Go Live with Tax in SAP S/4HANA Migrations: Cloud-Native with Vertex O Series
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Key Takeaways
⇨ Incorporating tax considerations early in the SAP S/4HANA migration process is crucial to avoid audit exposure and compliance risks, as many organizations leave tax planning until after go-live.
⇨ The Vertex O Series cloud-native tax solution integrates seamlessly with SAP S/4HANA, providing real-time tax calculations and automated compliance, ensuring tax is treated as a priority in migration strategies.
⇨ Tax professionals should actively engage in SAP migration projects by demonstrating compliance risks and costs associated with delayed tax integration and aligning tax transformation with broader project objectives for better outcomes.
Migrating to SAP S/4HANA is complex. The risks when tax is an afterthought are even higher. RISE and GROW offer consistent and accelerated approaches to cloud adoption, but too often, tax and tax data are not included in migration planning until post go-live. Tax is critical to include up front in the planning process, not doing so can lead to audit exposure, fines, penalties, and reputational damage.
Vertex O Series cloud-native tax solution is an SAP Endorsed App with Premium Certification and ensures tax isn’t an afterthought. Paired with the RISE and GROW programs it enables an IT aligned strategy that ensures regulatory confidence. An SAP certified partner, Vertex O Series, integrates seamlessly with SAP S/4HANA delivering real-time tax calculation, indirect tax management, and automated compliance. Standardized connectors and automated mapping tools simplify tax migration even in complex scenarios across industries and geographies.
Tax professionals can drive their case to include Tax early in SAP S/4HANA migrations by ensuring they are included in SAP migration projects up front. To do this, collect and share with Finance, GRC and IT professionals’ real-world examples that illustrate compliance risks and costs associated with post-migration approaches that require remediation. Position tax transformation with broader project KPIs and objectives (e.g., real-time reporting, cross-business visibility). Finally, proactively participate in migration readiness activities to help lead risk assessments where tax plays a key role.
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What this Means for SAPinsiders
In this year’s SAPinsider Global Tax Management Report, 45% of respondents shared that integration with a global tax engine is a pain point. Ensuring tax is included early in SAP S/4HANA migrations is critical. In addition to remediation work necessary when tax is an afterthought in these projects there is missed opportunity cost. Real-time tax calculations and reporting can improve cash flow forecasting. In regions with complex tax regimes (e.g., Brazil) an integrated tax engine can optimize VAT recovery and reduce overpayments. Here are some suggestions for each phase of the SAP S/4HANA migration:
- Plan & Scope with Tax in Mind: Ensure tax is a part of initial discovery and planning for migration. Collaborate across Finance, Tax, IT and GRC to ensure requirements for indirect tax, global compliance and reporting are included. Plan time for tax data mapping including data cleansing to ensure tax determination and reporting is accurate at go-live.
- Evaluate Integration Methods: Evaluate how the third-party tax engine integrates with SAP S/4HANA. Are there native APIs, certified connectors, or middleware? Ask what deployment paths are supported to ensure there are cloud and on-premise options.
- Design for the Future: Your business will grow, and tax requirements will evolve over time. Create a tax architecture that is ready for regulatory changes, new country mandates, E-invoicing and digital reporting mandates that are not known.
