Tax executives look for many things when it comes to licensing provision software. They ask about rate reconciliation adjustments, audit trails, and fast implementation, among other features. But often, they fail to go beyond software capabilities and ask about the thing that may matter the most: Support.
Laura Tennant, the income tax manager at CKE Restaurants Holding, Inc., a private fast-food corporation based in Franklin, Tennessee, has learned firsthand that tax provision software support is vital in preparing an accurate, efficient calculation. A seasoned tax professional, Tennant oversees the company’s tax filings, but she has a soft spot for the income tax provision.
“The income tax provision is the hardest thing we do, but it’s also the most exciting,” says Tennant. “You have to talk to other departments, and you get to ask, ‘Hey, what’s going on with the rest of the company?’ It’s important because it all affects your bottom line. You feel very alive as an accountant. It’s fun.”
Tennant is part of a four-person tax department, and they have five weeks to calculate the annual provision. “It’s pretty generous,” she says about the timeline. “We’re a private company, so we don’t have the same deadlines as public companies. But it’s still tight because accounting is still figuring things out, and we need them to complete their part before we can do ours.”
To help speed up the process, Tennant’s team used provision software, an inherited add-on to the company’s accounting consolidation software. The problem? Using it was so hard that it slowed the calculation process and compromised accuracy, and there was no support team to help.
“We tried to use that system for a long time but knew we needed something better. One of the biggest issues was that there was no support—no manual, no one to call if we couldn’t figure something out. We had to design everything ourselves,” she says. “It was like we were trying to put a circle into a square hole. We had to do a lot of extra work to make it fit.”
Switching to a new solution became inevitable. “The first solution stopped working. Things weren’t rolling over correctly. Journal entries weren’t balanced. We kept getting stopped, and it was causing so much extra reworking that wasn’t necessary and that you don’t have time for at that time of year.”
Provision Software, Take Two
With excellent software support topping her wish list, Tennant considered various options. Ultimately, she chose Exactera.
“We could tell Exactera’s team was responsive and that there would be a lot of support,” she says. “The software was priced reasonably, and we thought it would meet our needs.”
Tennant worked with Exactera’s tax provision experts to implement the software. “The provision team was so responsive and just excellent. They did a great job hearing our needs, pivoting when necessary, and providing solutions. They were always ready to hop on a call,” she says.
Exactera’s software team comprises tax provision experts. They know ASC 740 and can think outside the box to customize configurations to serve clients’ unique needs. “They spoke the language,” says Tennant. “That was so imperative and helpful.”
When implementation was over, Tennant’s team felt ready to jump in. “The training during the implementation was so good that we had to contact their team just once. I felt so prepared, and the software was so intuitive that we didn’t need that much support, which was great.”
Working in the software, they were impressed with the ease of use. “It’s really intuitive. Even staff that weren’t very tech-savvy were getting it,” she says. “We could work in different parts of the provision at the same time. That was also a big draw for us.”
Previously, the CKE tax team spent a lot of time figuring out how to get their original software to work, but now they are more efficient than ever. Tennant estimates her team saved 25% of their time with Exactera, finishing the provision a week earlier than they usually would.
“Exactera Tax Provision helped us get things done in record time and eliminated the technology stress that we usually had at that time. We could just focus on the numbers, which was excellent.”
