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Vertex

Vertex

Overview

What is Vertex?

Vertex combines tax research with technology to improve tax accuracy and consistency on sales and purchase transactions. The automation aims to support high volume and complex transactions at speed and scale to streamline internal processes and improve audit performance. Integrations to ERP, e-commerce,…

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Recent Reviews

My Vertex Experience

10 out of 10
February 29, 2024
Incentivized
My organization is using both Vertex O and Vertex Returns and reporting for calculating, validating, and reporting sales tax and VAT. We …
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E-Filing options to EU

10 out of 10
February 23, 2024
Incentivized
We are using for VAT in EMEA region for both sales and purchases to determine taxation on invoices, validate and prepare the VAT returns …
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Satisfied

9 out of 10
May 22, 2023
Incentivized
We use Vertex for sales and purchases transactions as well. Regarding to tax types we use it for US sales tax, use tax and value added tax …
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How Vertex Differs From Its Competitors

Key Differentiators

Tax content support Ease-of-Use Scalability Tax accuracy Reporting
Having the tax content support correctly and accurately was a plus. Knowing the data to prepare compliance was accurate.
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Key Differentiators

Tax content support Ease-of-Use Scalability Tax accuracy Reporting
We were looking for tax software that would be easy to maintain, provide accurate compliance, and had regular updates for new rates and laws. We wanted a tax software that was flexible and allowed for some of our more nuanced tax …
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Vertex O Series Impact

The best way to measure the success of the O series is by audits. The past few audits we have had our tax exposure has significantly decrease. The ability to provide auditors with reports and documents during an audit has improved, we no longer need to reply on our ERP system to provide the …
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Vertex O Series Impact

While the complete impact of Vertex O Series is still in progress, it has helped streamline the process of excluding sales and use tax charges against tax exempt customers. Our primary sales and use tax analyst is also looking forward to the capabilities to send automatic tax exemption certificate …
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Vertex O Series Impact

So now with the Wayfair decision, we have reviewed the many states we need to register in. It will be a simile flipping the switch for the taxing to begin. Yes I need to be considerate with my work to ensure I turn the clock back to the appropriate date to ensure we capture our backlog. The more …
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Vertex O Series Impact

Our in-house ERP was previously calculating sales tax, and its tax answers were probably right around 80% of the time, while Vertex O should be in the 95-98% range. In addition, our in-house ERP required manual updates to tax content in each of its 70+ servers. As a result, tax content was rarely …
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Vertex O Series Impact

It has simplified the calculation and accrual process which was done manually prior to the Vertex go-live. It has also streamlined the reporting functionality which prior to go-live was not centralized. Tax returns have been easier to work on based on the improved reporting, allowing for the …
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Vertex O Series Impact

We still manually prepare returns but the reporting functionality is much, much better than it was under our old legacy system. Vertex does provide the option to automatically generate returns but we still have to make manual adjustments to the data before preparing returns so we don't feel …

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Awards

Products that are considered exceptional by their customers based on a variety of criteria win TrustRadius awards. Learn more about the types of TrustRadius awards to make the best purchase decision. More about TrustRadius Awards

Popular Features

View all 11 features
  • Sales and Use Taxes (120)
    9.4
    94%
  • Geolocation for Tax Assessment (85)
    9.4
    94%
  • Tax Data Reporting (103)
    9.1
    91%
  • Tax Exemption Processing (86)
    8.3
    83%

Reviewer Pros & Cons

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Pricing

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Vertex

Vertex

N/A
Unavailable

What is Vertex?

Vertex combines tax research with technology to improve tax accuracy and consistency on sales and purchase transactions. The automation aims to support high volume and complex transactions at speed and scale to streamline internal processes and improve audit performance. Integrations to ERP, e…

Entry-level set up fee?

  • No setup fee
For the latest information on pricing, visithttps://www.vertexinc.com/solutions

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services

Would you like us to let the vendor know that you want pricing?

85 people also want pricing

Alternatives Pricing

Avalara

Avalara

$21
per month
What is Avalara?

