Workiva Inc. (WK) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

August 4, 2026

NYSE US Information Technology Software earnings 59 min

Earnings Call Speaker Segments

Operator

operator
#1

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to Workiva's Q2 2026 Earnings Call. My name is Harmony, and I will be your host operator on this call. [Operator Instructions] Please note, this call is being recorded on August 4, 2026, at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time. I would now like to turn the meeting over to your host for today's call, Katie White, Senior Director of Investor Relations.

Katie White

executive
#2

Good afternoon, and thank you for joining Workiva's Q2 2026 Conference Call. During today's call, we will review our second quarter results and discuss our guidance for the third quarter and full year 2026. Today's call will include comments from our Chief Executive Officer, Julie Iskow, followed by our Chief Financial Officer, Barbara Larson. We will then open up the call for a Q&A session. After market close 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 third 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. Workiva 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 this 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 Iskow.

Julie Iskow

executive
#3

Thank you, Katie, and thank you all for joining us today. Q2 2026 delivered another quarter of strong financial performance and continued demand for our trusted platform. We beat the high end of our revenue guidance with 19% growth in both subscription revenue and total revenue. We also continue to execute on our commitment to profitable growth, achieving a Q2 non-GAAP operating margin of 16.8%. This was a 180 basis point beat on the high end of our guide and a 1,300 basis point improvement compared to Q2 of last year. Our Q2 results once again reflect broad-based durable demand across our entire portfolio of solutions. It also reflects our unwavering commitment to operational efficiency as we scale our business. Because of our strong operating margin performance in the first half of the year, we're raising our full year 2026 non-GAAP operating margin guidance to 18%. This 18% operating margin target is an important milestone for Workiva. This was the target communicated in our 2027 operating model. And with this updated 2026 guide, we will be delivering on that operating margin target a full year early. This margin milestone reflects disciplined execution across every part of our business, and it reflects deliberate changes to how we're organized to how we deploy resources and to where we direct those resources. This isn't a one quarter result. It's a reflection of the operating model that we continue to improve as we grow. And our growth continues to be supported by the opportunities that we're seeing in the market. The office of the CFO is undergoing one of its most significant transformations in decades. Finance leaders are being asked to do far more than close books and report results. Today, they're also responsible for the data that their businesses rely on and how AI is governed and they're helping their organization navigate a more complex regulatory and risk environment, but that's only part of the story. AI is also changing what's expected of the people that are doing the work. CFOs and their teams are expected to deliver insights in hours instead of days. They're expected to automate more of the work that's still manual, answer more questions with greater confidence and respond faster as regulations and business conditions continue to change. They're also no longer expected to simply use enterprise software. There's now an expectation that they'll extend it and build upon it. Users are becoming builders. They're creating AI agents. They're automating complex processes. They're connecting trusted business data with the rest of their technology ecosystem. They're extending the platforms they already rely on every day. And they're expected to do all of this while maintaining the governance, the security, the accuracy and the auditability that the office of the CFO demands. And as AI becomes more embedded in more business processes, trusted, connected and traceable data matters more than ever. This is exactly where Workiva can make the biggest difference. Our customers shouldn't have to assemble AI models and agents and enterprise systems and governance tools just to meet these new expectations. And they shouldn't have to choose between adopting the latest AI capabilities and maintaining the trust that their organization depend on. They should be able to do both. That's why we're building intelligent capabilities that customers can put to work immediately. Some customers will use these capabilities as they are. Others will want to go further. They'll connect Workiva with more of their systems, build their own agents, extend workflows or use Workiva as part of a broader AI ecosystem. Our approach supports both. We deliver the AI capabilities that our customers need today while giving them the flexibility to build, to connect and to extend those capabilities. Inside Workiva and beyond it, all grounded in the trusted data, governance and controls that they already manage within the Workiva platform. We believe this combination will help finance organizations meet the rapidly rising expectations of the office of the CFO. It's what our customers are asking for, and it's what we're building. And we