Disclosure management: finding a streamlined solution to an increasingly taxing problem

In the ever-evolving landscape of tax reporting and financial disclosures, the challenges faced by tax and finance teams have reached unprecedented levels of complexity. As companies grow and technologies advance, the year-end reporting process has become a critical area that demands efficiency, accuracy, and compliance. The traditional manual approach to year-end disclosures is not only time consuming but also poses a significant risk of errors, inconsistencies, and missed deadlines.

Recognising the need for a transformative solution, ITR has been learning about the Certent Disclosure Management (CDM) tool offered by insightsoftware, a global provider of reporting, analytics, and performance management solutions. CDM is the industry's only all-in-one disclosure management system, built on the Microsoft Office platform.

This article delves into the features and benefits of CDM in helping to address the challenges faced by tax professionals in meeting regulatory filing requirements and ensuring accurate, timely filings.

As companies expand and adopt advanced technologies, the complexities of year-end reporting have dramatically increased. Tax professionals find themselves grappling with intricate details, diverse data sources, and the need for a streamlined approach to meet disclosure regulations.

The manual effort involved in year-end disclosures poses a significant risk of errors. In an era when accuracy is paramount, the reliance on disparate spreadsheets and outdated methods can compromise the integrity of financial filings, leading to potential regulatory issues and the erosion of stakeholder trust.

Working with a collection of disparate spreadsheets not only introduces the risk of errors but also contributes to time-consuming processes. The stress and fragmentation associated with approaching year-end filing deadlines in a disjointed manner can hinder the efficiency of tax professionals.

CDM stands out as a comprehensive solution designed to address the challenges inherent in meeting regulatory filing requirements. Built on the Microsoft Office platform, CDM provides tax professionals with the tools needed to streamline the reporting process, enhance accuracy, and ensure compliance.

The heart of the CDM solution lies in automation and collaborative software. By reducing manual efforts in year-end disclosures, tax professionals can mitigate the risk of errors and ensure a smoother, more efficient reporting process. The collaborative nature of the platform facilitates seamless communication and coordination among finance teams, fostering a more error-free reporting environment.

One of the key features of CDM is its ability to automatically update to the most recent data for the next reporting period. This feature not only ensures accuracy but also eliminates the need for manual data updates. In a landscape where economic fluctuations and market volatility can impact financial results, having real-time data updates is crucial for maintaining relevance and precision.

Security is a top priority in financial reporting. CDM offers strong access controls and single sign-on features, ensuring that only authorised users can make changes and approve narrative content. This level of control enhances data security and maintains the integrity of the disclosure process.

CDM’s automated narrative reporting feature allows tax professionals to automatically roll over reports to the next period with the latest data. This not only accelerates the report creation process but also ensures consistency across internal and external reporting. By building documents from pre-existing sections, experts can focus on individual components, reducing the time spent on low-value activities.

CDM seamlessly integrates with Microsoft Office. The familiar interface ensures ease of adoption, allowing tax professionals to collaborate using standard Microsoft Office comments while extending functionality with added security, audit trail, and automated data integration.

To reduce risk and ensure security, CDM offers version control, workflow management, and an audit trail. This allows tax professionals to track the status of each document section, with due dates, responsibility assignments, and automated notifications. Configurable business rules help to identify potential issues during the review cycle, promoting accuracy and governance.

CDM’s direct multi-data source connection allows users to refresh data at any time, ensuring they have the latest information at their fingertips. Linking narrative and data directly back to source data eliminates conflicting numbers or narratives in reports.

For organisations dealing with multinational reporting requirements, CDM’s eXtensible Business Reporting Language tagging feature ensures compliance with global mandates, including the European Securities and Markets Authority and the European Single Electronic Format. Real-time validation flags errors instantly, improving the overall quality in filings. The platform's web-based reviewer enables users and management to review and approve Inline eXtensible Business Reporting Language documents for accuracy and data quality before filing.

CDM offers tax professionals a range of benefits that contribute to accelerating reporting and ensuring compliance. By halving the time spent on creating internal and external narrative reports, tax professionals can produce and format regulatory, internal, and external reports with ease, utilising the Office products they are already familiar with.

As tax and finance professionals navigate the quarterly close drill, the disclosure process takes centre stage. CDM stands out as the industry's only all-in-one disclosure management solution based on Microsoft Office.

CDM enables cloud-based reporting that streamlines the process from start to finish. By connecting directly to the source systems, CDM ensures data accuracy and integrity throughout the reporting process, while eliminating the risks of data inconsistency, errors, and security breaches.

CDM is a powerful ally for tax professionals, offering a comprehensive solution to the challenges associated with year-end reporting. By leveraging automation, collaboration, and a range of features tailored for tax reporting, CDM empowers tax and finance teams to navigate the complexities of regulatory filing requirements with confidence, speed, and precision.

Contact insightsoftware for further information.

Insightsoftware is a leading provider of reporting, analytics, and performance management solutions. Over 32,000 organisations worldwide rely on the firm to support business needs in the areas of accounting, finance, operations, supply chain, tax, budgeting, planning, HR, and disclosure management. It enables the office of the CFO to connect to, and make sense of, their data in real time so they can proactively drive greater financial intelligence across their organisation. Insightsoftware’s best-in-class solutions provide customers with increased productivity, visibility, accuracy, and compliance.