From Planning to Finance: The Retail Advantages of Island Pacific + Workday

Retail is evolving fast. Success now demands harmony between merchandising, operations, finance, and people, no silos. The announcement that Island Pacific has joined forces with Workday marks an important step toward that unified future. By combining Island Pacific’s deep retail functionality with Workday’s best-in-class financial and HR systems, the partnership promises to deliver an end-to-end ERP built for global retail. 

“Our partnership with Workday combines deep retail expertise with trusted financial and people systems to give retailers a connected way to run and grow their business.”

Sarah Tasker, Global Solutions Executive 

Below are the key advantages retailers stand to gain as they move from isolated planning tools to a fully integrated ERP with Island Pacific + Workday. 

1. Retail Purpose Built + Financial Backbone 

Island Pacific’s heritage lies in retail merchandising systems, order management, inventory, promotions, planning, and more. Workday brings strength in finance, accounting, and people management. The integration means retailers don’t compromise; they get both depth in retail and rigor in financial systems.  

This combination enables: 

• Merchandising and financial modules sharing the same data model 

• Retail features (e.g. purchase orders, inventory adjustments, promos) flowing straight into financial ledgers 

• Human capital and payroll tied to retail performance metrics 

The result: fewer manual handoffs, fewer reconciliation gaps, and faster time to value. 

2. Real-Time Visibility Across Operations & Finance 

One of the biggest drag points in retail is delayed visibility when inventory, sales, or workforce actions are reconciled hours or even days later. With a unified platform, retailers gain a true single view, every order, transaction, inventory movement, or HR event is visible live across all connected modules.  

From the shop floor to corporate finance, decision-makers see consistent, up-to-date data, enabling: 

• Faster reaction to stock imbalances 

• Real-time margin and cost impact analysis 

• Cross-functional collaboration with alignment on the same numbers 

It’s a true “single version of the truth” the kind of visibility that turns data into action. 

3. Smarter Planning with Financial Awareness 

Often, planners optimize for assortments or promotions without full visibility into how those choices flow through cost structures and income statements. The integrated ERP closes that gap: 

• You can simulate how promotion plans or markdowns impact profit and cash flow before approving campaigns 

• Assortment decisions can include margin thresholds in the planning logic 

• Pricing changes are not just tactical actions, they immediately update financial forecasts 

That’s the power of an integrated ERP; every planning decision is made with financial clarity. Retailers can move beyond intuition to data-driven, margin-conscious decision-making. 

4. Quicker, Cleaner Financial Close & Auditability 

Retail finance teams often struggle with matching receipts, promotions, backorders, adjustments, and returns in separate systems. With Island Pacific + Workday integrated: 

• Merch operations (orders, receipts, returns) feed directly into financial modules 

• Inventory valuation, accruals, and adjustments are consistent and auditable 

• Controllers spend less time on manual reconciliation and more time on insight 

Close cycles shorten, audit transparency increases, and CFOs sleep better. 

5. Profitable Omnichannel Execution 

Consumers today move fluidly between channels, browsing online, buying in-store, and returning elsewhere. Retailers must be just as agile. 

The Island Pacific + Workday solution supports this omnichannel reality by integrating order management, fulfillment, and financial tracking. Every sale, return, or transfer is accounted for consistently across systems. 

This unified approach means retailers can: 

• Manage complex fulfillment models like ship-from-store and click-and-collect. 

• Accurately measure margin by channel. 

• Deliver seamless experiences without losing financial visibility. 

It’s omnichannel done profitably, not just operationally. 

6. Labor & Payroll Integration Tied to Retail Outcomes 

Labor is one of retail’s biggest controllable costs. With Workday’s HR/Payroll modules tethered to retail operations: 

• Store labor planning and scheduling can be informed by sales forecasts 

• Payroll expenses can be correlated with retail productivity metrics 

• HR initiatives (training, performance incentives) can be tied back to store results 

Bridging workforce and merch operations helps control labor cost while supporting service goals. 

7. Enhanced Supplier Efficiency & Cash Optimization 

Procurement and payables are critical to retail margins. The partnership enhances: 

• PO, invoicing, and vendor reconciliation workflows 

• Forecasted receipts and payables visibility for treasury planning 

• Vendor performance and cost analytics drawn from both fulfillment and finance 

Better procurement control and improved cash flow further protect margins. 

8. Insightful BI & Scenario Planning across Domains 

When retail and finance data live under one roof, analytics become richer: 

• Dashboards can include sales, margin, inventory, HR metrics in a single view 

• Scenario modeling (e.g. what if a promo deepens by 5%) becomes possible end to end 

• Cross-domain insights speed decision cycles and reduce guesswork 

Now you’re not just reporting, you’re anticipating. By leveraging the power of Business Intelligence and AI tools, decision-making becomes proactive, not reactive. 

Final Thoughts 

The Island Pacific + Workday partnership isn’t just a tech integration; it’s a transformation in how retail businesses can operate. By combining retail execution with financial discipline and people management under a unified architecture, retailers gain: 

• Faster, more confident decisions 

• Margin protection amid promotional complexity 

• Reduced operational friction and manual reconciliation 

• A scalable foundation for growth 

If your retail operations currently span multiple disconnected systems or even if you’re using an integrated stack already, it’s worth exploring how a purpose-built retail + finance ERP can raise the ceiling on what’s possible. 

Want a demo of cross-functional dashboards or a roadmap for integration? Reach out to the Island Pacific team and see how planning, operations, finance, and people can operate in harmony.