Market Perspectives

Indirect taxes — known variously as sales-and-use, value-added or goods-and-services tax — can get complicated, particularly in countries that have overly complex tax regimes such as Brazil, India and the United States. For example, in the U.S., state and local governments have their own statutes defining which goods are taxed and at what rates, and taxable items and rates change all the time. More recently, compliance has grown more complex with the Supreme Court’s Wayfair decision, which ruled to allow states to impose sales tax collection requirements on remote sellers that exceed a certain threshold, without regard to physical presence in that state. And now, going into 2022, sales-and-use taxes as well as VAT are likely to become more complex, and enforcement is likely to become more stringent in the wake of the pandemic.

Financial consolidation is the process of combining financial data (notably assets, liabilities, income and expenses) from multiple subsidiaries’ general ledgers across an organization for the purpose of creating a parent company report. The current reality for financial consolidation and close processes is that many organizations still rely on manual spreadsheets, which can lead to longer closing periods, errors and confusion. According to SVP & Research Director in the Office of Finance Robert Kugel’s Best Practices, “Finance organizations must apply digital technology to reduce time spent on repetitive tasks to accelerate processes, improve data quality and shift focus to forward-looking analytical work.” Luckily, digital finance software companies have come a long way and now offer a variety of different products to significantly improve Office of Finance operations and workflow.

The annual Ventana Research Digital Leadership Awards recognize organizations and individuals that utilize technology to advance business and IT. The Digital Leadership Awards showcase the professional leadership and their use of business applications or technology that contribute significantly to improved efficiency, productivity and the performance of their organization. This prestigious award recognizes leaders and pioneers who have contributed to their organization’s success and championed improvements across their people, processes, information and technology.