believe no one is better positioned to deliver it than Workiva. This value proposition is resonating at the highest levels of the enterprise. Our largest customers are standardizing on Workiva, and it shows in our large contract cohorts. In Q2, contracts valued over $300,000 annually grew 34% and contracts above $500,000 annually grew 33%, both compared to Q2 of 2025. This growth reflects both continued expansion within our existing customer base and the landing of larger multi-solution new logos. I'd like to highlight a few of our Q2 deals that demonstrate how our platform is winning in the market to solve our customers' most complex reporting challenges. First, we signed a mid-6-figure account expansion deal with a global digital banking and fintech leader for private company reporting, multi-entity reporting, connected bank reporting and sustainability. The bank is on a multiyear private to public journey while expanding globally and transitioning to a full-service regulated bank. The investment in Workiva as a core financial and regulatory reporting platform is central to supporting this transformation across tax reporting, sustainability disclosures and Basel Pillar 3 regulatory compliance. Second, we signed a multi 6-figure new logo deal with a U.S.-based global material science company. The customer purchased 4 solutions: SEC reporting, management reporting, controls management and sustainability. Following a highly competitive process, they chose Workiva over a multiple point solution vendor approach because of our ability to serve as their definitive system of truth. They recognized that no combination of disparate vendors could replicate our platform without sacrificing data connectivity, collaboration and trust. Workiva will support this company's rapid expansion through acquisition and their increased focus on global distribution. The deal was a co-sell and will be delivered by a regional advisory firm. I'll turn now to financial reporting. Demand continues to build as companies modernize complex global operating models, and the bar for what that requires keeps rising. Organizations need continuous access to accurate and traceable data to stay report ready and audit-ready not just at quarter end, but continuously throughout the quarter. Here are a few of the many Q2 wins worth highlighting. First, we signed a mid-6-figure new logo deal with a U.S.-based global government and defense technology services company. This customer purchased SEC reporting, multi-entity reporting, management reporting and sustainability. The primary driver for this opportunity was a global enterprise reporting transformation initiative that spans the company's operations in more than 90 countries. With complex and evolving reporting requirements across numerous jurisdictions, the customer sought a single platform capable of supporting global governance and local compliance. They selected Workiva because our unified platform enables them to meet the unique reporting mandates in the markets in which they operate, while empowering distributed teams worldwide to modernize and streamline their critical reporting processes. Second, we signed a mid-6-figure expansion deal with the U.S. regional bank. This loyal customer upgraded to our advanced tiers for both SEC reporting and sustainability, and they expanded across 3 additional solutions: tax reporting, living will and stress testing. The primary catalyst for this expansion was the bank's reclassification as a Category 3 institution. This significantly expanded its regulatory reporting obligations. The deal was a co-sell with a regional advisory firm. I'll move on now to one of our key vertical-specific solution categories, financial services. We continue to see strong demand as institutions navigate increasingly complex regulatory requirements. Here are a few highlights from the quarter in this vertical. First, we signed a high 6-figure account expansion deal with a large global private equity firm for fund reporting. This company signed on as a Workiva customer in Q3 of 2024. It first invested in our fund reporting solution in Q4 of 2025. Within 6 months, they have more than tripled the number of funds supported by the platform, and they now spend more than $1 million with Workiva. This deal is a great example of how our metric-based licensing model drives the opportunity for ARR expansion in a single solution. The deal was sourced and will be delivered by a regional advisory firm. Second, a Big Four professional services firm operating in Europe's largest investment fund market, signed a mid-6-figure expansion deal for fund reporting. The firm is expanding its use of Workiva across its fund administration business to support financial statement preparation and other fund reporting for a growing population of fund entities. This expansion enables the firm to consolidate reporting processes on to Workiva, driving greater standardization and scalability as its business grows. Next, I'd like to cover governance, risk and compliance. Risk and audit teams are navigating accelerating AI governance, geopolitical uncertainty and changing regulations, often with leaner teams than ever before. Many are finding that siloed approaches are no longer sustainable. Organizations are choosing Workiva to centralize enterprise risk, transform audit and controls and streamline compliance. With AI embedded across our GRC platform, including our Flowchart Visualizer and GRC Intelligence agents, we help teams