5 Most Common Accounting Software Problems in International Companies

International companies often deal with a whole range of issues tied to obligations toward the state and shareholders. So we focused on the topics that most commonly trouble our customers operating in multiple countries at once (references here). Here’s a list of their five most common problems:

Problem #1: High Costs of Keeping the System Compliant with Each Country’s Legislation

Every country has its own specific laws and obligations that companies operating there must follow. Tracking legislative changes and implementing them in the system often takes significant resources, whether from the finance department, IT, or the accounting-software vendor. And that’s not even counting having to roll out a major change like Electronic Registration of Sales (EET, a Czech real-time sales-reporting law).

Bad software creates more headaches than it solves.

Our EET solution for Dynamics AX is available as an add-on for Dynamics AX and Dynamics 365 in our marketplace for Dynamics add-ons and apps – Addons.Blue.

Problem #2: VAT Complications – It’s Different in Every Country

VAT tends to be every finance manager’s nightmare. Every country typically has a different filing period, the VAT return format differs from country to country, and some countries additionally require special reports such as a VAT Control Statement.

Problem #3: Outdated Information for Decision-Making

We often see that data between subsidiaries and the parent company isn’t available online, and quite often not even on a daily basis. It’s not unusual to see data exchanged only monthly, which means the figures management uses for strategic decisions are already out of date.

Problem #4: Labor-Intensive Reporting and Consolidation

Any reporting spanning more than one country means extensive preparation — piecing together multiple Excel sheets or documents, or, in better cases, importing everything into a data warehouse. Once the data for every company is ready for the report, all the accounts still need to be mapped onto a common chart of accounts, since the numbering of costs, revenues, and other categories differs from country to country. Even today, we still come across accounting software that can’t maintain books under both the local chart of accounts and international accounting standards (IFRS, US GAAP) at the same time.

Even today, we still come across accounting software that can’t maintain books under both the local chart of accounts and international accounting standards (IFRS, US GAAP) at the same time.

Problem #5: The Hassle of Meeting EU Obligations

Companies operating within the EU have a further set of obligations to meet: filing Intrastat reports, EC Sales Lists (ESL). And if they’re VAT-registered in other EU countries, VAT returns in each of those countries as well. Putting these filings together is often a stressful, last-minute, manual scramble done under the threat of a fine.

Do these problems sound all too familiar? If your current accounting software is causing any of the issues above, get in touch with us — we’d be happy to help you find a solution.

Filip Rozsíval works as a Senior AX Consultant at Blue Dynamic.