Workiva Inc. Class A

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to Workiva's Q1 2026 earnings call. My name is Darcy and I will be your host operator on this call. After the prepared comments, we will conduct a question and answer session. Instructions will be provided at that time. Please note that this call is being recorded on May 5th, 2026 at 5 p.m. Eastern Time. I would now like to turn this meeting over to your host for today's call, Katie White,

Senior Director of Investor Relations at Workiva. Please go ahead.

Good afternoon, and thank you for joining Workiva's Q1 2026 conference call. During today's call, we will review our first quarter 2026 results and discuss our guidance for the second quarter and full year 2026. Today's call will include comments from our Chief Executive Officer, Julie Iscoe, followed by our Chief Financial Officer, Barbara Larson. We will then open up the call for a Q&A session. After market closed today, we issued a press release, which is available on our Investor Relations website, along with our quarterly investor presentation. This conference call is being webcast live, and following the call, an audio replay will be available on our website. During today's call, we will be making forward-looking statements regarding future events and financial performance, including guidance for the second quarter and full fiscal year 2026. These forward-looking statements are based on our assumptions as to the macroeconomic, political, and regulatory environment as of today, reflect management's current expectations and beliefs based on factors currently known to us, and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties. Rekiva cautions that these forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance. We undertake no obligation to update or revise these statements. If the call is reviewed after today, the information presented during the call may not contain current or accurate information. Please refer to the company's annual report on Form 10-K and subsequent filings with the SEC for factors that may cause our actual results to differ materially from those contained in our forward-looking statements. Also, during the course of today's call, we will refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations of GAAP and non-GAAP measures are included in today's press release. With that, we'll begin by turning the call over to Workiva's CEO, Julie Isco.