identify emerging risks faster, uncover patterns earlier and respond with greater confidence. Let me share a few Q2 GRC deal highlights. First, we signed a mid-6-figure account expansion with a Fortune 500 specialty insurance holding company. This company added multiple solutions, including enterprise risk, compliance management and management reporting. Three years ago, this customer had just 2 Workiva solutions totaling just over $100,000. Today, they have expanded to 9 platform solutions, spending high 6 figures annually with Workiva. The additional GRC expansion was driven by the need to eliminate significant manual effort, consolidate technology across teams and establish a unified enterprise data strategy. The opportunity also displaced a stand-alone GRC point solution, further reinforcing the value of a connected platform. Second, we signed a multi 6-figure expansion deal with the U.S. Farm Credit Bank to build and scale its GRC program across audit management, controls management, compliance management, enterprise risk and operational risk management. This opportunity centered on displacing an incumbent GRC point solution in favor of the more comprehensive Workiva platform. The deal was a co-sell with a regional advisory firm. Another area worth highlighting is sustainability. As sustainability requirements move into implementation, we're seeing an important shift in the market. Organizations are moving beyond preparing for compliance to operationalizing trusted audit-ready reporting. As a result, responsibility is increasingly shifting to the office of the CFO. CFOs expect sustainability disclosures to be held to the same standards as financial reporting with the same traceability, governance, internal controls, assurance and auditability. That's changing buying behavior. Stand-alone sustainability solutions are no longer enough. Increasingly, customers are choosing Workiva as the unified platform to manage financial and nonfinancial reporting together using the same trusted data, governance and reporting processes. Our deal activity reflects this trend. Our largest sustainability wins almost always include one or more financial reporting solutions, whether that's ESEF for integrated reporting, SEC reporting for U.S. filers or increasingly multi-entity reporting. And the business driver is straightforward, companies reporting under CSRD, ISSB, California's SB 253 and other sustainability reporting requirements are often large multinational organizations with complex legal entity structures. They need trusted data, consistent governance and reporting processes that span both financial and nonfinancial information. This is where Workiva is differentiated. We are uniquely positioned to bring these reporting processes together in a single, trusted platform. Let me highlight a few sustainability deals from Q2. First, we signed a mid-6-figure new logo deal with one of Europe's largest state-owned energy companies serving roughly 20 million customers. This company purchased sustainability reporting, ESEF and controls management. The deal was driven by CSRD compliance requirements and was a competitive win over multiple point solutions. Workiva was the only solution to address the financial reporting, GRC and sustainability requirements on a single platform. The deal was a co-sell and will be delivered by a Big Four firm. Second, a global health care technology company signed a mid-6-figure expansion deal, upgrading to sustainability advanced. This customer also extended sustainability across multiple entities and added multi-entity financial reporting. The driver for this opportunity was ISSB compliance and the need to connect financial and nonfinancial data across their global legal entity structure. This was a competitive displacement of a stand-alone sustainability point solution. This is exactly the consolidation dynamic that we're seeing across our customer base. To conclude our customer highlights, let's turn to capital markets. Following the momentum we saw earlier in the year, the IPO market demonstrated continued strength in Q2. We supported a robust slate of public listings this quarter. Three in particular, reflect the breadth and the caliber of organizations that are choosing Workiva as they enter the public markets. SpaceX, one of the most complex and closely watched listings in market history. Cerebras, a leader in AI infrastructure and Quantinuum at the forefront of quantum computing. These aren't just marquee names. They represent exactly the kind of organizations that require a trusted audit-ready platform, before they file and throughout their life as a public company. The capital markets opportunity for us extends well beyond the S-1. We often engage with complex private companies years before they go public. We help them build the reporting infrastructure, controls framework and trusted data foundation that a public company requires. That early engagement matters. When these companies file their S-1, Workiva is already embedded. And when they become SEC registrants, they expand our addressable market for additional solutions, including SEC reporting, controls management and multi-entity reporting, regardless of whether we supported their initial listing. The private to public journey is an entry point. The platform relationship that follows is a long-term durable value driver. I'll turn now to product innovation. Workiva is in the midst of a fundamental transformation with AI. Trusted data has always been at the core of what we sell. And in an AI-driven world, that foundation becomes a structural advantage. Organizations can deploy AI broadly. What they cannot easily replicate is a platform where every data point is traceable, every output is auditable and every disclosure can be defended. That is what we are building on. And we are transforming our platform to be Agentic first, where AI doesn't assist at the margins, but executes directly within the high stakes workflows that define the office of the CFO. Workiva recently announced the release of new AI capabilities to our advanced solution tiers for SEC, for sustainability and for other solution offerings. These new AI capabilities bring regulatory-grade agents for sustainability disclosure, for financial tie-out and for disclosure peer benchmarking. These are not general purpose AI tools. They are purpose-built agents designed for environments where accuracy, auditability and explainability are nonnegotiable and every output produced is built to withstand scrutiny. The new sustainability disclosure agent drafts, checks and improves disclosures directly against sustainability frameworks, moving teams from requirements interpretation to review-ready drafts without leaving Workiva's governed environment. The result is faster cycle times, fewer interpretation gaps and disclosures that arrive at the review stage already grounded in the applicable standard. Workiva's newly enhanced tie-out agent performs comprehensive consistency checks across financial reports. It automatically flags discrepancies and surfaces AI-generated explanations for each variance. With this agent, teams can catch errors earlier, close faster and finish with a fully documented auditable trail that supports both internal review and external examination. And the new benchmarking agent brings peer analysis directly into the platform, enabling financial reporting teams to build custom peer groups, identify disclosure gaps and draft market-aligned disclosures with every insight traceable back to the source filing. Peer Intelligence is no longer a separate work stream. It's embedded in the location where the disclosures are built. Alongside these purpose-built agents, we recently introduced the Workiva MCP Gateway, a governed connectivity layer that extends the Workiva platform to the enterprise AI tools that organizations already use. Whether customers work with the leading frontier models or work with other custom-built agents, every AI connection through the Workiva MCP gateway inherits Workiva's identity, permissions, governance and data lineage. AI-generated work remains fully traceable back to its underlying source data, regardless of which model produced it. The MCP gateway creates a universal integration layer between enterprise AI and Workiva. Customers' preferred AI tools can securely interact with the live data and workflows in the platform rather than relying on manual exports or static document uploads. Instead of working from stale snapshots, AI can retrieve real-time governed context directly from the Workiva platform. The result is that organizations no longer need to choose between adopting best-of-breed AI and maintaining enterprise-grade governance. With the Workiva MCP gateway, they can use the AI of their choice while preserving the security, traceability and control that's required for business-critical reporting. We've also expanded AI capabilities at the platform level. Last week, we introduced persistent custom knowledge bases, allowing organizations to build a centralized repository from their own content and reference it across every AI interaction on the platform. Here are a few representative examples of how customers are using this capability. First, a financial reporting team can draft new disclosures grounded in prior filings and earnings documents already living in Workiva, maintaining consistency in language, structure and disclosure across quarters. Second, a regulatory reporting team at a bank can produce examiner-ready stress testing narratives by drawing on past DFAST and CCAR filings and a continuously updated library of regulatory guidance. And third, an internal controls team can execute audit workflows and reference their own policy and procedure library, so every AI output reflects the organization's standards, not generic assumptions. In each case, the output is grounded in content the organization has already vetted and stands behind. That distinction matters when the work product will be reviewed by auditors, regulators and investors. This is AI that makes outcomes traceable and defensible, built for the scrutiny that defines this space. We look forward to showcasing more product innovations at our upcoming Amplify Conference and our 2026 Investor Day in September. I'll close with one final thought. The demands on the office of the CFO will continue to grow in both scope and complexity. And we believe Workiva is differentiated by our ability to meet these demands. Our commitment is to keep earning that differentiation through disciplined execution and rapid innovation. I'd like to thank our customers for their trust and our partners for continuing to expand our reach. I'd also like to thank our employees for their dedication, their relentless focus and everything they do to serve our customers and move Workiva forward. With that, I'll turn the call over to Barbara to take you through our financial results and our outlook for the rest of the year.

