Q: What does your indirect tax manager and an NFL offensive lineman have in common?

 A: The only time you hear their names is when a penalty is called.

Your sales team has numbers they publish on a quarterly basis. When they beat their numbers, there is a big celebration. But, when your tax manager determines and files all the taxes correctly and on time, Simon and Garfunkel’s sounds of silence is all he hears. On January 1, 2010, the U.S. had 1,131 tax rate changes. If your tax manager’s staff correctly researched and found all of these rates, then it’s business as usual. But, what happens if they missed 10 of these rates? In this case, the staff was 99.1158% accurate in correctly capturing most of these rate changes, yet the tax manager will still most likely be called on the carpet for missing 10 of them.

If you operate in all 50 U.S. states, there are over 27,000 rates to be monitored and updated every month. If all but 10 of these rates are accurately captured, the tax department’s accuracy rate would be 99.9630%, yet the tax manager would STILL be called on the carpet because 1) your customers will be upset and 2) your company will incur the costs of all those credit re-bills. Because of the 10 missed rates, margin calculations would have to be done on all costs of goods purchased. The repercussions of those missed rates would cascade through your organization causing increased operating costs, lost productivity due to credit re-bills, and other rework related issues.

So, it’s possible that what seems to be your company’s “touchdown” will get called back because the tax manager is holding on the play. Even worse, picture this scenario. It’s the 4th quarter, and the company’s financial numbers are just about to be reached. Your sales team is on the 1 yard line with 4 seconds on the clock when, suddenly, your team hears a whistle. A state auditor just found errors in your tax filing, and your team is penalized with fines, fees and interest; all because your tax manger missed 10 rates. Now, it’s suddenly 4 seconds on the clock, and 6 yards instead of 1. No one cares that the manager had 26,990 rates correct. The only thing anybody cares about is that the company will not make its profit numbers because the tax manager missed 10. That’s when the announcer says, “These guys cannot afford mental mistakes like that. They are killing this team.”

Maybe it’s time you helped your tax manager automate this process.