Top 10 Accounting Firm Streamlines Tax Preparation Efficiency with Alteryx

As a top ten advisory CPA firm, Baker Tilly guides customers through an ever-changing business world, helping them navigate digital business transformation that supports their goals. Part of that support includes leveraging best-in-class technology solutions to help clients with financial reporting and tax processes.

Streamlining a complex trial balance mapping process

Baker Tilly clients provide financial data in various formats, account numbers, and descriptions. “To prepare tax returns, tax engagement teams initially approached return preparations with unique, tailored methods for each client,” said Juliana Maia, Senior Manager of Tax Technology at Baker Tilly. “While reflective of our commitment to personalized client service, our thorough review process needed an upgrade.”

To make it easier to work with diverse data, the Tax Technology team wanted to create a master chart of accounts. They chose Alteryx to automate and streamline the mapping exercise, transforming a previously extensive process into a more efficient and less error-prone procedure.

Repeatable workflows built in Alteryx seamlessly integrate clients’ trial balance with a standardized chart of accounts, effortlessly converting any previous tax mappings from other systems. The workflow also assigns scores for how well the client’s account matches the standardized accounts, bringing a new level of precision and insight and providing tax engagement teams with a new understanding of the quality of the mapping.

Revolutionizing the approach to client’s data, users can now review the refined output of sophisticated workflows. This system not only makes the review process faster but also elevates it by enabling users to pinpoint the areas where the mapping might need adjustments.

Automating manual sales and use tax processes

Another area of opportunity for analytics automation was identified in the Sales and Use Tax engagement team. Navigating the complexities of sales and use tax laws can be difficult for businesses operating in a multistate environment and involves large volumes of unclean client data.

Previously, the team was manually preparing and converting data into a specific format that’s compatible with specific tax software. It’s a repetitive, time-consuming process that is susceptible to human error. Using Alteryx, the Tax Technology team created tailored workflows for each unique client engagement dataset.

With the elimination of manual data alteration, the team streamlined the process and reduced the risk of errors, significantly enhancing the precision and accuracy of state and local tax returns.

Proactively empowering tax teams with Alteryx

Spotting opportunities for time savings and efficiency is an ongoing and proactive process with Baker Tilly’s Tax Technology team. “We have leadership regularly analyze our projects to identify opportunities to strategically employ technology to save time and elevate our efficiency,” says Juliana. “Whenever I see people dealing with large datasets or repeatable processes, I always think about using Alteryx.”

Juliana enjoys her technology journey that started about five years ago when she first upskilled with Alteryx and other tools as a subject matter expert in tax automation. She is embracing her new role and sees a long-term career supporting the tax practice and enhancing their experiences with automation.