Xero carts workforce management platform Planday at S$295 million

Xero is acquiring Planday, a workforce management platform with more than 350,000 employee users across Europe and the United Kingdom that simplifies employee scheduling, allowing businesses to forecast and manage their labour costs.

Planday is an open platform that integrates with Xero, other accounting solutions and third-party workforce-related apps, to deliver a real-time view of staffing needs and payroll costs, alongside key business performance metrics.

The acquisition of Planday is expected to help more small businesses save time, save money, deal with increasing compliance requirements, support more flexible forms of work, and look after their people.

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When combined with an accounting solution, such as Xero, Planday is able to provide insights to a business or its advisor that help them to adjust staffing levels to match trading conditions and control labour costs, which are often an employer’s largest expense. 

Planday’s cloud-based technology offers significant flexibility and self-service functionality through a mobile app. Employers and employees can communicate easily, collaborate on scheduling, track time and attendance, manage payroll, vacation, absence, and other labour related compliance needs.

Following the acquisition, Planday will expand its presence into other markets where Xero operates, supporting Xero’s long-term growth plans.  

With an upfront payment of S$250.1 million and a subsequent earnout payment of up to S$44.7 million based on product development and revenue milestones, the total potential consideration for the acquisition of Planday is S$294.8 million or about US$221 million. Completion of the transaction is expected in the first quarter of 2022.

“The acquisition of Planday aligns with our purpose to make life better for people in small businesses and their advisors,” said Xero CEO Steve Vamos.

Vamos noted that Planday’s workforce management platform helps small businesses to respond to the rapidly changing nature of work. He said Planday also addresses the growing need for flexibility and rising compliance demands within the workplace.

“Our mission is to make our customers’ day work, and make life easier for both employers and employees,” said Planday CEO Christian Brøndum. “This mission fits perfectly with Xero’s passion for small businesses, for people, for growth and for communities.”

Planday was founded in 2004 and is headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark. The primary markets in which Planday currently operates are Denmark, Norway, Sweden, the UK, Germany and France. 

The business, which has been a Xero ecosystem partner since 2019, will continue to offer services to existing customers and partners, including other accounting software providers.