Thank you, Katie, and thank you all for joining us today. Q1 2026 delivered another quarter of continued demand for our trusted platform. Our two dozen purpose-built solutions are continuing to resonate with our customers. We beat the high end of our revenue guidance with 21% growth in subscription revenue and 20% growth in total revenue. We also continued to deliver on profitable growth. With Q1 2026 non-gap operating margin, greater than 18%. This was a 240 basis point beat on the high end of our guide, and it was a 1600 basis point improvement compared to Q1 of last year. Our Q1 momentum reflects broad-based durable demand across our platform. In a market where organizations must navigate evolving regulations and complex data ecosystems, the Office of the CFO relies on Workiva as their platform of trust. We provide the accuracy, accountability, and assurance that they need, ensuring that every number and every narrative is traceable with full lineage. Customers are increasingly standardizing on the Workiva platform. This is showcased by the continued strength in our large contract cohorts. In Q1, the number of contracts with an annual value of over $300,000 increased 38%, and contracts valued over $500,000 increased 39%, all compared to Q1 of 2025. The growth in each of these categories was driven by both additional solution sales within our existing customer base and the landing of larger new logos. Let's look at a few specific examples from Q1 that demonstrate how our platform is winning in the market. We're helping our customers solve their most complex data and reporting challenges with solutions across multiple categories. First, A European networking and communications company landed as a new platform customer with a mid-six-figure deal for three solutions. The deal included our ECES, SEC, and sustainability offerings. As a dual listed company on the NASDAQ in both the US and Europe, this company invested in the Workiva platform to replace their point solutions and manual processes. The investment in the Workiva platform will transform their financial reporting, regulatory filings, and collaboration activities, ensuring compliance with ESEF, SEC, and sustainability standards. The deal was a co-sale and will be delivered by a Big Four partner. Second, a large European financial services provider landed as a new customer with a mid-six-figure deal for four solutions. The solutions included ESF reporting, multi-entity reporting, and bank regulatory reporting, as well as sustainability. The institution is in the process of an ERP transformation and is required to comply with the CSRD. Workiva was the only platform evaluated to address the specifics of financial, sustainability, and bank regulatory reporting in a single platform. The deal was sourced and will be delivered by a Big Four firm. Third, a multinational bank and financial services company signed a mid six-figure expansion deal for three solutions, including multi-entity reporting, policy management, and Pillar 3. One of the drivers of this deal was the evolving requirements of Pillar 3 reporting. Pillar 3 is the Basel regulatory framework requiring international banks to publicly disclose detailed information on their risk exposure, their capital adequacy, and their risk management practices to enhance market discipline. With the recent changes to Pillar 3, disclosures are no longer static reports. They now need to be delivered as regulatory data sets. This company became a new customer in Q3 of 2025, making a three-solution purchase on their initial deal. This Q1 expansion was a co-sell and will be delivered by a Big Four partner. I'll move on now to financial reporting. Demand for these solutions continues to build as companies modernize increasingly complex global operating models and move away from legacy manual workflows. Now, as companies transform these processes, they're also keeping a close eye on the evolving regulatory landscape. I want to briefly address a financial reporting topic that received a lot of attention this quarter. It's the SEC's consideration of a proposal that would let companies opt for semi-annual rather than quarterly reporting. Any change of this kind would introduce new decisions for both issuers and investors. Most companies we've spoken to expect to continue reporting quarterly, reflecting ongoing investor and stakeholder demand for timely, decision-useful financial information. As far as any potential impact to Workiva, a change in filing cadence would not alter our value proposition. The value of our platform extends well beyond the filing itself. For the Office of the CFO, Workiva provides a trusted data foundation that helps teams remain report ready and audit ready at any point in any quarter. CFOs need continuous access to accurate, traceable, and defensible information to serve internal stakeholders, lenders, business partners, regulators, and investors. Simply put, Workiva's value is not dictated by how often a company files, It's tied to giving CFOs absolute confidence in their data every day of the quarter. It's this foundation of trust that enables us to win both new logos and account expansion deals across our financial reporting portfolio. Let me highlight a few of our Q1 wins in this area. First, a global delivery and logistics leader purchased a mid six-figure account expansion deal for multi-entity reporting. The business driver of this platform expansion for this 14-year loyal customer is to transform the processes of reporting across the company's more than 250 legal entities. This was a competitive deal to replace a legacy software provider. The deal was a co-sell and will be delivered by a Big Four partner. a UK-based AI-native cybersecurity company landed as a new customer with a multi-six-figure deal for three solutions, private company financial reporting, multi-entity reporting, and management reporting. The primary driver for this purchase was enhancing their internal financial reporting processes and displacing legacy manual workflows. The deal underscores our growing traction among the world's most technologically sophisticated software and cybersecurity companies. The deal was sourced and will be delivered by a Big Four partner. Third, a European-based global healthcare leader signed a mid-six-figure account expansion deal for multi-entity reporting. This five-year loyal SEC customer had just invested in a multi-six-figure GRC deal back in Q4 of 2025. The primary driver for this multi-entity reporting investment was a financial transformation driven by a large-scale SAP S4 HANA initiative. As part of this larger project, Workiva will displace a legacy on-prem tax and reporting solution. As the customer transforms processes across the organization, they will deploy Workiva to support the global rollout of their multi-entity reporting. This deal was a co-sell and will be implemented by a Big Four partner. We also continue to see strong momentum with our governance risk and compliance solutions as companies seek to replace legacy systems and consolidate risk management on a single unified platform. Let me share a few Q1 GRC deal highlights. First, one of the largest financial services institutions in the U.S. expanded their investment in Workiva with a mid-six-figure deal for controls management. This new investment will support five key GRC use cases. Internal controls over financial reporting, finance data governance controls, business process controls, sustainability controls, and resolution and recovery plan controls. The primary drivers for this engagement were changes to banking regulations and a strategic initiative to better manage risk. This was a competitive win that displaced multiple incumbent solutions. The deal was a co-sell and will be implemented by a regional advisory firm. Second, a regionally prominent community bank in the United States landed as a new customer with a mid-six-figure deal for five solutions. The solutions included audit management, policies management, controls management, compliance management, and SEC reporting. The primary driver for this engagement was a GRC transformation project to standardize GRC processes on a single platform. This was a highly competitive win over a crowded field of legacy point solutions. The deal was sourced and will be implemented by a regional advisory firm. Third, we closed a multi-six-figure account expansion deal with the U.S. state government. Already a financial reporting customer, this organization expanded its footprint by adding four GRC solutions – Controls, Operational Risk, Policies and Procedures, and Compliance. The primary driver for this expansion was the need to optimize their current risk and compliance processes – Leveraging Workiva's platform and technology is enabling them to accomplish more with a