San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Re-Architects Its Financial Model

Founded over 80 years ago, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), was recently reopened after a three-year closure to renovate. Transformed and expanded, the new building and the renovation has brought the organization to new heights in terms of number of employees, department structure across the organization, and public floor space. With such exponential growth over the past few years, it was imperative that SFMOMA’s financial planning and analysis be managed as efficiently and accurately as possible. Senior leaders also need to receive timely and accurate performance metrics aligned with the museum’s mission of bringing art into the public life. Since implementing Workday Adaptive Planning, SFMOMA has achieved timelier analysis of financial performance across an expanded operation, with increased accuracy and controls for measuring and managing store growth margins, attendance counts and forecasts, and departmental expense ratios. Further, with OfficeConnect, reporting has been automated for highlighting all pertinent KPIs and financial statements to best inform board member and executive staff decision making.

Challenges

• Expanded operation with a lean staff
• Intense focus on financial management and controls due to museum expansion
• Difficulty obtaining timely operational performance metrics needed for leaders to make
  decisions​

Results

• Automated consolidation, reporting and trend analysis of expanding operational data helps
  drive more informed decision-making
• Improved financial controls with a lean team
• Broader organizational participation in planning and analysis helping create a culture more
  accountable for corporate performance management​