Avalara AvaTax connects to the software that businesses already have and delivers sales tax decisions based on precise geo-location in more than 12,000 taxing jurisdictions in the U.S.

TaxJar

TaxJar

$19
for up to 200 orders/month
What is TaxJar?

TaxJar offers automated sales tax reporting and filing. According to the vendor, capabilities include: Accurate, Detailed Sales Tax Reports: TaxJar’s local jurisdiction reports show sales and sales tax collected not only for each state, but for local jurisdiction (counties, cities, special…

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Features

Type of tax

A list of the different types of taxes that can be filed using tax compliance software.

8.8
Avg 8.4

Tax Reporting & Compliance

Activities relating to tax filing, reporting, document management, and exemption certificate processing.

8.5
Avg 8.4
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Product Details

What is Vertex?

Vertex combines tax research with technology to improve tax accuracy and consistency on sales and purchase transactions. The automation aims to support high volume and complex transactions at speed and scale to streamline internal processes and improve audit performance. Integrations to ERP, e-commerce, procurement, and other billing systems enables a single tax engine to seamlessly support a growing business. In addition to tax determination, Vertex provides tools and services to automate and streamline exemption certificate management and compliance filings.

Vertex Features

Type of tax Features

  • Supported: Sales and Use Taxes
  • Supported: Cross-border Taxes
  • Supported: VAT / GST Taxes

Tax Reporting & Compliance Features

  • Supported: Geolocation for Tax Assessment
  • Supported: 3rd-Party Software Integrations
  • Supported: Tax Data Reporting
  • Supported: Compliance Administration Management
  • Supported: Tax Exemption Processing
  • Supported: Tax Document Management
  • Supported: Complex Tax Scenario Management

Vertex Screenshots

Screenshot of Vertex dashboard

Vertex Videos

Vertex Integrations

Vertex Competitors

Vertex Technical Details

Deployment TypesOn-premise, Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based
Operating SystemsWindows, Linux
Mobile ApplicationNo
Supported CountriesNorth America, EMEA, Central/South America, Asia Pacific
Supported LanguagesEnglish

Vertex Downloadables

Frequently Asked Questions

Avalara, TaxJar, and CCH Axcess are common alternatives for Vertex.

Reviewers rate Cross-border Taxes highest, with a score of 9.8.

The most common users of Vertex are from Enterprises (1,001+ employees).
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Comparisons

View all alternatives
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Reviews and Ratings

(252)

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-3 of 3)
Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
December 29, 2022

Vertex O Series for Leasing clears the way for tax compliance automation!

