Client Stories
NGL Crude Oil Logistics Optimized Excise Tax Filing Efficiencies by 50%
Accuracy & Efficiency
The Problem
NGL Crude Oil Logistics and their small tax team of three were manually filing over 165 returns a month with another 20 returns for each quarterly filing deadline.
“Before IGEN, it was very manual. A lot of Excel data dumping, organizing, and cleaning,” said Kameron Gates, Tax Manager at NGL Crude Oil Logistics. “I had a lot of pivot tables.”
After meticulously preparing their data, they used excise tax software to create their reports. However, it offered little transparency and visibility once their data was imported into the system.
“It was just kind of a lot of unknowns regarding how the actual E-files were being prepared in our back office; it wasn’t ideal,” said Gates.
During this time, NGL Energy Partners made several new acquisitions and sold the entity that contracted their excise tax software. With their old software out of the picture, the NGL Crude Oil Logistics tax team seized the opportunity to introduce digital transformation to their process.
“We realized we might as well use the occasion to get with the times and evolve from just Excel-based functionality,” said Gates.
The Solution
NGL Crude Oil Logistics partnered with IGEN to modernize its oil and gas excise tax data preparation and form generation process.
With IGEN’s comprehensive compliance platform, ComplyIQ, they transformed their manual data processes into automated workflows that improve filing efficiencies by more than 50%.
“With ComplyIQ, it takes much of the organization and cleansing out of the monthly duties,” said Gates. “It mirrors what we were doing before, but now it's a solidified process where I don't have to keep my hands or eyes on the whole process.”
The added transparency and user-friendly features empowered the tax team to file accurately, gave them confidence in their filings, and freed them to focus on other essential areas of the compliance lifecycle, like reconciliation.
Hands-On Onboarding
During NGL Crude Oil Logistics' onboarding, the tax team collaborated closely with IGEN to establish rules and criteria for specific returns and jurisdictions within ComplyIQ.
"It’s been great,” said Gates. “We both had deadlines, and IGEN was organized and efficient in meeting them."
This collaborative approach with IGEN’s unique team of technical and industry experts allowed for a seamless integration and a mutual understanding of the processes involved.
"I learned quite a bit while implementing ComplyIQ,” said Gates. “Understanding how everything works from an IGEN perspective educated me from a statewide statute perspective also."
The Results
When it comes to their monthly workload of 165 returns, Gates emphasized the impact of digital transformation, "IGEN has optimized our filing efficiencies by half, at the very least," stated the Tax Manager.
This time-saving benefit has afforded their compact tax team the opportunity to redirect their efforts toward other crucial areas. Gates explained, "We've been able to use our time for more reconciliation preparation, which obviously, for financials, is really important."
This newfound efficiency has also enabled the tax team to elevate their knowledge and expertise.
"Now we can actually focus and evolve our tax team's knowledge, which has really been valuable,” said Gates. “We've had more time to research the complexities of tax and all its state changes.”
Investing in time and resources for tax research ultimately contributes to more effective and informed decision-making within the organization, which improves efficiency, accuracy, and adaptability in handling tax-related matters.
Automating their manual tax preparation and filing processes has:
- Optimized filing efficiencies by 50%
- Elevated three full-time tax team members to positions of greater organizational impact
- Converted their tax procedures from a labor-intensive manual approach to a streamlined and efficient automated process
- Gained complete visibility into their form-generation process