Barbara Larson

executive
#4

Thanks, Julie. I'll start with an overview of our Q2 financial and key metric highlights, followed by our guidance for the third quarter and the full year 2026. Q2 once again delivered broad-based demand across our portfolio of solutions. Second quarter total revenue was $255 million, up 19% year-over-year and beating the high end of our guidance range by $3 million. In line with expectations, foreign currency fluctuations had a minimal impact on our reported top line growth rate. This was a departure from the prior 4 quarters where reported results included a 1- to 2-point tailwind from foreign currency fluctuations. Subscription revenue was $236 million, up 19% 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 Q2 subscription revenue, consistent with our expectations. As of quarter end, our current remaining performance obligations were $789 million, up 18% over the prior year. This growth, which reflects the revenue we expect to recognize in the next 12 months includes an approximately 1 percentage point negative impact due to foreign currency. Professional services revenue was $19 million, up 12% over the prior year due to an outperformance in XBRL services. On to productivity. As Julie mentioned, our non-GAAP operating margin for the quarter was 16.8%. This beat the high end of our guidance by 180 basis points and was a 1,300 basis point improvement over Q2 of last year. This was driven by the revenue outperformance and our continued focus on operational rigor and productivity as we scale the business. I'll talk more about the significance of this in just a moment. Moving on to our performance metrics for the quarter. We had 6,750 customers at the end of Q2 2026, an increase of 283 customers year-over-year. Our gross retention rate was 97%, exceeding our 96% target. And our net retention rate was 111% for the quarter. Consistent with our reported revenue growth, the impact from foreign currency was minimal. In line with our expectations, both our reported and constant currency NRR exceeded our target of 110%. In Q2 2026, 76% of our subscription revenue was generated from customers with multiple solutions, up from 71% in Q2 2025. Growth in our large contract customer cohorts also reflected strong momentum. As of the end of the first quarter, we had 2,690 contracts valued at over $100,000 per year, up 20% from the prior year. The number of contracts valued at over $300,000 totaled 656, up 34% year-over-year. And the number of contracts valued at over $500,000 totaled 276, up 33% from Q2 2025. Turning now to the balance sheet and cash flows. As of June 30, 2026, cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities were $815 million, a decrease of $48 million from the prior quarter. This was primarily driven by our opportunistic repurchase of 2,492,000 shares of our Class A common stock for $123 million. As of quarter end, we have repurchased a total of $244 million under our $350 million share repurchase program with $106 million remaining as of quarter end. Moving on to guidance. For the third quarter of 2026, we expect total revenue to range from $260 million to $262 million. We expect services revenue to be up slightly compared to Q3 2025, and we expect non-GAAP operating margin to be in the range of 17% to 17.5%. For the full year 2026, we expect total revenue to range from $1.040 billion to $1.044 billion. For the back half of the year, our guidance assumes foreign currency rates remain roughly in line with June 2026 levels, which would result in a minimal year-over-year FX impact to projected revenue growth for both Q3 and Q4. We continue to expect subscription revenue to grow approximately 19% year-over-year, and we expect total services revenue to be up slightly year-over-year. We are raising our non-GAAP operating margin outlook by 150 basis points versus the high end of our prior guidance and now expect it to be approximately 18%. This over 800 basis point year-over-year improvement reflects our ongoing commitment to drive operating leverage as we scale the business. This is a significant milestone that reflects operational rigor across the company to become more productive faster. There are many examples, including in sales, where we are refining our go-to-market around higher-value platform opportunities. In R&D, where we have embedded AI across our teams and accelerated our speed of innovation and company-wide, where we have improved productivity and embedded AI into workflows that previously required significant manual effort. The resulting outperformance means we now expect to achieve our 2027 medium-term operating margin target a full year early. And our improved productivity extends to cash flow as well. We are raising our 2026 free cash flow margin outlook by 100 basis points to approximately 21% for the year. To wrap up, Q2 was a strong proof point that growth and profitability are not a trade-off at Workiva. Our results reflect an operating model that is working and a platform that continues to earn the trust of the most sophisticated finance organizations in the world. We're entering the second half of 2026 from a position of strength with the financial flexibility to keep investing in growth and innovation. We look forward to sharing more at our Investor Day in September. With that, I'll turn the call over to the operator for Q&A.

Operator

operator
#5

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from Alex Sklar from Raymond James.

Alexander Sklar

analyst
#6

Julie, maybe first one for you. Just on the overall demand environment and budgets broadly. Can you talk about what you saw in the second quarter from a sales cycle and customer budget or deal size perspective relative to some of the prior quarters? And then also, as you spoke about the growing complexities your customer base and prospects are facing, any change to how you're setting up the go-to-market organization to kind of meet that value prop?

Julie Iskow

executive
#7

Sure. Thank you for the question. Appreciate it. I think it's top of mind, of course, what's going on in the demand environment. I will say, overall, the demand environment really has remained relatively consistent throughout the year. Still a dynamic environment, we're still seeing changing complex regulatory requirements. We're seeing the evolving expectations around AI and AI governance. But for us, these trends really reinforce the need for what we do. In fact, we've continued to perform well across the portfolio in Q2 and second half. And it's actually for us a really good proof point for our relevance in the market. I will say, though, maybe worth mentioning that our field team has highlighted a trend that deals do have more scrutiny and there are maybe more approvers and more rigor at the legal level. But we're very much aware of this, prepared and being aware and being prepared makes a real difference in our execution. So it's not just in the field, but in operations, including our legal team who is very sales focused and commercially and customer focused. So we are prepared for that next level of rigor. But I do want to mention that our team is seeing that out in the field. But overall demand environment is very consistent over the prior quarters. So you also asked about our go-to-market motion. Look, that's very consistent with prior quarters. For us, it's all about the platform. It is multi-solution. It's multi-category, leveraging our partners for influenced and sourced deals, pushing on those larger account expansions and so forth. So not -- those motions for us are how we've been we're executing on our strategy. So not a whole lot different there, we have a broad portfolio of solutions that we continue to work with our customers to bring value. And on the deal cycles, and you asked about that, too. And it ebbs and flows up and down. But actually, last quarter, this quarter, we saw shortened deal cycles. So that's very encouraging for us. So thanks for highlighting that.

Alexander Sklar

analyst
#8

Okay. Great color there, Julie. And maybe just a follow-up for you or for Barbara. Just in terms of the packaging and the advanced bundle opportunity you've spoken to in the past, any change in adoption of those advanced packages on renewal through the second quarter or where you stand on penetration of those advanced packages across the base?