Verified User
Director in Other
Financial Services Company, 501-1000 employees
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Use Cases and Deployment Scope
We license Vertex Indirect Tax Returns for our own compliance in addition to a separate license for our third-party "service bureau" customers. We also licensed Vertex O Series for Leasing and are currently in the implementation process. Our Vertex solutions are utilized for tax compliance on US sales transactions, and we plan to incorporate our Canadian VAT sales transactions in the near future.
Pros and Cons
  • Vertex does a great job of building in-house industry expertise (leasing in our case) so they truly understand the tax technical and compliance obstacles we face day to day.
  • Vertex actively solicits for and responds to customer feedback on development and product roadmap suggestions. The Leasing users group is an example where Vertex takes an active role in communicating with and taking feedback from our industry.
  • Vertex tax updates are very timely and thorough, which makes the compliance process less stressful for our team.
  • Their leasing module has fewer customers than say retail, so product content development has been less robust, but still far better than their competitors.
  • The sales tax calendar tool is functional, but with a bit more development would probably be used by a lot more customers.
  • We need an accurate count of the number of tax returns filed by the legal entity each month. We haven't found an easy way to extract this information which seems like should be readily available. I would like to see some development in the KPI area of Vertex Indirect Returns.
Likelihood to Recommend
Vertex has a commanding presence in the leasing vertical attributed to their investment in really understanding the unique tax complexities we face. Vertex Consulting members are comprised of tax professionals that utilized Vertex O Series for Leasing when they were in private industry. Said simply they get leasing because they've been on the other side of the fence so to speak.
Vertex Feature Ratings
Type of tax (3)
66.66666666666667%
6.7
Sales and Use Taxes
100%
10.0
Cross-border Taxes
N/A
N/A
VAT / GST Taxes
100%
10.0
Tax Reporting & Compliance (7)
100%
10.0
Geolocation for Tax Assessment
100%
10.0
3rd-Party Software Integrations
100%
10.0
Tax Data Reporting
100%
10.0
Compliance Administration Management
100%
10.0
Tax Exemption Processing
100%
10.0
Tax Document Management
100%
10.0
Complex Tax Scenario Management
100%
10.0
Return on Investment
  • The Vertex Indirect Tax returns product benefit is focused solely on our tax department but has greatly automated our compliance process.
  • Vertex O Series for Leasing we feel will deliver strong ROI once fully implemented. So far we are encouraged with the results!
Key Differentiators
  • Tax content support
  • Scalability
  • Tax accuracy
We are a micro to small ticket equipment lessor, with a high transactional volume of small deal sizes. We also provide tailored customization for our vendor needs. With offering customized services to a large number of equipment vendors across the US we needed a solution that can automate our manual processes. Vertex fit the bill perfectly!
Alternatives Considered
Sovos had a leasing module but their content wasn't built out nearly as much as Vertex's. Their product appeared to be pretty decent but it's the small things in tax that can make a difference between automation and manual work. Thomson Reuters missed a couple of demos which turned me off to them as a solutions provider so I can't opine on their product. Vertex was very responsive in the sales process.
Other Software Used
Users and Roles
12
All 12 of our Vertex users are from our tax team, specifically the sales tax and tax accounting teams.
Support Headcount Required
6
We have 3 Vertex licenses, 2 of which are on premise Vertex Indirect Tax Returns "VITR" and the other is Vertex O Series for Leasing On Demand. We have 2 instances of VITR one is for our own sales tax return compliance and the other is a service bureau license for unrelated third party sales tax compliance (i.e. outsourced return filings). As for the 6 support folks I included 2 from our IT group to assist with the on premise VITR licenses. These individuals assist with database creation, server upgrades, monthly Vertex updates etc. The remaining 4 team members are from tax and are split between VITR and O Series evenly at 2 each. The sales tax support folks are coordinating getting the monthly L Series rate update files loaded and available for download/update by each team member who files returns. They also communicate the GEO code change files and in general any VITR change to the team. The last 2 support folks are on O Series which include myself (Director of Tax) and the Tax Team Leader. We are admins on the O Series license and support it from tax technical perspective. Certainly, our 6 support members don't spend all their time on Vertex, just as needed which isn't a lot.
Business Processes Supported
  • Efficiency in the form of automating our sales tax compliance cycle.
