Robert Kugel's Analyst Perspectives

Workiva offers Wdesk, a cloud-based productivity application for handling composite documents. I use the term “composite document” to refer to those in which text is created and edited collaboratively by multiple contributors and which incorporates tabular and numerical data from multiple sources in a controlled process. Composite documents often have formats defined by law, regulation or contract and must be created at periodic intervals. To comply with the requirement by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that companies “tag” their financial filings using eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL), many companies acquired software to automate the creation and tagging of these composite documents. Workiva began as WebFilings and initially offered software to streamline the SEC document submission process. In 2013 it released Wdesk to address the larger market for composite document creation. The software has uses beyond SEC filings. They include a variety of documents or presentations for external or internal purposes that corporations routinely produce, including board presentations, management reports, audit management, disclosure documents and other regulatory or compliance filings. Using such software, companies (and especially finance departments) can cut preparation time, complete documents sooner and substantially reduce errors in them. Software products for handling composite documents like Wdesk have capabilities similar to those of document management applications except that they are designed to be easily used by business people with limited or no involvement by technical specialists and at much lower cost of ownership. This is especially true for cloud-based software. As is the case in using document management software, the text portion of the composite document is produced and reviewed by many people in multiple departments for various purposes in a defined workflow that includes approvals. To facilitate reviews, Wdesk enables approvers to read, comment on and accept a document or any component of it on a mobile device. In the process of creating the document multiple versions are created and the software ensures that people work only with the current version. Permissions for creating, editing and approving the document can be granular (such as limited to a specific paragraph or table or even a single data point). Especially for internal documents (such as Sarbanes-Oxley Act attestations) Wdesk can connect substantiating documents directly to specific parts of a document. The sections and basic form of a composite document may be highly structured, in which case the software automatically maintains this structure and all formatting. The format includes the order of the sections, the section headings, specific wording in boilerplate sections, paragraph styles and even the typeface, to name the most common requirements. If the document is a periodic filing, it must be consistent from one period to the next, keeping the format and structure of each individual section exactly the same. Wdesk also ensures that text and numbers that are reused across multiple documents and presentations are consistent. In addition to consistency, another major advantage of using Wdesk to automate the document creation process is that it can significantly reduce the incidence of errors while reducing the time devoted to checking the document for them. For example, numbers referenced in the commentary must agree with those in the tables. These numbers often change over the course of the drafting period, sometimes frequently and on occasion late in the process when deadlines are short. A composite document application will always contain the most accurate and up-to-date numbers. This is important because in our benchmark research on the financial close research three out of five participants said that the consistency and quality of data in company reports is a significant or very significant problem. As the numbers (such as financial and operational results) referenced in a table change, the numbers in the narrative associated with those numbers, as well as any associated percentage, change citations. For example, in the statement “advertising expense was $X, up Y%,” the numbers X and Y will always be in agreement with each other and any table containing them. Automation can also help because some types of regulatory documents and filings have particular requirements that must be enforced. For example, when financial data is presented in a shortened form (in thousands or millions of currency units, for example), the rounding often must adhere to a specific convention. Using a software application designed to automate and support the process of creating filing documents can reduce the amount of time and effort necessary to produce the final result. It does so by establishing a repository of record for the text and data, automating the compilation of the document including the tabular data and individual text sections, using workflow to manage the process, and applying controls and audit features. Using such software enables corporations to achieve substantially greater efficiency as well as tighter and more consistent control over this process. Process management capabilities can cut the administrative workload for people who “own” the filing document and reduce the possibility of delayed handoffs and missed deadlines. Document management features enable administrators to track the progress of the individual components, automate reminders to individuals as deadlines approach and generate alerts if they miss start or completion times. In contrast, when regulatory filings and similar composite documents are assembled using personal productivity software and orchestrated through email attachments and notifications, the process needlessly occupies the time and attention of highly trained, well-compensated people who have to spend hours performing dull, repetitive tasks that require their skills. Automation on the other hand leaves only the essential work to be done, allowing expert individuals to focus only on that and have more time to concentrate on their real jobs. Using software to automate and control the creation of composite documents for external or internal users can substantially cut the risks of errors and missed deadlines. This software can be used broadly to address multiple regulatory and legal requirements in the finance, legal, internal audit and other departments. I recommend that companies – especially their finance and legal departments – that create composite documents automate their production and investigate whether Wdesk will address their requirements. Regards, Robert Kugel Senior Vice President Research Follow Me on Twitter and Connect with me on LinkedIn.

Robert Kugel's Analyst Perspectives

Workiva Automates Composite Documents with Wdesk

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