Integrating Tax Automation Software

Taxes are a nightmare. They’re complicated, boring, difficult to manage, and expensive to neglect. What’s worse, there appears to be no easy (and legal) way around them. Or… is there?

Thankfully, taxes were annoying and routine enough for developers to get together and digitalize them, creating Tax Automation Software (TAS), which collects, calculates, and files properly prepared tax documents, effectively doing your taxes for you.

Now, if you’re a business, choosing the right TAS can be a bit of a hassle. What features are must-haves? What features are optional? What should you be on the look-out for in your search for the perfect TAS? We too had to face these questions when developing Possio, a European GPS tracking solution. Together with the client, we looked into a number of TAS available on the market, and, having done an extensive research, settled on using Taxamo, as it is a perfect solution for the European market.

However, our choice might not be the one for you, as some TAS can work for your business better that others. Below, we’re comparing four major tax automation services: Taxamo, Taxify, Avalara, and Octobat. You’ll learn about their features, pricing, geographical coverage, possibilities for payment gateway integration, and much more to hopefully assist you in making the right TAS choice for your company!

Tax Automation Software: Standard Features

Most TAS systems offer a standard level of features that include: integrating with your online business (store, website, application — doesn’t really matter what), settling tax amounts from transactions, preparing and filing relevant documents, and storing all of that data for future audits. However, there are differences between them that are most evident in the breadth of services on offer.

Some TAS cover only one country’s tax regulations, while others work across several. Some TAS can integrate with hundreds of payment gateways, while others are able to run only a couple of them. Some have strict, recurring pricing models, while others offer an adaptive pricing structure that works more like a pay-as-you-go service. You get the idea — the main differences between the various tax automation software out there are hidden within the smallest details.

Comparing TAS Features Offered

Taxamo

Tax Calculation
Real-time identification of the most appropriate tax treatment for each transaction, without disrupting customer checkout flow.

Tax Collection
Instant collection of Value Added Tax (VAT) and General Sales Tax (GST), directly from payment providers.

Variety of Payments
Supports two types of payments: subscriptions and one-time transactions.

International Support
Users are able to choose the countries and regions that they want Taxamo to take VAT and GST liability for.

Business2Business (B2B) & Business2Consumer (B2C)
Multiple-country compliant B2B support through real-time validation of VAT/business numbers.

Taxify

Real-Time Tax Rates
Accurate, up-to-date tax rates in over 14,000 state/local jurisdictions.

Reporting & Audit Trail
Clarity in all tax records, from historical data to current findings.

Self-Service Web Portal
An extremely easy-to-use platform, compatible with anyone’s skills.

Automated Filing and Remittance
Complete automation of the taxing process, with no stamps, paper, or checks.

Print-Ready Tax Forms
Ready-to-sign forms for any state, with accurate, up-to-date tax rates for more than 14,000 US jurisdictions.

Government Certification
Taxify is a member of the Streamlined Sales Tax Project. This future-proofs your business against the changing US federal and state tax laws.

On-Demand Tax Research
With 20 tax attorneys on staff at all times, Taxify can present their customers with the most current tax rates and rules, enabling them to make smart decisions for the future of their business.

Avalara

Avalara Standard Features

Tax Calculator
Regularly updated, accurate calculation of tax rates for more than 12,000 US jurisdictions.

Supports Complex Organizations
Multiple-entity support for every location and/or department of a given organization.

Product Taxability
Thousands of sales tax rates for each product your business sells, ensuring careful calculation of taxes in every jurisdiction.

Address Validation
Automatic validation and correction of addresses for the highest level house-by-house tax calculation.

Avalara Premium Features

VAT Calculation
Automation of VAT calculations for more than 190 countries.

The AvaTax service works with many global businesses, including:

• U.S. companies trading with EU companies or consumers;
• EU companies trading with U.S. companies or consumers;
• EU companies with wholly-owned subsidiaries in the U.S.

AvaTax Exemption
A compliance document management solution for collecting, storing, and managing exemption certificates.

With AvaTax Exemption, users may:

• manage exempt customer information to determine jurisdictional exemption requirements;
• upload and store exemption certificate images, and create or request exemption certificates directly from their customers.
• request new exemptions or update certificates via a standard email template.
  provide customers with a mobile-friendly certificate creation wizard using CertExpress.