  • Accuracy in terms of having solutions like VITR and O Series improve the taxes calculated across our lease portfolio, as well in the return filing process.
  • Reputational risk in terms of having robust tax capabilities to offer our customers, the equipment vendors, who provide financing opportunities for us in the form of leases.
  • Financial risk reduction in terms of better sales tax audit results.
Future Planned Uses
  • We are in the process of Implementing O Series for Leasing which when complete will provide a huge lift in terms of automation, increased productivity and audit risk reduction.
Likelihood to Renew
10
Vertex demonstrates commitment to product improvement and new innovations to help their customers with sales tax compliance. This may sound odd, but when configured optimally, Vertex (O Series in this case) we expect will provide us with robust tax capabilities that may be the difference between equipment vendors using us or a competitor. Sales tax is important in the leasing industry and those who are limited in capability often times will lose the financing opportunity to someone who is capabal. This is particularly important in the area of bundled lease offerings that include hardware, software and/or services in a single payment. With this type of bundled charge lease (particularly with numerous assets located in different states) taxation can be incredibly complex, and incredibly important to the equipment vendor. O Series is capable of providing the right calculation(s) again when configured correctly.
Post-Sale Experience
10
Super easy, very professional and understood where I was coming from on my "asks". They also understood the leasing industry which was very helpful. The other thing, and in my opinion this is extremely important, is that I've had very little turnover in my Vertex account rep. It's frustrating trying to chase down who can help with account level questions when the vendor has high turnover, Vertex does not at least not for me.
Products Replaced
Yes
Vertex replaced Thomson Reuters. By replace I mean with respect to the sales tax return filing piece. Vertex has steadily become a strong and well known brand in the tax compliance industry and this is shared amongst my tax peers. We talk, we share successes and challenges at conference events regardless of what software is used. We learned more about Vertex VITR product and liked what we heard and saw in demos so we made the change.
Implementation Details / Implementation Partner
  • Implemented in-house
  • Third-party professional services
For transparency we are still in the implementation process. We are implementing using in house tax and technical talent, in addition to engaging Vertex Consulting. We also engaged DuCharme, McMillan & Associates to assist with more of the blocking and tackling on the implementation such as account reconciliation, reporting etc.
Implementation Phases
Yes
It was broken up into phases to align with our broader digital transformation project. The first phase was lease origination (i.e. taking a lease application and getting it booked into our ERP). Next phase was the lease invoicing lifecycle followed by end of term transactions (buyout quotes, dispositions etc.).
Change Management Lessons
Change management was a big part of the implementation and was well-handled
Again we are still implementing so much change management yet to come. That said, we expect it will be positively received for the most part in terms of less time spent by operations on tax issues. The biggest challenge will be implementing a communication channel/process with tax to ensure we are made aware of tax related needs well in advance of leases being booked (otherwise tax won't be calc'd correctly).
Implementation Issues
  • Getting alignment across our internal teams to ensure tax is at the table at the right time.
  • Having enough tax resources to process the implementation work (we hired Vertex Consulting and DMA to assist).
Implementation Rating
8
The implementation is challenging, make no mistake but will provide much value over time. Make sure you have full support of IT and your major stakeholders in your company. I found that while many people claimed to understand tax was important, they had no idea how deep tax in entrenched throughout the lease life cycle.
Training Types Used
  • Online Training
  • In-Person Training
In-Person Training
10
By training I'm referring to our engagement with Vertex Consulting's professional services group. Each person on the engagement had prior leasing industry tax experience and most if not all used O Series before joining Vertex. Consultants with industry specific tax experience provide so much more than just "training". They are able to engage in deep tax technical discussions with actual experience while in private practice. This coupled with having visibility to how numerous other leasing peers approach similar tax issues is a huge plus on top of the standard training.
Online Training
10
Vertex Learning provides a great resource for on demand demo videos.
Configuration Lessons
