Case Study: Denny’s achieves agile, faster forecasting and reporting with Workday Adaptive Planning

Data, insight, and relevance reporting for America’s favorite diner

Denny’s, “America’s Diner,” with more than 1,600 locations and about 3,000 employees, faced an outdated finance system that forced its planning team to use spreadsheets to collect and upload data. Manual data collation limited end‑user engagement, prevented granular supplier and project reporting, and constrained forecasting to just five official updates per year.

By deploying cloud‑based Workday Adaptive Planning for unified headcount and operational expense planning, Denny’s gave roughly 100 cost‑center owners better visibility and self‑service reporting. Results included increasing annual forecasts from 5 to 12, a 25% reduction in annual budget cycle time, 60% more what‑if scenarios, scenario generation shrinking from three days to hours, daily data integration, and faster, more relevant monthly and board reports—improving accountability and agility during the pandemic.

Denny’s