come into play where you have multiple section or block mappings and you ask vena to do them in a unique order, or double refresh)
• Bringing in more data than needed (e.g. bringing in 5 years of prior year GL data when you normally hide the prior 3 years anyway) - again, there would need to be a lot for it to be impactful
• Then the generic issue of computer speed. I believe the recommended RAM is 16GB and 8GB is the minimum

My fingers are crossed for you that it's the first, easiest issue!

------------------------------
Olivia MacDonald
Manager, Financial Systems and Operations
PwC

Original Message:
Sent: 10-03-2022 23:37
From: Mar James
Subject: Vena speed and freezing issues

Has anyone had issues with Vena Freezing Excel, or loading very slowly (6-8 minutes to load) or other connection type issues, and if so, how have you solved them?

We are having issues and can not resolve loading and using Vena.

------------------------------
Mar James
Systems and Software Specialist
Highfield Investment Group Inc.
Calgary AB
------------------------------

I have had that, but not often.  I closed Excel and re-ran the report with no other spreadsheets open and it worked.

------------------------------
Curtis Roe
Chief Financial Officer
California Hydronics
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 10-03-2022 23:37
From: Mar James
Subject: Vena speed and freezing issues

Has anyone had issues with Vena Freezing Excel, or loading very slowly (6-8 minutes to load) or other connection type issues, and if so, how have you solved them?

We are having issues and can not resolve loading and using Vena.

------------------------------
Mar James
Systems and Software Specialist
Highfield Investment Group Inc.
Calgary AB
------------------------------

Thanks - we are reloading as well - but it has become too often and hoped there was some other item we were missing.
Stay safe,
Mar

------------------------------
Mar James
Systems Accountant
Highfield Stock Farm
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 10-04-2022 18:52
From: Curtis Roe
Subject: Vena speed and freezing issues

I have had that, but not often.  I closed Excel and re-ran the report with no other spreadsheets open and it worked.

------------------------------
Curtis Roe
Chief Financial Officer
California Hydronics

Original Message:
Sent: 10-03-2022 23:37
From: Mar James
Subject: Vena speed and freezing issues

Has anyone had issues with Vena Freezing Excel, or loading very slowly (6-8 minutes to load) or other connection type issues, and if so, how have you solved them?

We are having issues and can not resolve loading and using Vena.

------------------------------
Mar James
Systems and Software Specialist
Highfield Investment Group Inc.
Calgary AB
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 10/3/2022 11:38:00 PM
From: Mar James
Subject: Vena speed and freezing issues

Has anyone had issues with Vena Freezing Excel, or loading very slowly (6-8 minutes to load) or other connection type issues, and if so, how have you solved them?

We are having issues and can not resolve loading and using Vena.

------------------------------
Mar James
Systems and Software Specialist
Highfield Investment Group Inc.
Calgary AB
------------------------------

Hi Mar,

The steps Olivia suggest are some of our general best practices for helping improve template performance. A few other things to try are:

1. If you are using Line Item Details in the template, please save the template in an empty state. You can do this by pressing the hide all dynamics button in your Vena addin before pressing save template.

2. Find alternatives to volatile functions, such as offset. Volatile functions can impact template performance. You can find a list of all volatile formulas here

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/office/client-developer/excel/excel-recalculation#volatile-and-non-volatile-functions


If trying the above steps still does not show improvement, our consulting team can review your template in more detail and offer suggestions. If you are interested in doing that, please reach out to your customer success manager.

Mike

------------------------------
Mike Liu
Manager
Vena
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 10-03-2022 23:37
From: Mar James
Subject: Vena speed and freezing issues

Has anyone had issues with Vena Freezing Excel, or loading very slowly (6-8 minutes to load) or other connection type issues, and if so, how have you solved them?

We are having issues and can not resolve loading and using Vena.

------------------------------
Mar James
Systems and Software Specialist
Highfield Investment Group Inc.
Calgary AB
------------------------------

Thanks Mike for your input.
We do have volatile functions, and would love to have insight on how to remove offset / indirect that I use.  Is there a document on what to replace them with when I have a cell that isn't populated when in Hide mode?

We have also determined it is our computer processors that aren't working with Vena, and your Vena team is working on that for us.

Thanks again.

Mar

------------------------------
Mar James
Systems Accountant
Highfield Stock Farm
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 10-07-2022 11:02
From: Mike Liu
Subject: Vena speed and freezing issues

Hi Mar,

The steps Olivia suggest are some of our general best practices for helping improve template performance. A few other things to try are:

1. If you are using Line Item Details in the template, please save the template in an empty state. You can do this by pressing the hide all dynamics button in your Vena addin before pressing save template.

2. Find alternatives to volatile functions, such as offset. Volatile functions can impact template performance. You can find a list of all volatile formulas here

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/office/client-developer/excel/excel-recalculation#volatile-and-non-volatile-functions


If trying the above steps still does not show improvement, our consulting team can review your template in more detail and offer suggestions. If you are interested in doing that, please reach out to your customer success manager.

Mike

------------------------------
Mike Liu
Manager
Vena

Original Message:
Sent: 10-03-2022 23:37
From: Mar James
Subject: Vena speed and freezing issues

Has anyone had issues with Vena Freezing Excel, or loading very slowly (6-8 minutes to load) or other connection type issues, and if so, how have you solved them?

We are having issues and can not resolve loading and using Vena.

------------------------------
Mar James
Systems and Software Specialist
Highfield Investment Group Inc.
Calgary AB
------------------------------