Keep an inventory of business impacts that may be unavoidable when using O Series. You'll be tempted to write tax assist rules to do things they way you've always done them but keep an open mind. Vertex Consulting does a great job of challenging your status quo which they do well based on what they've seen with your peers in similar situations. We are still implementing but are finding that by using inherent O Series code, not only does it make sense but it eliminates the need to write work around assist rules that need maintained prospectively.
UI Customization
Some - we have done small customizations to the interface
Not exactly sure what this question relates to but the only customizations we've done have been with regards to override or specific to us tax decisions that differ than the inherent code.
Extensibility and Customization
Some - we have added small pieces of custom code
Similar to the question the only customization we've done is to write tax assist rules that allow for tax treatment unique to us and how we think about the respective issue at hand.
Additional Customization Considerations
The one thing that we hadn't thought about was the issue of tax basis (i.e. the amount that was to be sent to Vertex for the rate to be applied against). Leases taxed over the stream (i.e. monthly) weren't a problem, rather it was the leases where tax was required to be paid upfront at lease inception. Vertex expects you to send them the "upfront tax basis" on the orig call, which would be either sum of the lease payments or asset purchase price. The upfront basis business logic needs to remain in your front end lease origination system as Vertex doesn't compute basis. This was a point of much debate with our operations folks who thought all tax logic should live in Vertex O Series. Basis can and does vary amongst lessors so just something to keep in mind.
Premium Support
Not yet but we are going to when our O Series for Leasing is fully implemented. I don't want to come this far and have something unforeseen happen post go live that taints the product from our sales and operations teams. Premium support makes sense to me especially in the early go live period.
Bug Resolution
Yes
Yes it was actually. Vertex is very responsive especially when it involves a bug and they fixed it right away.
Easy Tasks
  • For O Series I would say the taxability mappings were fairly straightforward.
  • Setting up BCI upload files for testing was pretty easy and came with a predefined format.
Difficult Tasks
  • Tax Assist rule writing is not intuitive and takes time to think through. I highly recommend using Vertex Consulting to help with this piece at a minimum. It's not incredibly difficult, just takes time to understand.
  • I'm still a bit fuzzy on the reporting and reconciliation piece of O Series, but we are in the process of implementing so I'm sure it'll become more clear.
Usability
10
Vertex O Series has a module for my leasing industry, which is incredibly important as lease taxation can be very complex.
Scalability
10
Very robust system allowing for significant scalability. We have a number of service clients where we book their transactions, invoice & collect payments as well as provide sales tax compliance services. Our config allows for all clients to initially mirror our own approach for state tax rules, with flexibility to make tweaks as needed. This is a huge benefit versus separate rules written for each client which all needing maintenance prospectively.
Reliability and Availability
10
We aren't live with O Series yet so I can only opine based upon the outage alerts I receive as a client, and their response/communication times.
Performance
10
Again we aren't live but based on testing it appears to be very responsive and quick with API call responses.
Future Integration Plans
  • Yes we purchased a billing & invoicing license with Billing Platform (BP). They hadn't integrated with Vertex but are in the process of the API build.
BP fully supports it as it was a requirement for our purchase of their system.
Types of Integration
  • File import/export
  • API (e.g. SOAP or REST)
Ease of Integration
10
We haven't had any issues with integrations thus far...very integration friendly system.
Integration Lessons Learned
Really no problems encountered it's been a smooth process!
Key Negotiation Points
We were an existing Vertex customer (for their indirect tax return filing software VITR) so we got preferred pricing which I'm guessing would be the case for most others in that scenario. We were able to negotiate fixed pricing by executing a multi-year contract of 3 years.
Dealing with Vertex Inc.
Vertex is eager to earn your business and will entertain reasonable requests in my experience.
Upgrade Benefits
  • We've only upgraded on their indirect tax returns product which has been extremely smooth with no real problems.
  • The upgrades have been seamless and easily done as part of the standard monthly updates.
Anticipated Benefits from Future Upgrades
  • Updates rates and Tax Area ID's
Future Edition Upgrade Plans
No
Migrating Between Editions
Yes
Well we used Vertex's L Series which was embedded within our leasing ERP "Infolease". We are now implementing Vertex O Series for Leasing as it provides a significant lift in end to end tax capabilities.
December 21, 2022

