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Building Trust in the Age of Transformation

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There may be no more sought after substance on Earth today than data. However, data is simply the raw material lying beneath the surface. Refine that data, and it becomes something far more valuable: it turns into the trust that drives decisions with powerful implications.

The data shared within modern reports—from the financial statements and securities filings of the world’s most influential corporations to the boardroom presentations of rising startups to the budget books of local governments—has an exponential impact well outside the pages of a quarterly report or a slide deck.

Having the right data can mean moving quickly on marketplace opportunities, gaining buy-in from investors, or publicly funding city parks and infrastructure projects. But data can be lifted from the columns and tables of accounting and finance and applied to far-reaching and life-changing initiatives as well, such as the way the world manages its resources or getting approval for a new drug.

Conversely, the use of data without context, control, or transparency can be disastrous. It can lead to a vote of no confidence, incur steep fines, embolden would-be fraudsters, and cause lost jobs.

Instead of allowing data to run amok and unchecked, imagine a world where everything is connected. You can see into numbers and narrative from record to report at any point in time. You can stay on the right side of regulation and maintain a positive reputation in the public eye. You can play a part in strengthening economies, both locally and globally, while powering your own decision-making with integrity.

When you have 100% reliable, highly refined data, you can earn trust even in times of great change. And trust is the linchpin of a world driven by connected reporting and compliance.

WORLD.NUMBERS RUN THE

(BUT THEY CAN RUIN IT, TOO.)

The technology landscape across most enterprises has focused almost entirely upon controlling the transactional nature of the business. These systems of record have steadily improved in both scale and capabilities over the last four decades. In the mid-2000s, the advent of e-commerce and cloud computing led to an exponential increase in the amount of data that these systems were required to manage. Massive datasets, data warehouses, and data lakes ushered in tools that were completely focused on empowering analytics. The result was an explosion of data consolidation and visualization tools.

THE CALL FOR

CONNECTED REPORTINGAND COMPLIANCE.

These solutions, rightfully, placed importance on control, consolidating an enterprise’s complex architecture of varying and distributed systems of record while adhering to the accounting principals of the organization. The consolidated, heavily controlled datasets could then feed into business intelligence tools that provide high-level analysis and visualization for leaders across the company.

Unfortunately, the hard-fought control over data is lost the moment that the information leaves the safe confines of consolidation or visualization tools in order to perform reporting tasks. Desktop and cloud productivity suites made up of spreadsheets, documents, and presentations were the only options available for assembling data across a myriad of internal and external reports, all of which were destined for the hands of the company’s most important stakeholders.

But removing data from its source is a risky proposition. It’s like driving a new car off the lot—for

many, the very act of retrieving data immediately degrades its integrity. It will never hold the same value again.

Connected reporting and compliance disrupts this long-held status quo by forever eliminating an organization’s constant dilemma. You no longer have to trade off data control and assurance in favor of accessibility and flexibility.

Connected reporting and compliance focuses first on the natural flow of the reporting process, with context of critical data maintained across all related and tangential efforts. Instead of losing data integrity when key reports and documents are assembled, data integrity is actually improved—delivering assurance in every instance of how and when that data is being reported upon.

4

BEFORECONNECTINGDisparate, decentralized, and inefficient.

The side effects of all this confusion and chaos:

• Significant uncertainty in the quality and completeness of data• High potential for restatements and regulatory fines• Costs of overtime and risk of employee burnout• Threat of lasting reputational damage for organizations• Limited career paths for individuals

AFTERCONNECTING

Unified, centralized, and streamlined.

The benefits of being connected and collaborative:

Strong levels of trust in data and decision-making based on that data •Reduced risk, including more confidence from investors and compliance with regulators •

Increased opportunities for insight and deeper analysis •Fewer steps in the process, with full transparency into each •

More focus on strategic, value-added work—and more time to ask “Why?” •

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CONNECTEDNUMBERS AND NARRATIVE ARE TRUSTED.

WHEN DATA IS

Each month, an online retailer reports its product sales, but manually adjusts revenue to reflect the products they expect to be returned. A software company starts using a new customer billing tool, but can’t integrate the tool with its accounting system. A small city relies on a standalone solution to track and budget its physical assets, but has to manually transfer data each time it prepares a financial report. The examples go on and on.

Closer to home, we’ve all been embarrassed by the accidental hard-coded figure or broken link in a spreadsheet or presentation. (And that just includes those errors somebody actually caught.)

