Over the past few days, many calls and emails regarding this series of posts have been received regarding corporate tax executives. One individual called to remind us the expertise required today that was not required thirty years ago when they started in the tax profession. In particular, we discussed tax executives with little if any knowledge of software. Tax Executives with little software expertise are being hoodwinked by people selling them tax software services they do not need. Tax management is faced with a technology integration nightmare that few know how to deal with today. Tax management simply wants the problem to go away so they call in a consultant to fix it.
This is when the real problems begin because corporations farm out the work to consultants who are great at selling the business yet have little experience integrating multiple corporate tax and financial software projects themselves. Who is selling the software technology expertise to you and who is really providing the service are two different people. Many corporate tax organizations are sold software they do not need or ever fully implement. The fees for implementing the software often amount to 3-4 times the cost of the software. Do the people implementing the software do it right? How do you really know?
There is really a much bigger problem in the underworld of software technology consultants. The CFOs and the Lead Tax Executives never really understand if the software was what they needed or fully utilized. Many executives are unaware of software implementation mistakes and likely will not know until someone finds it years down the road, long after the consulting fee has been paid. Over the years, consultants have privately shared numerous stories with me about software purchases and implementations that were full of costly mistakes for companies.
Here is the scenario played out today: One day a consultant gets a peek at the work and discovers “Holy Cow…I just discovered an enormous error in how this calculation was set up on the software!” Being the trustworthy consultant they are, they go to the firm Partner and proudly tell them they discovered the work they did for the client was done wrong. Since the firm charged the company millions of dollars in consulting fees, certain individuals were not happy to learn the job was done incorrectly. What do they do? In this particular case, they simply wanted to get rid of the senior manager who discovered the problem and this is when he came to me with his story. I have seen other cases where the Head of Tax conveniently gets blamed and the Partner now takes on responsibility for the entire tax organization. I have seen cases where trusted Partners come forward and take total responsibility. What type of consultants do you have on your software?
How do you find a tax software consultant who understands how to piece together multiple layers of corporate tax and financial software? How do you find a tax software consultant who will be straight up with you and get the job done better than anyone else? A consultant I was speaking to recently gave me the following answer: “A company should hire a tax technology consultant who wants to implement the software properly, not make a career out of it!” She was right!
We went further with our discussion about what a great idea it is to have an independent software technology expert come in and review the work of another consultant. Much like a firm review, you absolutely want to get another opinion when it comes to setting up your tax and accounting software because most people have no idea if the software was implemented properly. A highly qualified tax software consultant is one of the most valuable assets you can have on your team today.
Over the years, I have met tax technology experts with extraordinary integrity and highly technical tax software skills. I will be inviting these experts to a private panel discussion for corporate tax executives only. I will have them share with you on a call-in conference real life stories you absolutely must hear. Due to the sensitive nature of this discussion, it is available to corporate tax executives only.
In order to protect the privacy of these tax software technology experts, you will only hear their voices and not know their names unless they decide to disclose their names during this telephone conference on Friday, May 11, 2018 at 9:00AM PST/12:00NOON EST. I will bring you three of the best technology tax experts I have interviewed over the years who will be asked to share private stories you never hear and need to know! These are jaw dropping stories; you will learn a lot from these tax software experts! You will be a lot smarter and prepared for these situations by knowing what mess you could find yourself in by not knowing this information!
Want to be invited to this private, by invitation only, discussion?
You will learn of stories most people do not want you to know!
Request Private Invitation From Kat@TaxConnections.com You Will Be Sent Dial In Phone Conference Number Once Approved. Must Be A Corporate Tax Executive To Attend Or Call 858.999.0053 X100
1 comment on “Corporate Tax Executives – Face Tax Software Mistakes Few Are Prepared For”
Kitty, great Bread and Butter issue to address. Response should be overwhelming!
If appropriate, I would be excited to attend that one-of-a-kind session.
Tom Kerester
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