Streamlined Budgeting & Forecasting for SaaS Businesses | Ep. 7

Unknown Speaker

Hey, everyone, and welcome back to another deep dive from FP&A Done Right. I'm Ethan, and with me today, as always, is Emma.

Emma

Hi, everybody! So today, we're diving into Workday Adaptive Planning and what it can do for SaaS and tech companies. And honestly, this is one of those topics where I wish I’d had these tools back in the day.

Unknown Speaker

Absolutely. You know, SaaS companies have some pretty unique financial needs, right? Recurring revenue is the big one, and they’re not usually dealing with a ton of capital expenditure. So, managing profit and loss is just, like, everything for them.

Emma

Yeah, and I think that’s what makes this so interesting. Let’s jump into our first example. Picture a fast-growing SaaS business that’s still using spreadsheets for everything—budgeting, planning, forecasting, reporting. I mean, it works until it really, really doesn’t.

Unknown Speaker

Right, and that’s so common. You hit a point where the spreadsheet just can’t keep up with the growth. Especially when you’re trying to look out two, three, even four years into the future. You need to know how that recurring revenue is going to trend, how it’ll impact profitability, all that good stuff.

Emma

Exactly. And what this company did was move to a custom revenue model in Workday Adaptive Planning. Not just some generic template, but something built specifically for their annual recurring revenue streams. That’s the key—tailoring it to the business, not just plugging in numbers.

Unknown Speaker

Yeah, and that let them get super granular with their P&L. They could see churn rates, customer acquisition costs, all the little details that actually drive the business. It’s not just “here’s our revenue”—it’s “here’s why our revenue looks the way it does.”

Emma

And the results? Way better visibility into future revenue. They could forecast one, two, three years out, which is huge for planning and budgeting. Plus, they had all this historical data to analyze—what worked, what didn’t, and how to make better decisions going forward.

Unknown Speaker

And don’t forget the reporting. They could finally create those comprehensive reports for management and investors, showing every aspect of their P&L. It’s not just about having the data, it’s about being able to communicate it clearly.

Emma

Totally. I remember my old team struggling with multi-year planning until we finally got a tailored revenue solution in place. Suddenly, the P&L just made sense. It’s a game changer.

Unknown Speaker

Alright, let’s move to another example—a global SaaS company in the blockchain and crypto space. Different industry, but honestly, the same kind of headaches. Their big challenge? Headcount management. When you’re growing fast and hiring all over the world, it’s chaos.

Emma

Oh, for sure. I mean, just keeping track of who’s on board, where they are, what they’re working on—it’s a nightmare if you’re doing it manually. And before they switched, it was all spreadsheets and emails. I can’t even imagine the mess.

Unknown Speaker

Yeah, and it’s not just about having the data, it’s about making sense of it. So, what they did was build a purpose-built personnel model in Workday Adaptive Planning, and they integrated it directly with their HR system. Suddenly, all the HR data just flowed in automatically. No more manual updates, no more email chains.

Emma

That’s huge. I mean, think about all the hours saved just by not having to update headcount spreadsheets. And, honestly, the risk of errors drops way down. Manual entry is just asking for trouble.

Unknown Speaker

Exactly. The big win was having a single source of truth for headcount. Everyone in the company could access the same, up-to-date info. No more conflicting spreadsheets floating around. And they could drill down—see headcount by department, by location, by job title. That made hiring and resource allocation so much more precise.

Emma

And it really helped with workforce planning, too. They could look ahead and say, “Okay, based on our growth, we’ll need X number of people in these roles, in these places.” That kind of control is just critical for a fast-growing company.

Emma

So, for our last example, let’s talk about a SaaS company providing online data solutions for insurance. This one’s interesting because they started small, with a lean finance team, and were super reliant on Excel at first. But the director of finance had used Workday Adaptive Planning before and was eager to bring it in early.

Unknown Speaker

That’s smart. Most companies wait until they’re bigger before investing in FP&A, but honestly, building that foundation early is the way to go. You want to be ready to scale, not scrambling to catch up.

Emma

Exactly. And as a SaaS business, their models had to reflect annual recurring revenue—the lifeblood of the company. So, they worked with Revelwood to build a revenue model in Workday Adaptive Planning that really captured all those streams. And because they were a low-asset company, P&L was their main focus.

Unknown Speaker

And they used it for multi-year planning, too. Looking out two, three years ahead, which is so important in SaaS. You have to anticipate what’s coming and make sure you’re ready for it.

Emma

The big payoff? They could finally do multi-year planning—something that was just impossible in Excel. Plus, they got way more detailed reporting, slicing and dicing the numbers from every angle. And, maybe most importantly, they integrated Workday Adaptive Planning with their general ledger and ERP systems. No more manual data transfers, no more errors.

Unknown Speaker

That seamless integration just makes life so much easier. And it really shows how investing in the right tools early on can set you up for rapid scale, even with a small team.

Emma