Off the Books

We've been hard at work on our new podcast and wanted to give you a taste! Just like the slides before a big meeting, The Pre-Read gets CFOs and execs ready for what’s next. Each week, hosts Alyssa Zucker and Steve Soter connect the dots between finance, sustainability, audit, and risk — with sharp insights and unfiltered conversations from leaders navigating change at scale. If you’re driving transformation or need to understand the ones who are, this is your prep. Search for "The Pre-Read" wherever you get your podcasts and subscribe now!

Join Steve Soter, Catherine Tsai, and Mike Gravagno for the final episode of Off the Books! Reflect on five incredible years of exploring accounting, finance, and risk (and so much more). Dive into the history of the show, laugh (or not!) along with the accounting memes, and celebrate nearly 200 episodes.

In our final episode, Matt Kelly of Radical Compliance helps us make sense of the recent executive order that paused enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Funny enough, it does not in fact mean you can bribe anyone, Matt warns. While you couldn’t bribe us to make more episodes of Off the Books, you can definitely check out seven seasons’ worth of past episodes at workiva.com/off-the-books-podcast. Follow the Workiva channel to catch the next podcast that Off the Books producer Mike Gravagno is cooking up next.

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Take a look back at the rise, fall, and resurrection of MoviePass as we discuss “MoviePass, MovieCrash.” After we recorded this episode, former MoviePass CEO Ted Farnsworth pleaded guilty to defrauding investors. Find past conversations at workiva.com/off-the-books-podcast, including our episodes about the best accounting movies.

Executive orders are starting to show up in 10-K filings, says Nick Mazing of AlphaSense. Hear how, as Steve and Catherine also ask Nick about what companies are saying on generative artificial intelligence, tariffs, inflation, and more: Find past episodes at workiva.com/off-the-books-podcast. We want to hear from you! Email us at [email protected] with your thoughts and feedback. For more from our sponsor, Workiva, visit workiva.com.

Who sets the agendas in your 1:1 meetings? What do you appreciate about the managers you enjoy meeting with regularly? Please let us know in the comments and if you’d like to tell us about it on the podcast.You can find more conversations of us surfing the uncharted waters of accounting, finance, risk, and wherever else the waves take us at workiva.com/off-the-books-podcast.

Find past conversations at workiva.com/off-the-books-podcast

Find more survey insights at workiva.com/benchmark-2025

How is the shifting political landscape affecting environmental, social, and governance issues? Is ESG dead? Steve and Catherine ask Brandon Buhler, Chief Accounting Officer for Playa Hotels and Resorts, and Esther Toth, Senior Industry Principal at Workiva, about the future of sustainability. Read some original research on this topic at workiva.com/benchmark-2025

Enjoy this episode? Find past conversations of us surfing the uncharted waters of accounting, finance, risk, and wherever else the waves take us at workiva.com/off-the-books-podcast

To wrap up season 6, we react to four topics we haven’t discussed yet, including a penalty for DraftKings over social media posts. Check out resources mentioned in this episode:Blog post on the SEC’s cybersecurity disclosure rule https://www.workiva.com/blog/sec-cybersecurity-rulePCAOB resource for audit committees https://assets.pcaobus.org/pcaob-dev/docs/default-source/documents/2023-audit-committee-resource-spotlight.pdfEDGAR® Next https://www.workiva.com/resources/edgar-next-with-workiva Find past conversations at workiva.com/off-the-books-podcast.

Xavier Justo spent 547 days in jail after providing investigators information about billions of dollars missing from 1MDB, the state investment fund set up by Malaysia’s former prime minister. Hear what he would tell potential whistleblowers!

Joining Steve to give their initial reactions are Chelsea Hall, Workiva Industry Principal for SEC reporting and financial reporting, and Mark Mellen, Workiva Industry Principal for sustainability reporting.

Internal auditors can be a not-so-secret weapon for strengthening an organization’s ability to create value. We caught up with Ahmed Shawky Mohammed and Matej Drašček at the IIA International Conference, where they talked about purpose-driven function internal audit teams.

Recently, the courts struck down the SEC’s private fund adviser rule. We turned to former SEC enforcement attorney Ron Geffner for an overview of the rules, the court’s decision, and the potential ripple effects—plus, other challenges facing the SEC and possible changes with a new SEC chair.

Switching companies is one thing. Switching roles is another. Chelsea Hall was a corporate controller and Alyssa Zucker was a chief sustainability officer before they joined Workiva as industry principals. Today their backgrounds help Workiva develop solutions specifically tailored to serve people in Chelsea’s and Alyssa’s former roles.While they’re still new to Workiva, we asked their advice for stepping into a new job and a role that not everyone knows exists.

Charley Nelson is an environmental policy major who joined a technical accounting team at Etsy. Hear why that makes perfect sense and what Charley’s learned in his time working with accountants. This episode was recorded at the Workiva Amplify conference for accounting, finance, risk, and sustainability professionals.

When Alex Davis followed a former boss to a 7-year-old company, he found it had different data management challenges than the legacy insurer where he once worked.

We caught up with Matt Kelly of Radical Compliance at the annual Workiva Amplify conference for his thoughts on that and a look at what the Securities and Exchange Commission said about SolarWinds. Matt’s opinions in the podcast are his own, and do not represent Workiva.Find more episodes at workiva.com/off-the-books-podcast.