As data proliferates exponentially, so does the risk of how it’s handled.

A single number—right or wrong—can have a substantial ripple effect inside and outside the organization. And the way organizations handle that number can be far more impactful than the decisions they make based upon it. That’s why it is paramount to be able to trace the path of data throughout its journey, all the way from origin to ultimate destination.

Where did the number come from? Who accessed it? Who changed it? When did it change? Are you able to ensure that the data was enhanced—rather than degraded—with every touch?

The context of how specific data points and narrative develop over time is critical in gaining the trust that is missing in the examples above. Unfortunately, working

with data in traditional office software—a fallback for many because it’s quick, it’s easy, and it’s the way it’s always been done—prevents you from seeing beneath the surface of a reported total or understanding its full lifetime potential. Quite the opposite, in fact—it can lead to the significant deficiencies and million-dollar decimal point mistakes that limit careers.

Achieving a new level of data lineage calls for a disruption in traditional reporting and compliance processes. The days of working with critical data in single spreadsheets, one at a time, is over. The new era of accountability requires complete connectivity—from the origin of your data to every output. And with the automation and assurance that comes with connectivity, you can use your final numbers to fortify every decision.

9

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FINANCIALTRANSFORMATION

WITHOUT

IS OUT OF REACH.

CONNECTED REPORTING,

There has been an astronomical increase in the amount of data being generated today as well as the systems being used to collect and store that data. But what about how people work with the data? They are often still saddled with status quo software and processes.

The recent rise of digital transformation is a sign that organizations are finally rejecting “business as usual” and fundamentally changing the way they operate.

OF THE WORLD’S DATA WAS CREATED IN THE

PAST TWO YEARSConnected reporting: Responding to complexity and rising stakeholder demands, Ernst & Young

IBM Marketing Cloud study

OF ENTERPRISES RELY ON 6+ DIFFERENT

REPORTING SYSTEMS

Companies worldwide will spend nearly $6 trillion on digital transformation initiatives by 2021, according to technology industry experts at IDC.1 At the root of finance transformation is the digitization and automation of common accounting and finance functions, such as accounting close management or financial planning and analysis. Many agree that the CFO—sitting squarely between the company’s past performance and future opportunities—is best equipped to lead transformation projects. Transformation would free up staff to focus on the top three skills that CFOs listed for developing their finance departments: analytical skills, expertise in digital technologies and automation, and core business skills.2 However, none of this can happen unless you first unify and secure your data.

All that investment will be for naught if you cannot connect the dots in your data journey. And without a continuous flow of reliable information, placed in the right people’s hands, you will find yourself with little more than a hefty invoice and more work to do. In the case of finance transformation, it is about more than your systems of record and the tools you use to manage, control, and analyze financial data. Rather, true finance transformation takes into consideration the entire scope of how every single piece of data is handled, beyond just the transaction and analysis.

90% 74%

10

CONNECTIVITYIGNITES TRANSFORMATION.With the domino effect of technology finally reaching the offices of accounting and finance, we are set to embark on a new age of impactful work. According to Deloitte, 63% of CFOs project that the time allocation of the finance workforce will likely shift toward analysis, prediction, and decision support in three years.3

But forward-thinking organizations are finding ways to upskill their people and free up time for strategic work now—not three years from now.

When you connect your data from existing system investments into new, natively integrated and purpose-built platforms and applications, you can create that time. When you can automate data refreshes and connect to new data autonomously instead of through a help desk request, you can liberate both IT and accounting staff and allow them to do what they do best, uninterrupted. When you can harness data, harvest insight, and satisfy stakeholders, all within a connected environment, you can revolutionize the way you work.

Automation, insight, real-time reporting, and self-service finance are among the core tenets of finance transformation.4 By connecting your people, data, and processes, you can accelerate that transformation journey and begin reaping the benefits ahead of the curve (and the competition).

FINANCE ORGANIZATIONS THAT DIGITIZE MORE OF THEIR WORK

REALIZE HIGHER ROI.The new CFO mandate: Prioritize, transform,

repeat, McKinsey & Company

Return on investment generated from finance organizations’ digitization and/or automation, past 12 months, % of respondents

Digitized > 25% of work

Digitized < 25% of work

Substantial/modest

70

38

12

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IS THE FUTURE OF WORK.We live in a world of constant connectivity in our personal lives. Yet, many offices have been slow to catch on—71% of organizations still burden employees with manually collecting data via disconnected desktop spreadsheets.5

This has led to the horror stories you hear whispered in the hallways of accounting and finance departments. Someone missed their wedding anniversary because a last-minute change forced them to work late into the night. People locking themselves in a room for 20 hours a day during filing season in order to run quality assurance on spreadsheets. Analysts and auditors hunting down answers rather than looking at how they can help fix bigger issues.

