E-BOOK

The Future of Financial ReportingInsights from the FSN Modern Finance Forum

on LinkedIn Survey 2017

Is this guide for you?

In an effort to understand the future of financial reporting in the modern corporation, nearly 1,000 global senior finance

professionals were surveyed. This e-book shares the results and explains:

• Constraints that are keeping financial executives from delivering fast, accurate,

and cost-effective financial reporting

• Steps financial executives are taking to overcome these obstacles

• How modern financial reporting is delivered through cloud platforms

Why financial reporting

is keeping CFOs awake at night

Introduction

In its largest survey of finance professionals to date, FSN's The Future of Financial Reporting Survey 2017 exposes the

constraints that prevent CFOs from delivering fast, accurate, and cost-effective financial reporting.

In this research, CFOs report they want to spend more time as business leaders and less time on the nuts and bolts of

accounting. Yet what stands in their way is the time-consuming process of compiling, reporting, and analyzing business

data that is manual, repetitive, and error-prone.

The solution: adopt self-service financial reporting and automated document production tools.

Cloud platforms also are specifically created to streamline the financial reporting process by providing the security,

governance, transparency, and collaboration that eliminates bottlenecks. Finance has a critical role to play in driving

corporate performance. Financial executives who adopt high-performance, cloud-based financial reporting tools will

reach these goals faster. Those who do not will be left behind.

The future of financial reporting is here. Are you ready?

A CFO’s reputation rests on delivering accurate and timely financial reports. Yet, the reporting process gives

97 percent of CFOs deep anxiety about fulfilling the their most fundamental obligation. To add to the pressure,

39 percent of boardrooms believe they do not have a complete view of the business.

The CFO’s reporting challenges

40% Do not believe their

data is always trustworthy and accurate

55% Are concerned their

internal controls are not operating

as they should

46% Worry about

an unexpected spreadsheet error

Mundane tasks occupy too much of the CFO's time

52% Transaction processing

42% Management accounting

32% Statutory reporting

Conflicting priorities sap the CFO’s time

68% Lack of time for process improvement and innovation

51% Do not spend

enough time on businesspartnering and have little

time for pet projects

CFOs need to find time to add strategic value to the business

50%Spend less time than needed on performance management

48%Are more actively involved in strategy development

42%Believe the finance function is perceived positively by other business functions

Despite increasing resource needs,

CFOs are required to do more with less

25% Reduced finance headcount

in the last three years

40% Made do with existing staff, keeping headcount flat

CFOs and senior finance executives worry about basic reporting obligations, including closing the books,

consolidating group results, publishing statutory reports, and reporting to the board.

Concerns include:

• Looming deadlines

• Lack of adequate controls

• The prospect of unanswerable questions in the boardroom

• Discovering an unexpected error in a critical spreadsheet

Almost half of respondents share this last concern, which was highly correlated with other flaws in

the reporting process.

Financial reporting processes are built on shaky foundations

In its largest survey of finance professionals to date, FSN's The Future of Financial Reporting Survey 2017 exposes the

constraints that prevent CFOs from delivering fast, accurate, and cost-effective financial reporting.

In this research, CFOs report they want to spend more time as business leaders and less time on the nuts and bolts of

accounting. Yet what stands in their way is the time-consuming process of compiling, reporting, and analyzing business

data that is manual, repetitive, and error-prone.

The solution: adopt self-service financial reporting and automated document production tools.

Cloud platforms also are specifically created to streamline the financial reporting process by providing the security,

governance, transparency, and collaboration that eliminates bottlenecks. Finance has a critical role to play in driving

corporate performance. Financial executives who adopt high-performance, cloud-based financial reporting tools will

reach these goals faster. Those who do not will be left behind.

The future of financial reporting is here. Are you ready?

50% Of reporting involves a huge amount of manual checking with every change

60% Spend too much time cleaning and manipulating data

A CFO’s reputation rests on delivering accurate and timely financial reports. Yet, the reporting process gives

97 percent of CFOs deep anxiety about fulfilling the their most fundamental obligation. To add to the pressure,

39 percent of boardrooms believe they do not have a complete view of the business.

Over the next three years, one of the top priorities for CFOs and senior finance executives is self-service reporting

and automated document production.

To build a solid foundation, organizations must adopt self-service financial reporting solutions that modernize both

processes and technology. These solutions:

Empower finance teams with self-service reporting solutions

Eliminate low-value tedious tasks

Disperse the workload by empowering individuals to support decision-making

Enable a larger number of users to query data that will produce the information and reports they need

To address the challenges identified in this research, the core fundamental financial reporting process needs to be

addressed. One way organizations can provide true collaboration, deliver real-time reporting, and improve efficiency

is to leverage cloud solutions across the reporting process.

Cloud technologies like Wdesk are specifically designed to streamline the financial reporting process by

automating data collection and provide a self-service reporting platform that is equipped with security,

governance, and collaboration tools.

Leveraging cloud solutions for financial reporting

1. Automated data collection

2. Improved efficiency by eliminating manual process

3. Reduction in overall costs from increased productivity

4. Streamlined, repeatable processes

5. True collaboration among multiple users

6. Consolidation of all data in an easily accessible, secure cloud platform

7. Complete document history across versions, from initial input through reporting

8. Simultaneous changes to linked numbers, text, and chart data across multiple documents when edits are made

9. Compatibility with the leading business software

10. A full suite of document production tools that support team editing

Top 10 benefits of a cloud solution

10

B E N E F I T S

About Workiva

Access your copy of the full report, The Future of Financial Reporting, or watch the on-demand webinar.

Workiva (NYSE:WK) delivers Wdesk, an intuitive cloud platform that modernizes how people work within thousands of

organizations, including over 70 percent of the 500 largest U.S. corporations by total revenue. Wdesk is built upon a data

management engine, offering controlled collaboration, data connections, granular permissions, and a full audit trail.

Wdesk helps mitigate risk, improves productivity, and gives users confidence in their data-driven decisions. For more

information, visit workiva.com.

Additional resources

The information contained herein is proprietary to Workiva and cannot be copied, published, or distributed without the express prior written consent of © 2017.