In an ever-changing financial landscape, is it possible to predict what’s coming beyond the horizon? Investment firm AGF knows that’s achievable with a sophisticated performance analysis. The firm deepened its reporting and forecasting of several key performance indicators using the robust capabilities of Workday Adaptive Planning. Visual analytics made it easier to identify trends across its operations. The flexibility of scenario-planning enabled AGF to make strategic, course-altering decisions much quicker no matter what lies ahead.
The high level of data integrity within Workday Adaptive Planning allows us to confidently run scenarios and make more strategic, course-altering decisions much quicker.
VP of Finance and Controller
Challenges.
- Used a multitude of spreadsheets to complete enterprise planning and reporting
- Aggregating operational data was far too complex using an outdated financial forecasting process
- Inadequate understanding of historical business metrics and trends vs. present and future performance
Results.
- Finance now helps operational leaders gain instant visual insights into financial performance via Workday Adaptive Planning dashboards
- Several days cut out of the forecasting and reporting process each month, and at least one full week out of the annual budgeting practice
- Rolling, eight-quarter forecasting and reporting process that now drives more strategic, long-term business decisions
Workday Adaptive Planning dashboards provide deeper, clearer view into core business drivers.
To date, AGF has deployed six dashboards in Workday Adaptive Planning, each dedicated to measuring the following KPIs: assets under management (AUM) vs. budget, summary of revenue, selling, general, and administrative expenses (SGA, net income, EBITDA vs. budget, and headcount by function vs. budget).
"Workday Adaptive Planning is making it much easier for us to identify business trends than by simply looking at raw numbers," Quinn explained.
"Finance is driving how we gain instant visual insights from the data, and now we are rolling out dashboards for marketing, sales, and our entire senior executive staff."
AGF meets FP&A efficiency goals and more.
AGF’s current FP&A process is decidedly more efficient than it was when the Finance team worked exclusively with spreadsheets. The company began pushing the limitations of widespread Excel files as it grew in size and number of departments.
According to Quinn, that changed when AGF implemented Workday Adaptive Planning, which has cut several days out of the forecasting and reporting process and at least one full week out of the annual budgeting practice. "We’re saving at least two days each month in FP&A work, and can tell the story of what’s happening with the business across all dimensions much sooner than before with Adaptive," Quinn said.
No surprises in financial performance.
By cutting the time it takes to complete consolidated budgets, plans, and reports, AGF’s Finance team can now complete more sophisticated performance analysis. This includes building an integrated financial model for assets under management and another for costs of commissions earned by investment advisors. The team has also helped HR to automatically import HR data into Workday Adaptive Planning to produce a payroll model and effectively forecast compensation and benefits costs, complete with reporting and variance indicators.
"All of our departmental reports also come out of Adaptive Planning," Quinn said. "It’s helping employees across the business to better focus on their performance against goals and take more ownership of plans, budgets, and forecasts. There are no surprises in financial performance anymore."
Rolling forecasting precision leads to clearer data-driven decisions.
Using Workday Adaptive Planning, AGF has instilled a rolling eight quarter forecast and reporting process so that decision-makers are easily updated with the financial data needed to make important, long-term business decisions.
"The high level of data integrity within Workday Adaptive Planning allows us to confidently run scenarios and make more strategic, course-altering decisions much quicker," Quinn added. "Everyone is more thoughtful about the numbers than before, which has helped us to conduct a deeper analysis of our business that really guides the direction of the company."
We’re saving at least two days each month in FP&A work, and can tell the story of what’s happening with the business across all dimensions much sooner than before with Workday Adaptive Planning.
VP of Finance and Controller