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Workiva helps organizations prepare financial and sustainability reports and manage governance, risk and compliance work. Its cloud platform brings data from customers’ other systems into linked documents, presentations and reports. When source data changes, those changes flow through the linked content, while access controls and audit trails help teams review and publish it. Its main buyers are finance, sustainability and internal audit departments.
Customers pay for annual or multiyear subscriptions that include technical support, with pricing based mainly on the solutions purchased and expected use. Fees are generally billed annually in advance. Subscription and support fees provide nearly all revenue; document setup, report tagging and other professional services provide the rest. The business depends heavily on customers renewing subscriptions and expanding their use.
Customers using Workiva for filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission contribute a substantial share of revenue. Demand therefore depends partly on regulatory reporting requirements, while changing sustainability-disclosure rules also influence customer purchases. Workiva relies on Amazon Web Services and other infrastructure providers to host and deliver its platform.
The risk section is the longest, dullest part of the filing. This keeps only what can really hurt you: where it hits, how hard, when it plays out.
Every company claims an edge. Each one is checked against hard numbers like margins and returns: which hold, and which line gives way first.
BlackLine competes for the corporate accounting and finance teams that buy Workiva’s financial reporting software, selling tools to close the books and combine accounts across entities. Watch BlackLine’s financial close and consolidation offerings for changes in what those teams can buy instead.
Workday’s financial management and planning applications compete with Workiva’s financial reporting tools for enterprise finance departments. Watch additions to the finance and planning software Workday sells by subscription for changes in the alternatives available to Workiva’s customers.
ServiceNow competes for the enterprise compliance spending Workiva seeks: its software organizes risk-management workflows, while Workiva sells governance, risk and compliance tools. ServiceNow’s risk-management product updates are the part of its broad software offering to watch for this rivalry.
Vertex and Workiva both depend on finance departments paying to automate compliance: Vertex calculates taxes on sales and purchases, while Workiva automates financial reporting and compliance. Vertex’s subscription revenue offers a read on spending on tax-compliance automation, rather than demand for Workiva’s reporting tools directly.
SERVICENOW, INC. earningsNOW
ServiceNow’s report can show whether companies are buying more of its risk-management workflows, an alternative competing with Workiva for governance, risk and compliance spending.
Focus on what ServiceNow says about demand for and expansion of its risk-management products; its overall software results alone cannot show whether those products are winning business from Workiva. Stronger signs would mean companies have more alternatives for compliance workflows, increasing competitive pressure on Workiva. Weaker signs would mean less evidence of that pressure, not proof that Workiva’s own demand is rising.
Workiva Inc. earningsThis company
Workiva earns most of its revenue from subscriptions, and this report will show whether renewals and customers’ broader use of its platform are still driving that revenue.
Read customer retention alongside growth in subscription and support revenue. Steady retention with continued revenue growth would show that customers are staying and expanding their use of the platform. Weaker retention with slower growth would point to less momentum in renewals or expansion, putting pressure on Workiva’s recurring-revenue engine.
BlackLine, Inc. earningsBL
BlackLine’s report can show whether finance teams are buying more software to close the books and consolidate accounts, an alternative competing with Workiva for their budgets.
Look for BlackLine’s subscription results and its commentary on demand for financial-close and consolidation tools. Stronger demand would show that companies are still buying this neighboring category of finance software, giving Workiva’s finance-team customers more alternatives. Weaker demand would mean less competitive pressure from these tools, but would not establish that Workiva’s own sales are weakening.
