Just Eat Takeaway.com improves its tax reporting process with IFRS tax template in OneStream
Just Eat Takeaway.com is a fast-growing, leading global online food delivery marketplace. Automating its tax processes saves time, improves control, and creates transparency.
Reporting has become more demanding
The steep growth curve of the company was one of the main triggers for Just Eat Takeaway.com to move to an automated tax reporting process. Karolina Hart, Tax Accounting, Reporting and Control Manager at Just Eat Takeaway.com: “We are growing fast and have made several acquisitions over the past years. Therefore, our reporting has become more international and more demanding.”
Headquartered in Amsterdam and in London, the company connects consumers with over 580,000 restaurants through its platforms. Just Eat Takeaway.com was created in January 2020 by bringing together two of the world’s leading food delivery firms: Takeaway.com – founded in 2000 in The Netherlands – and Just Eat – founded in 2001 in Denmark.
“We wanted to have one set of automated controls for all the data and provide more transparency on the tax reporting.”
More time for reviewing and analyzing the tax reporting
Karolina and her team achieved several business objectives by automating the tax reporting processes. Karolina: “One of our key goals was timesaving. We’re dealing with tight reporting timelines. By reducing the number of manual activities and controls, we gain more time for reviewing and analyzing rather than calculating and matching the data.”
Other key goals were to gain more control and create transparency. “We wanted to have one set of automated controls for all the data and provide more transparency on the tax reporting.”
OneStream enables one way of working for the whole reporting process
Just Eat Takeaway.com already used OneStream for its consolidation processes. By adding the tax reporting process into the existing workflow, tax is fully incorporated in the reporting process.
Though an essential consideration, it is not the company’s only reason to move its tax processes to OneStream. “OneStream is a flexible tool. As a company, we’re constantly changing, and company-specific requirements can be built into the tool.”
“There were several Just Eat Takeaway.com specific items that we wanted to automate. It’s great that the template could handle this as well”
IFRS tax template in OneStream
The project team used the IFRS tax template to ensure a smooth and fast implementation. Experts at Taxvibes and Finext, sister organizations that often collaborate during tax automation projects, developed this standard template for IFRS tax processes. “We’ve created the IFRS tax template based on best practices. Many international organizations use it for their tax automation,” explains Roelf Kloen, tax reporting specialist at Taxvibes.
The template can easily be adapted to each company’s specific requirements, as at Just Eat Takeaway.com. “There were several Just Eat Takeaway.com specific items that we wanted to automate. It’s great that the template could handle this as well,” says Karolina.
Pragmatic project approach in 3 phases
The project team used a pragmatic approach with 3 phases. Karolina is enthusiastic about the phased approach. “We had minimal time to do the implementation. We used the first phase to ensure the tool was live and could be used in time for the Q3 Close. We could use our experiences during the close for the adjustments in phase 2 and the nice-to-haves in phase 3. This approach enabled us to get everything done in sync with our reporting calendar.”
She is also happy about the collaboration with Taxvibes and Finext. “Taxvibes has a lot of experience and knowledge of tax reporting, while Finext was already familiar with our OneStream setup, as they implemented the consolidation processes.”
Another benefit was the fact that Taxvibes understands both tax and IT. “As an architect, they ensured that everyone in the meeting spoke the same language. It is a must for such an implementation.”
“The future lies in being able to incorporate continuous changes into our processes and systems.”
Confident about future tax reporting demands
Karolina sees more demand for tax automation soon. “The tax environment is continuously changing, which is why it’s such an interesting field. For instance, the arrival of Pillar 2, for which the calculations are very different than our current accounting calculations.”
She is not worried about handling these changes. “The future lies in being able to incorporate such changes into our processes and systems. We’ve experienced the flexibility of OneStream, which makes me confident we can easily adjust our automated processes to whatever is required.”
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