Case Study: Wake Forest University achieves weeks-faster budgeting and real-time, accurate planning with Workday Adaptive Planning

Wake Forest University Speeds up Budget Process Time by Several Weeks

Wake Forest University, a private institution in Winston‑Salem serving about 5,200 students, faced a slow, manual budgeting process split across academic and administrative silos. Conflicting, inflexible data and limited participation kept control with a few administrators, produced stale numbers, and made it difficult to connect plans, workforce, and financials.

By deploying Workday Adaptive Planning integrated with Workday HCM and Financial Management, Wake Forest created a single source of truth with one sign‑on and easy self‑service reporting. More than 100 decision‑makers now participate, budget setup time fell from roughly two months to one–two weeks, month‑end closes often take four days, and real‑time automatic data flows and audit trails have improved accuracy, transparency, and ownership across campus.

Wake Forest University