Workday Adaptive Planning

Powerful

Comments: It helped us to give real time reports to management that helped them to get financial planning solutions.

Pros:

Very easy to use reporting and real-time consolidation that helps planning ahead. Mostly used for reporting to high management, and each time it provided fast and amazing solutions. Has lots of features.

Cons:

Limited customisation and overall pricing could be the only con but works really well with large companies.

An FP&A Dream Tool

Comments: I will always recommend Adaptive to FP&A professionals. Once you use it and truly understand it, I'm sure you will do the same. There is little wonder why they are a leader in the SaaS space.

Pros:

A cloud-based tool that enables you to forecast and budget different scenarios. OfficeConnect (an add-on feature) allows you to create reports directly in Excel and increases overall team efficiency.

Cons:

Setting up Adaptive Insights is a crucial, timely, and difficult process. However, the time you put into building your instance initially saves time and pays dividends in the future.

Sophisticated, but slow software

Comments: The actual forecast model is very nice, but I wish the software could be more user-friendly, and faster.

Pros:

Adaptive Planning is very sophisticated. There are so many ways models can be created, and it supports so many different versions which I love. I can create a forecast for every single GL account for every different department of the company.

Cons:

First, the software is very slow for a company at around 1000 size. If you make even a slight forecast/formula update, it can take 30mins to an hour before you can start using it again. Also, the formulas are very difficult to learn. The formula assistant feature definitely helps, but the way the formula is structured, it's almost impossible to use without the assistant.

Robust Financial Planning

Comments: While the core features are strong, some advanced functionalities may require additional customization or integration with other Workday products.
8/10

Pros:

As a widely adopted solution in the realm of corporate planning, it offers a range of features aimed at improving financial planning and decision-making

Cons:

Sometimes it can be complicated but usually ok

Adaptive User

Comments: excellent tool for forecasting, budgeting and reporting

Pros:

Very easy to use and set up as well, also easy to able to be deployed across the business and user training required is minimal.

Cons:

to start with it is cloud based and very easy to begin with

For adaptive work planning.

Comments: In my department it has made it easy to plan work engage teams and also in creating reliable accounting functions.

Pros:

It is simple in work plan follow up of tasks and team work engagement. Accurate accounting and bank reconciliation. Proper prediction and budgeting.

Cons:

No drawbacks for a while now and it keeps improving.

A Powerful and Resourceful Software

Pros:

With this tool, we have an easy time planning and automating budgets. It is a great EPM

Cons:

With Workday Adaptive Planning, no major challenges

Workday for company data management

Comments: Overall I am satisfied because Workday gave me all that I wanted to have in relation to my personal data or company data. Even thought it was hard at start to navigate and find my self in the tool but after some time it is a pure pressure to work with Workday data.

Pros:

We have all data related to our job in one place where we can work with them and put them to analysis.

Cons:

The navigation is sometimes hard especially when the dashboard have a lot of information.

Friendly App

Pros:

Very informative and accessible application.

Cons:

Technical error may cause to bug the application

Easy to use

Pros:

Once you get familiar with Workday, it is every easy to use.

Cons:

Figuring out where everything is that I need.

review

Pros:

it runs without interfering with other programs.

Cons:

does not have any issues that I am aware of.

Best financial tool on the market in my opinion

Comments: I use Adaptive as a replacement for excel in some aspects of my job. I mainly use it as month end communication to send out financial status reports pertaining to actuals vs budget vs forecast. Adaptive Discovery is one tool I utilize to aid in visualizing data in multiple ways through the use of graphs, gauges, pie charts, tables, and many more.

Pros:

Allows so many different ways to breakdown data. Great customer support. The respond quickly and are very knowledgeable. Easy to manage users with different access levels. Adaptive is always working to enhance or update features. The platform develops continuously, which is great for the large user base. Hosts free webinars every so often. Can be accessed from anywhere as long as you have internet access.

