KeyPoint Credit Union: Financial Reporting and Budget Modeling
The Move Beyond Excel
Trent McIlhaney joined KeyPoint Credit Union as Chief Financial Officer in 2019, just before the organization was set to kick off its budget planning cycle, using 15 linked Excel spreadsheets – a complicated, error-prone approach.
As McIlhaney shared, “It was just a web of linked spreadsheets and really no way for someone new to come in and deconstruct how it was all working. I was at a crossroads there and I could try to figure out that spreadsheet, or I could build my own, or I could look at a new system, which is ultimately what I decided to do.”
With a new budgeting cycle kicking off soon, McIlhaney knew it was time to move to a modern financial planning tool to set KeyPoint up for success.
Selecting Workday Adaptive Planning and Kainos
When McIlhaney reviewed enterprise financial solutions he was quickly drawn to Workday Adaptive Planning because it him the flexibility of Excel within a robust, cloud-based software platform that would position the credit union to scale.
With a new budget cycle quickly approaching, KeyPoint needed to get Workday Adaptive Planning up and running quickly with an experienced partner. Workday introduced Kainos, eleven-time winner of its Global Solution Provider of the Year award and a partner with a proven track record for success with credit unions.
Kainos led KeyPoint through a swift deployment cycle in time for the credit union to kick off its budget cycle with a robust, flexible enterprise planning solution with functionality including interest income, interest expense calculations, non-interest expense, income categories, and scenario modeling.
“Everyone was really pleased with the fact that we were able to transition from an Excel-based model to this robust solution,” shared McIlhaney. “We could build bottom-up processes. We could do top-down processes.”
Unlocking Agility with Scenario Planning
Workday Adaptive Planning allows KeyPoint to create models based on payroll changes, interest rates, new branches, an increase or decrease in deposits, and many other scenarios. Workday’s powerful modeling tools allow the credit union to create multiple driver-based scenario models to analyze how a variety of factors may impact their bottom line.
Interest rate hikes, for example, can have a significant impact on KeyPoint and its customers. With Workday Adaptive Planning, KeyPoint can change its assumptions – for example, the Fed increases rates by 200 basis points this year, or we go into a recession – and model a variety of scenarios quickly and easily.
Shared McIlhaney, “It’s a very simple process to go into the model, change those rate assumptions and then refresh the model and see what those results are. And it’s the gains and efficiency that you get in [Adaptive Planning] that have allowed us to do a variety of ‘what ifs.’”
Scenario planning functionality in Workday Adaptive Planning also supports internal changes and assumptions. Using Excel, it was nearly impossible for KeyPoint to update or adjust its model, but with Workday the credit union can easily update its model with actuals and reforecast.
In fact, KeyPoint now reforecasts monthly thanks to the ease and efficiency.
“If you're in an Excel-based system," shared McIlhaney, “then you know how difficult that can be to update your model with the actuals to change all the assumptions and then to reforecast. But we found that the process is so efficient in [Adaptive Planning] that we do it every single month.”
Company-Wide Collaboration
In addition to flexible scenario planning, KeyPoint has benefited from increased collaboration thanks to Workday Adaptive Planning. With role-based permissions and a single source of truth, it’s easy to collaborate with stakeholders and ensure that the appropriate level of information is provided to various collaborators.
McIlhaney shared, “Instead of emailing spreadsheets back and forth, [Adaptive Planning] allows for the bottom-up approach with regards to departmental managers. Our process involves somewhere around 25 users that are entering information for their operating budgets. We’re able to customize for each of the areas of the budget whether we want that to be a collaborative bottom-up process or top-down.”
Intelligent Workflows Simplify and Streamline Processes
Workday Adaptive Planning enabled KeyPoint to simplify its planning processes, improving the end-user experience for both collaborators and the finance team. Using Workday Adaptive Planning’s powerful workflows, the tool effectively guides collaborators through planning processes step by step, offering clear instructions and confirming when all necessary steps have been completed. These workflows improve the end user experience for both collaborators and finance team members and have streamlined processes considerably.
“ . . . the workflow not only tells [users] that they’re done [with a process],” said McIlhaney, “but it lets us know in the finance department that they’re done so that we don’t have to call or email everyone and say, ‘Hey, budget timelines are approaching. Is everyone done?’ We just know because the model tells us that they’ve completed their workflow. That’s been really helpful not just for them, but for my finance team.”
Board Reporting at the Push of a Button
The finance team also uses Workday Adaptive Planning OfficeConnect to quickly, accurately, and seamlessly update Board reports. Once the team closes out the month, if there are changes, all they need to do is hit the refresh button in their PowerPoint and the data is immediately updated.
“We’ve been able to substantially shorten that timeframe [for reporting] and that’s made my boss happy. It has also made us more efficient that we’re not fumbling around updating reports – they’re updating automatically.”
Previously using Excel for their reporting, the team would have to manually update Excel and then all corresponding PowerPoints any time a change was needed, which was time-consuming, frustrating, and error prone.
"We’ve reduced error rates because when most of the cells in your reports are formulas that are linked to [Workday] Adaptive Planning, you don’t have people accidentally overwriting them by typing in a number. For us, it’s been a real game changer.”
“When we make a change to the budget or we close the financials every month, we’re able to just click the refresh button and we already have most of our Board packet done. So, we’ve seen a real acceleration from that time period where we close the books to when we produce our Board packet.”
Set up for Success with Workday Adaptive Planning
Workday Adaptive Planning enables KeyPoint to plan and forecast with integrated driver-based scenarios that they can fine-tune in real time. With the latest actuals, assumptions, and modules always at hand, KeyPoint Credit Union can proactively manage change, model outcomes, and course-correct at the pace their business demands. No longer are they held back by outdated and error-prone spreadsheets.