IT – Tax Department Friend or Foe?
Posted by Traci Wheeler on Jan 26, 2012 in IT, January, Tax | 0 comments
Historically, the IT guys or gals at most companies were responsible for supporting and keeping up electronic communications throughout the organization, including servers, computers, printers and telephones. These were the folks you went to when your computer wouldn’t boot up, and you had to get that final tax return finished and out the door. They were the ones you called when the printer jammed and no else seemed to have any idea how to fix it. They came to your rescue when the projector didn’t work or the phone had no dial tone in the conference room right before your meeting was about to start. They were your friends, right? You were happy to see them.
read moreAre you Buried Under a Mountain of Paper?
Posted by Kelley Lear on Oct 13, 2011 in Empowerment Series, IT, Process Improvement, Tax | 4 comments
I was recently on-site at a large corporate client and spending some time with the corporate tax department. While meeting with various team members in offices and cubes, I felt a twinge of pain as I glanced at the mountains of papers and endless supplies of binders all expanded to their fullest and looming over the team members in a sort of organized chaos. I then was brought into their tax document “archives” or “tax document storage room” which was also so full of files, papers, and binders, that you could barely walk through the narrow corridors. In addition, this company had long ago overloaded the storage rooms, and had a “spill over effect” or plethora of file cabinets stretching like rows of high school lockers up and down every wall. They are not alone.
read moreWhat in the World is a “Tax Portal”?
Posted by Kelley Lear on Sep 29, 2011 in Audit, IT, Process Improvement, Software, Tax | 0 comments
Finally…tax professionals are beginning to hear about and start to implement portal solutions for their tax departments! I am so happy to hear this. I was designing and implementing portal solutions some ten years ago…and these solutions have come along way in terms of technological advances, functionality, ease of use and reduction in cost. Always a plus for cash strapped tax department budgets! However, there are still so many tax professionals who have never heard of these solutions and/or are just not aware of what is possible in terms of these solutions for tax.
read moreThe Right Tool for the Job
Posted by Kelley Lear on Aug 24, 2011 in Empowerment Series, IT, Software | 0 comments
Tax departments need to be very creative and adaptive these days. They also are now getting exceptionally skillful in utilizing technology for the many different tax data access, manipulation, transformation, calculation and analysis needs. However, not every technology solution is the right one for the job. I would contend that many tax professionals are utilizing solutions to accomplish tasks, however they may not be doing it the most effective and efficient way. There are pre-packaged solutions as well as your everyday toolsets that tax professionals have at their fingertips. Things such as Excel, MS Access, MS SQL Server, Adobe, Crystal Reports, MS SharePoint, and many others.
Top 10 Priorities of CIO’s
Posted by Kelley Lear on Jan 4, 2011 in Blog, IT | 0 comments
While doing webinars and/or while working with client corporate tax departments, I am typically asked a plethora of questions about how tax can develop a better working relationship with IT. They share horror stories about how they do not get support and how it takes forever to get any assistance from IT. I am also asked how other companies go about getting budget for IT projects related to helping the tax department. Most often tax is the on the very end of the line with respect to budget priorities. They are sometimes viewed as a cost center and not contributing to the top line of the corporation.
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