Choosing direct tax software: Why ONESOURCE stands out

Corporate tax professionals face mounting pressure from all sides — increasingly complex regulations, multiple jurisdictions, compressed financial close timelines, and heightened scrutiny from stakeholders and regulators. Tax departments stuck in legacy systems spend hundreds of staff hours annually on manual data entry, Excel consolidations across dozens of entities, and formula-fault debugging that delays financial close. Decentralized organizations struggle to respond to uncertain tax positions in real-time while maintaining data accuracy and centralized controls across federal, state, local, and international jurisdictions.

Automation, data analytics, and rules-based tax engines offer a path forward for tax departments to manage complexity while elevating their strategic role. Thomson Reuters ONESOURCE Direct Tax transforms these challenges into competitive advantages — a comprehensive platform trusted by over 10,000 organizations worldwide that proves technology can free tax professionals to focus on strategy rather than spreadsheets.

Jump to ↓How does ONESOURCE handle complex corporate income tax compliance?

Can ONESOURCE keep up with constantly changing tax regulations?

How does ONESOURCE support global tax operations at enterprise scale?

How does ONESOURCE integrate with our existing ERP and financial systems?

What makes ONESOURCE different from legacy tax systems?

How does ONESOURCE enhance audit readiness and risk management?

What kind of efficiency gains can we expect from ONESOURCE implementation?

Transform your direct tax function

How does ONESOURCE handle complex corporate income tax compliance?

ONESOURCE Income Tax simplifies completion of virtually every type of tax return — federal, state, local, and international corporate returns — all within one unified platform, eliminating the need for multiple disconnected tools. Complicated tax forms are simplified and calculations computed accurately as you work, eliminating the formula faults and manual computation errors that plague Excel-based processes.

The comprehensive tax accounting system includes a built-in, customizable tax law database that allows efficient research without leaving the platform while ensuring compliance. Changes automatically flow across all applications — Tax Provision, Estimated Payments, and International Tax Calculator — eliminating redundant data re-entry and version control issues.

One customer described their previous process: “Consolidating thirty countries using Excel and copy and paste…which was incredibly time consuming. We would end up with formula faults which involved lengthy manual deliberation.” ONESOURCE eliminated this burden entirely.

Can ONESOURCE keep up with constantly changing tax regulations?

The system stays perpetually current with local tax rules and regulations across all jurisdictions, reducing the risk of missed credits, incorrect calculations, or compliance failures. The customizable tax law database provides immediate access to current regulations, eliminating time spent searching external sources or worrying about outdated information.

ONESOURCE’s cloud-native architecture positions tax departments to handle emerging requirements like real-time reporting mandates and government digitalization initiatives. The platform’s partnership with Orbitax delivers an automated BEPS 2.0 Pillar Two solution that simplifies compliance, reporting, and forecasting for the OECD complex global minimum tax regime — proof the platform evolves with the regulatory landscape.

Thomson Reuters reports that customers “comply confidently, drive productivity, and adapt effortlessly to change” because automatic updates remove the burden of monitoring regulatory changes.

How does ONESOURCE support global tax operations at enterprise scale?

Over 10,000 customers worldwide trust ONESOURCE as the industry’s most powerful corporate tax technology platform — a scale that demonstrates reliability for mission-critical tax operations. The single integrated platform handles federal, state, local, and international compliance requirements with controlled, future-proofed reporting across dozens of countries and hundreds of jurisdictions.

Unified user experience and centralized user administration across the entire ONESOURCE Direct Tax suite streamlines management, reduces complexity, and enforces consistent processes across distributed teams. The platform manages sophisticated international tax deliverables including OBBBA and TCJA calculations, scenario planning, entity charting, Country-by-Country reporting, and DAC6/MDR compliance — all within the same system.

A Forrester Total Economic Impact study examined customers using ONESOURCE Statutory Reporting across 100 entities in 20 countries, validating the platform’s ability to handle genuine enterprise complexity.

How does ONESOURCE integrate with our existing ERP and financial systems?