Additional Integrations
A number of standards certified integrations with more than 650 accounting systems, as well as ERPs, CRMs, and other e-commerce software.

Returns Filing
Automatic preparation of sales tax returns within a single state or across hundreds of jurisdictions. To make sure that everything is calculated and filed properly, tax content is regularly updated to include the latest tax forms and instructions.

Consumer Use Tax
Simple and affordable solutions for handling use tax accruals for untaxed purchase transactions which are determined to be subject to consumer use tax. With this feature on hand, users can:

• generate the use tax accruals through a batch upload process; integrate with payable accounts or General Ledger (GL) systems for use tax analysis and calculation;
• integrate with payable accounts or General Ledger (GL) systems for use tax analysis and calculation;
• produce reports that identify the required use tax accruals for filing within state and local jurisdictions.

Landed Cost Calculation
Avalara’s custom duty and import tax calculator provides accurate, real-time calculation of the true cost of cross-border transactions. This feature allows users to:

• reduce the time spent calculating proper duty rates for the countries you work with; make use of a constantly updated cloud platform that automatically takes care of the ever-changing customs duty and import regulations;
• make use of a constantly updated cloud platform that automatically takes care of the ever-changing customs duty and import regulations;
• seamlessly integrate the API into shopping cart software;
• easily assign tariff codes to every product in your catalog, covering every country you work with.

Octobat

Real-Time VAT/GST/Sales Tax Calculation
Multi-regional tax compliance through accurate identification of international laws applicable to every given online transaction. Taxes can be calculated either at checkout or after the payment has been processed.

Automatic Invoice Delivery
By synchronizing the data from payment providers, Octobat can automatically deliver PDF tax invoices to your customers. These documents are in strict compliance with both local and international laws.

Reports
Octobat’s detailed reports can easily be synchronized with any accounting solution. They include both real-time and consolidated revenue, along with tax calculation splitting.

Audit-Friendly Compliance
Tax settlement reports are generated with automated currency conversion. Every transaction is thoroughly analyzed to identify the applicable governing tax laws (VAT number, billing country, purchase IP address, etc.). This data is then stored for a period of 10 years and can be easily accessed from the application at any time.

Seamless Integration at Checkout
Octobat offers:

• an embeddable form which is ready to be integrated with any website/application. This enables users to charge customers at the proper tax rate in just a few minutes (for both subscriptions and one-time payments);
• built-in forms that allow for easy implementation of a customizable tax pricing strategy. These forms include instant tax rate calculation and pricing updates, both of which are based on customer type (end-consumer or VAT-registered business) and location.

TAS Pricing

Taxamo

Taxamo’s pricing structure depends strongly on which of its features you’d like to integrate with your business. Because of that, we recommend contacting their sales team (sales@taxamo.com) to ask for an estimate of the approximate cost for your company’s needs.

Taxify

Avalara

Offering a wide variety of features and solutions, Avalara’s pricing structure also depends greatly on which features your company needs to use. The best way to determine the cost of Avalara’s TAS is to contact their sales representatives.

Octobat

TAS: The Technical Stuff

For potential TAS customers, the information above should be enough to get a good idea of what tax automation software can do for a business.

However, for developers looking to integrate TAS solutions for their clients, the technical details are much more relevant. That’s why we’ve asked our own developers here at SteelKiwi to look over the four sets of documentation provided by Taxamo, Taxify, Avalara, and Octobat, respectively, to determine the specifics of integrating these TAS solutions.

Tax Automation Software for Your Business

We hope this post helps you get closer to choosing the right tax automation software for your business! If you need assistance to integrate a TAS into your company’s workflow, please contact our sales team for more information.

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A List of Different Types of Computer Software With Examples

A software is a collection of programs that helps one communicate with the hardware of the computer. There are different types of computer software which are useful for several purposes. In learning about computers, the first step usually is to understand the major types of software, their uses, and applications. In the following sections, we present a list of computer software and their examples, categorized according to their different types.

