With the right strategy and partners, companies can turn their ERP and tax systems into powerful tools that drive success.
The smartest technology upgrade paths minimize disruption and maximize available transformation resources. These paths allow businesses to identify gaps and overlaps in their current technology stack and explore better solutions and integrations. Integrating Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems with cloud-based tax functions is a promising strategy that improves operations and strengthens strategic insights. This integration unifies critical business and tax information systems, giving stakeholders a broad view that improves decision-making across finance, supply chain management, and other core areas.
Achieving smooth ERP and tax integration requires going through intricate change management processes and aligning stakeholder expectations to meet various jurisdictional requirements. This transition demands careful planning and collaboration across all affected units. By fostering early and ongoing collaboration among tax, finance, and compliance teams, businesses can overcome these challenges and establish a foundation for growth. With the right strategy and partners, companies can transform their ERP and tax systems into powerful tools that drive success in the digital age.
Highlights:
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Jump to ↓
| Benefits of adopting an integrated cloud-first modernization approach |
| Potential ERP integration challenges standing in the way |
| How to overcome ERP and tax integration challenges for future success |
| Transformation success demands a partner who understands the big picture |
Benefits of adopting an integrated cloud-first modernization approach
One ideal target is the convergence of ERP and tax in the cloud. ERP platforms are currently transforming core business functions, from finance to the supply chain. Since tax data and decision-making touch nearly all the same functions, adopting an integrated, cloud-first approach unlocks powerful benefits across the business.
- Unifying critical business and tax information systems gives stakeholders a more unified and intelligent view across tax, finance, and beyond.
- It also allows teams to bring ERP-scale automation into more tax processes, including time-consuming, error-sensitive tax work.
- The combination of greater visibility and operational simplicity unlocks important strategic and financial insights.
- Together, the two systems can drive a smarter, more proactive posture across tax, finance, and compliance.
Building for cloud-first modernization ensures your tax and ERP provider keeps your business on the cutting edge, ready for advancements like automation and AI.
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Potential ERP integration challenges standing in the way
In our first blog, we discussed how ERP cloud migration is an ideal time to consider tax transformation, evaluate the point solutions you already have in place, and consider larger, more comprehensive platforms. While the promise of smart, tax-sensitized automation across the business is enormous, experts know that every upgrade path contains its own obstacles. As you embark on a major ERP upgrade, be prepared to navigate potential challenges.
Managing change across the business
Integrating tax and finance within the cloud presents challenges that begin well before the installation of solutions. It’s crucial to align the processes that will eventually connect with these technology platforms, as each stakeholder has their own expectations. To reach consensus on core issues like governance, we must implement fundamental change management, as simply improving APIs won’t suffice.
Integrating tax with the ERP requires sensitizing and contextualizing data and processes appropriately. Teams must configure systems for multiple jurisdictions, understand both batch and real-time modes, and meet new reporting demands. Additionally, they need to revisit and enhance compliance controls across tax and finance. What impact will these integrations have?
Addressing complexity inside the technology
Successful integrations require both the right components and carefully optimized connectivity. Modern, secure, cloud-ready services must link both ERP and tax platforms with the applications and infrastructure they rely on. This involves connecting seamlessly with internal business systems, external regulators, and partners.
Deep customization is essential. The software must accurately reflect business constraints such as account tables, entity structures, tax rates, and jurisdictional specifics. This is especially true when moving from disparate tax tools to a unified cross-tax platform. Does the software align with your priorities?
Aligning ERP and tax data across the business and technology
Whether it’s accelerating cloud modernization or enabling AI, innovation for tax and finance starts with data. From aligning around trusted sources to data hygiene and engineering, a solid and complete data infrastructure is the foundation upon which everything else is constructed. That means it must be built first.
Assembling a complex pipeline often moves data from source to solution. Along the way, we carefully process and validate data to ensure the information is correct and complete. Traditionally, this requires investing in specialized infrastructure and expertise, but building in the cloud makes it so much easier.
How to overcome ERP and tax integration challenges for future success
Constraints and uneven digital progress present unique challenges for businesses upgrading their tax and ERP platforms. The good news is that when experts collaborate across the organization, they can effectively tackle these challenges and achieve crucial modernization outcomes. Here are some key strategies to overcome ERP and tax integration challenges:
- Collaborate early and often: Gathering the right stakeholders together early and often can’t be overstated. This group should include traditional tax and finance stakeholders, governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) teams, compliance experts, and leaders from other affected units, such as IT. Form a working group to ensure all priorities and perspectives are represented throughout the process.
- Get consensus and clarity on requirements first: In theory, aligning stakeholders is straightforward. However, turning that consensus into product selection, design, and configuration choices is more difficult. From data governance and compliance requirements to tax-specific entity and jurisdictional details, stakeholders must create and maintain agreement on desired tax, finance, and business outcomes.
- Test and validate solutions carefully: Aligning with actual business and technology requirements gives the business more meaningful ways to evaluate how an ERP and tax technology platform can meet those needs. While vendors might make broad, generalized promises, stakeholders must map product features and benefits to real needs and outcomes.
- Create a roadmap to guide future growth: Early and consistent collaboration generates essential consensus on how tax and ERP products can be used to reach desired business outcomes. Equally important is how this consensus shapes future development. Use the dual-track approach to develop a feature and integration roadmap that outlines the current state and desired next steps.
Transformation success demands a partner who understands the big picture
Opting for a dual-track modernization approach to upgrade and integrate tax and ERP systems amplifies the impact of internal expertise and transformation resources. Implementing a unified tax platform, like Thomson Reuters ONESOURCE, can further improve these efforts by offering stakeholders a comprehensive view and greater control across all tax functions. This integration enables the ERP to achieve even more.
Simplify your ERP cloud migration and boost your benefits by integrating tax transformation with your SAP or Oracle cloud upgrade.
No matter how many smart, empowered stakeholders are in the room, gaps in expertise will eventually appear. Whether you need assistance with tax, ERP, or data, Thomson Reuters experts can help you maintain big-picture clarity while working through vital technical and business details.
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Part 1: The time is now for cloud migration and tax transformation
Part 3: Unlocking strategic benefits during tax integration and ERP migrations