Vertex is best of the best!

Verified User
Contributor in Information Technology
Chemicals Company, 1001-5000 employees
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Use Cases and Deployment Scope
We use Vertex O series On Demand for Sales and Purchase transactions at Covestro and at Bayer Corp. Covestro LLC is a Chemical company, with a BIG presence in Texas. At Bayer Corp we used it for Healthcare, Animal Health, CropScience, and Chemicals and had a presence in many States. We support US Sales and Use tax, Canadian VAT tax, and Vertex Consulting (Hal Burchfield) assisted us with a VAT implementation for a number of EU countries. At Covestro LLC, we may be interested in a Brazil implementation when we begin our S4 Hana upgrade project in 2024.
Pros and Cons
  • Great monthly updates of rates and rules and locations
  • A very flexible tool for user defined decision making
  • Ability to customize for specific scenarios that may be specific to our Company
  • We pay Vertex compliance to put numbers on our Tax returns. Tax manager would like them to pick up our monthly files rather than him having to supply them. I'm not sure if that will ever happen, but the Tax manager said he never has to massage the data.....just gathers the Tax2000 reports and provides.
  • Would like to see some of the LCR Dixon tools to become part of the standard delivered functionality now that Susi is part of Vertex now. Especially the New testing tool. I asked about this at conference, but they are still evaluating all that.
Likelihood to Recommend
I have been using this tool for 23 years now and have forged a wonderful relationship with the heavy hitters at Vertex. They are always helpful and when I pick up the phone with a specific question, they answer!! I am trustful of the software and the people at Vertex. I never want to use another tax calculation software. Vertex is second to none!!
Vertex Feature Ratings
Type of tax (3)
96.66666666666666%
9.7
Sales and Use Taxes
100%
10.0
Cross-border Taxes
100%
10.0
VAT / GST Taxes
90%
9.0
Tax Reporting & Compliance (6)
91.66666666666666%
9.2
3rd-Party Software Integrations
90%
9.0
Tax Data Reporting
90%
9.0
Compliance Administration Management
90%
9.0
Tax Exemption Processing
90%
9.0
Tax Document Management
100%
10.0
Complex Tax Scenario Management
90%
9.0
Return on Investment
  • We have had positive return on Investment in the area of Cash flow. We have a BIG presence in Texas, and wejust implemented percentage-based reporting there, based upon a managed Audit performed by our partner Grant Thornton and the State of Texas. Once the State and Grant Thornton determined our specific percentages, we were able Iin house) to apply certain percentages to Texas purchases of certain material groups before applying the standard Texas tax rates. We did this through the use of a Lookup table and a series of Tax assist rules. We now keep more money in house instead of sending it to the State, only to get it back under Audit. Cash flow is King and this change made a huge difference, that our upper-level management noticed!
  • As we have expanded our presence in new States due to acquisition, we can quickly make adjustments that are needed to tax the way we want. IT and Corporate Tax have an excellent working relationship to make needed changes that allow us to keep our finger on the pulse of tax calculation and expected tax results.
Key Differentiators
  • Tax content support
  • Tax accuracy
  • Reporting
Many of these factors are equally important in decisions to purchase Vertex. I have seen some other tax calculation engines and Vertex is the best of the best!
Alternatives Considered
Vertex is easier to use and to configure.
Other Software Used
Users and Roles
5
2 Corporate tax dept employees, 1 IT Dept employee with a few for backup, a few business users for Tax Area ID lookup
Support Headcount Required
2
2 main people. Tax Dept manager and 1 main IT person, with others for backup
Business Processes Supported
  • S & U Tax calculation and VAT determination
  • Tax Area ID location determination for asset location
  • Exemption certificate management - although only used as a file cabinet
Future Planned Uses
  • perhaps exemption certificate wizard for customer input of information
  • perhaps for Brazil tax determination and calculation in future S4 Hana project
  • More detailed functionality in exemption certificate manager
Likelihood to Renew
10
As a company, we are committed to using Vertex
Post-Sale Experience
9
Products Replaced
No
Implementation Details / Implementation Partner
  • Third-party professional services
Covestro LLC is 2014 spin off of Bayer Corporation's Chemical division, formerly known as Bayer Material Science. Originally Deloitte assisted Bayer Corporation with the initial implementation of SAP and Vertex, starting in 1999. Later throughout years of implementations of various divisions of Bayer Corporation onto SAP/Vertex, Ducharme McMilan and Associate assisted. Most recently, after becoming Covestro LLC, Grant Thornton assisted Covestro's corporate Tax dept, with a redesign and fine tuning of their tax determination.
Implementation Phases
Yes
Initial implementation of SAP/VERTEX, then separate divisions brought onto both systems.
Change Management Lessons
Change management was a big part of the implementation and was well-handled
Assisting the business with correct material group assignment on purchases. Directing Accounts Payable with correct way to process vendor payments for tax decision making.
Implementation Issues
  • Master Data cleansing
  • Tax Area ID issues......mainly tax area id deletions
  • ensuring that our Audit finding were reflected in the system, when they did not agree to the standard tax decision making. We created some user defined conditional rules to assist with this
Implementation Rating
9
Ensure that Corporate Tax has a seat at the table, along with trusted IT colleagues who will support it going forward.
Training Types Used
  • In-Person Training
In-Person Training
9
Attended Vertex classes long ago in year 2000 or 2001, have attended many Exchanges throughout the years, and done some online classes as well in Vertex community.
Configuration Lessons
know your system intimately......sometimes a Tax Assist rule is not needed, just a new mapping.
UI Customization
Some - we have done small customizations to the interface
prior to Vertex accelerator, our programmers had to add code to pass certain data points in SAP to use for decision making in VERTEX
Extensibility and Customization
Some - we have added small pieces of custom code
When I say custom code, I mean we have added user defined tax categories and user defined condition records as needed.
Premium Support
No did not purchase premium support. Our IT dept and Tax manager provides premium support
Bug Resolution
Yes
I have not heard back on the bug we identified in September 2022 to Sam Babikian at Connector Support. It had to do with a Rollback problem. We had a Teams meeting with a number of Vertex folks who agreed this bug was a big deal and would take a while to be fixed. Here is some info on it.....
Joachim Schmitz from Covestro LLC said......Unfortunately you misunderstood my example, so I amended some necessary information, the application is a Covestro self-created program /COV/…, which is using the BAPI in the middle of some statements:
1. Inserting a line (#1) into a SAP table /COV/MF_OBJLOCK
2. Call the official SAP posting BAPI “BAPI_ACC_DOCUMENT_POST” generating doc#1 (which implicitly calls your /VERTEX function)
3. Inserting a line (#2) into SAP table /COV/MF_OBJLOCK
4. Normally a “BAPI_TRANSACTION_COMMIT” should be done, but imagine an error detected by the /COV program, which requires a ROLLBACK WORK, or a Dump is generated due to an error, which performs an implicit ROLLBACK WORK The ROLLBACK WORK in point 4. should rollback all changes done so far (lines #1 and #2 in /COV/MF_OBJLOCK and posting #1). But as your /VERTEX function implicitly used in point 2. “STARTING NEW TASK”, an implicit COMMIT WORK was done. Result is an inconsistency in /COV/MF_OBJLOCK !