leaner team. This deal was a co-sell and will be delivered by a regional partner. Moving now to sustainability, we're seeing this market shift from a voluntary practice to a more formal business requirement. Regulations are taking shape across major markets. Deadlines are firming up and companies are building out the necessary processes to meet them. The bar for these disclosures is rising as well. Regulators and investors are increasingly expecting the same level of rigor that's applied to financial data applied to non-financial or sustainability data. And this is pushing accountability into the office of the CFO. To meet these high stakes, customers are increasingly moving away from isolated point solutions and choosing unified platforms. where Kiva provides the single system of record that links financial and non-financial data together. And this gives CFOs the full lineage, traceability, and audit readiness that's required for them to stand behind their disclosures with confidence. Let me highlight a few sustainability deals from Q1. First, one of the world's largest chemical companies signed a multi-six-figure account expansion deal, adding our sustainability advance and CSRD solutions to their existing platform relationship. Their existing solutions included SEC reporting, audit management, and multi-entity reporting. The primary driver for this expansion was the need to comply with the emerging CSRD requirements. This was a competitive win over a point solution and reflects the growing need for integrated sustainability management at multinational organizations as they navigate the evolving European regulatory landscape. The deal was a co-sell and will be implemented by a Big Four partner. Second, one of the world's leading global biotech companies signed a multi-six-figure account expansion deal upgrading to sustainability advanced, and adding sustainability for multi-entity access and the CSRD. The primary driver of this expansion was the need to comply with emerging CSRD requirements. The customer will leverage Workiva to manage their corporate and entity-level sustainability disclosure across multiple international frameworks, including the Australian Sustainability Reporting Standards. The deal was a co-sale and will be implemented by a global systems integrator. To conclude our solution section, let's briefly touch on the capital markets landscape. We were encouraged to see the IPO market reaccelerate in Q1. We supported several IPOs in the quarter and saw consistent demand for a capital market solution as more companies prepared to go public. We believe there is a healthy backlog of companies waiting for the right conditions, and we're ready to support them on our platform through their private-to-public journey and well beyond. A compelling example is one of the most widely watched potential debuts in market history. A company whose valuation, distinct business lines, and cultural footprint make it unlike anything the IPO market has ever seen. This company more than doubled its spend with us with a mid-six-figure expansion deal for multiple solutions, including capital markets, SEC advanced, multi-entity reporting, and controls management. The company signed on as a new customer more than a year ago with their initial investment in the Workiva platform. As part of this deal, This company plans to replace multiple point solutions as it transforms and standardizes its financial reporting and financial controls processes on the Workiva platform. This deal highlights Workiva's unmatched value proposition for companies on a private to public journey, and it underscores our platform's ability to serve some of the world's most complex organizations. The deal was a co-sell and will be delivered by a Big Four partner. I'll turn now to product innovation. Workiva is in the midst of a fundamental transformation with AI. Transformation of our platform, our solutions, and what we deliver to the market. Our AI strategy is outcome-driven and customer-focused. Deploy AI natively across mission-critical processes that define the office of the CFO, backed by purpose-built solutions and deep domain expertise that turn AI capability into measurable results. Because in the office of the CFO, the tolerance for error is zero. And as reliance on AI increases, and there's more unverified data, and there are more unverified data sources, trust in data becomes even more critical. And our customers, CFOs, finance leaders, and audit and risk teams need to be audit ready. and they need to be able to explain and defend any number at any point at any time. This is why our platform remains differentiated. This is our core. This is our moat. This is our advantage. To solidify and build on this advantage, we're accelerating our innovation with AI across the platform. Here's what we've recently delivered to turn that advantage into customer value. First, For GRC, we launched the Workiva Flowchart Visualizer and enhanced GRC intelligence agents. The Flowchart Visualizer automatically turns process narratives into audit-ready visual diagrams, mapping risks and controls to each step and surfacing gaps in documentation. The GRC agents enable our customers to spot patterns across issues to uncover systemic risks before they escalate into material events, to surface top themes and trends to inform faster, more confident risk decisions, and to track engagement for ongoing assessments and remediation. Second, for sustainability, we released an AI agent for use with the IFRS sustainability disclosure standards. This agent is designed to summarize disclosure requirements in plain language summaries, identify disclosures related to existing data or content, and generate first drafts of, and iterate on, narrative responses based on collected values. And third, an example of the many innovations in financial reporting is the launch of the internal tie-outs agents. These are purpose-built for one of the most time-pressured tasks in the office of the CFO. These agents automate data consistency checks across financial documents and associated schedules. They flag inconsistencies and variances instantly before they reach reviewers, management, or auditors. And they go beyond notifications. These agents help you review and resolve each issue with full document context line item links, and targeted alerts. This is the foundation of our agentic approach. Every human or agent action logged automatically, every workflow audit-ready by design, and at enterprise scale with security built in. As AI reshapes how the office of the CFO operates, Workiva will be the foundation that organizations rely on, not because we're adapted to the moment, but because we're built for it. Our commitment to speed, innovation, and transformation doesn't stop with our customers. It extends directly into our own operations. As we noted at the close of last year, we entered 2026 as a stronger, more disciplined, and more agile company. We remain deeply committed to our dual focus, both growth and profitability, demonstrating our ability to drive meaningful operating leverage while maintaining durable top line growth. Our Q1 operating margin is a direct reflection of our focus on operational rigor. The 1600 basis point margin improvement is the direct result of deliberate operational discipline executed across every function of the business. We've made progress on restructuring for efficiency, aligning our teams around our highest leverage market opportunities and embedding AI and automation into workflows that previously required manual effort at scale. Six months ago, Michael Pinto joined Workiva to reshape how we go to market. That work is underway. He's building a leaner, sharper sales organization that's designed to carry us well beyond a billion dollars in revenue. This means raising the bar on seller performance and pairing deep industry knowledge with experienced leaders who've scaled businesses like ours. With a tighter focus on our multi-solution platform and more intentional decisions about where we compete and how we partner, we're developing a go-to-market engine built for sustained growth. The result? A disciplined foundation that captures our expanding market opportunity while keeping us on track toward our medium and long-term margin goals. And yes, more operating margin on the sales and marketing line. In closing, I want to thank our customers for their continued trust and their partnership. I would also like to thank our employees and our partners around the world for their commitment to innovation and to our customers. Their support, their focus, and their execution continue to strengthen our business and position us for long-term success. With that, I'll turn the call over to Barbara to walk you through our financial results and our guidance in more detail.