ONESOURCE integrates with major ERP platforms, enabling automated data collection that eliminates manual downloads, uploads, and data transformation processes. Comprehensive APIs allow custom integrations with proprietary systems, ensuring ONESOURCE works within your existing technology ecosystem rather than forcing workflow changes.

Data flows automatically from general ledger systems through tax provision calculations to compliance returns, creating a true end-to-end integrated workflow. Direct integration eliminates the manual trial balance management that creates bottlenecks during financial close, accelerating the entire tax-to-financial-reporting process. Thomson Reuters maintains strategic partnerships with major ERP and financial systems vendors, like SAP and Oracle, ensuring pre-built connectors and ongoing integration support.

What makes ONESOURCE different from legacy tax systems?

The state-of-the-art platform minimizes required client downloads and is accessible via a web browser from any device — a stark contrast to on-premise legacy systems requiring VPN, client installations, and desktop dependency. ONESOURCE’s cohesive approach to direct tax and transfer pricing compliance replaces the disconnected legacy tools, spreadsheets, and manual bridges that characterize old systems.

Tax professionals can analyze data in seconds with drill-down capabilities and flexible filtering that replace the rigid, report-only interfaces of legacy systems. The industry-leading security environment safeguards data from fraudulent activity with enterprise-grade protection that legacy on-premise systems cannot match.

Platform automation frees tax teams from tedious manual inputs to focus on value-added strategic analysis — transforming tax from cost center to strategic advisor. Moving from legacy systems to ONESOURCE can help tax departments achieve shorter close cycles, fewer late filings, and lower audit adjustments.

How does ONESOURCE enhance audit readiness and risk management?

The platform builds audit-ready controls into every process, ensuring documentation and support are automatically generated and readily available. Centralized data controls reduce compliance risk through consistent processes, eliminating the inconsistencies of departmental spreadsheets.

The system validates data at entry point rather than discovering errors during audit, preventing issues before they become liabilities. File returns and schedules electronically with status tracking from any mobile device for complete visibility and confirmation. Automatic compliance with changing regulations across all jurisdictions minimizes exposure to penalties, harmful tax liabilities, and audit adjustments.

What kind of efficiency gains can we expect from ONESOURCE implementation?

A comprehensive Forrester Total Economic Impact study examined the quantified benefits organizations achieve with ONESOURCE direct tax solutions. Based on interviews with four decision-makers across multiple industries, the study found that organizations experience a 148% return on investment with a payback period of less than six months.

The study documented three primary areas of efficiency gains:

50% reduction in tax preparation time

Organizations reduced tax preparation time by half through automation and streamlined workflows. ONESOURCE accelerates routine tasks by decreasing manual data entry, which reduces errors and improves oversight. This allows tax professionals to move from data entry and reconciliation to analytics, planning, and advisory tasks.

Avoided compliance costs

Organizations avoid $275,000 annually in late filing penalties, resubmission costs, error remediation, and consulting fees. The study found that compliance cost savings and efficiency improvements continue annually, even as regulations evolve and companies expand. One study participant noted: “We reduced our external advisory fees by half.”

Eliminated need for additional hiring

Organizations avoided hiring two additional resources annually as global tax departments became more efficient. Due to centralized tax management for multinational operations, companies reduced the need for local tax teams in every country they operate in. As one participant explained: “Our business stays scalable without adding headcount. We can move into a new jurisdiction without hiring in each jurisdiction.”

The composite organization in the study—a $10 billion revenue enterprise with 5,000 employees—experienced benefits of $2.8 million over three years versus costs of $1.1 million, demonstrating substantial efficiency gains that directly impact the bottom line. As one vice president of tax summarized: “Five years later, we are absolutely thrilled with the Thomson Reuters direct tax solution. It gives us what we need and is the foundation of our tax department.”

Transform your direct tax function

ONESOURCE direct tax solutions transform corporate tax compliance from a burden into a strategic advantage through comprehensive automation, seamless integration, and proven efficiency gains. Join over 10,000 organizations worldwide that have chosen ONESOURCE to elevate their direct tax function.

Ready to see how ONESOURCE can help your tax department comply confidently, drive productivity, and adapt effortlessly to change? Discover ONESOURCE now.