Cons:

The learning curve is steep, it takes a lot of time to really get comfortable with the platform. Not a lot of video tutorials. The terminology can be confusing sometimes. Adaptive is open to technical/programming suggestions but often take time to be enacted. You sometimes have to wait for the next release to get the issue resolved.

Planning Adaptive Way

Comments: It has been good, however need to bring in drastic changes to compete in market

Pros:

Reporting is good, and also the ease to run the report.

Cons:

Metadata maintenance is a bit complicated, and also customisation is also not at par. UI and admin features can improve.

Consistency and savings through use of Adaptive Planning

Comments: When I started in my role as Manager of FP&A with an agricultural inputs company, one of my first tasks was to move our planning and forecasting processes away from Excel workbooks. Trying to manage P&L's for 200+ retail locations and departments, combined with nearly 2,000 employees, during a high-growth period proved to be challenging, to say the least. Adaptive Planning has streamlined our planning and forecasting cycles and helped us to standardize metrics, reporting and analysis. Through the use of multiple versions, we have the ability to compare plans, forecasts and actuals across the organization. My only regret related to Adaptive Planning was the timing of our implementation. We started our implementation in late-July and finished in October, which coincided with our annual planning cycle. We survived, but I would not recommend this timeline! Pros:
1) Implementation was relatively quick (even though we implemented during our annual planning cycle).
2) Affordability compared to other SAAS and on-site alternatives.
3) Flexibility allows us to mold portions of the product to our needs.
4) Customer support is excellent and timely.
5) Tool can be maintained by Finance; IT involvement is not required for installation or maintenance.
6) Ongoing product enhancements continue to improve this product.
7) Office Connect allows for creation of templates in Excel, Word and PowerPoint. Updating with current results is a simple refresh button-click.
8) Attributes and dimensions allow for unlimited slicing/dicing of organizational data. Cons:
1) Only a single organization structure is currently available in a single-instance installation. This has caused some headaches, especially in the window of year-end close and progressing into a different organization structure in the new year. We have worked around this issue by utilizing level attributes to view our data in multiple structures.
2) The reporting side of the tool could be improved, including automating linkage to standard distribution/reporting platforms. For example, we use SharePoint for distribution of standard reports, but publishing reports from Adaptive to SharePoint is currently a manual process.

Great software to project us into the next level of strategic finance.

Comments: Overall, Adaptive Insights has been a great software to work with. AI has increased the FP&A departments productivity during month end close and review by multiple days.

Pros:

- The software is a cloud based, so you will have access anywhere you have the internet. - No more “this worksheet is locked by another user” message. - Imports and Exports to/from excel seamlessly…for those of you that like to work out of excel. - Dashboard capabilities for more real time department metrics and visibility to spend. - Rolling forecasting capabilities that allow us as a company to focus more on the future and less on the past. - Instant Company budget/forecast results. - Audit trails…never have to worry who, what, or when someone changed a number you budgeted or forecasted. All changes will be tracked. - Company-wide visibility to Personnel and Capex planning that drives the cost of benefits, IT equipment, and supplies.

Cons:

- Software enhancements are only every 4 to 5 months. - Levels (Organization Departments) can be restricting to planning across multiple departments - Noting variances in a report can be tricky at times.

Flexible and Comprehensive Planning and Reporting

Comments: I've been using Adaptive Planning for 4 years and at 2 employers. The software has not only improved the accuracy and accountability of our budgeting, forecasting and reporting, but has saved thousands of hours of time.

Pros:

The software is flexible. It can be developed and managed internally or you can work with external experts if needed. I like that the cloud software is continuously improving and developing to meet the needs of its customers. There are new releases every six months that improve its functionality based on customer needs and requests. And more importantly, all updates are done on the cloud so that there is no need for the IT department to get involved.

Cons:

There aren't many things specific to the software that I don't like. I would say that the most difficult part about using this software is managing the requests from management so that it doesn't compromise the value of the software.