Thanks, Julie. I'll start with an overview of our financial and key metric highlights for the first quarter of 2026, followed by our guidance for the second quarter and updated guidance for the full year 2026. We started the year strong. with broad-based demand across our portfolio of solutions. First quarter total revenue was $247 million, up 20% year-over-year, and beating the high end of our guidance range by $1 million. Foreign currency fluctuations had an approximately two percentage point favorable impact on our reported growth rate. Subscription revenue was $225 million, up 21% year-over-year, Both new customers and account expansions continue to contribute to our revenue growth, with new customers added in the last 12 months accounting for approximately 45% of the increase in Q1 subscription revenue, consistent with our expectations. As of quarter end, our current remaining performance obligations were $765 million, up 20% over the prior year. This growth, which reflects the revenue we expect to recognize in the next 12 months, includes an approximately one percentage point favorable impact due to foreign currency. Professional services revenue was $22 million, up slightly versus the prior year. In line with our expectations, higher margin XBRL services continued to grow, while our partners took on more of our lower margin setup and consulting services. Our non-GAAP operating margin for the quarter was 18.4%. This beat the high end of our guidance by 240 basis points, driven by our continued focus on operational rigor and productivity and the timing of certain headcount-related expenses. Moving on to our performance metrics for the quarter. We had 6,665 customers at the end of Q1, 2026, an increase of 280 customers year over year. Our gross retention rate was 97%, exceeding our 96% target. And our net retention rate was 112% for the quarter, compared to 110% in Q1, 2025. Consistent with our reported revenue growth, there was an approximately two percentage point favorable impact on NRR due to foreign currency fluctuations. During the quarter, 75% of our subscription revenue was generated from customers with multiple solutions, up from 69% in Q1 2025. Growth in our large contract customer cohorts also reflected strong momentum. As of the end of the first quarter, we had 2,575 contracts valued at over $100,000 per year, up 24% from the prior year. The number of contracts valued at over $300,000 totaled 605, up 38% year over year. And the number of contracts valued at over $500,000 totaled 265, up 39% from Q1 2025. Moving on to the balance sheet and cash flows. As of March 31st, 2026, cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities were $863 million, a decrease of $28 million from the prior quarter. This was primarily driven by the repurchase of 763,000 shares of our Class A common stock for $50 million. Combined with the $72 million repurchased in 2025, we have repurchased a total of $122 million under our $350 million share repurchase program, with $228 million remaining as of quarter end. As we've previously shared, we remain focused on investing in growth and innovation. At the same time, our strong free cash flow profile enables us to return capital to our shareholders while effectively managing dilution through opportunistic share repurchases. Before I move on to our guidance, I'd like to briefly touch on a governance topic. We disclosed today that the Audit Committee has approved the appointment of Grant Thornton as Workiva's Independent Auditor. This appointment comes as part of the Board's normal governance process, and we look forward to working with the Grant Thornton team in this capacity. Turning now to our outlook for Q2 and the full year 2026. We are focused on Workiva's commitment to delivering both durable top-line growth and expanding operating leverage across the business. With that in mind, for the second quarter of 2026, we expect total revenue to range from $250 to $252 million. We expect services revenue to be relatively flat compared to Q2 2025. And we expect non-GAAP operating margin to be in the range of 14.5% to 15.0%. As a reminder, we stated last quarter that we expected Q2 operating margin to be lower than Q1, driven by headcount-related expenses. For the full year 2026, we now expect total revenue to range from $1.037 to $1.041 billion. We continue to expect subscription revenue to grow approximately 19% year-over-year. And similar to 2025, we still expect total services revenue to be relatively flat year over year. We are raising our non-GAAP operating margin outlook by 100 basis points and now expect it to range from 16.0 to 16.5%. This 660 basis point year over year improvement at the high end reflects our ongoing commitment to drive operating leverage as we scale the business and make meaningful progress toward our medium and long-term financial targets. We are also raising our 2026 free cash flow margin outlook by 100 basis points to approximately 20%. For additional details on seasonality and other model assumptions, please see our quarterly investor deck available on our IR website. To wrap up, our strong Q1 financial results are a direct reflection of our ongoing commitment to profitable growth at scale. Having now completed my first full quarter with the team, I am more energized than ever by the significant opportunity ahead of us. Our platform continues to clearly resonate with offices of the CFO around the world, and we are executing with the operational rigor needed to deliver both durable top-line growth and expanding operating leverage. As we progress through 2026 in our next phase of growth as a billion-dollar revenue company, my team and I remain focused on the disciplined execution required to scale the business efficiently and drive durable long-term value for all of our stakeholders. Thank you all for joining the call today. We're now ready to take your questions. Operator, please open the line for Q&A.

Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you must press the star, then one on your telephone keypad. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. If at any time your question has been addressed and you would like to withdraw your question, please press star then two.

At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble our roster. Thank you. Your first question will come from Rob Oliver from Bard. Please go ahead.

Great. Good afternoon. I had two questions, Julie, first for you. I would love to hear from you. Obviously, really good quarter for you guys and really strong metrics upmarket and some nice examples you laid out on the power of the platform. On that topic, I mean, your customers are likely really inundated right now with lots of mandates on AI and AI usage. I think we all are. And I'd just be curious to hear from you what you're hearing from your customers about that. I mean, you laid out some of the concerns around risk and how, you know, every number needs to be verifiable. That said, is any change in sales cycles or anything you've seen within the buying patterns that either, you know, give you cause to be excited or to think, hey, you know, there's some additional features or functionality or things that we need to do to prepare for, you know, our user conference coming up, you know, I guess later this year. And then I had a quick follow up for Barbara.

Sure, Rob, and thank you for the question. I did mention the transformation we're making given the new era of AI, so to speak, and we are continuing to provide capabilities within our platform around AI, and our customers are very interested. You know the base of customers that we sell into, and they're very enthusiastic about leveraging our AI, hesitant but enthusiastic about working with AI because it is secure, controlled, environment so we are seeing that and we are seeing increasing use of those who have activated and those who are yes actively using it we continue to look at metrics and ensuring that we are not just relevant but continuing to increase in relevancies and you mentioned sales cycles and i would say for us because our execution is strengthening that we're actually seeing uh less length in our sales cycle. So for us, it's a positive both from just a go-to-market perspective from the kinds of sellers that we're putting out in the market and bringing into the organization and so forth and the platform and the partnerships that we have with our consulting and advisory. So we're seeing a big push for faster sales cycles, enthusiasm from our customers. Caution, of course, it's the opposite of CFO, but enthusiastic about our offerings.

Absolutely.

Great. Okay, thanks. Well, on that note, I'll pivot to your CFO. So, Barbara, I guess one for you, and just not to nitpick too much, but on the Q2 guide on revenue, maybe a little bit lighter than we would have expected, I think, relative to the strength you guys have called out, obviously maintaining your targets and guidance on the full year, but just wanted to understand better if there was anything we should be reading into that, you know, conservatism, wanted to have a little bit of extra cushion in your pocket, whatever necessary. Thank you very much.

Hi, Rob. Thanks so much for the question. So, as you said, we're really pleased with our Q1 performance. We beat the high end of our revenue guide by A million dollars, and we did flow that through to the full year and increased our full year guide by that million dollar beat. In terms of Q2, if you recall, last quarter, we talked about seasonality and the fact that Q1 is seasonally our smallest bookings quarter of the year. Therefore, we expected the Q over Q sequential revenue growth. will be the smallest in Q2, and that's reflected in our guide of $250 to $252 million for Q2 revenue. But thanks for the question.

Okay. Yep, perfect.

Thanks for the clarity. Thanks, guys. Thank you. Your next question comes from Adam Hotchkiss from Goldman Sachs.

Please go ahead.

Great. Thanks so much for taking the question. I guess, Julie, just on that large IPO deal you called out, I think you said they doubled spend with you. Can you just talk a little bit about the dynamics of capital markets deals today? Are you getting involved maybe earlier than you were historically, or is that something that only happens with the larger deals? And then because GRC and sustainability have gotten a lot of traction in recent years, are you now often selling bigger to these pre-IPO companies in areas like GRC and sustainability? Or would you generally say IPO deals look similar to prior years?

