VAT Technology, Software and Compliance Services 

Contact us

VAT compliance can be onerous and many businesses find that effectively and efficiently managing your VAT obligations is simply not possible without the right technology stack. We can help you identify and understand any weaknesses in your current technology and provide an objective, external assessment of your compliance risks and opportunities to reduce them. Knowing how to evolve your software to support your business requires a deep understanding of how the VAT software market is evolving and experience of implementing new and emerging technologies – we can guide you every step of the way. 

Our expert team of VAT technology specialists come from a wide range of professional backgrounds; from careers in Tech to those that previously focused on traditional VAT advisory sevices. This depth and breadth of experience enables us to advise you on optimising your software.  

Our approach is systems and software agnostic. We will help you find the right technology solutions for your business. We review your current set up with the primary goal of optimising rather than replacing or upgrading. This can be as simple as harnessing what you already have, such as maximising the use of your Microsoft suite to reconfiguring your native tax engines within your existing ERP systems. 

Where an upgrade/extension is the best solution for you, our specialists will collaborate with you to deploy the right best-in-class software to suit your needs.  

We always work with your local VAT advisory team to ensure that any remediation of your VAT technology is delivered seamlessly and supports your wider business goals.  

Where you maintain your own accounting records and VAT processes, in house, we focus our assistance in the following areas: 

  • VAT data governance with our Mock HMRC Digital Audit tool, 
  • ERP and Tax Engine implementation and optimisation, and compliance automation.

This simulation of a HMRC digital VAT audit is our most popular type of systems review and helps your businesses understand the ‘health’ of its tax data and the effectiveness of tax governance and controls. We will give you insight into how HMRC undertake a review and what the review will find. These HMRC audits are increasingly common practice and especially targeted at businesses within the SAO regime/operating in highly regulated industries. 

We will mimic the HMRC data request. For example, you will be asked to provide a full download of your business’s sales and purchase ledger, VAT G/Ls and expense data. We test that data as HMRC would as well as using our own data analytics to provide further insights.  

The findings of our audit are presented during a de-brief workshop to discuss our findings around your VAT data governance and controls and the remediation required. You will have access to the dashboard with all the relevant findings through our secure BDO Global Portal. 

DOWNLOAD OUR BROCHURE FOR MORE INFORMATION

ERP Implementations 

Throughout the life cycle of an ERP implementation project, we maintain an MTD compliance lens and ensure sustained engagement from key subject matter experts. This is equally applied to those with the most complex supply flows requiring an external tax engine implementation. We invest a significant time with software vendors in the market and training in their products so that you receive the best service. 

Optimisation 

You may have installed a new ERP or Tax Engine, but are you achieving the level of performance you were expecting? In our experience, there will be reconfiguration steps you can take to improve your systems’ tax performance. Typically, this involves a detailed walk-through of your system tax set-up and processes and analytical review of your data leveraging. You will receive a detailed set of recommendations to consider, along with change requests for your re-configuration, based on a VAT principles matrix of your current, past, and future supply flows. 

Our ERP projects are supported by our BDO Digital colleagues. 

DOWNLOAD OUR BROCHURE FOR MORE INFORMATION

There is a huge choice of ERP systems catering to smaller to medium-sized businesses that can help you prepare and file your VAT returns. However, for businesses with larger ERP systems and more complex VAT profiles, in-system compliance is often unavailable or at best sub-optimal. This is where our automation expertise can be deployed for your ‘last mile’ VAT return preparation and review process. 

We invest a significant amount of time building strong collaborative relationships with software providers and learning about their products -  so that you don’t have to. If you can leverage general automation platforms such as Alteryx and Knime, as well as specialist VAT compliance products from the major VAT vendors, it opens up a range of automation opportunities; wholesale end-to-end VAT return preparation automation, discrete automation of specific VAT processes, and calculations such as partial exemption. 

For businesses with time consuming and lengthy review processes, a combination of our bots and Mock HMRC Digital Audit tool can assist in the automation of repetitive tasks such as high-volume invoice downloads for sample reviews or a forensic focused review of VAT return data. 

In all automation projects we assist with, we ensure a holistic approach with a seamless connection from your ERP system to your preferred automation platform. 

DOWNLOAD OUR BROCHURE FOR MORE INFORMATION 

Are you facing increasing demands by governments to file indirect tax returns and additional transactional data? Are you struggling with the changing requirements and deadlines in each country? You can and should be working to help reduce the burden on your finance teams.  

Where you would prefer to outsource your VAT compliance, our approach offers you the opportunity to work with an experienced and dedicated team of indirect tax advisers and cutting-edge compliance automation technology. You will benefit from the expertise of a global provider of indirect tax services with expertise wherever you operate all through a single point of contact.  

Our team delivers more than basic compliance support. We will proactively work with you to identify opportunities and develop strategies to make your VAT profile as efficient as possible in each country.  

Our experienced specialists will focus on the key technical tax issues underpinning your operations. Through sophisticated automation software, we can provide essential compliance support that delivers both cost and operational efficiencies. 

Your unique needs will determine which technology we use as we are not restricted to any single software provider. We regularly review our approach to select the best technology fit for you and to make sure your indirect tax processes stay compliant with local rules.  

This coordinated and streamlined approach offers many benefits, including:  


Talk to us

Insights

Your key contact

Talk to us