This is an unsustainable ask of our talent and unreliable expectation of our tools.

The next wave of the workforce is bringing a “digital first, digital on, digital always” mindset from day one. People expect access to live data all the time. They are accustomed to one-click updates that populate information in multiple places. And they expect real-time collaboration with everyone else—without checking in files, refreshing systems, or waiting on IT.

Traditional office software was not built for today’s way of working. At the end of the day, it is difficult to add value when working in a vacuum. If you cannot provide the right tools, they will find someone who does.

Unwittingly, a dependency on common office software has created an army of data chasers rather than strategic partners. When you’re connected, everyone can stop chasing data and start trusting it instead.

Revolutionary leaders know that they must kick down the walls between systems, collaborators, analysts, and the outside world. Data needs to be connected and managed in a single, centralized place and applied across a full spectrum of reporting and compliance—from the boardroom to the audit to the earnings call. Automation must be in place to support faster turnarounds for relentless reporting schedules, both internally and externally. Perhaps most importantly, connected data is required to achieve a state of improved oversight and insight at all times—you can trust your numbers and narrative as documents are being assembled, analysis is being conducted, and decisions are being made.

14

Shareholders/boardApprovals

ExecutiveDecision recommendation

Leadership teamReporting and context

FP&A teamAnalysis

Accounting teamGAAP adjustments

SourceRecord/retrieval

CONNECTED REPORTING AND COMPLIANCE

IN ACTION.The connected revolution involves accessing massive amounts of data and automating multiple processes to create repeatable, reliable orchestration with nearly seamless transitions between each step. And what isn’t automated is at least made easier.

Data from across the enterprise is then shared and applied in multiple ways while still remaining secure. Each interaction builds upon the work of others. Accountants can prepare statements. Analysts can add context. Auditors can verify. Leaders can see the “why” behind it all.

The result is the democratization of data and strengthening of decisions. When you can trust the numbers and narrative in front of you, you can also trust your analysis, strategy, and compliance.

THE IMPACT OF DATA INCREASES AS ITS USAGE EXPANDS. 16

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Top signs of data constraints:

Does the reporting process begin by distributing multiple large spreadsheets of consolidated data?

Is there timely access to all the data needed for reporting?

Can you control when data refreshes throughout your reports?

After a change, can you identify all the locations that are affected and ensure accuracy in all associated files?

Is there an available audit trail indicating where data came from, who changed it, and everywhere it is used?

Is data distributed via email or shared drives?

Are teams using copy and paste between spreadsheets, documents, and presentations?

STEP ONE:TAKE CONTROL OF YOURNUMBERS AND NARRATIVE.Connected dataTransparent and trusted When you know where data came from, you also know where you are going. Data drives decision-making: from investors considering one stock over another, to the CEO considering an acquisition, to the interest costs for local governments. Being able to put the right data in the right hands at the right time is at the core of connected data.

HOW TO LEAD THE TRANSFORMATION

The 5 qualities of connected data:

1. Valuable Connected data is any data you can trust to effectively perform reporting and compliance—from financial and nonfinancial KPIs, to natural presentation of critical data with supporting narrative.

2. Accessible Connected data is structured and unstructured data that is prepared, secured, and shared among accounting, finance, legal, HR, and other stakeholders, based on specific permissions.

3. Auditable Connected data is data you can follow all the way from the initial transaction level to its final output, as well as every touch, every transformation along the way.

4. Reliable Connected data is always accurate because all changes to value and context are consistently—and automatically—updated and tracked in the system of work.

5. Reusable Connected data can be used and reused across reports, presentations, and other outputs.

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Connected reporting and compliance is more than linking from document to document. It considers the entire ecosystem of data handling.

For example, a reporting manager may be fine without any data manipulation tools at all. She receives statements in a spreadsheet in a fixed format from her data team. Her job is simply to put numbers in the right place. And if any data points need to be used elsewhere, they can be linked from the original file.

But that’s where the connectivity ends—between files. If anything needs to be changed, she has to wait for the data team again. If she wants to do any of her own analysis, she has to copy and paste numbers out because changing the spreadsheet would mean numbers would no longer be synchronized. This is where the risk begins.