So I'll start with the large companies as the one I highlighted. And I'm I would say the trend is similar. I mentioned in my prepared remarks that they had become a customer a year prior to their purchasing their IPO capabilities, our S1 IPO. That's a trend that we've continued to see. 12 to 18 months is not unusual for us to see companies purchasing internal controls or private company reporting as they prepare for their IPO. Not much change there. I will say a lot of it is just private companies. We're just not in the private to public journey with these private companies. Some are staying private a lot longer or staying private indefinitely or pushing IPOs out. You can think of the big ones in the market now that have been IPO ready, likely, but have been waiting for right or better market conditions. So it takes a while. So yes, we may be selling other capabilities or offerings to them as they wait for an IPO or stay indefinitely as a private company. So Yes, we are selling more to private companies, whether pre-IPO or others. So those deals are increasing in nature. Very happy with the private company capabilities. And yes, you mentioned they are getting, you asked about them getting bigger. They are in fact getting bigger. Our deal sizes are larger and multi-solution is increasing. you know, the way we land increasingly. So IPO market definitely stronger in the quarter than last and continue to see good deals come through and larger deals.

Okay, great. That's really helpful, Julie. And then Barbara, I'd love to just extend on Julie's discussion on the potential change to the earnings calendar and how that might impact your financials. Could you just remind us of what exposure you have from a pricing model perspective to actual financial reporting filing counts, whether that is or isn't a factor, and then how, if at all, your XBRL services revenue could be impacted? Thanks so much.

Are you talking about the semiannual reporting news that came out today?

Yes, that's correct.

Okay. Yes, I mentioned that in my prepared remarks, and I'll take that. That SEC communication was very clear. It is a proposal that would provide issuers the option to choose a more or less frequent reporting, a move to semiannual reporting. And what was proposed today was not unexpected. And I'll reiterate this again about the proposal. It's providing an option to choose semiannual reporting. It's definitely not a mandate. And if you go back and look at the exact language of that proposal, it enables public companies to choose interim reporting frequency that would best serve their company and its investors. So I'll say that based on our customer conversations, most of those companies we've spoken with expect to continue the rigor of that quarterly reporting just to meet the ongoing investor demand for timely decision making. So the concept for us is around value and the value of our platform extends, of course, well beyond the filing itself. So we will continue to provide that trusted data foundation that helps our teams remain report ready and audit ready really at any point in time in the quarter. So I think the concept, again, is our value is tied to giving CFOs absolute confidence in their data at any point. Therefore, we don't even price based on the number of reports or the number of users. We don't sell by seats or number of filings. So we feel confident it is a non-event for Workiva.

Okay, great. Thanks so much, Julie. Thank you. Your next question comes from Andrew De Gasperi from BNP Paribas.

Please go ahead.

Thanks for taking my question. I guess first I wanted to touch on a follow-up to Adam's question in regards to your response saying that deal sizes were larger. Should we, if we take that a step further and just think about it in terms of net retention rate, should we see that net retention rate number become less relevant going forward, or at least the balance between existing and new shift to more new customers as those deals land at a substantial size?

Yeah, I'll take that.

From an NRR perspective, we can see that metric move around from quarter to quarter. but our current internal target in terms of NRR is, you know, maintaining that north of 110%. Really pleased with the performance we saw in that metric in Q1 at 112%.

And we're going to continue to focus both on new logo acquisitions with a multi-solution and multi-category LAN, as well as account expansion of our existing accounts. So we're Pushing hard, our strategy has been account expansion, larger deals, larger deal sizes, up in the enterprise. Again, multi-solution, multi-category, and that's both with land and expand.

That's helpful. And then I have to ask this question, but in terms of the strength in Q1, You called out in capital markets. I was just curious, are you still leaving your expectations for the year unchanged? In other words, are you being more just as conservative as you've been historically?

Yeah, so our expectations, we're really pleased with the performance in Q1, broad-based, but for capital markets as well.

And our expectations for the year remain consistent.

Thank you. Thank you. Your next question comes from Patrick McKinley from William Blair. Please go ahead.

Hi, team. Thank you for taking my questions. My first is just on the leadership team. So, you know, it's been roughly half a year since you've made a handful of changes at Workiva, you know, bringing in a new CRO, head of product, and obviously Barbara's CFO. So my question is really how is that team meshing and how do you feel that this new slate of talent positions for Kiva for the next chapter of its story.

