StarRez Levels Up Financial Planning with PlanSimpli and Workday Adaptive Planning

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At a Glance

  • Customer: StarRez
  • Industry: Student housing and residential community software
  • Platform: Workday Adaptive Planning
  • Primary use cases: Revenue planning, workforce planning, operating expense planning, management reporting, HRIS integration, multi-currency planning, and scenario analysis
  • Key business outcomes: Improved forecast accuracy, a scalable revenue and headcount model, streamlined management reporting, reduced manual spreadsheet work, and faster scenario analysis for leadership
  • Integrations: BambooHR and NetSuite
  • Global support: 8 currencies

Success Summary

StarRez needed a more scalable financial planning environment to support growth, improve reporting, and help finance operate more strategically. To make that happen, StarRez partnered with PlanSimpli to implement Workday Adaptive Planning across revenue planning, workforce planning, operating expense planning, reporting, and scenario analysis. The result was a more connected and scalable planning framework that improved forecast accuracy, reduced manual reporting effort, and gave leadership faster access to forward-looking insights.

StarRez operates in the student housing and residential community software space and needed a planning model that could keep pace with business complexity and global growth. As the organization scaled, finance needed a better way to manage planning across revenue, headcount, expenses, reporting, and multiple data sources without relying on manual spreadsheet-heavy processes.

The Challenge: Replacing Manual Finance Processes with Scalable Planning

StarRez set out to improve forecast accuracy, create a scalable revenue and headcount model, and eliminate manual reporting processes. At the same time, the business needed to unify data from multiple systems, improve reporting consistency, and support faster, more informed decision-making. The implementation needed to support a broad range of planning and reporting requirements, including:

  • revenue planning across bookings, renewals, and churn
  • forecast run rates
  • workforce planning and headcount planning
  • expense planning by vendor
  • management reporting
  • functional and natural P&L reporting
  • BambooHR integration for census reporting
  • unifying data from various sources to streamline planning and reporting

The mission was clear: make planning smarter, faster, and much less dependent on spreadsheet gymnastics. Excel survived, but its starring role did not.

The Solution: Workday Adaptive Planning Implemented by PlanSimpli

PlanSimpli implemented Workday Adaptive Planning as the core platform for StarRez’s finance transformation. The deployment covered revenue modeling, workforce planning, and operating expenses, with direct integration to BambooHR and NetSuite WebQuery. The environment also supported 8 currencies, giving StarRez a stronger global planning and reporting framework.

To tailor the implementation to StarRez’s reporting requirements, PlanSimpli expanded dimensionality and used attributes to streamline reporting while keeping model performance in mind. The team created custom reporting structures for both internal management reporting and external board reporting, reducing additional configuration and lowering ongoing maintenance.

PlanSimpli also introduced best practices designed for long-term scalability, including a non-redundant level structure, direct HRIS integration for personnel roster data, and translated currency support to improve financial accuracy, consistency, consolidation logic, and support for global growth.

Key Use Cases Delivered with Workday Adaptive Planning

Revenue Planning and Modeling

StarRez built a dynamic revenue model that allows finance to forecast by driver rather than by static assumptions. This supports more agile planning across bookings, renewals, and churn, and allows the team to quickly adjust inputs and immediately see the financial impact.

Workforce Planning and Headcount Planning

Workforce planning was a core requirement of the implementation. Through BambooHR integration, StarRez improved the integrity and visibility of headcount planning and created real-time alignment between HR data and financial forecasts. That improved cross-functional planning and reduced manual reconciliation.

Expense Planning by Vendor and Forecast Run Rates

The solution also supported expense planning by vendor and forecast run rates, helping StarRez improve visibility into cost behavior and strengthen operational forecasting.

Management Reporting and P&L reporting

A major goal was to streamline management reporting and reduce manual effort. The implementation delivered support for both functional and natural P&L reporting, along with custom structures for internal and board-level reporting. Reporting that once relied on manual consolidation and spreadsheet manipulation became more automated, consistent, and scalable.

Data Unification across Systems

By integrating BambooHR and NetSuite into the planning environment, PlanSimpli helped StarRez create a more connected data foundation for forecasting and reporting. This streamlined planning and reporting across previously disconnected sources.

