Case study
JLL boosts global tax control with ONESOURCE
Discover how JLL uses Thomson Reuters ONESOURCE to cut tax workloads by 60%, strengthen compliance, and gain visibility across 50+ countries
Introduction: Managing complexity across a global empire
Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) is a global commercial real estate company currently operating in over 50 countries. With over 200 legal entities worldwide, JLL compiles around 3,000 tax returns annually, making tax compliance and reporting a critical business function.
For a company of this scale and complexity, risk management is paramount. As the organization understands, not being compliant, not having oversight, and not having the right controls in place can lead to fines, impact cash flow, and ultimately damage the company's reputation. With operations spanning diverse regulatory environments and tax jurisdictions, JLL needed a comprehensive solution to standardize processes while maintaining local compliance.
“For me personally, it's shifted a process that used to be reactive to being proactive. The process just works in the background.”
Kevin Escott
Senior Director of the JLL Technology Program Manager, Jones Lang LaSalle
Challenge: Decentralized operations lacking consistency and control
Initially, tax reporting was being managed on an in-country basis, but as the company grew, there was a clear need to centralize operations, creating more efficient procedures and better oversight over how returns were being managed and standardized across the world.
Critical pain points:
- Inconsistent regional approaches: A lack of consistency across all regions meant that JLL had to try and interpret local regulations and requirements on a piecemeal basis, risking the chance of misinterpretations with minimal oversight and control, which could lead to costly compliance errors
- E-invoicing compliance: JLL needed a reliable way to consistently manage e-invoicing mandates and mitigate any risks that might arise
- Limited visibility: Without centralized systems, the company lacked strong visibility of returns compiled, tax spend, and how tax expenditure was being incurred
- Resource inefficiency: Local resources were spending too much time on mundane, repetitive tasks rather than strategic tax planning
Solution: ONESOURCE centralizes global tax operations
Technology such as Thomson Reuters ONESOURCE was identified as a way to improve how JLL manages its tax and financial reporting across the regions where it does business.
With a user-intuitive interface, global footprint, and 150 years of tax content expertise, Thomson Reuters ONESOURCE was the obvious choice. With out-of-the-box tools already in place to support in-country deployments, Thomson Reuters ONESOURCE was able to help the JLL tax team drive efficiencies and minimize the cost and effort of implementation almost immediately.
Working with Thomson Reuters allowed JLL to improve their end-to-end processes by looking at its own data, identifying potential pain points, and then designing a configuration within its global ERP solution to help standardize and simplify its operating procedures while ensuring all regulatory requirements were being met.
The partnership with Pagero, a Thomson Reuters company, also helped guide JLL through the evolving requirements for e-invoicing mandates around the world. A dedicated point of contact helps ensure JLL can meet the changing regulatory requirements as quickly and accurately as possible.
In addition, Thomson Reuters ONESOURCE provided greater visibility and oversight, enabling JLL to better manage its tax spend and leverage the reporting capabilities to track and monitor their global filings more effectively.
Outcomes: From reactive to proactive tax management
The implementation of Thomson Reuters ONESOURCE has delivered transformative results for JLL's global tax operations, achieving over 60% workload reduction.
Measurable improvements:
- Dramatic time savings: Increased efficiency and time savings mean reducing month-end reporting from three days to less than one day
- Automated processes: Minimal intervention means not having to extract data on an ad hoc basis
- Robust processes: Streamlined procedures enable local resources to spend less time on mundane tasks and focus on value-added activities
- Better oversight: Stronger visibility of returns compiled, tax spend, and how tax expenditure is being incurred
Now, with access to Thomson Reuters' depth of industry and sector knowledge, JLL can navigate the complex demands of global tax mandates while also continuously onboarding more countries. As the company rolls out the new technology across EMEA and APAC, it'll gain even greater visibility and understanding of its tax spend.
According to Kevin Escott, Senior Director and JLL Technology Program Manager, the impact goes beyond efficiency metrics. The solution has fundamentally shifted how the tax department operates, moving from a reactive stance to a proactive approach where processes work seamlessly in the background.
At a glance
Industry
Commercial Real Estate
HQ region
Chicago, Illinois, United States
Solutions
ONESOURCE Indirect Tax Compliance
ONESOURCE Statutory Reporting
ONESOURCE Pagero e-invoicing
Checkpoint Tax Research
Legal Tracker
Year founded
1783
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