Within SAP BAPIs it’s forbidden to do commit work. This is for consistency reasons.
Please check again!
Easy Tasks
  • mapping of material groups to Vertex tax categories
  • reporting capabilities
Difficult Tasks
  • sometimes Tax Assist rule creation - depending on complexity
  • creation of User defined condition records
Usability
8
some aspects are easy to use and some more difficult
Scalability
9
can use it out of the box or highly customize it.....whatever you decide
Reliability and Availability
9
I have always felt VERTEX support was available when needed, and I have felt comfortable calling in some heavy hitters when needed.
Performance
9
Our Vertex performance is good, although we are now experiencing Error 502 when adding additional data points to our transaction tester single tests. At Exchange, I was told to reach out to support....that most likely the On Demand system needed some additional CPU resource added. I have a currently open ticket, that has not yet been fixed on this matter.
Future Integration Plans
  • S4 Hana upgrade of our ERP system
I don't have anything on the radar except for our S4 Hana upgrade
Types of Integration
  • File import/export
Ease of Integration
9
We had good experiences integrating Vertex with Ariba
Integration Lessons Learned
get in the game early
Key Negotiation Points
I was not involved in the negotiation process at Covestro and cannot comment here
Dealing with Vertex Inc.
work with you CSR to escalate any issues not being addressed in a timely manner with the proper Vertex resource
Upgrade Benefits
  • Upgrade of Vertex Accelerator is painful
  • our system people must first upgrade SIC and Jco on our new AWS servers and it does not seem to be straightforward for them.
Anticipated Benefits from Future Upgrades
  • I just hope it is stable and keeps working without surprises
Future Edition Upgrade Plans
No
Migrating Between Editions
No
November 13, 2018