We were very intentional on the hiring of those three roles and appreciate you asking the question because it does highlight where we're going and our approach. And all three of them have been there, seen the scale. They have executed and driven growth well beyond the billion dollars, which is exactly what we were looking for. They've seen successes and failures, so they're very well positioned to help work EVA lead. Our executive team across the board has strength now. They are all bringing expertise and focused on what we are focused on, long, durable growth and sustainable growth and profitable growth.

Okay, thank you.

And on margins, I know you walked through a number of profitability levers that you're focused on during your investor day last year, but just given how much productivity technology has advanced since then, I wanted to ask if and how you're leveraging AI to drive efficiency within Workiva, the organization itself, and if that changes anything in terms of how you view your longer-term margin targets or where you're looking for efficiencies.

Sure. Barbara, you may want to start. I'll start on that. That's a great question in terms of how we're leveraging AI for Kiva. On the R&D side, absolutely. We're focused on engineering productivity. That includes leveraging AI and automating across our teams, really making our own teams more efficient. And then across the entire organization, we've got ongoing projects. productivity initiatives, and that's a component of the strong operating leverage that we've demonstrated over the past five quarters.

So continuing to, you know, make progress there.

Okay. Thank you both for the thoughts. Appreciate you taking the questions. Thank you. Thank you. Your next question comes from Alex Skla from Raymond James.

Please go ahead.

Hi, thanks for taking the question. This is John Messina on for Alex. Maybe, Julie, I did want to ask on, I know you were asked earlier on sales cycles, but I wanted to ask about linearity in the quarter. Commentary during the repaired marks really pointed to strong wind and deal expansion environment, and CRPO bookings looked really strong. But I did want to ask, were there any timing factors you'd call out, any deal linearity or revenue recognition dynamics in the quarter that you think are worth calling out there?

You know, I don't think anything has changed in any way. I can't think of anything that's different. The deal timing is very similar. When we see the bookings come in, again, the deal cycle is similar. So, no, I don't see any difference in cycles and timings.

Okay, great. Thanks. And then I did also want to ask on sustainability. I know you guys have emphasized that it's not only a regulatory story, but I am curious, as far as the resiliency that you're seeing there from a non-regulatory side, whether it's supply chain requirements or sort of reaching internal operating goals, just curious on what's proving to be the most resilient there. And if you're seeing any meaningful changes in the deal sizing when sustainability is being sold not as part of a regulatory requirement. Thank you so much.

Yes, definitely on the regulatory side, I had talked about that. It really is stakeholder demand still, and you can come up with a lot of examples of why companies are making sustainability commitments. Well over 10,000 companies have made net zero commitments aligned with the Science-Based Target Initiative. It's stakeholder demand, and they know it's coming, and they want to be thoughtful and organized, and the demand for the information being treated as if it were financial data is very strong. That's why we're seeing the trend of sustainability reporting being part of the office of the CFO. But it really is the stakeholder demand and business requirements. I mean, renewable energy important for running data centers, for example. I mean, there are economic reasons. Sustainability is about risk mitigation and economics. It isn't about a regulation always. So definitely seeing that trend in companies. Larger companies, absolutely, for business and stakeholder reasons and those in the retail sector and so forth with stakeholder demand being very key.

Okay, thank you very much. Thank you. Your next question comes from Terry Tillman from Truist.

Please go ahead.

Hi, guys. It's John Carlo. I'm Terry. Thank you for taking the time. I just want to double click on, you know, how are efforts going to drive more products for customers? And, you know, where are those actual plays working best to increase platform spend? Thanks.

Sure. I mean, the world is fast moving to agentic and we are well positioned to be part of that world. I mentioned the transformation that we were going in. We are moving toward the data centric platform. We've been in that transition. We are rolling out capabilities and products, leveraging that transformation. We are giving them to customers and putting them in customers' hands. I highlighted a couple of the offerings that we've put out in the market. We are, of course, as Barbara mentioned, going faster in R&D and rolling out the innovation in a more effective and efficient and productive way. So you will see us continue in that path, rolling out agents everywhere, building agents for our customers, enabling our customers to build agents on our platform. That is the direction that we are going in, agentic world, and we're a part of that.

Thank you, guys. Thank you. Your next question comes from Steve Enders from Citi.

Please go ahead.

Okay, great. Thanks for taking the questions this afternoon. I guess maybe just to start just following up on that last pulling around leveraging agentic AI, just how are you kind of thinking about what that means in terms of further monetization or maybe how it kind of changes, you know, some of the value-based pricing model that you've had historically, and I guess kind of dovetailing on top of that, just maybe what have you seen so far from the shift to the good, better, best pricing model and the adoption of those tiers so far?