Julie Iskow

executive
#9

Yes. We are very encouraged with the traction of the premium tiers and our good, better, best pricing. Still early days. We just began rolling those out over the past year or so. So still watching the uptick. But as I'd mentioned, we're getting a decent price premium on those, and we've talked about that being north of 20%. We're encouraged and watching more and more of our base move into those and selling them as we land as well. So very encouraged by that monetization framework. Thanks for highlighting that, too.

Operator

operator
#10

Your next question comes from Allan Verkhovski from BTIG.

Nicholas Dannewitz

analyst
#11

This is Nicholas Dannewitz on for Allan Verkhovski. Just one on our end here. So we thought the subscription revenue of 19% is pretty strong for a company of your size. What's giving you guys the confidence in your growth durability given you need about a 17% subscription revenue CAGR to reach the midpoint of your 2030 total revenue target?

Julie Iskow

executive
#12

I can start the ball here and just say, as I mentioned, we have a very broad portfolio of solutions, Nick. And I like that you asked the question because it's a chance to talk about that. I mean, again, every quarter, it may be a few of them are stronger then, others dominate. But for the most part, it is very broad-based across the portfolio of solutions that we offer. And we're seeing a lot of traction. Our partner ecosystem is continuing to get stronger. Our expansion motion is very healthy and continues to get stronger, multi-solution, multi-category, I mean we're just -- we're executing, and it's moving in the right direction for us, and we feel very strong in terms of our execution. Our go-to-market machine is getting stronger. So it really the broad-based platform, the need -- the customer need in the market, as I highlighted in my prepared remarks and of course, just our own execution getting stronger. And Barbara, do you want to comment?

Barbara Larson

executive
#13

Yes. I'll just add one more thing in there. So international is an additional growth lever for us. So like Julie said, very broad-based. We're not dependent on any single lever, deep portfolio, new logos expansion and then international as well. Thanks for the question.

Operator

operator
#14

Your next question comes from Andrew DeGasperi from BNP Paribas.

Andrew DeGasperi

analyst
#15

I wanted to ask a question, Julie, on the financial services opportunity in particular the fund reporting product. You highlighted for 2 large deals. And I'm just wondering, can you elaborate a little more in terms of how that's progressing? Are you seeing ramped up adoption? Is there anything that's accelerating that? And I also noticed that you mentioned North America and Europe as driving that demand. So I would love to have additional color on that.

Julie Iskow

executive
#16

Sure. Another area we're very encouraged is our financial services vertical. We have a strong sales organization there. We've been increasing in our footprint there, both in U.S. but also in Europe as you mentioned. The fund reporting, we had private funds and we rolled out a public fund reporting capability over the past year. And we've been out in the market selling and we're encouraged by the traction. A lot of large deal sizes around it. But I will say that particular one public fund still early, but again, very encouraged. And it does play into the area that we play best in, which is, of course, large enterprise.

Andrew DeGasperi

analyst
#17

That's helpful. And then I just wanted to ask a question on net retention rate. So if my math is right, it did improve versus last quarter modestly. So just wondering, was there anything in particular that helped drive that? And obviously, if we exclude foreign FX in that number. Is it -- was it something specific? Any products? Or was it broad-based?

Barbara Larson

executive
#18

So NRR was 111% for the quarter. And just one thing to keep in mind is we did have a 2-point tailwind to NRR in Q1 from FX. And in Q2, so this quarter, that tailwind went away. So if you look at NRR on a constant currency basis, it was relatively steady on a quarter-over-quarter basis and was again above our 110% target.

Operator

operator
#19

Your next question comes from Brett Huff from Stephens Inc.

Brett Huff

analyst
#20

Two questions. One, just kind of a derivative of the NRR. Can you talk a little bit about, I think you said there were some XBRL benefits. And I wanted to also understand what kind of the SEC reporting IPO benefits you might have seen in the quarter? And if the expectations for the annual growth guide now include some more that weren't in there before? And then my second question is more of a leading question, which is congrats on the 18%. I think your long term is 24%. Any thoughts on maybe raising the ceiling on that 24% or even just some qualitative thoughts?

Barbara Larson

executive
#21

So I'll take the question on services or XBRL. So in Q2, we did see services revenue come in a bit higher than expected. And some of that was onetime. It was specifically around 11-K filings that happen annually. So we're not expecting it or planning on it repeating in the back half.