True connected reporting and compliance forges transparent connections between source systems and final outputs, eliminating the risk of scenarios like these.

MAKING THE CASE FOR CONNECTED REPORTING AND COMPLIANCE:

THE PERILS OF COPY AND PASTE WITHOUT CONTEXT

21

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STEP TWO:GIVE YOUR PEOPLE THE POWER.

HOW TO LEAD THE TRANSFORMATION

Connected peopleAutonomous and enabled Modern reporting is complex and requires many hands, with multiple rounds of review and revisions. To effectively manage such an involved and intensive process, you need to connect people to the data they need in the context of when they need it. All team members—no matter their role—should be able to conduct their work within the same environment, rather than passing data manually and risking their contributions being misapplied, misinterpreted, or lost altogether.

At the same time, the way we work has radically evolved. Teams are more distributed than ever. A new class of workers expects freedom of location from day one. Connected technologies mean the remote employees, the night owls, and the early risers can get work done, without the constraints of traditional office hours and on-site servers. Contributors across time zones can access updated information without having to wait 12 hours for someone on the other side of the globe to send the new files. Employee productivity, recruitment, retention, and satisfaction all improve when you can offer tools that work the way they want, when they need it, and wherever they are.

The 5 steps toward a more connected reporting and compliance team:

1. Connect Stop manually moving data from controlled environments, and link data directly from source systems to the applications your team is using—whether consolidating for a trial balance or adding clarification to a footnote.

2. Analyze Conduct financial planning and analysis with real-time, always-connected data, and add commentary that adjusts with any change in the data.

3. Audit Monitor activities, collect supporting evidence, and manage risk all within the same connected environment.

4. Report Connect data to financial reports and other disclosures that can be developed quickly, accurately, and easily.

5. Repeat Roll forward previous versions and refresh data rather than starting from scratch or requesting new report templates, whether it is time for another quarterly report or a presentation to management.

Top signs of collaboration limitations:

Are the teams required for successful reporting departmentally and/or geographically dispersed, causing data collection or clarification to take days instead of hours?

Do multiple teams have to focus on discrete areas of the larger reporting process?

Are employees unable to work simultaneously in documents, presentations, and spreadsheets?

Is your staff manually copying and pasting from source files?

Is your main method of version control checking files in and out and changing the file name (e.g., XYZ_ver4_final_final.xls)?

Are people forced to slice up files because they don’t have permissions or files are too large to open in Excel®, requiring them to merge everything back into a single copy?

Do you have to collect comments and narrative from multiple systems and sources during the review and revision process (e.g., comments in documents, emails, PDF markup)?

Financial reporting is something so routine, it is easy to assume a “business as usual” approach. But that makes reporting a prime opportunity for a process improvement.

Rather than looking at only large-scale projects for large process improvement payoffs, an aggregation of small-scale projects like reporting are easily executable with very little resources and time.

Financial reporting is plagued with manual tasks. Narrative may be sent in multiple emails. Data input may be copy-and-paste from spreadsheets to reports. Technical assembly may result in multiple versions of a report.

Connected reporting and compliance can automate many of these tasks and drastically cut the number of manual steps, returning days back to the team that can be allocated to more value-added activities.

In the aggregate, small-scale improvements like these can add up to the same payoff as a large-scale investment over time. It can also help instill a culture of continuous improvement in the organization.

MAKING THE CASE FOR CONNECTED REPORTING AND COMPLIANCE:

LESS ADMINISTRATION, MORE VALUE CREATION

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STEP THREE:BUILD TRUST INTO THE WAY YOU WORK.

HOW TO LEAD THE TRANSFORMATION

Connected processesStreamlined and simplified Developing financial reports is a complicated undertaking and certainly not something to be taken lightly. But it doesn’t need to be the laborious back-and-forth, double-and-triple-check process it’s always been. When you have automation that pulls and populates data at your demand, synced documents that update automatically with any change at the source, and failsafes in place that do the triple-checking for you, teams can get back to the things that make them an asset to the organization.

By removing the risk of unreliable data at different stages, work suddenly becomes less frustrating and more rewarding. Business doesn’t have to be boring. People can find their passion again. Instead of painstakingly tying out numbers, they can think strategically how to apply those numbers. Rather than simply asking for what you need, they can begin focusing on why it matters.

The 4 outcomes of connected workflows:

1. Continuous Reporting never stops, especially as organizations grow. Ensure your personnel has unfettered access to the proper datasets to accommodate rigid reporting schedules and on-demand, ad hoc requests.

