Von Arno Bürgin
21 Januar 2020The job description of a corporate tax expert has not exactly become easier since the financial crisis of 2008. Revelations such as the Panama Papers, data exchange between states or the exposure of dubious business practices such as Cum Ex mean that the distinction between tax avoidance and tax evasion is becoming increasingly blurred.
On the other hand, tax departments are also presented with opportunities. Excel still plays a prominent role in day-to-day operations. Every day, rows and columns are marked, cells are filled with values, and formulas are scoured for forgotten characters - and next week, the whole thing starts all over again. In this way, departmental employees waste a lot of time. Not only for data preparation, but also to a large extent for data collection and data analysis.
The opportunity here is to invest in new technology. Even if it already sounds almost like a platitude: we are in the age of the digital revolution. So why not take advantage of the possibilities offered by intelligent machines? After all, a soccer field is not watered with a watering can, but sprinkled with a sprinkler, and a tunnel is not dug with a shovel, but bored with a tunnel boring machine.
The goal should therefore be to invest where investments make sense and thereby save money. The tax industry lends itself well to this. In a highly regarded 2013 paper entitled "The Future of Employment: How susceptible are jobs to computerization?", the authors Frey & Osborne analyzed the tasks of 702 occupations and assigned each of these occupations a probability that its tasks will be taken over by machines, i.e. automated. With a probability of only 0.28%, recreational therapists are in first place, i.e. they run the least risk of having to hand over tasks to machines, while tax consultants are in 586th place with 93% - even behind cab drivers, for example. In addition to professions in the tax sector, internal auditing professions are also high up in the above-mentioned ranking: accountants and internal auditors rank 589th with 94%.
The study does not mean that there will soon be no more tax consultants, nor does it provide any information about when automation will take hold. But one thing is certain: the tax profession will definitely change. And this is not necessarily to be understood in a negative way. That part of the work that is based on repetitive, repetitive activities will be carried out by machines. Those activities that require evaluation and creative solution-finding will remain with humans.
How can we imagine such automation in the near future? One possibility is so-called robot-controlled process automation. This is an application that imitates a human user: A software robot. This software robot will log into applications like a human, copy and paste numbers from Excel, for example, manipulate them, and finally send the created file by e-mail. Quasi an employee who lives in the office.
A software robot offers great opportunities, but also poses a risk. The software robot will most likely be delivered to the company by an external provider, so it is a black box for the company. What if the functionality needs to be changed? What if the software robot behaves differently than desired? Or requirements change again after only half a year?
In specialist departments, such as the tax department or internal audit, it may therefore make more sense to choose a white box approach. In this way, specialist knowledge can be brought in and it can be determined which tasks are to be automated and how.
One way to take such an approach right now is with Alteryx Designer software. Alteryx Designer offers options for data preparation, data merging, data analysis and much more. At the same time, Alteryx is as easy to use as Excel - all desired functionalities can be dragged and dropped into the workspace. The well-designed layout of the workspace and work steps also means that you never lose track of what you're doing. Alteryx Designer can do just about anything in the field of data manipulation, and it does so with high performance. It's like a pocket knife - with the penetrating power of a chainsaw.
If you have any questions or suggestions about Alteryx Designer, or if you would like to use Alteryx Designer in your company, we would be happy to answer any questions you may have. Our employees are experienced users of Alteryx Designer and will be happy to help you get started.
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