How Ellis Air Streamlined Forecasting & Reporting with Workday Adaptive Planning and GK Horizons
When Ben Malone and his Outsourced CFO business, cdFirst, stepped into the CFO role at Ellis Air, he found a finance setup that had served the business well for years – but was starting to feel the strain of scale.
“All our budgeting and forecasting was done in spreadsheets,” Ben said. “It was okay for annual planning, but it involved a lot of manual consolidation. As the business grew and the need for more frequent forecasting came in, it just wasn’t sustainable.”
The real pressure point was reporting. Ellis Air’s ERP housed all the data but getting that information out, in a usable way each month, required workarounds and time-consuming manual effort.
Time for a Smarter Setup
Ben had previously used Workday Adaptive Planning, particularly the OfficeConnect reporting tool, and knew it could handle both reporting and planning in a much more integrated way.
“I’d used it years ago and really liked the flexibility. The priority for me was fixing the monthly reporting process, and I knew Adaptive Planning could do that – and more.”
He reached out to a finance leaders Slack group and was pointed toward GK Horizons. “The feedback was great – they were highly recommended and struck a balance between having deep expertise and being really approachable. It felt like the right fit.”
Reporting First, Planning Next
With GK Horizons’ support, Ellis Air focused initially on solving their reporting pain points – but quickly extended that work into budgeting and forecasting.
“We’ve now got one platform that brings together our actuals, project-level data, payroll, general ledger, and forecasts,” Ben said. “The integration means we can refresh a forecast with actuals at the click of a button, rather than having to chase down numbers and wrangle spreadsheets.”
“GK Horizons brought the right balance of hands-on support and technical depth. That’s made all the difference.”
Ellis Air’s new setup includes:
- Detailed project costing tracking revenue, percentage to complete for revenue recognition and direct cost
- Project reporting allowing comparison between actuals and plan
- Seamless integration with Pronto
- Rolling actuals feeding into forecasts
- Connected planning across P&L, Balance Sheet, and Cashflow
While monthly rolling forecasts aren’t necessary for Ellis Air’s long-cycle projects, the ability to re-forecast quickly when needed has been a big improvement. “It’s not about frequency – it’s about flexibility. If results aren’t tracking how we expect, we can pivot easily now.” – Ben Malone at Ellis Air – Outsourced CFO, cdFirst.
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