Varo Bank's Digital FP&A Transformation with Vuealta Consulting

Founded in 2015, and based in San Francisco, California Varo Bank set out with a bold mission to make financial inclusion and opportunity a reality for all. Varo has seen continual YOY growth in its customer base and product offerings with a comprehensive suite of financial products, including checking and savings accounts, secured card, and more.

As Varo’s business expanded, so did the complexity of its financial planning and analysis (FP&A) processes. Relying on manual spreadsheets to manage vast amounts of data presented significant challenges, hindering collaboration, slowing down analysis, and limiting the ability to gain actionable insights.

Partnering with Vuealta for Digital FP&A Transformation

In 2022, Varo sought the expertise of Vuealta Consulting, an Anaplan-certified partner recognized for its deep understanding of FP&A and its proven track record in implementing Anaplan solutions for leading financial institutions. Vuealta’s recommendation came from Lending Club, another Vuealta Consulting client who had successfully transformed their FP&A processes using Anaplan.

The Challenge Why Anaplan Why Vuealta Consulting The Solution

Addressing Spreadsheets’ Limitations

Before adopting Anaplan, Varo’s FP&A was heavily reliant on spreadsheets, which imposed several constraints:

• Limited Collaboration: Spreadsheets made it difficult for teams to work seamlessly together, hindering data sharing and collaboration.
• Slow Processing Speeds: As data volumes grew, spreadsheets struggled to handle large datasets, leading to slow performance and delays in analysis.
• Restricted Data Integration: Spreadsheets offered limited options for integrating data from various sources, making it challenging to gain a holistic view of the business.

Anaplan: A Centralized, Collaborative, and Secure Platform

Anaplan’s cloud-based platform addressed Varo’s concerns by providing a centralized, collaborative, and secure environment for FP&A:

• Centralized Platform: Anaplan served as a single source of truth, eliminating data silos and ensuring consistency across the organization.
• Enhanced Collaboration: Role-based access control ensured data security while promoting cross-team collaboration, enabling real-time sharing, and editing of financial models.
• Streamlined Data Integration: Combining Anaplan’s powerful data integration capabilities and Vuealta Consulting expertise allowed Varo to easily connect data from various sources, providing a comprehensive view of their financial performance.

Phased Implementation for Seamless Transformation

Vuealta Consulting adopted a phased approach to Anaplan implementation, ensuring a smooth and efficient transition:

• Phase 1: The initial phase focused on laying the foundation, and implementing core finance modules for budgeting, forecasting, P&L, and reporting.
• Phase 2: Following the successful completion of phase 1, Vuealta moved on to phase 2, implementing customer volume planning and vendor planning modules.

Realizing the Benefits of Anaplan

Anaplan’s implementation has transformed Varo’s FP&A processes, delivering significant benefits:

• Faster and More Reliable Analysis: Anaplan’s ability to handle large datasets efficiently enabled Varo to conduct faster and more reliable financial analyses.
• Enhanced Scenario Planning: Varo gained the agility to quickly iterate on scenario planning, enabling them to adapt to changing market conditions and make informed decisions.
• Deeper Data Insights: Anaplan’s data visualization capabilities provided Varo with deeper insights into their financial performance, enabling them to identify trends and make data-driven decisions.
• Streamlined FP&A Processes: Anaplan automated repetitive manual tasks, freeing up time for Varo’s FP&A team to focus on strategic analysis and decision-making.

Expanding FP&A Functionality Across the Business

With Anaplan firmly integrated into their FP&A processes, and with the support of Vuealta Consulting Varo is now exploring opportunities to expand its use across the organization, further enhancing financial planning and decision-making across the business.

Varo’s executives have expressed their satisfaction with Vuealta’s services and the impact of Anaplan on their FP&A processes:

“Vuealta Consulting helped us level up our planning tools, providing more reliable and faster analysis of large data sets. Thanks to their understanding of Anaplan and ability to apply it to our use case, we have greater capacity to quickly iterate on scenario analysis and create long-term, data-driven processes.”

“I would recommend Vuealta Consulting to any company looking to strengthen its FP&A processes and automate painful, manual tasks that involve high volumes of data. Their expertise and insight has not only saved us time but also allowed us to more deeply analyze critical inputs to our core functions.”

“Vuealta’s best-in-class Anaplan implementation has saved us hours per year of manual, error-prone work, automating and streamlining critical FP&A processes.”

The journey doesn’t stop there, now Anaplan is implemented into their business Varo has the opportunity to expand their planning functionality across the wider business.

Varo Bank’s digital transformation story is one that many businesses can relate to. Are you looking for a way to improve your financial decision-making? If so, then contact one of our experts at Vuealta Consulting. We can help you find a solution that is tailored to your specific needs to make better financial decisions that will drive your business forward.