Workday, Inc. (NASDAQ:WDAY) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

And one of the things we’re doing here in Q1 is we’re doubling down our efforts on product and technology. So we continue to focus on innovation. And we’re also investing heavily in go-to-market, specifically around quota-carrying capacity. And it is our belief and my personal belief that those who can invest in innovation and technology and go-to-market when markets are potentially challenging like we’re faced today will be the fastest to emerge on the other side and reaccelerate growth. So I think there are just a couple of areas of focus for us, along with a number of other things, including the ecosystem what we spoke about and Doug mentioned earlier. So there are some of the things in the near term you can expect from us and I think they’ll drive long-term durable growth that gets us back to that 20%.

Keith Weiss : Outstanding. Thank you for the concept.

Aneel Bhusri: If I can just add a couple of other things. Carl is definitely an innovator on the go-to-market side. And so we’re all learning some new approaches on what we can do differently. And I’d frankly say, including myself, just raise the sense of urgency and energy level of the entire management team. And I think it’s great, and I couldn’t be happier that he’s here. He’s telling us all to have more giddyup.

Keith Weiss: Outstanding.

Operator: And we will now take two more questions. Our next question comes from Karl Keirstead with UBS. Please proceed with your question.

Karl Keirstead: Okay. Great. I’ve got two for Barbara. Barbara, the relationship between CRPO today and subscription revenue growth tomorrow is not perfect, but it’s actually pretty good. Despite all the macro, your CRPO is hanging in there like a champ at like 20s or low 20s. But your guidance on the sub-rev growth implies a decel from 22% this most recent quarter, down to like 16%, 17% in the second half. And I’m just curious, why would that be? At first blush, it makes your guidance for sub-revs growth looks somewhat conservative, but maybe I’m missing something in the relationship that might explain that maybe go-lives are getting extended but are still within the 24 months. Is there anything that you would flag?

Barbara Larson: No, I mean I would just reiterate what you said at the beginning, which keep in mind that backlog isn’t a perfect proxy for future subscription revenue growth due to many factors, including the timing of renewals. As we called out, early renewals had roughly 1 percentage point of upside to our 24-month Q4 backlog, though it does not impact the underlying subscription revenue growth. And the FY 2024 subscription revenue guidance is our best view at the time, and we think it prudently factors in a macro environment, which remains uncertain.

Karl Keirstead: Okay. That’s helpful, Barbara. And then if — I don’t think anyone’s asked on your cash flow guide, if I could, I think a quick calculation suggests that you’re guiding to operating margin improvement or percentage increase year-over-year of about 30% but your operating cash flow guidance implies more like a modest — more modest 25% growth. Is there anything going on in your operating cash flow guide? Any sort of one-time factors to highlight that might create a somewhat bigger spread between it and the operating margin expansion? Thanks a lot.

Barbara Larson: Yes, you’re welcome. So the cash flow guidance does reflect the strong margin expansion that we are expecting in FY 2024. But when you’re looking at it from a year-over-year standpoint, both Q1 and FY 2024 cash flows impacted by the first full year payout of our company-wide performance-based cash bonus, the severance costs associated with the recent realignment and then an interest payment that didn’t occur last Q1 due to the timing of our debt offering. And then also keep in mind that the change in server and network equipment useful life has an impact on margin, but it does not impact cash flow.

Karl Keirstead: Yes. All that makes sense. Thanks a lot, Barbara.