Success Story - Interstate Batteries

Challenge

With separate systems for provision and compliance, Interstate Batteries (IB) couldn’t leverage data from one process to the other, lost time to manual work, and lacked analytics-supported planning. When their provision software didn’t handle new tax law changes, IB reverted to an Excel-based provision, which they said, “took our technology journey backwards.” As 50-state filers, other challenges included:

• Staying on top of changes to state tax law
• Manually updating provision data when it changed
• Manually reconciling the state payables account
• Managing extensive return workbooks and resulting Excel crashes
• Paper-filing 58 returns due to system limitations and complexities

IB wanted to be less Excel-reliant, incorporate tax law changes in real-time, automate M1s and RTP, and achieve full process alignment across their entire tax lifecycle.

Solution

Interstate Batteries knew that to be “a best in class tax department, we needed best in class tax technology.” They chose the CSC Corptax^® single-system for provision and compliance, allowing them to redeploy data for end-to-end tax, automate manual work, and better understand their tax picture as a whole.

Result

Interstate Batteries now performs much of their provision and compliance processes in reverse, pulling data from the system to support offline calculations. This improves data reliability, dramatically reduces the number and size of workpapers, and cleans up external links, dependencies, and version control issues. Corptax flexibility helps the team prepare workpapers and calcs with greater granularity—ensuring accuracy and less risk. On a state level, the team leverages Alteryx workflows for apportionment and depreciation adjustments, which are then pushed into the software via Corptax Office.

On the analytics front, IB uses real-time Corptax data to build Tableau dashboards. Visualizing quarterly provision data and pertinent business indicators, including a battery’s tax cost in each state, informs decisions. Their strategic input even earned them a special shoutout from their CEO!

Other notable achievements include:

• Automating 60% of federal M1s and computing RTP instantly, eliminating related manual workpapers
• Automating various compliance calculations by pulling/pushing data with Corptax Office, including Cost of Goods Sold, book reclasses, and Country-by-Country reporting
• Using real-time apportionment info for provision vs. data from prior-year return
• Reducing paper-filed returns from 58 to 13
• Going from 47 tabs/3 workbooks to 11 tabs/1 workbook for estimated payment calculation
• Creating detailed procedures for new processes to easily onboard new staff