# Page 3 | Workday Adaptive Planning Reviews 2026. Verified Reviews, Pros & Cons | Capterra > Page 3 - Is Workday Adaptive Planning the right Budgeting solution for you? Explore 231 verified user reviews from people in industries like yours to make a confident choice. Source: https://www.capterra.com/p/130072/Adaptive-Insights/reviews --- Workday Adaptive Planning 4.5 (231) [View alternatives](https://www.capterra.com/p/130072/Adaptive-Insights/alternatives/) Provider data verified by our Software Research team, and reviews moderated by our Reviews Verification team. [Learn more](https://www.capterra.com/our-story/) * * * Last updated March 13th, 2026 # Page 3 - Reviews of Workday Adaptive Planning ## Showing most helpful reviews Showing 51-75 of 231 Reviews Sort by: Most Helpful Rating Company Size Reviewer's Role Length of Use Frequency of Use Joel Neil W. Specialist Recruiter Media Production Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Powerful" August 30, 2023 5.0 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. Review Source Margarita P. Expense and Fixed Asset Accounting Manager Accounting Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Great budgeting and forecasting solution " May 20, 2024 4.0 Pros Seems like it is built similar to the excel spreadsheet model where you can really make it anything you need. Cons Requires more training at the front end compared to other more robust (and expensive) systems. Doesn't seem to have two-way communication with Sage Intacct with regard to real time data pulls. Review Source VY Vatan Y. IT Manager Information Technology and Services Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Planning Adaptive Way" July 31, 2022 4.0 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. Review Source SS Santiago S. ingenieria sistemas Computer Hardware Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Its a good plan to check it out " September 16, 2023 4.0 Es un software competente y suficiente para empresas o usuarios que requieran un pronostico sencillo y solido de hacer. Pros Ya que se maneja en la nube es fácil su acceso desde cualquier lugar para cualquier persona, así mismo su gran capacidad de personalización acorde a las necesidades del usuario lo hace un software ideal. Cons Su configuración puede ser algo complicada al principio Review Source Robert S. Finance Analyst III Hospital & Health Care Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Adaptive provides meaningful insight into our financial data!" March 1, 2016 5.0 Using Adaptive is a great experience! It's easy to learn, and once you try it, you will love it. I can forecast monthly , quarterly or whenever I like. Because my operational metrics, which drive our revenues and expenses, are also in Adaptive, I feel we get closer to our actual's each month. We have simplified our monthly reporting process from 6 days, to about an hour and a half. That extra time can be used to analyze the data, which is much more rewarding than ticking and tying numbers to a report. Our dashboard is solid and tells a story for our leaders. I love it! Pros Ease of use Speed (refreshing and processing) Automatic load of our financial data using a connector Office Connect - an excel add in that allows me to run my financials in an instant Adaptive Insights support personnel are amazing! I get a call back very quickly if I have a problem, and I don't feel like I'm being rushed when I ask other questions Cons The sheets, which display our data across time, would be fantastic if I could add a YTD column anywhere I like. I would like to see my sheets display some simple graphs, which would allow me to display trends pictorially while reviewing with my customers. Review Source OC Olivia C. Manager FP&A Capital Markets Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Adaptive is great for small to medium sized enterprises" September 1, 2022 4.0 I use adaptive for 5 year planning, strategic modelling & scenario planning Pros The ability to build a bottoms up budget/forecast is an attractive component on this software. It is an assumption based model that is easy to follow and update in the backend Cons There is some functionality that it lacks for assumption sheet creation. Review Source RG Rob G. Manager of FP&A Used the software for: ### "Consistency and savings through use of Adaptive Planning" March 4, 2016 5.0 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. Review Source JL Jonny L. Sr. Analyst, FP&A Computer Software Used the software for: 2+ years ### "An FP&A Dream Tool" July 8, 2020 5.0 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. Alternatives considered [Vena](https://www.capterra.com/p/131246/Vena/)[Anaplan](https://www.capterra.com/p/129412/Anaplan/) Reason for choosing Workday Adaptive Planning Previous positive experience with the product and one that I trust. Didn't see a reason to learn something new for the same price. Review Source Andrew R. Senior Director of Finance Internet Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Strong Tool that Keeps Improving" July 23, 2019 4.0 Pros I like that adaptive has continued to innovate and improve their product over time. The basic plan option is solid for a SMB, though there are some individual bells and whistles that I would like it to have like Office Connect that require a more expensive membership Cons Learning to speak the adaptive "language" is a big barrier to entry from an employee perspective, we become afraid to change the model for fear of breaking it so we aren't leveraging all we have available to us. Review Source Brad M. Sr. Director, Finance Biotechnology Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Outstanding Planning and Reporting Platform" September 27, 2016 5.0 We plan at a very granular level, and Adaptive's formulas and overall approach to modeling has made this tool a pleasure to work with. Like any new tool, it took our team a little bit of time (~3 months) of getting used to it, but this is simply a tool we can't live without now. In addition to the feature set, the customer support is outstanding. Very responsive to questions