2. Consistent When it comes to financial data, no one likes surprises. Set up templates and populate them knowing that data from the source matches multiple outputs—from footnote to cover page to board presentation.

3. Collaborative Work is better when it’s done together. Facilitate cross-departmental handoffs and communication exchanges across teams and time zones with secure cloud solutions.

4. Controlled Being constantly connected does not mean you are unsecured. Leverage technologies that give you granular permissions over who can access data and when.

Top signs of process breakdowns:

Do you find incorrect or inconsistent figures as you review reports?

Is there a clear process for checking errors?

Are changes made quickly and reflected in all critical reports?

Is more time allocated to checking numbers than studying them?

Is there ever confusion between next steps and stakeholders?

Are you unable to see the current status of a given report?

Are there missed deadlines?

Do you have to ask individuals the same requests multiple times?

Have auditors ever been sent the wrong version of a document for review?

Are auditors repeatedly asking the same questions?

Would you describe employee satisfaction with the current process as “high”?

27

GAAP

$70 B

Years ended(In millions)

Country 1 20,000

Dec 29,2018

Dec 30,2017

Dec 31,2016

$ $

$ $

$

$

15,000

14,000

10,000

11,000

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15,000 14,000

12,000

13,000

11,000

10,000

60,000

13,000

12,000

10,000

10,000

60,000

Country 2

Country 3

Country 4

Other countries

Total net revenue

RevenuesCost of sales

Final P&LYTD Q4 2018

$70,000,000,000$27,000,000,000

Other revenue 200,000.00 30,000.0070,000.00

2,000,000.004,000,000.00

500,000.0070,000,000.0030,000,000.00

Total other revenueNet revenuesCOS (cost of sales) expenses

2016

$60.0

SEG A

1.02.0

SEG B

1.0

SEG C

1.0

SEG D

2.0

SEG E

(2.0)

Other

2.0

SEG A

1.0

SEG B

1.0

SEG C

1.0

SEG D

2.0

SEG E

(2.0)

Other

$65.0

2017

$70.0

2018

Reported actual

Rounded in millionsYTD

Revenue by country

KPIs - 10-K

Revenue KPI - 10-K

Connected reporting and compliance ensures full visibility into the life of a piece of data. Take revenue, for example. Revenue is a top-line number, but it is the basis for potentially hundreds of other underlying calculations.

What do you do to revenue? Record it. Validate it. Adjust it. Reconcile it. Translate it. Consolidate it. Convert it. Walk it. Trend it. Flux it. Compare it. Round it. Forecast it. Analyze it. Break it out by company code, business unit, country, and more.

You can see the many different forms a single figure takes—and the influence it has—as you go down the reporting stream and up the organizational chart.

Now imagine having to change each instance manually. That single act may take only a few minutes,

but the manual actions of everyone compounded becomes exponentially dangerous. Just one unnoticed and unrecorded mistake could skew the results all the way down the line.

When you connect, you can see the many different ways a number like revenue may change—but you know that each usage is based on the same original number.

MAKING THE CASE FOR CONNECTED REPORTING AND COMPLIANCE:

TRACING THE LIFE OF DATA

ERP research: Compelling advice for the CFO, ZDNet

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THE NEED TO

CONNECTHAS NEVER BEEN GREATER.

ERPs were hailed as the next big thing, with the ability to collect and build upon enormous amounts of data. But after spending hundreds of billions of dollars on ERP systems, the world’s accounting and finance teams were still left disconnected when it came to the most critical part of the process: reporting, consumption, and ultimately, decision-making. The stories of ERP implementations gone wrong are also well documented—from issues with data migration to lack of governance.8

ERPs are not enough.

The advent of cloud computing in the early 2000s opened up new possibilities. Although it was suddenly easier to scale and improve accessibility, process automation and data integrity were still question marks.

The introduction of productivity software helped bring finance and accounting into the 20th century. But the limits of office software were quickly realized when reporting got more complex and more frequent, while the consequences of reporting errors got more significant. (In the U.S., the SEC filed a record number of enforcement actions in the second half of 2018 alone, ordering $800 million returned to harmed investors for the year.)6,7 Productivity without assurance of accuracy just means people are busy—it doesn’t mean they are right, as evidence shows. And productivity without connectivity is just extra work.

Productivity is not enough.

