Success Story - Sherwin-Williams

Challenge

Provision workbooks had long been a struggle for Sherwin-Williams’ (SW) tax group. Data connections to multiple sources caused errors, and sharing data with external users required copying and pasting values into blank workbooks whenever data changed—making it “a terrible and time-consuming way to share data.”

Making matters worse, SW lacked centralized general ledger (GL) data. Individual adjustments had workbooks of their own. This added a layer of complexity every time they wanted to analyze detail in tax-sensitive accounts. And without a standardized workbook format, team members found themselves creating ad-hoc reconciliations and offline calculations in order to spot variances and irregularities.

Sherwin-Williams resolved to create a process to ensure secure and easy storage and sharing of tax provision data.

Solution

Sherwin-Williams overhauled their workbook process using CSC Corptax^® Office and Point-of-View (POV) data connections.

Result

Sherwin-Williams launched their revamp with four new POV connections from pre-defined tables within Corptax to the provision workbook.

When new GL data is pushed into Corptax, the provision workbook uses POV connections to retrieve current amounts hands-free, automatically refreshing calculations and reconciliations back to unadjusted GL data. By pulling computed amounts from Corptax back into the workpaper, they automate the process of recording journal entries to be posted to financial statements and minimize the potential for misstatements.

Profit Before Tax (PBT) is automatically refreshed from Corptax instead of the ERP system, and real-time updates flow throughout the workpapers without manual intervention. Automated M adjustments and other computed amounts are pulled into the workpapers. Remaining book-to-tax adjustments calculate instantly, and they’re readied for import into Corptax.

The streamlined process helps Sherwin-Williams gather data for audits, analytics, and planning without entering the system. Now they easily:

• Access the provision workbook and analyze current system data and calculations with reconciliations to unadjusted trial balance data
• Pull individual account detail in real-time that ties back to Corptax for further analysis or audit support
• Share data internally and externally in a secure and efficient fashion
• Collaborate with remote team members on workpaper preparation and review