Background
A transformation of our client's finance function resulted in a series of new performance imperatives for the tax department: tax reporting, formerly conducted twice a year and taking around two weeks to complete, was to be increased to once a month. The year end timetable was to be dramatically reduced, with reports to be made available “at the touch of a button”. The process itself also had to be user-friendly enough for it to be run by resources with no tax expertise. These new requirements needed to be operational by December 2005, in time for year end – a deadline made even more challenging by the introduction of IFRS in 2005.

Why Deloitte?
Our client was already using Abacus for their Compliance needs. During the proposal phase, we successfully demonstrated how we could re-configure the existing installation of Abacus to adapt it for monthly reporting, and automate many of the existing administration processes which were being performed manually. This gave the client the assurance they needed that we could deliver their requirements within the timescale they had prescribed.

Approach
Our work over the next fifteen weeks focused on four major areas – the re-configuration of Abacus to run automatically, standardisation of all the templates that were being used to support reporting processes, documentation and standardisation of all reporting data sources which were then linked to Abacus, and the mapping and integration with Abacus of the excel spreadsheets and manual calculations that were being used. Our aim was to slash the year-end timetable via automation, reducing manual intervention to a minimum whilst ensuring that what we produced encapsulated all of the intellectual capital that was inherent in the previous processes. Creating a solution that was tailored exactly to the client’s needs was of key importance, so we provided secondees to the client for the duration of the project who took care of the day to day needs of the tax department, thus freeing up the in-house team to concentrate fully on planning and executing the project in partnership with us.

Solution
What benefits did the client realise?
By December 2005 the new system had been installed and tested, and had produced its first set of monthly reports. The in-house team had been trained in how to get the most out of the new technology, and were spending their time adding value to the business as opposed to many hours of manual re-keying, analysis, checking and exception reporting. The team had been enabled to respond to change within their organisation in an agile manner, in addition to producing high quality monthly reports that were robust, accurate, and timely. In so doing, they provided an example of best practice to the other areas of the finance function and the organisation as a whole.