Julie Iskow

executive
#22

Thanks, Barbara. And I will just talk about cap markets for a moment. It was actually a very fun quarter for us market-wise. We were encouraged to see continued strength of the IPO market. And as I mentioned in my prepared remarks, we supported a very robust slate of public listings this quarter. I mentioned SpaceX and Cerebras and Quantinuum. And these companies really represent exactly the kind of organizations that require a trusted audit-ready platform. So you asked about the revenue and the guidance revenue perspective, it was very much in line with our expectations. Back in February, we said we were optimistic about the IPO momentum going into '26, and we did incorporate that into our guide. So I would say that H1 of this year was better than H1 of last year, but very much in line with our expectations. So we are taking it into account part of the guide and very consistent with what we said in both February and May, in fact.

Barbara Larson

executive
#23

And thanks for highlighting that we now expect to achieve our medium-term operating margin target of 18% in 2026. So that's a full year ahead of schedule. Naturally, that shifts our focus to our 2030 framework, which we've outlined in our investor deck. We're not planning to update that at this time. Our 2030 targets remain unchanged, but we continue to remain focused on staying disciplined, scaling efficiently and executing against this plan, that we've laid out. We feel really good about the progress we've made.

Brett Huff

analyst
#24

Well, congrats to being able to grow and expand margins. Appreciate it.

Operator

operator
#25

Your next question comes from Steve Enders from Citi.

Steven Enders

analyst
#26

Maybe just to start, just would like to ask a little bit about some of the newer agent products that you've been rolling out and wondering kind of what the early feedback has been from customers and how you're viewing the monetization potential for those solutions now that they're just starting to get out into the marketplace.

Julie Iskow

executive
#27

Sure. And thanks for highlighting our release -- newly released product capabilities around AI. We did one very recently, as recent as last week, focused on both solutions and our platform. And I'll just -- I'll highlight for everyone, there's really a common thread around all of these announcements and prior releases as well that we're helping our customers just complete work faster with greater confidence by enabling the platform to do more of the work on their behalf. And of course, which is our great differentiator, maintaining the governance and control and traceabilities that our customers really need and expect. So we did introduce a number of agents, purpose-built agents, the tie-out agent, benchmarking agent, sustainability disclosure agent and so forth. And along with Workiva Knowledge, which is core now into the platform. And we put those into our premium tiers and our good, better, best model. And we have seen excellent traction in those premium tiers since we began doing that over the year, 1.5 years that they've been out, and we continue to see that traction, whether we're going back to customers at renewal or even mid-cycle because they would like to adopt some of that AI capability and other premium features that we have available. So again, we're very pleased with the initial traction in the market, and our expectation is that we continue to bring our base up to the higher tiers within that monetization framework, and we will continue to roll out the capabilities to, again, help our customers do more the work using our platform.

Steven Enders

analyst
#28

Okay. That's helpful context there. And then maybe just on some of the moving pieces with FX rates, and I appreciate you calling those things out. But I guess anything that we should be kind of keeping in mind for what that means for either the rest of the year or anything to keep in mind for like billings or free cash flow dynamics as well?

Barbara Larson

executive
#29

Yes. We have assumed for the back half of the year on our top line metrics and our numbers that our currency remains relatively flat with the rates that we saw at the end of June, so the end of the quarter.

Steven Enders

analyst
#30

Okay. And sorry, just on, I guess, seasonality, anything we should keep in mind for billing or free cash flow timing for the rest of the year?

Barbara Larson

executive
#31

Pretty in line with historical trends. Thank you.

Operator

operator
#32

Your next question comes from Patrick McIlwee from William Blair.

Patrick McIlwee

analyst
#33

A nice quarter. So my first question, I understand that your new CRO has been driving a variety of sales and restructuring efforts since he joined kind of moving towards some best practices that he sees within the sales force and notably some deeper account engagement with your sales reps. So my question is now that he's had a few quarters to establish some of those efforts, are you seeing any notable pickup or changes in your sales force execution? And is there anything worth calling out in terms of execution between new logos and then existing customer expansion?

Julie Iskow

executive
#34

Yes. I think Michael Pinto, we welcomed him very early in the year, and he is doing exactly what we have asked them to do and what we expect him to do. I mean, clearly, we are holding accountable for delivering bookings, but we're also very focused on the metrics that will lead to long-term durable growth, and he is very well aware of that. So about improving sales efficiency, increasing pipeline quality, growing our large enterprise accounts, accelerating rep productivity, expanding the contribution from our partner ecosystem. So I would say, ultimately, he's very busy building a high-performing go-to-market organization that's for us repeatable and scalable and just executing at a high level. And he has made progress on that, absolutely. That's how we think about his success. In terms of new logos, I will tell you that it was our strongest quarter for net new customer additions in the past 7 quarters. It's a metric that we look at and we disclose consistently, so you can see that. I will also say that our focus is more on just adding those new customers, though you asked about that. We're increasingly winning larger, higher-value customers when we land that are ultimately adopting more of the Workiva platform, but they do so too from the outset, which is important for us. So those lands are often multi-solution 6-figure relationships with significant long-term expansion opportunities. So I will say those new customers are in absolute number are larger, but also the customers themselves are buying more at the outset. We're also seeing average deal size for those customers increase year-over-year as well, which we think is another good indicator of the quality of the business that we're bringing in.

