Motor Fuels Tax Minute, Episode 91: Software Explained

In this episode of Motor Fuels Tax Minute, our hosts begin a six-part series about motor fuels tax software.

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Detailed Description of Weaver’s Motor Fuels Tax Minute, Episode 91

00:00:00
Leanne: Welcome to Weaver’s Motor Fuels Tax Minute, the vlog where we talk all things motor fuel. An area that we’ve had a lot of questions on recently is software. Using software for tax determination, using software to handle exemption certificates, all kinds of questions surrounding software.

My children will tell you software is not one of my strong points. I can barely operate Excel, but thankfully, Kelly and several other members of our team are software proficient.

So, I thought, let’s put it together. Let’s talk a little bit about these questions that we’re getting. So Kelly, first question for you: ERP [enterprise resource planning] implementations. What on earth does that mean when somebody says to me, can you do an ERP implementation?

00:00:46
Kelly: So, what that usually means is a company is taking their old ERP system or their mainframe system, usually they’re upgrading it, or they’ve been doing everything in Excel and they’re finally starting to do it a little more automated.

A lot of times with these implementations, they are not driven by tax. Tax is kind of like a bonus. We get a little bit more that we can do with them in terms of tax rules and tax determination, but it also causes tax to be the last priority. So as everyone’s testing and as we all know, those ERP implementations love having a December deadline. Tax is usually the one working over Christmas Day, trying to get this running for everyone else.

So how can you avoid this? How does this happen? What I would say is be proactive. In the very beginning, when you hear it’s happening, start getting familiar with the software. Join the trainings. Understand what it can do for tax. Now, the other groups have to start first because they’re actually putting transactions that you will later test. So even though tax is last and that’s not our favorite thing, it kind of comes with the flow of the transactions.

So, you can start looking for gaps in your current system. Maybe you’re just using yes/no flags and you’ve never developed tax rules. Identify some problem states where maybe you’re doing constant credit and rebuilds, or your data is not coming through clean for your tax returns, and just start cleaning that up and start deciding what you need from this new software.

Also, identify gaps. You might be moving from a software, I know when I worked for Sonoco, we used a mainframe software from back in the 80s, I think when I first joined. Like we were using function keys, it was old for me and I’m pretty old at this point. So, when we moved to a new software, even though that old one seemed clunky, it actually gave us a lot of freedom.

The new software had a lot of rules, so know the requirements. If you aren’t populating origin and destination or title transferred, these are going to become funds later on. Just start working on those, start working on product and load code mapping and it will set you up for a much better implementation.

00:02:48
Leanne: Well, thank you, Kelly. That’s all really interesting. A lot of software jargon that still goes over my head, but I know that our viewers will find it very useful.

Any questions on software for fuel tax, please reach out. Our team really does know their stuff. And that was this week’s Motor Fuels Tax Minute.