Sure. I appreciate you bringing up the pricing conversation, and you mentioned the value-based pricing, and I'll remind everyone on the call that WorkEve is not a seat-based model. We've not operated as a seat-based model for over seven years now. We are metric-based, value-driven pricing models, number of entities, number of controls, number of integrations for our data connections, and so forth. And as you mentioned, we... We have not long ago introduced a tiered pricing model for our solutions, good, better, best model. And we call them essential, standard, and advanced versions. An example that we highlight that's had the most time in the market is our SEC advanced solution. We've had customers with SEC for more than 15 years. We offer them premium solutions now, whether at the time of renewal or mid-cycle. And those features are intelligent finance offering, and we offer design features, a report, you know, translation, data collection for SEC disclosures, financial statement automation, and so forth. But, of course, we add in those premium offerings for AI, those that we don't make available to our entire customer base. And we are seeing strong traction. We are just getting started, however. We will, of course, be a multi-year journey and, again, one of the many vectors we have for growth going forward. So, thank you for highlighting that.

Okay, that's great to hear. Just maybe kind of following up on some of the, I guess, kind of like deal dynamics, but, you know, I think we're leaving it in question on just like billings this quarter and maybe looking a little bit softer versus some of the other kind of forward leading metrics. Just, I guess, anything that we should kind of keep in mind on the timing of billings versus some of the, you know, the subscription booking strains. And, you know, I guess similarly on kind of the guidance framework, kind of any change in terms of the beat and raise cadence that maybe we should be thinking about for this year and you seem to read on the beat magnitude this quarter.

So why don't I start off in terms of billing?

So billings in particular is a noisy metric. It can be impacted by things like payment terms, invoicing schedules, the timing of renewals. And for Q1 particularly, a clear example of kind of the payment terms is last year we had a higher mix of multi-year upfront invoicing. in Q1 compared to this Q1. And to be clear, this is separate from contract duration. What I'm talking about is the invoicing terms, which is really set by customer preference. So it's the change in that multi-year upfront invoicing that impacts our long-term deferred revenue and therefore impacted our calculated billings metric in the quarter. So of all the metrics in terms of the forward leading indicator, I would say current RPO is a much better indicator of future revenue because it normalizes for that invoice timing. And then in terms of just the guidance philosophy, there's been no change to our guidance philosophy in terms of the magnitudes of the, you know, we are looking at the business and just giving you our best view of what we have a clear line of sight to right now. And Julie and I and the rest of the management team are all very aligned on that.

Okay, that's great to hear.

Thanks again for taking the questions. Thank you. Your next question comes from Daniel Jester from BMO Capital Markets.

Please go ahead.

Great, thanks for taking my question. Julie, in your prepared remarks, I think you mentioned that this is Michael Penta's six-month anniversary. And so maybe it'd be great to just get an update in terms of the areas of deep focus on the go-to-market efficiency front and any potential tweaks that you're evaluating as the year progresses. Thanks.

Sure. I appreciate the question, and Michael may be listening. I've given him a list of areas to focus on, and certainly sales efficiency is on there, the pipeline quality, large enterprise ACV growth, ramp capacity, productivity, partner-sourced influence, ARR, etc. So He's got a fun role, and he's moving and making progress. So on the productivity side, I have outlined even prior to his arrival some of the activities we've been engaged in and some of the initiatives we've been focused on, and he has come in and taken those and moved them forward. So whether it is the structure of our sales organization, whether it's the staffing and the profiles of hires that we have and the enablement and training and so forth, or just the strategy that we have in our go-to-market, whether here in the U.S. or outside and perhaps in the end and so forth. He's taking all of that and essentially comes down to building a high-powered go-to-market machine that sets us up for future scale and growth.

That's great. Thank you so much. And then maybe, Barbara, on the gross margin side, another really strong gross margin year-over-year expansion performance in the quarter. I think you're kind of approaching the midterm target ever so slightly now. But as you introduce these AI agents and those ramp over time, I guess maybe how is your thinking around the gross margin opportunity maybe evolving? as maybe those impact your ability to scale margin. Thank you so much.

Yeah, thanks so much for the question. I would just say in the near term, we feel really good about our gross margin and the improvement. We are currently getting our AI compute through our broader infrastructure contracts. So at this point in time, we're not seeing any pressure on our gross margins, and we still expect to make progress toward that 2027 and 2020. 2030 gross margin targets.

So feeling good about where we are and continue to monitor very closely.

Thank you. Thank you.

Unfortunately, this concludes our time for the question and answer session. And with that, that concludes our conference for today. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.