Sabrix - Sabrix MTS - CPA Practice Advisor

From the August 2009 Review of Sales
& Use Tax Programs

Sabrix
has long been a provider of enterprise and global corporate VAT, sales and use
taxes, but recently the company introduced a solution geared toward sales and
use tax for small and mid-market businesses in the United States and Canada.
The Sabrix Managed Tax Service (MTS) system is an outsourced service that integrates
in real-time with a business’ financial applications to automatically
determine jurisdictions and taxability or products and services, with the information
instantly calculated and fed through into the sales system and appropriate GL
accounts; deliver professionally prepared, signature-ready returns with supporting
audit trail reports; and filing and remittance. The service includes an on-demand
version of the same tax platform that powers over $1.7 trillion in transaction
taxes for global companies worldwide, service from a multidisciplinary team
of tax experts and SAS 70 Type II certified processes.

Sabrix supports more than 13,000 taxing jurisdictions in the United States,
Canada and 170 other countries, including VAT 2010 and recent EU VAT reductions.
MTS can be used in a variety of ways, from providing just sales and use tax
rate lookups/integration, to return preparation, and even a fully outsourced
return compliance and remittance option. Pricing is based on transaction volumes,
with a system handling about 10,000 transactions costing under $5,000.

Navigation & Data Entry:
Sabrix MTS runs invisibly in the background, working in conjunction with a business’
financial and e-commerce applications. Standard integration packages are available
for QuickBooks, Microsoft Dynamics GP and NAV, Oracle, PeopleSoft, and SAP’s
BusinessOne, All-in-One and R3. This integration provides users with additional
rate information features within these accounting programs so that when salespeople
or other staff are entering customer information, MTS automatically looks up
and verifies appropriate tax rates from Sabrix’s online database and applies
them in real-time. Both custom and batch integration options are available for
ecommerce integration or integration with other ERP and back-end systems.

With the returns management functions enabled, MTS also automatically populates
returns for each jurisdiction which undergo a three-step review process by tax
professionals and are delivered to customers signature ready. Reporting capabilities
allow managers to drilldown to states, local entities, special jurisdictions,
individual transactions and line items, as well as to perform account reconciliation
functions.

With most of the program’s functions occurring automatically and transparently,
and with little need for users to manually enter information, MTS’s web-based
management interface is generally geared around reporting, returns management
and reconciliation functions. This screen provides links to various functions
for management of tax policy, company information, reports, invoices and returns,
and also provides exemption certificate management options. Authorized users
can override tax policy data, with a full audit trail tracking user access and
edits.

Filing, Electronic Compliance & Payment:
With the full front-end (rate lookup and integration) and backend (return processing
and compliance service) options implemented, the Sabrix MTS system basically
runs on auto-pilot, allowing businesses to focus on sales, not sales taxes.
The program provides signature-ready returns that undergo a three-step review
process by tax professionals for all taxing jurisdictions in the United States
and Canada, allowing users to outsource tedious compliance tasks. Sabrix’s
e-filing and remittance service extends these capabilities by having the vendor
handle both filing and payment of liabilities, ensuring accurate and on-time
compliance, but still allowing management to oversee, review and adjust returns
during the process.

Rate Updates:
The key to Sabrix MTS is that the program itself runs within the business’
accounting systems and automatically reaches out to Sabrix’s SAS70 Type
II secure online database of sales and use tax rates, product taxability rules
and other information. This information is managed by a staff of sales tax experts,
researchers and legal advisors, and is constantly maintained, requiring no tax
table updates by users. Rate changes are automatically made available at least
three days prior to going into effect.

Help/Training:
The web-based management interface provides quick 24/7 access to Help and online
support, which includes the Sabrix Resource Center. This site offers an extensive
collection of tools, including interactive demos, case studies, whitepapers,
webinars and updates on tax rate changes. Support lines are staffed by both
tax experts and technical resources.

Relative Value:
The Sabrix MTS system is ideally suited to businesses with growing compliance
issues that find themselves spending an inordinate amount of time and resources
managing sales and use taxation. The system automates virtually every aspect
of the process, from verifying address and current rate information, checking
special taxability rules, calculating and applying taxes to transactions, and
populating returns for all jurisdictions. For mid-sized and some smaller entities
that have rapidly expanding or unpredictable jurisdictional reach, or have high
transaction levels across the country, Sabrix MTS can deliver a significant
ROI.

2009 OVERALL RATING: