Workiva, which makes a reporting and compliance platform, has updated its Wdata platform to include automatic updates, approval workflows and improved connectivity. Separately, the company has also established a partnership with financial close management software company FloQast. This move comes on the heels of Workiva’s similar recent agreement with BlackLine, also a provider of close management software.
Wdata is a Workiva platform component that connects data from enterprise resource planning, governance risk and compliance platforms, other third-party, on-premise systems and cloud applications. Once the data is connected in the Workiva platform, users can automate updates, track changes and collaborate with colleagues to create reports and regulatory filings.
The new features include:
- Automated data updates and workflows: Users can create and manage sequences of tasks — known as chains — to automate workflows across on-premise or cloud data sources. Chains can be configured to automatically refresh data from multiple sources and then push that data to spreadsheets, documents and presentations for connected reports.
- Finance and accounting connectors: Finance and accounting teams can access more than 30 connectors to integrate data directly from their most commonly used, on-premise systems and cloud applications for sourcing their ERP, reconciliation, financial close, budgeting, planning and other operational data.
- Risk and controls integration: Users can connect GRC (governance, risk and compliance), point solution and other audit risk and compliance systems to share issues, risk, controls and other critical data.
- Automated monitoring and updates: Users create data connections that can automatically monitor and pull information from source systems on-demand or a set schedule.
- Controlled access and approvals: Managers have new tools for governance and oversight because they can control collaborators’ access to defined datasets, establish multi-step approvals and apply full audit trails.
Partnership with FloQast
Workiva and FloQast plan to jointly offer a connected reporting and compliance solution to private companies as well as to companies before and after they issue an initial public offering of stock. The integration aims to help finance and accounting
teams connect month-end close data from FloQast with all other business data in the Workiva platform.
The data integration, which will be available in the fourth quarter of 2019, also includes a bilateral referral agreement.
“Financial and performance reporting relies on the timely and accurate delivery of the month-end close data,” stated Ken Sims, senior vice president of business and corporate development at FloQast. “Our integration with Workiva appeals to many of our high-growth private and public customers, which more and more are turning to close management, along with financial and performance reporting solutions, to add process efficiencies to keep pace with the demands of their growing organizations."
