Success Story - News Corp

Challenge

News Corp files state returns for roughly 100 entities spanning 48 states. As their footprint grew, it became increasingly important to drive efficiencies in state apportionment and streamline the process wherever possible. Despite using the same data for federal returns and state apportionment, the team utilized two different templates, effectively creating separate processes for the 1120 and state apportionment. Adding to the inefficiencies, every time federal return amounts changed, the team had to revisit state workpapers to reallocate, reapportion, and reimport state apportionment.

Further, New Corp’s apportionment workpapers housed various calculations and separate data import tabs—and there was no way to reconcile imported data to system data. Different sourcing methods were lumped into a single import, making it hard to parse and review information.

Solution

News Corp leveraged CSC Corptax Office^® POV and data map functionality to transform the process.

Result

Using ingenuity combined with POV power, News Corp fused their federal and state functions, saving approximately 25 hours per year preparing state workbooks for four business units. They also complete the state apportionment process a month earlier than in previous years.

Their new process uses Office POV to pull relevant federal data out of Corptax and centralize it within a few workbook tabs. With pre-built data maps, they review data by state and entity, look at any variances or unallocated amounts, and push adjustments back into Corptax—all in a few simple steps.

And News Corp didn’t stop there. They use POV functionality to pull out imported state apportionment data to see variances between workpaper and system data in real-time.

For each sourcing method, the team imports data into different cases in Corptax, simplifying review and state-to-state comparisons, enabling compliance accuracy, and much more.

Now, News Corp:

• Completes the state apportionment process a month earlier than in previous years
• Saves 25 hours per year by consolidating state apportionment workbooks
• Ensures consistency between state and federal data
• Consolidates state apportionment workpapers and import files
• Aligns data for easy review, validation, and planning
• Ties-out import data and system data in real-time with built-in POV connections
• Produces a clean calculation—now consolidated into one workpaper, calculation, and import process

An added bonus: state now works concurrently with federal and no longer has to wait for the finished return to do the heavy lifting on state apportionment.

Next up for News Corp: incorporating Alteryx so local BUs can instantly input their data into the new state apportionment process.