Far too often, the assumption is that automation will result in job elimination. While significant automation could eventually lead to reduction in headcount, this may not be the reality for most tax functions today.
The benefit that our clients realize from automation in the tax function is saving time spent doing manual and mundane work, and this frees up time for the more important and value-added planning work.
How much time? Often the time savings can be from 70–90% of the time spent on manual tasks.
The reality is that the tax function is one of the biggest consumers of an organization’s financial data—but it contributes very little, if anything, to how that data is designed, structured, stored and reported on. That leaves tax at the mercy of others for its financial data needs.
It doesn’t need to be that way. There’s no reason tax can’t have input into how the data is structured, and increasingly we’re working with our clients to make sure their chart of accounts is tax-sensitized and their enterprise resource planning (ERP) design accounts for tax needs. We’re also helping our clients get plugged into the source of data directly, so they no longer have to rely on multiple intermediaries to get the data they need to do their jobs.
Tax departments also spend an inordinate amount of time formatting and cleaning up financial data to make it tax-ready. The inability to have influence over the design of data doesn’t mean you need to be consigned to Excel-hell for eternity, trying to wrangle with data that’s poorly structured and changes without notice. Tools most organizations already subscribe to can be used to help automate such data wrangling to save valuable time and reduce the risk of errors in a cost-effective way.
As we look at remote working possibly becoming more prevalent, having more dispersed teams and an increasing reliance on cloud finance, it will become even more critical to reduce the amount of time spent chasing financial information and manual data wrangling. Saving time through small automation projects can help you meet the challenge.
If your department is currently struggling with efficient access to data or spending too much time in manual data wrangling, we can help. Feel free to connect with me and send me a message—I'd love to hear from you!