Three Reasons to Frequently Upgrade Your Tax and Transfer Pricing Software

Amidst the shifting international tax landscape, tax strategists at multinational enterprises (MNEs) have a growing need to predict and assess the long-term impact of this turbulence. Constant changes to pricing, cross-border transactions, tax regimes, and government assistance programs are forcing tax departments to pivot to more adaptable, agile processes and systems.

In these unpredictable times, you need to be as certain as possible about your organization’s overall financial position. The ability to efficiently conduct short- and long-term forecasts is critical. Your business leaders need up-to-date information to help them prepare the organization for impending market changes.

So many organizations integrate tax software, then dust their hands. Job done. But as new global requirements emerge and technology advances, your software may fall far enough behind that it starts to impact your performance.

Regular technology updates are key for tax departments grappling with complex market changes. Updating frequently will help you maximize your return on investment. Timely access to innovative enhancements and updates means more sophisticated data capabilities, better performance, and broader out-of-the-box calculation logic. Additionally updating your software to the latest version minimizes the risk of data loss. By adopting up-to-date security measures and best practices introduced into each new software release, you’ll be better equipped to respond to the evolving climate and tightening security guidelines.

Here are three key reasons to upgrade your tax software sooner than later.

Keep Up With Complexity

Next year will undoubtedly bring further complexity and unpredictability to the global economy, driven by shifting trade agreements and increasingly globalized trade. Because of this, many authorities have switched to more sophisticated digital oversight models that enable them to better analyze organizations’ tax reporting.

The launch of OECD’s action plan on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting is drawing closer and organizations are scrambling to get their processes and systems in order. Unfortunately, plans for even stricter BEPS 2.0 measures have already been announced. This greater scrutiny means that it is vital to have clear calculations in place both for tax reporting and provision, as well as intra-company transfer pricing.

New regulations like country-by-country reporting – requiring all MNEs with annual consolidated group revenues of €750 million to file a complex annual report – mean you need the latest software to keep up.

Our Longview team has a finger on the pulse of global and local changes to tax regulation. We bring this knowledge to every Longview update, boosting features and adding formulas to help you quickly bring any market changes into your day-to-day tax processes.

The latest version of Longview is a one-stop shop for your country-by-country reporting needs. By leveraging powerful reporting and analytical capabilities, you can create, analyze and compare scenarios before finalizing reporting within a dedicated compliance period.

Increased Data Proliferation

The number of data MNEs need to handle is growing in velocity and variety. This makes it difficult for you to cope if you lack the latest tools.

Outdated software can lead to a lack of integration between core ERP systems and tax data, which then necessitates further manual intervention and manipulation. When your tax team doesn’t get the data in the format they need, or at the level of granularity they require, they’ll have to spend precious time looking for the right information.

Without access to financial data you need to make accurate forecasts, your team will resort to delivering multiple estimates to the transfer pricing teams. These calculations will also need to be revisited down the line to make sure they are still accurate, burning even more time on valueless activity.

insightsoftware boasts a successful history of working with the biggest ERPs in the market. We work hard to ensure that our tools, like Longview, align with the most popular systems and that product updates reflect any changes to ERP data structure or alignment. Data system changes need not spark fear. Let Longview shoulder that burden for you. All you need to do is update your tax software when given the opportunity.

Attract the Best Talent

Dynamic MNEs that have invested in modern tax software can expect to attract the most talented professionals, who are looking for more from their day-to-day work than manual data manipulation and clerical tasks. If your software is dated and causing significant pain for your team, you risk missing out on attracting the best and brightest tax professionals.

Longview grows with our customers. As their needs change, so does our product. We know that the tax teams we support are working on a knife’s edge and that quality tooling is essential for long-term success and staff retention. We listen to users and apply that feedback to upgrades which helps keep Longview best-in-class for tax reporting and analytics.

That means your team can pride itself in using the latest and greatest tax software. Armed with a sophisticated, but intuitive system, they can fully harness the strategic power of your tax data and provide better insights to inform business direction.