The Evolution of Earnings Release Preparation

Investor Relations (IR) teams play a critical role in communicating a company's financial performance and strategy to stakeholders. While PowerPoint has long been the standard tool for creating earnings release presentations, many teams are transitioning to Workiva's Wdesk Presentations. This platform offers a more efficient, collaborative, and accurate way to handle complex reporting.

Challenges with PowerPoint

Despite its familiarity, PowerPoint has limitations that complicate the earnings release process. Updating financial data is time-intensive and error-prone. Teams often encounter version control issues when multiple contributors work on a single file, leading to inconsistencies. Moreover, PowerPoint lacks integration with financial systems, which increases the risk of discrepancies in reported data.

Why IR Teams Are Moving to Wdesk Presentations

Wdesk addresses the common pitfalls of traditional tools by providing features tailored to the needs of IR teams:

• Data Linking: Connect financial figures from source documents directly to slides. Updates to the source data automatically flow through to the presentation, eliminating the need for repetitive manual changes.

• Real-Time Collaboration: Allow multiple contributors to work on the same presentation simultaneously, reducing delays and enhancing teamwork.

• Compliance and Security: Built-in audit trails and permission settings ensure that sensitive financial information remains secure and traceable.

• Reusable Templates: Maintain consistent branding and formatting across presentations with predesigned templates.

• System Integration: Seamlessly connect to other reporting tools and financial systems to streamline workflows.

Benefits of Transitioning to Wdesk

Making the switch to Wdesk offers measurable advantages for IR teams:

• Automated updates improve accuracy and save time.

• Collaborative features reduce inefficiencies and allow teams to focus on crafting compelling narratives.

• Enhanced workflows enable quick responses to last-minute changes, ensuring presentations are always up-to-date.

• Professional and consistent designs strengthen the company's credibility with stakeholders.

Practical Tips for Getting Started

Transitioning from PowerPoint to Wdesk Presentations may seem like a big change, but the process can be seamless with the right approach. Here are practical steps to help your team get started:

1. Evaluate Your Needs: Identify pain points in your current process and prioritize features that will have the most impact, such as real-time collaboration or data linking.

2. Plan the Transition: Design a phased implementation plan. Start by using Wdesk for specific projects, like your next quarterly earnings release, before fully adopting it for all presentations.

3. Leverage Templates: Create branded templates in Wdesk to ensure consistency from the start. Use this as an opportunity to standardize layouts and styles across your presentations.

4. Train Your Team: Schedule training sessions for your IR, finance, and compliance teams to familiarize them with Wdesk's tools and features. Workiva provides robust support resources to help your team get up to speed.

5. Integrate Financial Systems: Connect Wdesk to your existing financial tools, such as ERP systems or Excel files, to automate data updates and streamline workflows.

6. Test and Refine: Conduct test runs before going live. Use a prior earnings release as a test case to work out any challenges and refine your process.

A Modern Solution for Investor Relations

By adopting Wdesk Presentations, IR teams can replace outdated workflows with a modern solution designed for accuracy, efficiency, and collaboration. Transitioning from PowerPoint to Wdesk is more than a process improvement—it's an opportunity to enhance the quality of investor communications and ensure confidence in your company's reporting.