and highly knowledgeable on a variety of topics. Pros Feature set is very strong. Customer support is among the best in the industry. Highly responsive to detailed technical questions. Cons Like any new platform, it took our team a few months after go-live to really utilize the power of the tool, but now it simply a resource that we can't live without. Review Source CP Claire P. Budget Analyst Non-Profit Organization Management Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Amazing planning software for non-profits!" September 2, 2016 5.0 Implementing Adaptive Insights has made me feel like a kid on Christmas morning. Every new feature or discovered capability is a wonderful gift giving me my time and sanity back. I am the only FP&A for a mid-size company. We had outgrown Excel but had a hard time finding a planning software that could handle the allocations fundamental to non-profit accounting. We found Adaptive Insights and haven't looked back. The sales team is amazing, They are not only no pressure, but extremely helpful. We wanted to make sure our entire management team would be on board with new software. AI sales came out and did a personal demonstration for us and answered all of their questions. They also introduced us to great implementation consultants to help us set the instance up.We just finished our first year of planning in Adaptive and it was easy and user-friendly. I love Adaptive and will use it throughout my career. Pros The user-friendly interface, customization, regular updates and wealth of support and information. Reporting is also easy to use and very powerful. One of our main challenges is accurately planning and reporting our allocations. AI makes it easy. Cons There is nothing I dislike about this software but there are a few things to be aware of. Unless you have 2 people exclusively working full time to set up the instance it will take you much longer than you think. Allow yourself a few months to set it up and know that a full, complete roll-out will probably take a full budget cycle. Review Source BG Ben G. Financial Analyst Consumer Goods Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Great software to project us into the next level of strategic finance." September 13, 2016 5.0 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. Review Source EK Evan K. Retail Merchandise Processor Retail Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Great product for your business" January 7, 2021 5.0 I have complete control over my data using this software. Pros Workday makes it super easy to manage all aspects of my job from scheduling to time off and payment elections and tax withholdings anywhere at anytime. Cons The task workflow process seems a bit drawn out and unclear for some things. There are a lot of options that still appear even if not enabled by the administrators. Review Source Andrew K. Accounting Analyst Used the software for: ### "My experience with Adaptive" October 12, 2014 4.0 Adaptive is a great business platform for budgeting, collaboration, and report generation. In my company it is my job to provide managers with useful tools to help with different aspects of business unique to their functional area. The pros of Adaptive: 1) Brings departments together by providing one platform to easily manage and control budgets. 2) Allows for a quicker budgeting process. 3) Different access levels allow top managers to control what different departments can see. 4) Can store years and years of data all of which can be easily accessed. 5) Can be accessed from anywhere in the world with internet connection. 6) Reports can easily be created. Depending on the complexity and type of report, reports can be customized and suited to the needs of the user. Some report types are interactive, different scenarios/results can be presented depending on the user's selections. The cons of Adaptive: 1) It takes a little long to get used to. 2) Creating formulas and rolling them out can be very challenging. (A lot of trial and error) 3) Reading through the tutorials can be time consuming. I wish they had more practice videos. Overall, Adaptive is an awesome business platform. Once you get the hang of it you really begin to enjoy it. It allows you to create so much, the amount of reports that can be generated is endless. Furthermore, you can easily upload data and track budgets. This is a great tool for managers especially those with large budgets and variable costs. Review Source SP Sam P. Financial Analyst Information Technology and Services Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Adaptive Planning Review" August 3, 2016 4.0 Overall we have been pleased with Adaptive Planning. We originally transitioned to Adaptive from excel based reporting due to increasing data allocation requirements. After several months of implementation we were able to start populating our weekly financial reports entirely from data exported from Adaptive. The end result has been a significant decrease in reporting time, even though we now splice our data by more dimensions than we have looked at in the past. This would not have been possible in excel, and we now have more time to analyze our information instead of being stuck in the reporting cycle. Pros The best part of the software for me is the ability to quickly create reports based on any selected dimensions, levels, and timeframes. This is something that historically would have taken us a significant amount of time and is now done in minutes. Cons My least favorite parts about the software are the difficulty in navigating the data sheets and the inability to lock formulas and values in historical versions while updating formulas going forward. I would love to see greater functionality to search in data sheets by specific columns. Review Source Robert S. Finance Analyst III Hospital & Health Care Used the software for: 2+ years ### "The software will change you life...Seriously!" March 10, 2015 5.0 Pros This suite of products have changed the way we inform our leadership of the state of our operations each month. We no longer spend days and days preparing dry financials. Now, we are generating useful statements in seconds along with instantaneously seeing that same financial and operational data visualized in Adaptive Discovery in our interactive scorecard. The ease of use, and the level of support are the two greatest things about Adaptive. Cons The tools do everything we ask of them, and more. The monthly load of data from our GL and the operational data from other source systems being a manual process is my ultimate least favorite thing. We are implementing the Adaptive Discovery connector so that the data will be loaded in the future at the push of a button. That should take care of it, though. I think if I had to identify my next least favorite thing it's probably the high bar that it sets for all of our other reporting from other systems. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Professional Golfer Medical Devices Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "AI Review" February 12, 2019 4.0 Pros This is a solid software base that my firm uses to consolidate forecasting data and pull those forecasts for board review. It is a great platform to use for data warehousing and to pull massive subsets of data. Those pulls can then be used and pasted into Excel or whatever template that you need to generate the proper metrics. Cons The functionality is not as user friendly as you would like. The customized reporting is complex and hard to understand. I would recommend sitting in on a seminar or tutorial before committing to it. It isn't quite user friendly and, for us, we don't use it for anything but generating massive paste fills to be dumped into our reporting templates. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Finance Director Information Technology and Services Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Best planning tool I have used!" August 14, 2019 5.0 Pros I loved the user experience as a whole. The interface feels very modern and as easy to use. Cons I wish it had more functionalities to easily do project level budgeting. Review Source SV Sameer V. Systems Accountant Chemicals Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Adaptive User" July 14, 2020 4.0 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 Switched from [IBM Cognos Analytics](https://www.capterra.com/p/240583/IBM-Cognos-Analytics/) Cost were less compared to what was we need at time of evaluation Review Source ADE Aaron Daniel E. Data Analyst Outsourcing/Offshoring Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Review" July 15, 2022 5.0 My experience of using Workday Adaptive Planning is very good since my work is related to analyzing data's of financial planning's etc. Pros Workday Adaptive Planning is very convenient to use especially when it comes to financial planning solutions and enterprise planning, they really provide it. Cons I don't see any downside or lack of this product and that is why I rated it 10. Review Source SQ Stefan Q. Finance Analyst Transportation/Trucking/Railroad Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Budget made easy" February 12, 2024 5.0 Pros We use Adaptiv for our budgeting purposes. Their importing function makes it easy for users to upload data for analysis. Adaptiv planning has made our budgeting planning easy! Cons There were a few bugs in the past, but they have been resolved. Review Source CC Carrie C. Financial Analyst Higher Education Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Improved Reporting" October 26, 2016 4.0 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. Review Source Kevin B. Finance Director Hospital & Health Care Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "We've had great experiences and success with Adaptive Insights" March 9, 2016 5.0 We're a large corporation with multiple lines of business. Our main goal was to simplify our annual budgeting process; to make it easier on the end users, give them ownership of their budgets and to cut down on the time it took to put the whole budget together. Adaptive exceeded those expectations. Overall it's been great and I would highly recommend it. Pros Easy to implement and maintain. Easy for end users to understand how to use the software and the models. Give you instant access to "the whole picture". OfficeConnect is great for reporting. Cons Some admin functions are still a little tedious. The built-in reporting module needs some upgrading, but it's adequate. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Senior Financial Analyst Research Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Adaptive Planning is 100 times better than an Excel Spreadsheet" February 25, 2016 4.0 Prior to Adaptive Planning, my company used 100's of complex spreadsheets for our annual budgeting process. The system is configured to do everything our spreadsheets did for us and more. No more formatting spreadsheets for each of our 90 depts... Pros Add assumptions one time and all applicable areas are updated. Cons Version protection could be better. Some changes in assumptions aren't version specific, therefore previously locked versions are affected. This is not good for companies that use prior budget versions for benchmarking purposes. The reporting module could be a little more robust but can give you some nice basic reports. Review Source JR Justin R. Finance Business Partner Outsourcing/Offshoring Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Great tool for budgeting " November 16, 2022 4.0 An excellent tool for budgeting once you have put in the time to learn to use it, you always have the feeling there is more to the software than you know how to use. Pros It is super flexible, allowing the user to enter costs by category, department/dimension/cost centre and easily switch between views. You can write little formula to budget by run rate, uplift by a percentage or similar to prior year phasing. You just need to learn a few rules. Cons It does not interface well with Workday itself, there was no way I could import staff basic salary into AP from Workday by department and employee for instance. 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