KPMG streamlines tax compliance services with Dynamics 365

KPMG is one of the Big Four accounting organizations and a global leader in professional services. With local firms in 143 countries and territories offering audit, tax, and advisory services, they help organizations around the world navigate the complex tax landscape. Its teams aim to simplify tax issues and technology solutions for their clients, whether they involve designing tax models, enhancing compliance processes, handling financial and contract transactions and reporting, or improving corporate performance. Industry-focused advisors use advanced technology and extensive tax experience to deliver outcomes that suit each client’s needs. KPMG firms work with leading technology providers to tailor each client’s tax strategy and identify future opportunities.

KPMG in the US Tax teams help corporate tax departments meet the continuous strategic and tactical challenges of changing regulations, tight reporting deadlines, and new accounting standards. KPMG in the US professionals use a modern and multi-disciplined approach to tax filing that considers efficiency, cost savings, and agile reporting methods.

Modernized customer engagement is key

In March 2022, KPMG in the US started a journey to modernize its customer engagement management system with the goal of aligning its business processes to file taxes and serve clients faster. KPMG tax preparers need to respond quickly while handling business expansion and meeting clients’ high expectations.

The firm’s existing solution wasn’t optimal. It was a specialized solution developed internally, and it didn’t offer a strong foundation to add the right features and automation that the industry demanded. Depending on the nature of the tax offering, managers and tax preparers used different tools to manage and simplify their work. To be competitive and efficient, they needed a clear view of their client engagement status and business performance metrics.

A simple and standardized solution with more features and automation would improve efficiency for the long term and unify KPMG teams with one common tax engagement management tool. A flexible operation platform with features for specific tax services would provide the KPMG in the US team a centralized solution moving away from a couple of high-maintenance systems. It would also provide a single way to manage customer tax filings with easy access to relevant account data that would help KPMG in the US enhance the end-to-end tax filing process.

KPMG customer service teams were already using Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service. The firm knew how useful connected customer data could be for setting KPIs, building customer relationships, and reporting business performance.

Dynamics 365 and Power Automate streamline tax filing engagements

KPMG in the US needed one system for all its tax filing engagements. In late June 2023, the tax group assessed the requirements of all its US offices and clients, then created a detailed process map and system architecture. It chose Dynamics 365 Project Operations as the best solution to handle their tax filing engagements for tracking point in time deliverables, resource assignments and overall engagement reporting. Power Automate, the low-code cloud automation platform, would make filing easier and faster, creating major efficiencies across the tax practice.

KPMG’s Dynamics 365-based solution could be tailored to meet the specific needs of each client, while being flexible enough to grow and adapt to the organization’s future needs. Dynamics 365 was the central hub for easy integration with KPMG’s own data analytics solutions.

In August 2023, the Dynamics 365 Project Operations implementation was ready for the US firm’s tax teams. KPMG in the US operational transformation began, with the potential for more expansion and automation. It would be an example for future implementations to other business units in the firm. "Using Dynamics 365 Project Operations marks a significant milestone for our teams, transforming the way deliverables are tracked and providing real-time data reporting capabilities for enhanced decision-making,” noted Frank Luna, Managing Director, Technology Innovation, Tax, at KPMG U.S.

Improved engagement workflow with Dynamics 365 Project Operations

KPMG teams in the US use Dynamics 365 Project Operations to access a single platform that links everything from the initial engagement setup to the end deliverable phase. KPMG in the US’s tax practice creates and manages more than 500,000 projects and 15 million tasks during a busy tax season. Project Operations speeds up delivery, makes employees more productive, and increases profitability.

The whole workflow of an engagement, from initial contact to monitoring tasks and reporting progress, is visible to managers, administrators, and associates. They use one central system to manage the work and track the steps of the tax preparation process. Engagement managers can create new engagements according to regional compliance requirements, and engagement steps are adjusted to the entity type and tax regulations required to complete the deliverables. Users start with standard templates and add customization to specify the variables that load the appropriate tasks and resources for each engagement, based on the customer's needs.

The entire engagement is smoothly managed as tasks are delegated and resources are alerted using different methods when they need to take over. Progress is immediately reflected on the team’s engagement dashboard. Using dashboards, team members quickly see the status of each engagement, identify potential challenges, and forecast when the team may need support to advance the engagement. By synthesizing the volume of data into dashboards, engagement managers have a comprehensive view of their engagements and teams. Armed with this information, it enables them to not only look ahead to anticipate resourcing needs, but also look back with the view to improve planning for future engagements.

KPMG in the US business has multiple peak seasons each year, Project Operations helps engagement managers plan for resource needs. The resource planning capability also makes it easy to keep up the quality of customer service when teammates aren’t available.

With the Dynamics 365 Project Operations rollout, KPMG in the US met its three business transformation goals:

Operational process standardization. KPMG in the US tax team business process has become simpler, with coordinated teams using one integrated system with an easy-to-use interface and improved processes to handle customer interactions. Filing methods and account features are tailored to local personas to meet customer requirements for each KPMG office. With all US teams using the system, tax filing is more effective and faster. In fact, after the system was implemented and optimized, KPMG in the US saw a 60% increase in the number of tax filing engagements created per minute.

Engagement activity visibility. Engagement managers can easily see the latest customer, engagement status, and can track each one of the phases of the tax deliverables and are more active in serving customers and making business decisions. A clear view of engagement activities and real-time status monitoring helps users address issues and prioritize next steps. They can identify and change out-of-scope engagements when needed. Quick access to status reports on demand with task completion and due dates lets managers send early reminders to the right team member. Users have better insight into customer needs and can promptly offer suitable solutions, improving service quality. Dynamics 365 Project Operations helps KPMG in the US lower service response time and increase first contact resolution. “Dynamics 365 Project Operations empowers the KPMG US Tax team to navigate complex, cross-functional engagements and multi-delivery location challenges with ease, offering adjustable workflows, real-time visibility, and enhanced resource planning to stay ahead of schedules and help ensure seamless delivery," explains Aman Ajmani, Chief Operating Officer, Tax Shared Services, Tax at KPMG US.

Accountability and traceability. A view of how the business is performing year over year gives business managers the perspective they need to plan ahead and make sense of annual planning. Resource management professionals have current engagement budget and reporting details, enabling accurate forecasting. With Dynamics 365 Project Operations, business planners are better informed and can provide faster and more strategic analysis to guide business with more confidence.