Case Study: Southwest Airlines achieves faster quarterly closes and simplified reporting with Workiva

Southwest Airlines Soars Through Simplifying Complex Data

Southwest Airlines confronted fragmented, paper-heavy financial processes that slowed reporting and increased risk. Their ERP fed a separate data cube that refreshed only once or twice a day, so late entries forced the finance team to wait a full day to rerun tie-outs, while 10-Q/10-K production relied on printed packets and scattered comments across legal, investor relations, and accounting.

By adopting Workiva and connecting it directly to their ERP (SAP), Southwest moved to real-time data feeds, in-document collaboration and an electronic quarterly analysis packet, then rolled the platform out to FP&A, treasury and other groups. The change centralized data and communications, created auditable collaboration trails, cut about a day from the quarterly close, and drove broader platform adoption and efficiency across the finance organization.

Southwest Airlines

Riley Drummond

Southwest Airlines Supervisor of Financial Reporting