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Tax & Accounting
What It Means to be Truly Paperless
in Your Corporate Tax Department
Part Three of Wolters Kluwer’s Corporate Workflow Solutions
White Paper Series
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What It Means to be Truly Paperless in Your Corporate Tax Department
In this white paper, you’ll discover how to take your organization’s
productivity to the next level by identifying and removing the gaps to being
truly paperless. Learn how to save time and improve efficiencies that will
lead to cost savings for your organization, as well as how to mitigate risk and
improve accuracy.
We’ll take a deep dive into:
• Trends in corporate paperless initiatives.
• Common obstacles encountered, as well as important considerations in
paperless management.
• How the right integrated corporate workflow solutions will help staff
members fully adopt a paperless workflow and optimize efficiency.
What It Means to be Truly Paperless in Your Corporate Tax Department
Section 1: Trends in Corporate Paperless
Initiatives
Maximize Efficiencies for Better Visibility
“The real goal behind ‘paperless’ is to
be more efficient, not eliminate all use
of paper,” points out Jared D. Jones, CPA,
Solution Architect with Wolters Kluwer Tax &
Accounting. “When I was at a CPA firm years
ago, I remember emails sent to 200 people
asking where a file was. We’ve come much
further along the path to efficiency these
days, but even with a move toward a more
paperless office, people still print a lot. In
fact, the average office worker uses 10,000
sheets of paper a year, reports Reduce.org.”
In the paperless process, we need to realize
that being “paperless” means maximizing
efficiency to a new level that was never
possible before today’s smarter software
and processes. That new level of efficiency
is essential for success, as today’s trends
demand higher productivity and better risk
mitigation. Let’s take a look next at what these
challenges include.
Increasing complexity and volume — people
have more work but fewer staff members.
Additionally, companies are going global,
which creates a need for all offices to follow
the same workflow on the same software with
visibility into workflow and project statuses,
requiring the use of sophisticated software,
such as CCH® ProSystem fx® Workpaper
Manager.
Cultural and generational change — staff
members just coming out of school want
information right now, and that means being
paperless and in the cloud. In contrast,
sometimes there are one or two holdouts in a
corporate tax department who want to be on
paper. That’s not ideal and creates issues in
achieving efficiency.
Enterprise-wide vs. departmental
implementations — “We hear stories of
companies adopting Microsoft® SharePoint® as
the documentation management system for
the whole company, and sometimes that gets
pushed onto the tax department,” says Jones.
“There are much better solutions for
accounting and tax, which is a battle that you
might have to have.”
Downsizing of office space — for example, the
tax department at a major clothing retailer
went from 2,000 square feet to 750 square
feet — from 30 desks to 15 desks, which meant
having to ‘check out’ a desk when in the office
or working from home. “That is something we
hear a lot,” Jones points out. “It drives the
need to be more paperless.”
Cloud computing — everyone wants access
to information anytime, anywhere, which
requires that companies become more
paperless to increase efficiency.
Moving away from mapped network drives —
tax departments have tried using network
drives, but there are many inherent problems,
like folders being dragged into the wrong
places. Other issues include no workflow
management for sign offs or ability to track
changes. Because of these issues, many tax
departments have moved away from network
drives in the past two to four years, and
toward dedicated workpaper and document
management systems.
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What It Means to be Truly Paperless in Your Corporate Tax Department
Section 2: Obstacles and Important
Considerations in the Paperless Process
Integral Pieces of the Paperless Process
What does it take to minimize the challenges
of going paperless? Consider these next
four main points when you address
your organization to select the right
software solutions.
Workpaper management — well-organized
electronic binders that house workpapers for
quarterly provisions or annual returns.
Document management — a digital file cabinet
with expanded search capabilities.
Project tracking — including due date tracking,
detailed project information and email
notifications before the due date; if there’s no
file being routed, how do staff members know
when they’re supposed to do something? This
is a key part of being paperless, or the process
will collapse.
Ancillary tools that aid in the paperless
process and make the process easier —
if you’re going to take the pen/pencil away,
then people need checkboxes and places
to put their initials.
Workpapers vs. Documents
“The whole idea here is that document
management and workpaper management
require two different solutions,” Jones says.