Types of Computer Software

System Software
System software coordinates the complete system hardware and provides an environment or platform for all the other types of software to work in. It is the most basic type of software in any computer system, which is essential for other programs, applications and indeed for the whole computer system to function.
(System software examples - Microsoft Windows XP, Mac OS, Linux, Windows Vista, Ubuntu, device drivers, etc.)

Application Software
Application software are those that help the user perform the tasks of his/her choice. They are non-essential software which are installed and run depending upon the requirements, in the environment provided by the system software.
(Application software examples - MS Office, OpenOffice, Media Players, MS Access, educational software, media development software, Antivirus software, etc. )

Programming Software
Programming software are used to write, test, debug and develop other software programs and applications. The various programming language editors such as Eclipse- a Java language editor, come under this category. They are used for creating both the system as well as application software.
(Programming software examples - Turbo C, Xilinx, Kiel, compilers, debuggers, Integrated Development Environment (IDE), etc.)

Sub-types of Computer Software

Apart from the above major types of software, there are many other sub-types such as the ones mentioned below.

Freeware- Freeware are a type of software that anyone can download from the Internet and use for free.
(Examples - Google Talk, Yahoo Messenger, uTorrent, etc.)

Shareware- Shareware are usually distributed for free on a trial basis. It can be shared without violation of any laws. They usually stop working or prompt the user to purchase the full version, once the trial period expires.
(Examples - BearShare, Kazaa, Winzip, etc.)

Registry Cleaners- When you install a lot of software, games, etc., your computer's registry gets clogged. Registry cleaners are used to clean up or delete all the invalid registry entries which has the benefit of speeding up your computer.
(Examples- TuneUp Utilities, Eusing, etc.)

Content Control Software- These software allow you to control the content that can be accessed by a user on a computer. They are mostly used for restricting access over the Internet.
(Example- K9 Web Protection, PGSurfer, etc.)

Project Management Software- As its name suggests, project management software is a software package that helps multiple users to work on a project simultaneously. It allows them to schedule events, network with the other users, allocate resources, etc.
(Example- Microsoft Office Project Server, HyperOffice, 24SevenOffice, etc.)

Utility Software- They are usually small programs that help in the management of the hardware and the application software, installed on a computer.
(Example- Disk defragmenters, Disk cleaners, etc.)

Open Source Software- This is a type of software the source code for which is available to all users (open). As such, anyone can make changes to it and release their own new version.
(Example- Android OS, OpenOffice, etc.)

Browsers- Browsers are software that let you surf or browse the Internet.
(Example- Internet Explorer, Safari, Mozilla Firefox, etc.)

With constant advancements in the field of software engineering, several new software and applications are being developed every day. Hence, the list provided above shouldn't be considered definitive, as in the coming years, many more newer types of software would have been developed.

SOURCE: https://www.buzzle.com/articles/computer-software-examples.html

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How 3M and Cisco use "Technology Platforms" to Inspire Innovation

How to Use and Re-Use Technology to Get Long-Term Business Growth

As an advisor and consultant to some of the world's largest and most innovative companies, over the past few years I've seen a dramatic shift within the C-Suite.

Today's executives recognize the urgency to explore and invest in disruptive technology. Whether it's blockchain, autonomous cars or the Internet of Things, the frenzy makes sense. Strategic innovators experiment with technology. Investing time and money in something unproven is worth the risk. If you don't disrupt, they say, you'll eventually be disrupted.

I've had the privilege to do a little work with two big companies known for their long-term focus and investments in innovation - 3M and Cisco. Like many companies, they apply disruptive technologies to build their future products and services.  But 3M and Cisco also use a similar approach to their technology-inspired innovation to make it a sustainable and repeatable process. Here's how they do it:

Explore the Disrupters, But Don't Stop There

3M recently established an initiative on "Connected Roads" to tap into the impending disruption from autonomous vehicles.  3M's scientists are developing new materials for road signs so sensors on automated vehicles can track signals as they speed by, essentially enabling both humans and machines to navigate roadways together in a reliable way by "reading" the same signs.

Cisco applied the power of the Internet of Things by using data from thousands of connected devices to create what it calls "intent-based networking" - aggregating enormous amounts of data promises to eventually reveal a new level of artificial intelligence.