Patrick McIlwee

analyst
#35

That's all really encouraging, thanks. And then just to follow up while we're on the topic, I wanted to ask if there's anything you can share in terms of your overall go-to-market staffing, if that's growing or relatively steady. And then I understand in the past, you've moved some reps around to kind of the best available opportunity set. So I'm just wondering if at this point, you feel you're structured appropriately across your main product suites?

Julie Iskow

executive
#36

We are moving towards that structure. We've been very clear about not wanting to disrupt our go-to-market execution and results. We want to keep the growth going. So that isn't a onetime Michael coming in for a couple of quarters and being done. That continues to evolve and as the market changes and grows, and we get better as a company, too, in our execution. But you mentioned the hiring, we have been hiring and we're going to continue to see that hiring in strategic areas that support our growth and innovation priorities as well. So we will be adding more of the customer-facing roles where we see opportunities to expand. I would expect our hiring to remain very disciplined with the mix of talent continuing to evolve as the strategy evolves. But I do want to make clear, we are bringing in new talent. We are putting them in strategic areas in go-to-market. So even though you see our new hire numbers are relatively flat, we are managing talent and ensuring we have the right people in the right roles. And I think that's very important to be blending that with our new hires. So it should give you a feel for how we're moving forward with people and talent.

Operator

operator
#37

Your next question comes from Rob Oliver from Baird.

Robert Oliver

analyst
#38

Julie, for you. So I guess not having a seat-based model kind of frees you guys up from the kind of pain here of having to convert customers to a new model, which we're seeing across many players in the financial suite. And it really allows you to focus on this kind of good, better, best opportunity with value you're already delivering. So I'd love to get a better sense from you. I know that some of the Agentic offerings, which you've announced are going to be in the upper tiers rightfully so. But how do you think about stratifying those in a way where customers get a taste for the value and where you can drive greater usage and ultimately higher contract value when you come to these renewal periods?

Julie Iskow

executive
#39

You nailed it. Thank you for highlighting that we are not seat-based. And we've been using a value-based pricing model for years. And I say that again because it does play into the tiering, so if we have a customer in an advanced tier, they have been paying that even before AI, they have been paying based on value, whether it's number of controls, number of entities, size of company and so forth. So they would have a different price in that higher more premium tier. So that is how we are capturing that value. And our approach, you got it there, too. I mean really, our monetization isn't changing as we roll out these capabilities right now, and it's quite straightforward using that good, better, best methodology or framework. So that is how we are capturing the benefit. It's not everyone pays the same price in the premium tier. We are still -- it is all about value and usage on the platform, and that is how we're charging those even within the same tier.

Robert Oliver

analyst
#40

Great. And then, Barbara, just quickly for you. Just on the sales efficiency side where you guys have been making a lot of progress. Just wondering if there's any additional things you could point to in terms of whether it be AI tools or sales efficiency initiatives that you've done in conjunction with your new CRO, where sort of gives you confidence on the continued trajectory to contribute to that margin improvement?

Barbara Larson

executive
#41

Yes, Rob, thanks for the question. It continues to be like a work in progress as we move to platform sellers. So that's one of the things that we are working through. Absolutely, AI is part of the efficiency story there. But the one thing I don't want to get lost is we do continue to invest in sales and marketing and a lot of those efficiencies that we also will continue to drive, we will invest back into the business with more feet on the street to really go after that opportunity that we see in front of us.

Operator

operator
#42

That does conclude our question-and-answer session, and that does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.

Read the full transcript via the API

You're viewing the first half of this call. Get the complete Workiva Inc. transcript — plus 251,000+ transcripts from 12,000+ companies, speaker segments, AI summaries and full-text search — through the EarningsCalls.dev API.

Get the API View API docs →

This call discussed

For developers and AI pipelines

Programmatic access to Workiva Inc. earnings transcripts and 251,000+ others is available through the EarningsCalls.dev REST API. Plans from $24.99/month — full transcripts, speaker segments, full-text search, and the recently-added /api/v1/transcripts/recent polling endpoint for ETL pipelines.