Workpapers are:
• Building blocks, like building a pyramid.
• Related to other workpapers and
documents.
Example: Calculating a M3 calculation for
deferred revenue: “There are workpapers
flowing into that calculation and numbers
coming from everywhere,” Jones explains.
“That number goes into the tax return and
other places. It’s like an octopus with lots of
legs. You’re taking information that you’re
calculating and building a pyramid with the
tax return at the top.”
How you manage workpapers and the required
linking between documents and calculations
is different from how you manage documents.
Documents — (aka “the file cabinet”):
• Standalone files.
• May not relate to other documents.
• Can be put into the file cabinet and perhaps
not referenced again.
Obstacles to Adopting a More Complete
Paperless Process
One obstacle to successfully going
paperless is not using the right software.
An example is the inappropriate use of
Microsoft® SharePoint®, which is fundamentally
a document management system, not a
workpaper management system. “If you’re
trying to manage documents in a workpaper
management system or workpapers in a
document management system, you probably
will find that it’s not optimal for your needs,”
Jones points out.
A second obstacle to the paperless process
is having one holdout on the team who wants
to use paper. Providing the right software can
help with this challenge, although it may be
a battle that will have to be fought in the tax
department in order to prevent the inefficient
use of two types of systems at the same time.
A third obstacle to the paperless process is
not giving people all of the tools they need
to go paperless, including project tracking
software that integrates into email, along
with ancillary tools, so that the process feels
comfortable.
In the next section, we’ll look at software
considerations necessary to overcome
these obstacles and optimize your
paperless workflow.
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What It Means to be Truly Paperless in Your Corporate Tax Department
Section 3: Paperless Workflow Solutions
Retrieve Critical Documents More Efficiently
In order to optimize workflow, corporate tax
professionals should understand the necessary
features of a workpaper management system
and document management system — and not
forget the importance of project tracking and
ancillary tools. We’ll look at each of these in
detail in this section.
An example of a workpaper
binder in CCH® ProSystem fx®
Workpaper Manager.
Workpaper Management System Features
Let’s review what a workpaper management
system should offer.
Electronic binders that represent the two‑hole
paper binder where you can check out
workpaper files and synchronize work from
any location.
Sign offs for both preparer and reviewer; lock
documents after final review.
Notes, so that people can create and respond
to various types of annotations as they would
in a paper binder.
Hyperlinked referencing that enables a click
of a button to open the linked document.
Version control over the entire process to
make sure that all your workpapers tie back
to the tax return.
Roll forward an entire binder, including trial
balances, linked financials and workpapers,
from one year to another, or one quarter
to another.
Your workflow is optimized with an integrated
process. For example, does the software
have a button in the email to send something
right to the workpaper management system?
Does it also print to the workpaper binder as
an electronic file, integrate into the project
tracking system and update automatically?
An example of a binder index
list in CCH ProSystem fx
Workpaper Manager.
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What It Means to be Truly Paperless in Your Corporate Tax Department
You cannot execute electronic signoffs, make
notes, lockdown files or offer password
protection if you’re still using network drives.
Mitigating risk and improving accuracy
requires software that offers those functions.
Document Management System Features
Let’s explore what a document management
system should allow you to do.
Search by file name and key file properties
such as: assigned classes and subclasses or
keyword, so file retrieval is quick and easy.
Screen shot of a central screen in CCH® ProSystem fx®
Document showing files relating to tax. There’s entity search on
the left and full text search on top. You can also use advanced
search for metadata layering and can sort and filter all the
columns through the tab system. It’s easy to find information
because it’s a central repository and works like Google®.
Electronically file your returns and store them
for the appropriate time periods based on
the corporation’s record retention policy, and
mark them for automatic destruction upon
expiration.
Reduce risks related to hard drive crashes or
laptop thefts by storing emails outside of the
standard, archived email folder.
Quickly access many key functions to help
you organize, manage and maintain your
documents, including lock, checkout, check-in,
version history, direct editing, discussions and
overdue checkout notification.