Whether these experiments become the next big thing for 3M and Cisco is anyone's guess. That's because the biggest challenge with breakthrough innovation is that the market success of any given product or service based on new technology is highly unpredictable.

For most companies, the question isn't whether to experiment, but rather how to consistently create new revenue streams over time. Long-term innovators like 3M and Cisco recognize that in today's world enamored by the allure of disruptive technology, it's important to investigate the potential game changers, while not becoming blinded by them. Sure, a big innovation may come from a new to the world technology, but leveraging existing technical capabilities is equally important, if not an even more predictable driver of sustainable business growth.

Use Technology Platforms to Drive Long-Term Growth

Even though they're in completely different industries, 3M and Cisco both use "technology platforms" to guide their innovation efforts. These companies recognize they need a way to inspire innovation that significantly improves upon today's offerings or creates entirely new market opportunities - even if those innovations aren't always "disruptive" per se.

A "platform" is a technology that can be used as the basis for creating various products or services.  One of 3M's most famous technology platforms is "adhesives," which has allowed the company to create products like Post-It Notes, Super Sticky Easel Pads, Scotch tape, stretch release Command strips, performance adhesives to replace rivets on airplanes, medical tape, and the list goes on.

The problem in most companies is that leadership either only goes for the big bets or gets stuck in a single-minded focus on the small stuff. If we only swing for the fences, we'll miss the opportunity to score on singles, doubles, or triples as well. Technology Platforms provide a way to score on various types of innovations that help win the long game.

Define Your Platforms

Most companies understand the concept of "core competencies" - the combination of knowledge, resources, and strengths that help differentiate a company in the marketplace. While technology might contribute to a company's overall core competencies, technology platforms are a much more specific way to understand and take advantage of technology to drive innovation.

3M, for example, uses a "periodic table" format to classify 46 technology platforms into four areas that focus its innovation efforts: materials, processes, capabilities, and applications. According to Gayle Schueller, 3M's Vice President of New Platforms, "3M's technology platforms help guide efforts to maintain world-class knowledge and differentiated capabilities that advance specific products, services, processes, and business models."

CREDIT: Courtesy 3M

Cisco applies a different approach to defining its platforms, though the result is similar. Cisco's Services business structures some of its innovation platforms based on what's needed to deliver services for open source software. The idea is simple. According to Stan Baginskis, Cisco Services Sr. Director of Technology Strategy and Growth, "Accelerated adoption of open source software creates an opportunity to provide services to help our customers use the software to its full potential."

To the layperson, open source software may be almost unheard of (like FD.io, OpenDaylight, etc.), but many of these tools have become the technical backbones that help run the networks, security, storage, and cloud services of many large companies. Because the software is open source, the software itself is free, but companies are left to their own devices to implement it.

Cisco uses a simple framework to describe its platforms, each of which is a step in the life cycle of how companies select, customize, implement, and support their software tools. For example, Cisco views its platforms as Advisory, Implementation, Development, Technical Support, Solution Validation, and Optimization. Each of these platforms contain various service offerings that help customers make the most of their software.

Make Platforms Strategic

Not every technology is a platform for every company.  Some technologies may be useful for developing specific products, but they may not be the basis for future competitive advantage through innovation. 3M, for example, uses paper in products like Post-It notes and easel pads. But 3M sources paper from many suppliers, so the company doesn't view it as a core technology platform. Any company can buy bulk paper to use in their products, which is why it's not generally seen as a differentiator when it comes to innovation. As a result, 3M focuses on platforms it can control and apply to new products in ways that most competitors cannot.

Similarly, Cisco isn't trying to write code to advance every open source software tool. Rather, Cisco looks at the specific software where customers have the greatest need and Cisco has the most expertise to offer. For example, of the dozens of open source software tools available, some are more vulnerable to security breaches than others. Cisco focuses on building out its security consulting services specifically geared to customers using the software that could most benefit from additional security support, essentially defining its platform (e.g., security implementation) in relation to a given open source tool.

Technology platforms serve as the foundation for product and service innovation, and the best platforms help create market differentiation.

