Don't buy an Ass!

**EDIT - just to be clear, the title refers to the picture in the middle, not to Nathan Farmer or Sam Thomas !**

When you think, you bought a racehorse but ended up with a donkey: the perils facing most tax managers!

On the back of winning Innovator of the Year for our Tax Master Data audit tool, LimeLyte Entity Manager, we felt we needed a new stand design that encompassed the complete end-to-end services that we offer in tax technology as well as the new Tax Control Framework tool we have developed called LimeLyte. With just the addition of the letter ‘d’, our theme was created – Tax Controlled Framed work. A huge thanks to Carl Robinson , our own creative genius and Seaglow Media for turning an idea into what will be the most photographed stand this year!

The star of the show, was undoubtedly Magni Quattuor, our colourful donkey, pictured centre in the title image. But why do we have a donkey dressed as a racehorse?

The world of tax is already complex and made even more so when it comes to buying the right software to not only manage the determination and reporting but also to ensure that processes are being correctly followed to prevent falling foul of noncompliance. And this is why, as a tax manager, you may find yourself in the situation where you think you've bought a racehorse but end up with a donkey….. and quite often, it is because you did not known what a racehorse looked like in the first place!

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There are 2 main reasons why this situation will happen. First is because even though you know tax inside out, you are not exactly an IT geek and have spent 99.87% of your working life in Excel, so have no idea what products are on the market, what products work with your existing software (do you even know all the ERP products your company uses?) nor what products will work with your existing and future country and industry requirements. You are the dream sale – just dangle the shiny things regardless of whether those shiny things will work because the fish is going to bite!

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The second reason is when you've done your research, sat through countless demos, and read through glowing testimonials with the software being billed as the ultimate solution to your problems. But once the purchase is made and the honeymoon period is over, the ugly truth emerges – you've been sold a donkey. The features that you were shown are actually in the next-next release. The support is non-existent because whilst there were 47 people making sure your sale went smoothly, there is only Dave in support for actually making sure the software works and he is actually part-time, tuesdays to thursdays, 11am to 3pm only! The external team of tax experts that eventually manage to implement the complex software think tax is a dirty word and that is pretty much their level of understanding on the subject (don't worry, the Partner that sold you the solution probably does actually know tax, but they are also only part-time - 99% sales, 1% implementation). And finally, regardless of the promises made by slick-rick the sales guy, no tool in the world can magically make poor and missing data appear in a perfect state!

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This common scenario highlights a crucial issue in the tax tech world: the gap between expectation and reality. Software vendors are often adept at showcasing their products in the best possible light, emphasizing features and benefits that may not hold up under real-world conditions. On the other side, tax managers are buying a tool that is often critical for their own teams' success but will be implemented (IT) and operated (BAU) by other teams in the business that have no idea about tax and often have a completely different agenda to the tax department, i.e. I just need to process as many invoices as possible.

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So our picture of Magni Quattuor is a metaphor to help you understand that the task of buying effective tax automation and compliance products is extremely difficult with a huge number of factors to consider and doing it on your own is going to be difficult.

But if you need a good jockey to make sure you will win the race every time, just drop me a line or one of my team at Innovate Tax.

If you want me to write a second part of this post that explains what to look out for in more detail, please leave a comment or send me a PM. I will be happy to do so.

#WeDoTax