Adaptive Insights

Comments: I use adaptive planning for corporate budgeting and long term forecasting. It is a great tool that is very flexible. Being able to build the financial model in a collaborative, team based manner instead of in numerous different excel models is a much better process.

Pros:

[1] Version comparison is easy for variance analysis [2] Adaptive office connect is a very useful excel based reporting tool [3] Flexible system based planning and scenario analysis accelerates planning cycles and reduces data integrity issues

Cons:

The biggest issue that i have run into is the way actuals flow into locked plan versions. If you have a formula in a locled plan version that references actuals and you change the actuals data, then it will change you plan numbers even though the period is locked.

Powerful software, makes life easier, business insights more accessible

Comments: I have previous experience using Hyperion, Peoplesoft, and Microsoft Excel to create and maintain financial models. As flexible as regular spreadsheets are, it was always hard to get everybody on the same page, referencing the same numbers, using the same version. I have been using Adaptive Planning for about 1.5 years now, with about 1 year as a systems administrator for the product. FP&A has truly become simplified. This tool has saved hours upon hours every month, as well improved accuracy and timeliness of reports. This allows us to function better as a business unit, and make more proactive models and decisions. My one gripe with Adaptive is their customer support. I have had a hard time getting several issues resolved in a timely manner. Nonetheless, I would highly recommend Adaptive to anybody stuck in "spreadsheet land"--there really is a better way.

Pros:

One source for all models and reported numbers. Interconnected data makes it easy to see the full effect of any changes, large or small.

Cons:

Customer support needs to work on responsiveness.

Improved Reporting

Comments: Our Budgeting and Forecast process has significantly improved and can be identified through the additional value added to each of our departments through customized, timely, accurate and flexible reporting. Additionally our Financial Analysts (system end users) have increased their capacity to provide more in-depth timely analysis to the organization and their support department especially with the drill down capabilities and customizing reports.

Pros:

The System is easy to use, developer friendly and customizable

Cons:

Reporting functionality within the system could be enhanced. We currently use templates created in excel to house formating or additional formulas that are not available in Adaptive but are requried for our reporting.

flow and transparency for FP&A

Comments: I've been using Adaptive since 2011, and I am fully satisfied with the Adaptive suit. Every year they are improving and developing the suit of services and product. I might be biased but the ease of use of the platform is really what's important for me. The flow and transparency of the data is equally important. I don't think I could be as good as I am when it comes to FP&A and reporting if it wasn't for using Adaptive.

Pros:

everything- ease of use

Cons:

none

Great product!

Comments: It has simplified our work quite a bit. We are no longer dependent on our previous excel-based reporting tools. Creating and modifying reports have become a very process.

Pros:

Ease of implementation and use.

Cons:

Still developing some modules, need time to improve

Reliable and easy to use tool for data business planning

Pros:

It has easy-to-use features that are good for reporting, planning, and data visualization.

Cons:

The only that I don't like with this software is that it freezes and crashes on my computer. But I think I need upgrades on my computer. Overall, the software is good.

It's a good company

Pros:

It's pretty easy to use for the most part

Cons:

It does take a while to load up once you sign in

Proactivity over Reactivity

Comments: Our initial implementation was rough. Our 3rd party consultant tried to fit our unique companies into their cookie-cutter implementation package and it didn't work out. Since rebuilding on our own, we have a model that works well for our family of companies and we are able to continually improve in conjunction with frequent Adaptive Suite upgrades and continued learning.

Pros:

Ease of use, customer service.

Cons:

Web reporting

Robust and good for forecasting

Comments: Forecasting, FP&A, and more.

Pros:

Easy to compare different reports to actuals/budgeted/forecasted versions, drill into details, and keep track of other elements of financial planning & analysis. Audit trail shows you who has done what. Functionality within sheets is very useful.

Cons:

It's pretty complex, especially when you have to figure out how an employee who arrived before you set it up.