Develop Platforms with Customers

Technology is just technology until it solves a customer problem. In today's world focused on design thinking, the customer experience, and customer centricity, it can feel counter-intuitive to focus on technology-driven innovation. But the best technology platforms clearly outline the customer benefits or problems that they can help address, so they're connected to what really adds value to the market.

Cisco, for example, started working with a major US wireless communications giant to help the company optimize an open source data analytics tool called PNDA (pronounced "Panda"). Lots of data passes through the service provider's network every day in the form of calls, texts, videos, augmented and virtual reality games, and other mobile internet traffic.  PNDA helps companies collect, capture, and analyze this data while creating visual reports for what's happening across the network. While the PNDA open source software is great for understanding what's currently going on, by itself it doesn't provide prescriptive actions to take - which is important if you're trying to ensure that the network doesn't get "clogged up" and slow down for end-user customers. With this insight and working alongside their customer, Cisco built rules around what to do with PNDA's reports to prevent network outages and keep things running smoothly, before problems occur. The approach helped Cisco uncover a market need while concurrently validating the value of further investments into its PNDA "implementation" and "development" services platforms.

Combine Platforms to Innovate

Individual technology platforms are the springboard for innovating new products and services. That's how 3M used adhesives to make Command strips.

CREDIT: Courtesy 3M

New market opportunities often come from combining platforms. 3M's periodical table of technology platforms allows its engineers to mix and match technologies to easily explore new possibilities and quickly create new products. 3M's high performance Window Films, for example, are a combination of four platforms: Adhesives, Films, Nano-technology, and Light Management. By combining these technologies, 3M has tapped into a variety of new markets like window tinting for cars, energy management for commercial buildings through tinted glass, and security glass for windows to prevent shattering from break-ins and earthquakes.

Cisco achieved similar synergies when it applied its "development" and "implementation" platforms in its work on PNDA. Through combining these two platforms into a single high value solution for telecommunication service providers, Cisco now has an offering for other customers that can be scaled across the market.
 

Keep It Simple

While the word "platform" is as buzzwordy as "disruption" these days, any company can tap into the power of technology platform innovation by keeping things simple. Define what makes your offerings truly unique, classify these capabilities in whatever way makes the most sense, and then turn people loose to explore, combine, and create solutions with customers that solve real problems.

That's how to create a culture of innovation. And that's how to become a long-term innovator.

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5 Must-Haves in a Technology Partner

Embracing technology is essential for leaders who want to grow their businesses and maximize return on investment. That’s because technology enables you to scale your business, increase productivity, and sustain a competitive advantage. But to reap optimum rewards you need to stay abreast of current technology trends, assimilating the latest innovations judiciously along the way—a demanding task when you’re managing a business, trying to cope with customer needs, industry trends, ongoing operations and more. 

The answer is to discover a technology partner that’s able to help you design the ideal combination of technology, software platforms and services, and execute a solution tailored to your needs. Because of their daily exposure to a broad spectrum of clients, projects and industries, they enable you to leverage fresh ideas for increased efficiency. And one that will take a methodical approach that dramatically decreases your cost and time to implement your project.

“Dig your well before you’re thirsty” – Chinese Proverb

Finding the right technology partner, however, takes time. And it takes even longer to build a long-term, synergistic relationship where your partner is fully immersed in the intricacies of your business, your systems and your people. So start looking for a partner now and when you find them, put your new relationship on a test drive with a small pilot project.

The 5 Essential Questions to Ask Potential Technology Partners

You’ll discover many technology companies eager to partner with you, but ask these questions before you tie the knot.

1. Do they have competent people? 

Look for people who are not only passionate about technology, but also what it can do for your business. Your partner should have long-term, experienced employees who can tackle complex projects, protect you from problems they’ve encountered before, and bring unique insight and value to your project. They contribute innovative ideas, demonstrate thought leadership, and show you how leading-edge technology offers powerful opportunities. Then they create a technology road map that illustrates the steps required to reach your destination.

2. Do they have effective processes and systems in place?

Smart business solutions are the result of implementing knowledge and skills in a systematic way. Therefore, to gain confidence that a partner can deliver an innovative business solution without running into speed bumps along the way, it’s critical to learn what processes and systems they have in place.

