Tax Management Consulting for Energy Companies |
Last Updated:
Abstract
Several FORTUNE 500® energy companies needed to develop and maintain new processes by transforming how they create and maintain tax-basis balance sheets and deferred tax balances. The FORTUNE 500® companies also sought to improve data integrity across their financial systems.
Deloitte Tax LLP helped the companies select and implement a powerful new software platform, cleanse their enterprise and tax data, automate core processes and reduce costs. The resulting improvements in tax reporting will help the companies maintain tax-basis balance sheets into the future.
The Challenge
The companies needed to address two pressing tax challenges. The first was to establish solid processes to ensure Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) compliance, specifically processes related to the business' tax-basis balance sheet and deferred tax balances. Second, the companies needed to deploy a financial software system that could create and maintain more accurate tax-basis balance sheets.
How We Helped
Our professionals worked with the clients to design a software application around four key dimensions: people, process, data and technology. The first step was to map the current state of the organizations and then to develop detailed work plans to create and maintain a validated tax-basis balance sheet. The specific steps included:
- Current-State Review. Our team led the companies through an in-depth review of existing operations – from staff roles and responsibilities, to source data configurations, to automated and manual tax processes.
- Data Integrity Assessment. With a solid understanding of the current state, we worked with the companies to explore further the enterprise data that drives tax-basis balance sheets.
- Future-State Design. Next, we guided a future-state envisioning process using our data blueprint framework.
- Software Testing Selection. The Deloitte team created a "sandbox environment" for trial runs of leading software products to test which applications aligned closest with the clients' objectives.
Also, we provided change-management support, technical and process training and software implementation services.
Why Deloitte? The Deloitte team presented the clients with strong credentials in critical areas, including: tax matters related to property, plant and equipment; tax technology; data management; and process improvement. The team's depth of experience across these disciplines led the companies to select Deloitte as a single resource for the projects.
Solution
Today the companies are seeing vastly improved process efficiencies in SOX compliance and in data integrity. By implementing a powerful software platform, cleansing the enterprise finance and tax data and automating core processes, the companies have dramatically reduced the hours dedicated to functions performed manually in the past. What's more, the improvement in data integrity positions the companies to address their tax reporting requirements on a timelier and more effective basis.
