Apportionment data, which is fundamental to the tax function, is relied on throughout the year to meet requirements for provision, compliance, estimated tax payments, planning, and day-to-day decision making. Unfortunately, in the vast majority of corporate tax departments, state apportionment data handling, analysis, and reporting is conducted utilizing a multitude of spreadsheet-based models. This manual approach provides limited (if any) security or controls, leading to a host of inefficiencies and heightened risk of error. However, given resource constraints and a lack of viable alternatives, tax operations—until now—have been unable to radically change their current mode of operation.

The Liquid Engines Apportionment Management Solution (AMS) is designed to address these challenges by combining unique process improvements with easy-to-use, web-based software. Leveraging AMS, users are equipped to:

• Drive efficiencies with process transformation
• Implement controls and ensure security compliance
• Gain visibility into the decision process with an automatic, detailed audit trail
• Extend access to data across all tax functions

Tax departments can smoothly evolve their operations with this new, innovative solution, ensuring that apportionment data is consistently handled, best practices are followed, changes are tracked throughout the process, and information is easily shared among all authorized users.

AMx: The Enabling Technology

At the heart of the Liquid Engines Apportionment Management Solution is an advanced technology foundation called AMx. Based on an open architecture that seamlessly integrates with other systems, AMx provides a single foundation for collecting, consolidating, sourcing, computing, and reporting apportionment data. Deployable over the web and offering an intuitive interface, AMx enables tax professionals from any functional area—from any location—to access information exactly when they need it, and at the right level of detail.

Ensure Data Consistency and Single Source of Truth

Offering configurable, web-based tax packages and robust data import facilities, AMx ensures that apportionment details are collected and consolidated in a consistent manner, streamlines tax package workflow, and reduces the need to manually consolidate and rekey data. Combining online, secured access with flexible data import, calculations, document tracking, and a consolidated view of filing methodologies, AMx provides a single source of truth for by-entity, by-group, and by-jurisdiction apportionment information.

Minimize Reliance on Offline Spreadsheets and Standardize Calculation Methods

AMx calculates apportionment instantly across all the entities in your organization. Pre-populated, yet customizable, tax rules provide enough flexibility to match up with any filing methodology, negotiated position, or industry-specific formula. Embedded multi-tier partnership computations and rules for state partnership treatment, group calculation logic delivering by-entity apportionment percentages in group states, and multi-year tax rate tables provide flexibility while ensuring a standard computational methodology that reduces spreadsheet dependency.

Establish Best Practices and Controls

AMx is the first solution to provide a web-based, controlled framework for collecting, managing, and reporting on state tax apportionment. Easy to use and offering secured access at any time, from any location, AMx makes apportionment detail and calculations available to all members of the tax organization while ensuring compliance with SOX 404 segregation of duties. Leveraging AMx, tax teams are able to transition from a spreadsheet-based, manual operation to one in which best practices are automated, decision making is collaborative, and processes are streamlined.

Track Details Around “Who, What, Why, and When”

AMx automatically keeps an audit trail of every change, providing the ability to recall data, reports, and calculations at any point in time. Actual as-filed data is always available, even after subsequent or amended returns are filed. AMx users can go back to any point in time to compare and contrast the data and simultaneously review comments and attached documentation that supported the decision, the position, and the sourcing methodology.

Manage Critical Information Across the Tax Operation

With Liquid Engines AMx, you can standardize state apportionment data, control the process, and track the changes from collection to reporting—ensuring that the entire tax team has the right information, at the right time, with the right level of detail.

• Provision: As auditors continue to push for detailed by-entity, by-jurisdiction effective rates for state provision purposes, AMx can provide this level of detail at the click of a button—no extra effort required.
• Compliance: AMx provides comparative entity and group reports in a familiar compliance style to give users a high level of comfort when comparing controlled, auditable, calculated data from AMx against the information that finally makes it onto the tax return.Data diagnostics have also been built in for anomaly checking before filing to help surface nexus issues and filing discrepancies before tax returns go out the door.
• Audit: Requirements to “re-create history” can now be rapidly addressed with the availability of centralized documentation and a comprehensive audit trail. Audit settlements and amended returns can be tracked without corrupting the integrity of the original data. 
• Planning: Planning can leverage the ready availability of current apportionment data for strategy and policy analyses, as well as the immediate access to multi-year views of historical data.

top