For example, instead of communicating with never-ending e-mail strings, your partner should have a seamless collaboration system that centralizes communication, assures nothing falls through the cracks, and deadlines are met. They also use an intelligent project-management system to bring issues to the surface sooner; and have a well-defined development, change-order and deployment process.

3. Are they using best practices for development?

Using hybrid and agile development processes helps nail down cost-effective, timely solutions that deliver results.

A technology partner using a well integrated hybrid development process has local presence and global reach, enabling them to tap into talent and skill-sets from across the globe. The process empowers team members working across multiple time-zones, providing an around-the-clock development cycle for faster results. To be successful, communication is essential. It should include regular meetings on project status where team members synchronize their efforts and overcome obstacles together. Meanwhile the US-based team communicates with the client to assure their requirements are reflected accurately, and they are filled in on the project status every step along the way. 

An agile development process ensures active team-member and stakeholder involvement, timely updates, risk management, and cost control. All are crucial for large, complex projects with detailed specifications. By reviewing and reporting on the development process on a timely basis, agile development increases flexibility and the ability to adapt to change. The on-going active involvement of the entire team and the client reduces the time spent in meetings because of fast-paced decision making. This keeps the team motivated and boosts their performance.

4. Do They Offer End-to-End Solutions?

Your technology partner must be capable of taking your project from inception to deployment, and maintaining speed and agility throughout its life-cycle. This is a multifaceted, iterative endeavor that encompasses project scoping; defining requirements; building application architecture; designing and developing the application;quality assurance; maintaining and hosting the application; and ongoing support.

5. Do they have a broad technology background?

Because of the explosion in information technology innovation and knowledge, your technology partner needs to have wide and deep experience. Like most companies you probably need multiple technologies to run your business, for example, cloud services, Mobile Applications, and Web-based Solutions. Therefore, your partner needs the broad, experience and knowledge required to create a robust solution that intertwines these technologies for optimal results. 

For the most successful outcomes you also need to use best-of-breed technologies. For example, you may want to use Salesforce.com for customer relationship management, Microsoft SharePoint for collaboration, and an iPhone for your sales force. Thus, your technology partner must be able to work on all these platforms, recommend optimal technology combinations and integrate them. These capabilities also enable them to enhance outcomes by implementing distinct technologies on each project tier and designing the ultimate user experience. 

By relying on one partner to complete your whole project, you save time and don’t have to worry about coordinating activities of multiple vendors. 

The core message is that your partner should be a business solution architect, looking at the big picture, the challenges and opportunities unique to your business, and applying their know-how to create solutions tailored to your needs.

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5 IT experts weigh in on using software to your competitive advantage

To be successful in the digital economy, organizations must identify ways to use software to their competitive advantage. Whether you're opening new markets, using it to improve customer outcomes, or to save time and money, software may be what separates the winners and the losers in the digital age.

We spoke with five leading IT executives to find out how they are evolving their organizations to be more software-centric – their remarks are available for download below. The conversation features remarks from:

• Jay Ferro, CIO, American Cancer Society 
• Bryson Koehler, Chief Information and Technology Officer, The Weather Company
• John Marcante, CIO and Managing Director of Vanguard's IT Division, Vanguard
• Tom Soderstrom, Chief Technology and Innovation Officer, Office of the CIO, Jet Propulsion Laboratory 
• Cliff Tamplin, consultant and former Vice President of Technology Support and Risk Management for Hyatt Hotels Corporation.

In this roundtable, you will:

• Learn seven ways to help your company become more software focused.
• Find out the approach The Weather Company took to go from being a media company to a software company. You'll also learn why open source software is the “critical foundational component” of The Weather Company.
• Learn the three key steps Vanguard has taken to become more software-centric, and how you can begin to do all three at your own organization.
• Discover why software really is mission critical at Jet Propulsion Laboratory, including some mind-blowing background on the development deadlines JPL faces when it launches a spacecraft like Curiosity.
• Learn how the American Cancer Society is using a set of APIs to create new software that is opening up new corporate and cause-branding partnership discussions.

Download the CIO roundtable, “Software: The true competitive differentiator” to learn more.

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