Ask anyone that works in the typical corporate tax department, and they will be the first to tell you, deadlines and stress are no less intense in the corporate space, than the typical accounting firm. In many cases the stress can be much higher. For the managers running these respective departments stress is compounded by the complexities of collaborating on workpapers and the staff responsible for them. Many of these stresses are related to holding on to the status quo of manual and paper processes.
Questions of What, When, Who, & Where.
Questions often persist from tracking “Who is working on the XYZ workpaper?” to even “Who last worked on the XYZ workpaper?”. For audit trail purposes you have the question of “When?” With regard to the impact a small adjustment causes across several fields, prompts the question of “What” changed, and better yet, “Where” should I go to adjust related changes? Unfortunately, all of these doubts and inefficiencies translate into lost time. And you guessed it, time is typically not an abundant resource in these environments. This is where automation comes to the rescue.
Trading Antiquated Tools For Common Sense Solutions.
Corporate tax managers are not blind to the challenges that they and their teams face on a daily basis. Team members talk, and some even walk on account of the frustrations caused by current antiquated workpaper tools. While these tools may have been the hot solution of their day, for many their day in the sun has passed. Today, technology has advanced to the point where automation is a corporate tax department’s best friend. What does automation mean? Automation means moving your workpapers to a centralized location and paperless workpaper tool.
Paperless Accounting Processes Save Time And Remove Guesswork.
Moving workpaper management duties to a paperless system, can help address questions of data integrity and the possibility of human error. With a streamlined workpaper tool, staff can easily:
- Roll Workpaper Binders Foward.
- Seamlessly Import Data Into Tax Documents.
- Consolidate Workpapers.
Granted, these straightforward actions are not revolutionary, but the effects they have on you and your staff are ground breaking. No more hours wasted spot checking data, consolidating reports, and waiting your turn to work in a report are all significant improvements.
Upgrading Technology = Time Saved For More Important Tasks.
The good news is that the technology to transform how you manage your corporate workpapers is here. However, the challenge is often found in overcoming a comfort level with the status quo. For many, the opportunity to trade mundane and manual tasks for time savings and higher valued work, is too good to pass up. Be the corporate tax manager that makes the switch today.
Jim Fiorenza, Tax Manager of Tidewater Inc, explains his experience with making such a switch:
“The combination of CCH® tax compliance software and CCH® ProSystem fx® Workpaper Manager makes mapping our G/L effortless. One easy motion and you’re done! With CCH® ProSystem fx® Workpaper Manager, we’ve made all of our accounting processes and files paperless. No more misplaced and worn documents! It’s just so much faster — now just click a button, and the data is there.”
To learn more about CCH® ProSystem fx® Workpaper Manager and the efficiencies that it can bring your corporate tax department, watch our video “Analyze Your Team’s Workflow with Digital Dashboards with CCH® ProSystem fx® Workpaper Manager”.
Leave a Reply