Workiva

Workiva did not originally start as an audit software; it started as Wdesk, the undisputed monopoly software used by publicly traded companies to file their highly complex 10-K and 10-Q financial reports directly to the SEC. Because they already owned the financial reporting layer, they expanded backward into the SOX and Internal Audit space, creating an incredibly powerful, unified ecosystem. Its absolute biggest advantage is data linkage. If an internal auditor discovers a $5 million control deficiency that needs to be disclosed in the company's annual report, they update the number in the Workiva Audit module. Because the platform is entirely connected, that $5 million figure instantly, automatically updates across the 400-page financial report, the CEO's slide deck, and the final SEC filing, completely eliminating "copy-paste" errors. While it is an incredibly powerful audit tool, it is essentially a highly advanced, ultra-secure, massively collaborative spreadsheet and document engine. It looks and functions very similarly to Google Docs or Microsoft Excel, but with intense, granular audit trails. If a user deletes a single comma in a massive financial document, Workiva logs exactly who did it and at what millisecond.