Are you spinning your wheels in tax data collection?
Leveraging a powerful workflow engine can deliver the intelligent tax automation, control improvement and increased visibility that tax teams need to make more strategic decisions, mitigate risk, and successfully orchestrate the entire direct tax process.
The current state of fiscal data collection
Unfortunately, too many professionals are wasting time during busy tax season, spending up to 80 percent of their work hours collecting and entering information, checking its accuracy, and consolidating tax documents.
Much of the problem lies in the fact that source data often resides in disparate systems and formats. That data must not only be collected, but also verified for accuracy and manipulated for use. That is assuming that none of the necessary data is missing.
Spreadsheets and manual processes are not the answer to tax data collection and analysis. This is time consuming, highly inefficient, and leads to a higher risk of errors. Tax teams are already under pressure to manage increased workloads and staff constraints, while keeping up with the complex regulatory environment. This also makes it more difficult to demonstrate value and make informed strategic decisions.
“This all culminates in the form of redundant reviews…throughout the process rather than standardizing everything into a singular review process based on materiality. They are forced to review at almost every stage of the process the result of the previous stage because of all this manual intervention and disparate data sources along the way,” said Corey Greene, Senior Manager of Outbound Marketing, Tax Professionals and Thomson Accounting. Reuters.
Greene continued, “On top of that… there is a need for a greater level of control and visibility of the entire tax filing process, both for risk reduction purposes and for business intelligence purposes. Really reducing that problem of limited visibility.”
Ways to Overcome Fiscal Data Collection Challenges
Overcoming tax data challenges and driving greater value requires a suite of digital tax workflow tools to power the direct tax management process. Let’s take a closer look.
Automate and standardize the data flow
with the right tax data management softwaretax professionals can automate and standardize data flow. This can significantly reduce the tax data collection and setup time, and increase accuracy. When evaluating the right data management solution, companies should consider the following features:
- The ability to standardize existing tax packages and work documents with controls, validation, year-over-year data retrieval, and automated rollovers to reduce preparation time and data flow directly from the source to your tax applications.
- Extended Excel capabilities for familiar navigation.
- Data stored in a central repository, allowing for easy review, consolidation, and debugging.
- Easily distribute and monitor data collection requests.
- Automated and ad-hoc reminders to ensure timely completion.
- Secure access for all internal and external sources of data in your process.
- Simplifies data upload and review.
- Data mapped and transferred across the entire corporate tax platform.
- API-enabled so you can manage the entire process using the tools of your choice, as well as create custom dashboards with regularly updated information.
Control data from a central location
As noted above, too much time is spent searching for accurate tax data across multiple applications and manual manipulation before it can be used for tax planning, provisioning, and compliance. A centralized tax data repository for corporate tax data helps free up valuable time needed for tax data analysis and value-added work.
He Thomson Reuters ONESOURCE data centerfor example, it offers the following benefits:
- With an intelligent ingestion and classification engine, data can automatically flow into the same system, regardless of the size or format of the original source material.
- Automated, contactless tax data collection means less time spent trying to match knowledge from multiple systems, without the risk of manual error in the input process.
- Strengthen, classify, and enrich data to provide more value.
- Leverage business data how and where you need it, all from one central location.
- Visualize data and use it for planning, strategizing, and reconciling with other systems.
Referring to the ONESOURCE data center, Greene said: “[It is] taking all the critical data as each stage of the workflow is completed and storing it in a centralized location, ready to be seen by whoever needs it, ready to be analyzed or reused by whoever needs it, across all the applications involved in that workflow”.
How to optimize tax data collection
Stop hanging around and start generating greater fiscal value with a powerful workflow engine that drives automation, improves controls, and provides the visibility needed to make strategic decisions.
Turn to Thomson Reuters ONESOURCE, which offers an automated solution for your tax data collection needs. Store and quickly access up-to-date information, then take advantage of its reuse across multiple internal systems and external applications. Get started now and see the difference an automated solution can make.
