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Today it’s a showdown in the world of financial planning & analysis: Workday Adaptive Planning vs. Excel
Most companies switch to Workday Adaptive Planning, or another planning software, once their Excel or Google Sheets become so large that they stop working. Even when they do work it may take several hours to open the file, and several days to be updated and validate the sheet only to find later on that some formulas were incorrect and the forecast was rather inaccurate.
Unless you are a very small company or you don’t have some kind of basic accounting in place, it is encouraged that you move from Excel to alternative planning software (such as Workday) as soon as you can. From a personal perspective, as a multi-level Adaptive and Excel user as an analyst, lead, manager, and now implementer – I would say, the earlier the better.
Trust me this will make EVERYBODY’s life easier: your analysts, your system admins, your budget owners, and even us… Consultants.
Benefits of switching to Workday Adaptive Planning
Especially as a young, developing business, early and smaller implementation is especially fast and easy. With the help of a strong solution provider, you can likely have the necessary structure to gain strong business insights in only three to four weeks. All it takes is your chart of accounts, organizational structures, currencies, Personnel data, high-level OPEX spend, high-level revenue, and Voila… You are set with P&L, Balance Sheet, and Cash Flow Actuals.
Early implementation allows for your models to grow with your company. Workday Adaptive Planning is indeed “adaptive” and allows you to easily add, edit or modify your structure and models. As you expand, you (or your consultants) will implement your growing and evolving needs. Another argument for early implementation is that the system is easier to learn, use and debug while you grow. Workday Adaptive Planning is known for its ease of use due to its reporting and office connect capabilities. With that being said any new software can be complicated and requires some additional learning. When starting to use the software early you and your users start learning the tool when it’s still easy and small. As it expands, users discover and learn at a “normal human pace” the intricacies, possibilities, and new functionalities.
This is especially good for people who are less tech-savvy as finance teams often have a handful of members that are used to financial planning the old way. These individuals will be less intimidated and thus will be more autonomous and confident quickly. This early exposure will leave your teams writing formulas and building models themselves without the need for external consultants. Not to mention that Workday Adaptive Planning has two major releases a year, adding many awesome features for architects and users. As with any addition to a tool, these releases require some learning, but that learning is made much easier with prior knowledge of the system and Workday’s online learning platform.
One large benefit of an Excel alternative like Workday Adaptive Planning is that even if you don’t have an ERP such as NetSuite, Workday Financials, or Great Plains and you are still using QuickBooks, for example, it’s still worth having all your planning done in Adaptive and have your actual data simply loaded via Excel templates. Workday Adaptive Planning makes manual data uploads easy with downloadable templates and easy compatibility with Excel.
Finally, for those who are not willing to give up Excel or have trouble learning new software, you can still export everything via reporting, or using their excel addons. Office Connect and Planning is an Excel addon that allows you to do your data manipulation in Excel while pulling data directly from Workday Adaptive planning. When you’re done, your data can be automatically transmitted back to Adaptive using a Workday Planning Add-in. This way, the transition can be smoother, and you will not be in completely new terrain.
Potential Drawbacks of Workday Adaptive Planning
The biggest drawback you may face is the issue of acceptance as people are overall mostly used to Excel Spreadsheets or Google Sheets. You may face some reluctance but this is only a short-term problem as the learning curve is not any greater than learning other new software. Another drawback is the cost. It’s true a Workday Adaptive Planning license is more costly than an Excel or Google sheet license. Although this cost may be high, think about all the hours you will spend maintaining and trying to debug your spreadsheets, all the frustrations it may cause when your Excel crashes or no longer opens, and the difficulty in creating new versions of existing models.
These are all examples of costs both human and financial. Between hours lost in excel and the cost of paying employees to fix the problems, Workday Adaptive Planning is an expense worth paying for due to the value it adds to your business.
When is the Right Time to Switch To Workday Adaptive Planning?
As early as possible! On our end, we have helped all kinds of company sizes. From Series D startups to larger public companies. Startups were set up faster with robust models while Implementation for large companies took months. Although Workday Adaptive Planning can be implemented anytime, the earlier you get started the more value provided by the tool.
Interested In Starting Your Own Implementation of Workday Adaptive Planning?
Qbix is ready to provide expert guidance to clients of all kinds. Our team of experienced implementers has the real-world experience necessary to provide a seamless transition to your new software while applying best practices that bring incredible value to your organization. Reach out to Qbix for more information today!