Because a tax department’s processes are interconnected, it is often overwhelming to think about process automation. Those who have succeeded in this endeavor have managed to do so by breaking down the bigger picture into smaller sub-functions and treating each sub-function as a separate manageable project.
It is critical to choose the right projects for automation. As a rule of thumb, you should always start with a sub-function that has high volume with high ROI. These sub-functions normally center around data transformation tasks such as data validation, data reconciliation, report creation, tax adjustment calculations etc… Based on our experience, tasks that meet the below criteria are normally the best candidates for process automation:
- Is the task performed routinely (weekly, monthly, quarterly…)?
- Does the current manual process take more than “X” hours or days? You decide what value to assign to “X”. We suggest starting with those tasks with the highest “X” value that take the longest to complete.
As you may have noticed, in order to answer the 2nd question above, you will need to quantify and time the steps that are involved in your routine tasks. Do not be surprised to find out a manual process that you thought takes 10 minutes to complete actually takes 30 or 50 minutes or even longer. The information that you collect in this discovery phase can also be used to determine the ROI of the project.
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