When it comes to tax compliance, a little extra effort on the front end can save headaches later.
THE CLIENT
Our client is a leading provider of midstream services in North America. Their focus is on transporting energy safely and efficiently from start to finish.
THE PROBLEM
In the course of providing a variety of pipeline services, our client charges their customers on a time and materials basis. The client was required to collect sales tax on their invoices, the amount of which depended on the materials and the location where the services are provided.
Calculating this correctly was a highly manual task involving Excel spreadsheets, and since the amount of tax could change in some cases on a county by county basis, there were many cases when they simply did not include sales tax at all. This problem came to light when they got audited by the state comptroller.
The associated back taxes and unnecessary fees paid to accountants and lawyers convinced them that something needed to change.
THE SOLUTION
Entrance rewrote the code for a field ticket management solution that our client had sent overseas, which was not working out well.
As a response to their tax compliance needs, one module to the program calculates sales tax for each engagement based on which materials needed to be taxed, and if so, how much, based on the county or region.
This addition helps eliminate the risk of manual calculations that can leave stones unturned. It also makes tax management a markedly less tedious job to complete. Considering that taxes must be handled on an almost daily basis, the impact of easing that process has been huge.