ERP PROJECTS REALIZE LESS THAN HALF THEIR DESIRED BENEFIT

OF FINANCE PROFESSIONALS EXPECT 20+% OF FINANCE TASKS WILL BE

AUTOMATED IN NEXT 3 YEARS

6 of 10 61%The cloud is not enough.

Purpose-built solutions for discrete work functions also began to proliferate. Now you can easily bring data into different applications focused heavily on the financial close, reconciliation, planning, budgeting, human resources management, the list goes on. But with different owners and levels of extensibility of each, turning those outputs into unified reporting and compliance is still a challenge.

Simply adding on more and more solutions is not enough.

These iterative technology steps have taken us only so far. Connected reporting and compliance combines the best of what we have today and delivers the capabilities you expect to use tomorrow: complete data lineage, consistent data outputs, faster document creation, and more accurate reports and presentations.

30

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MAKING THE CASE FOR CONNECTED REPORTING AND COMPLIANCE:

BETWEEN DATA

NATURALCONNECTIVITYBetween a system of record and system of reporting may be a landscape of function-focused cloud and on-premise applications that are under various levels of control. Many of these integration platforms don’t have a reliable report writer—they primarily rely on data tables—because that’s not what they were designed to do. People still resort to downloading .csv files and moving that data to somewhere they have more control over the report, but where it is no longer tied to the source.

Connected reporting and compliance brings applications together. Modern tools have easy-to-use, build-your-own integrations that mean you don’t need to write one (or wait for IT). They are designed to work together with other common cloud and on-premise systems in legacy environments.

With the groundwork already in place, you can establish a connection through simple configurations rather than coding.

CONNECTED DATA

SYSTEM OF REPORTING

Financial Reporting

Integrated RiskManagement

ManagementReporting

RegulatoryReporting

StatutoryReporting

TaxReporting

ConnectedFinancials

Connected Reporting and

Compliance

CONNECT,AUTOMATE,AND EXPAND.They need to be able to follow data from origin to destination, from source to the

Connected reporting and compliance is the next natural extension of familiar patterns of work that can be extended to multiple processes. While a number may originate within the accounting function, it can quickly be unleashed in a thousand other areas, by dozens of different departments. Who has time to follow that number through each incarnation, throughout the broader organization? And who can accept the risk if you cannot?

When you are connected, you are no longer a slave to the data. Your required reports and strategic recommendations are no longer subject to doubt. You can put trusted data to work in powerful new ways that expand beyond basic financial reporting.

35

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Today, connected reporting and compliance means improved collaboration and real-time insight. But zoom out, and you can see the exponential impact of completely connected workplaces on the rest of the world.

Tomorrow, it achieves rapid regulatory adherence that satisfies governments and upholds commitments to being responsible corporate citizens. It unleashes data from across a company that can help influence an entire industry. It ensures governments can strengthen communities by funding public projects. It raises trust in the global economy—but only if you can trust your numbers from the start.

Connecting your current data for reporting and compliance is the first phase of a larger, more lucrative transformative process. The ability to collaboratively and

creatively work with all that data in exciting new ways is the next phase. When you can trust the integrity of your data and record each interaction around that data, you can push the boundaries of accounting and finance even further, clearing the path for machine learning and artificial intelligence.

Sticking to the status quo cannot—and will not—prepare you for these new technologies. The sole way to reach this next level of intelligent automation is by first removing all doubts in the way your data is handled, so you have confidence in the information you share from the financial statement to the press conference. And that can only be achieved when you connect your data across all areas of reporting and compliance.

We have reached a disruptive moment in time. With the nature of the global economy and regulations changing rapidly—combined with public cries for increased accountability and transparency—trust is going to be harder and harder to gain.

Relying on tradition will not establish trust. That requires automation, assurance, and integrity, which means that tomorrow’s most trusted organizations will also be the most connected.

CONNECT THE DATA,AND TRUST WILL FOLLOW.

OF FINANCE LEADERS SAY AI WILL HAVE A SIGNIFICANT IMPACT ON THE WAY

FINANCE DRIVES DATA-DRIVEN INSIGHTHow can the digital transformation of reporting build the bridge

72%

37

CITATIONS

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

—Doug Croll,

“The fundamental problem that Workiva seeks to solve is availability of data

—Joe Wakham,

“Having peace of mind in terms of the accuracy of the data is extremely

helped us be transparent about our processes.”—Joel Macholan,

report to the controller or CFO because everyone is doing it the same way.”—Rex Roberts,

“Workiva is always looking to improve on what they have. They don’t rest with the status quo.”

—Chris Strain,

— ,

74