Prior to using Workday Adaptive Planning, Playworks relied on Excel to track its various revenue streams, including government and city grants, earned income, and fundraising efforts. Playworks deployed Workday Adaptive Planning to make planning and reporting for the nonprofit’s finance and non-finance users easier, more collaborative, and more insightful.
Our mission depends on a large community of folks who support our work. The less time we spend in the office trying to understand our financials, the more time we can spend out in the community building those relationships.
President
Challenges.
Static planning. The complexity of planning for disparate revenue sources and the size of the organization led to a planning process that was time-consuming, labor intensive, and episodic.
Uncollaborative budgeting. A fragile Excel-based budget process made it difficult for budget owners to collaborate and ensure accuracy.
- Annual budget cycle. Budgeting was limited to an annual cycle rather than planning long term, so the impact of adjustments to the financials were not visible over time.
Results.
Faster close. Reduced the time required for each monthly accounting close by 5 days with rolling forecasts.
Improved efficiency. The finance team gained the ability to quickly identify potential missing revenue or expenses.
Simplified the reporting process. Finance staff can easily create custom reports within minutes.
- Shared forecasts. Created reporting forecasts that could be shared with funders as a tool to secure additional future funding.