Engagement Summary
The Major retailers are required to pay usage taxes on items they buy but don't intend to sell. Large retailers frequently have trouble effectively matching their financial transactions to specific line items in an ERP-type system.
If a store is unable to demonstrate to the State, County, and local taxing authorities that taxes were legally accrued and paid then usage-tax penalties will apply.
If a store is unable to demonstrate to the State, County, and local taxing authorities that taxes were legally accrued and paid then usage-tax penalties will apply.
Challenges:
- Reporting and data loading delays.
- Reporting in SAP Business warehouse (Tax Data Warehouse) is slow and difficult.
- Data must be kept in Business warehouse or near line storage systems for ten years, and interfaces must be created between ECC, near line storage, and BW (Business warehouse) for data reconciliation in order to comply.
- Data must be kept in Business warehouse or near line storage systems for ten years, and interfaces must be created between ECC, near line storage, and BW (Business warehouse) for data reconciliation in order to comply.
- It will take days to get a single file from the BW system for usage of internal and submission to tax authorities. Client has to generate 30+ flat files having huge data sets out of the BW system.
- Custom ECC programmes for TDW extraction run for days and on end it was frequently failing and necessitating rerunning of the scripts.
Solutions:
- Prior to creating a full TDW solution utilising SAP HANA, BuildingBlocks Consulting created a Solution for Use Tax Reconciliation.
- BuildingBlocks Consulting extensively investigated the client’s environment and made a solid HANA-based solution recommendation for tax reporting. HANA data models have been updated to handle larger data sets and speed up processing (Big Data) created flat file interfaces that extract data from HANA in less time than an hour instead of days for each file.
- Data reconciliation between the source system and HANA can be automated and HANA analytical views were made by combining datasets from several business functions.
- BuildingBlocks Consulting also added interactive reports made using SAP Business Objects tools to HANA data models, giving users more flexibility in reporting.
Results
- 8000+
Stores across multiple regions - 15+
Countries are currently in operation - 9
Retail formats serving diverse markets - 100%
Compliance with internal regulations - AIM
Automated invoice matching with use-tax accruals - LAW
Improved tax law adherence for reduced risks - SWIFT
Faster decision-making with streamlined processes - SAVE
Significant cost savings and reduced manual tax reconciliation
Testimonials
+300 ICP-matching MQLs by M6 270% increase in organic and direct leads
10x marketing leads pipeline by M3 64% search appearances increase on social