Scenario Analysis and Leadership Decision Support

With Workday Adaptive Planning in place, StarRez can now run scenarios around pricing changes, hiring timing, and expense pacing with much greater speed and clarity. Leadership can see the financial impact of decisions in near real time, giving finance the ability to focus on insights instead of mechanics.

“Workday Adaptive Planning has shifted our finance team from manual data compilation to data analysis, giving us faster insights, stronger planning visibility, and greater confidence in every forecast.”

Kristopher Tate, VP of Finance, StarRez

Why Workday Adaptive Planning worked for StarRez

Workday Adaptive Planning helped StarRez move finance from manual data compilation to faster, more strategic analysis. According to the customer, the platform delivered strongly against the team’s most important success criteria: improving forecast accuracy, creating a scalable revenue and headcount model, and eliminating manual reporting processes. StarRez now has a structured planning framework that supports growth without increasing manual workload.

Adaptive also made it possible for the finance team to run multiple scenarios quickly and provide leadership with forward-looking insights. Instead of manually updating spreadsheets, reconciling versions, or rebuilding monthly reports, the team can now spend more time interpreting results and advising the business.

Results: What Improved for StarRez

With PlanSimpli and Workday Adaptive Planning, StarRez gained a more structured and scalable planning environment that improved how finance forecasts, reports, and supports the business. Documented improvements include:

  • Improved forecast accuracy through a stronger planning framework and better data integrity
  • A scalable revenue and headcount model that supports growth without increasing manual workload
  • Dynamic revenue modeling that allows finance to forecast by driver and quickly assess the impact of business changes
  • Stronger headcount planning through HRIS integration, with improved visibility, better HR-finance alignment, better cross-functional planning, and reduced manual reconciliation
  • Streamlined management reporting, replacing manual consolidation and spreadsheet manipulation with reporting that is more automated, consistent, faster, and more trusted
  • A shift from data compilation to data analysis, enabling finance to spend more time interpreting results and advising the business
  • Faster scenario analysis for pricing changes, hiring timing, and expense pacing, giving leadership near real-time visibility into decisions
  • Reduced spreadsheet dependency, eliminating the need to manually update spreadsheets, reconcile versions, and rebuild reports each month

Future Roadmap for Planning Maturity

The implementation also created a strong foundation for future planning maturity. StarRez identified several next-phase opportunities, including:

  • revenue expansion modeling
  • recurring revenue snowball inputs and calculations
  • balance sheet forecasting
  • cash flow forecasting
  • dynamic departmental allocations
  • broader financial statement planning

That means the project was designed not only to solve today’s planning challenges, but also to support the next phase of finance transformation as StarRez continues to grow.

For StarRez, this initiative delivered more than a new planning system. It improved forecast accuracy, reduced manual reporting effort, strengthened workforce planning through HRIS integration, and enabled finance to shift from compiling data to delivering forward-looking business insight. With PlanSimpli as the implementation partner and Workday Adaptive Planning as the platform, StarRez built a scalable planning foundation designed for both present needs and future growth.

Why StarRez chose PlanSimpli

StarRez highlighted PlanSimpli’s combination of Workday Adaptive Planning expertise, practical finance experience, and a collaborative delivery approach as a major differentiator. According to the customer, PlanSimpli did more than configure the system. The team took time to understand how StarRez operates and translated that understanding into a scalable model built around both current needs and future reporting requirements.

StarRez also described PlanSimpli as highly collaborative, structured, responsive, and transparent, with productive meetings and a strong balance of best-practice guidance and flexibility around customer-specific needs.

“PlanSimpli brought the rare mix of technical Workday Adaptive Planning expertise and real-world finance acumen. They understood how our business operates and turned that into a scalable model built for growth.”

Kristopher Tate, VP of Finance, StarRez

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Ready to Transform Planning with PlanSimpli?

PlanSimpli helps organizations implement Workday Adaptive Planning to improve forecast accuracy, streamline reporting, and build a scalable foundation for growth.

If your team is looking for a better approach to financial planning, workforce planning, revenue modeling, or management reporting, contact PlanSimpli today to see how we can help your organization take the next step.