What It Means to be Truly Paperless in Your Corporate Tax Department
Project Tracking Features
In a formal paperless world, you need some
kind of calendar and tracking system because
you don’t have a physical reminder on your
desk. Jones points out, “this is one of the
pieces you can’t forget.”
Let’s take a look at the important features for
project tracking.
Due date monitoring that includes key tracking
dates, notifications (part of menu on the left
side of the screenshot), the ability to change
status of a project and project tracking.
Automatic email notifications that a project is
ready for the next staff member.
Routing sheets that mimic the paper workflow.
Customizable dashboards and reports to
show project statuses.
Integrated workflow to optimize efficiency
and make everything work better.
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What It Means to be Truly Paperless in Your Corporate Tax Department
Ancillary Paperless Tools
All of these ancillary tools matter to your
success when going paperless.
Let’s consider what makes a successful
paperless process.
Annotation and markup tools allow tax
professionals to include more information
within their workpapers. A program like
CCH® ProSystem fx® PDFlyer, an add-on
to Adobe® Acrobat®, enables you to run a
calculator tape, link to a page in a tax return,
put initials on the bottom or top corner of
the page and audit trails to track workpaper
history (see screen shot below).
Scanners streamline data entry; however,
you will need to determine if they should be
centralized or decentralized.
Multiple monitors enable tax professionals to
view many documents and applications in an
organized manner. How many monitors will
optimize your efficiency? Four is becoming a
best practice.
Software in the Corporate Tax Department
Corporations need to:
• Streamline workflow to make work life
more effective.
• Improve productivity in order to work less.
• Mitigate risk.
Some tips for choosing and implementing the
right corporate workflow software:
• Know that there is not one size fits all tax
software solution.
• Determine if you have a document
management problem or a workpaper
management problem, and decide which
to fix first.
• Make sure you give people the right tools
to embrace a fully paperless process.
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What It Means to be Truly Paperless in Your Corporate Tax Department
Wolters Kluwer Is Here to Help
Wolters Kluwer’s Corporate Workflow
Solutions are the profession’s top choice
for cloud-based or on-premise tax prep and
compliance. These solutions support an entire
corporate tax workflow by standardizing,
Cloud Solution or
Obtain
integrating and automating so that your
corporate tax department can get to a new
level of an efficient paperless process.
Key Corporate Workflow Solutions are shown
below:
Organize
On-Premise Solution
CCH Axcess™ Tax or
CCH® ProSystem fx® Tax
p
CCH Axcess™ Portal
P
CCH Axcess™ Document or
CCH® ProSystem fx® Document
P
Prepare
Deliver
and Review
and Store
P
P
P
P
P
CCH® ProSystem fx® PDFlyer
CCH® Fixed Assets Manager or
CCH® ProSystem fx® Fixed Assets
P
CCH® ProSystem fx®
Workpaper Manager
P
P
CCH Axcess™ Workstream
CCH® IntelliConnect® and
CCH® Accounting Research Manager®
P
p
p
p
p
P These solutions are in active use during these corporate workflow steps.
p This solution supports your entire corporate workflow process.
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What It Means to be Truly Paperless in Your Corporate Tax Department
Would You Like to Know More?
Close the workflow gaps in your corporate tax department and take control of
your tax workflow process with Wolters Kluwer’s integrated end-to-end Corporate
Workflow Solutions. Learn how these solutions can help:
• Minimize manual data entry to reduce material weaknesses, costly
restatements, and underpayments or overpayments.
• Manage workpapers in their native formats, establish audit trails, strengthen
controls, and incorporate regular record retention, version control, rights
management and data security to better prepare for audit defense.
Wolters Kluwer has developed numerous solutions to streamline your
corporate workflow process — visit CCHGroup.com/CorporateWorkflow
or call us at 800-739-9998 for a free consultation.
Automated
Workpaper
Management
Electronic
Document
Management
Reliable
Research
Management
Paperless Tax
Management
Streamlined
Fixed Assets
Management
Integrated Corporate Workflow Solutions
Contact information:
Wolters Kluwer
2700 Lake Cook Road
Please visit CCHGroup.com/CorporateWorkflow
for more information.
Riverwoods, IL 60015
United States
800-739-9998
8/16
2016-1632
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When you have to be right