Vertex Review

LZ
Lillian Zakos Paquette
SAP Specialist IT ERP
Charles River Laboratories (Biotechnology, 10,001+ employees)
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Use Cases and Deployment Scope
Vertex is only being used in North America at my organization. Vertex has us calculate indirect taxes on our sales and purchasing invoices. We no longer need to update our ERP system with tax rates as Vertex provides us monthly tax rate updates. In addition our AP and Billing teams no longer need to make tax decisions, we are able to store all of the tax rules in Vertex.
Pros and Cons
  • Maintains tax rates
  • Current forms for the monthly returns
  • Ability to create and maintain customer exemptions
  • Ease of tax decisions
  • When creating tax rules you can not backspace
  • The mapping functionality is clunky and not easy to find specific mappings. For example the CA mfg. Even if you map to this field it doesn't bring it over to the create field on returns
  • Changing the tax jurisdiction too often, and having issues with updating them on POs
Likelihood to Recommend
Vertex is a great tool to calculate your taxes. We have seen our overall audit risk decrease significantly since we have implemented Vertex at our company. Before Vertex AP and our Billing teams would make the tax decisions and in some cases it was guessing. All of our customer exemptions were sitting in a file cabinet and it was a manual process.
Return on Investment
  • Immediately able to see the benefits of a tax engine
  • AP processors were able to processor invoices faster without the need to focus on tax
  • No longer a need for space for file cabinets
Key Differentiators
  • Price
  • Product Features
  • Product Usability
  • Vendor Reputation
Overall product features as well as product usability was important factor in our decision making processing.
Alternatives Considered
CHH was used to review tax compliance and assisted in help us configure Vertex O series. When using SAP to calculate tax is was important for us to use a tax engine versus manually maintaining the tax rules outside of the system.
Innovative Uses
  • We have been able to create 1 team that handles indirect taxes
  • Our AP and billing team no longer need to make tax decisions
  • Customer exemptions are update to date and no longer stored in file cabinets
Product Configurability
8
This really depends on the user that is doing the configuration and their knowledge. Some parts of the configuration can be tricky
Exceptional Examples of Vertex Support
NA
Systems Integrated With
  • SAP
  • VRA
Overall the integration has been easy but we have also work with partners on the installs or upgrades.
Support Rating
8
Most of the time when I contact Vertex support I'm able to get a resolution on the 1st call. But like any support desk it depends on who answers the call or the ticket. I've had times when Vertex either couldn't get me an answer or didn't understand what I was asking. I would not hear back from them and they would close the ticket.
Vertex O Series Impact
The best way to measure the success of the O series is by audits. The past few audits we have had our tax exposure has significantly decrease. The ability to provide auditors with reports and documents during an audit has improved, we no longer need to reply on our ERP system to provide the reports they can now be pulled from Vertex.
Pre-Sale Experience
6
We purchase Vertex O series and VRA directly from the vendor both initially and during upgrades. During integration we primarily worked with our outside consultants during the purchase of Vertex. We did have a demo provided by the Vertex sales team and they also provided a list to us of suggested business partners. However, we still reach out to Vertex directly for post go-live support.
Evaluation Lessons Learned
Overall for the US we are happy with Vertex O series. When looking for a global tax solution we will keep our options open as I don't think Vertex is the number 1 leader in the global market. However at this time we are not looking for a global tax engine but I would anticipate when we are ready we will review Vertex's latest products capability.
Upgrade Process
Yes
The upgrade went smoothly when we did it a few years back. We ran parallel systems until we were ready to go-live with little system down time.
Users and Roles
10
Our basis team applies the month updates, installed the software, and applies any patches. They also update the config file if needed. Our tax team sets-up customers exemptions, completes monthly returns, as well as maintains the tax research. The system admin maintains vertex, adds/removes users, adds/removes tax rules, completes tax mappings, creates tax assists rules, troubleshoots systems, creates imports and exports, and sets up taxability drivers.
Support Headcount Required
2
The support needs to understand the call between the ERP system and Vertex, to under what is passing. They need the ability to read the SIC logs and see what errors are happening. In addition they need to understand system set-up including taxability drivers, tax rules, customer exemptions. In addition they need knowledge of the ERP system to OTC and PTP to help identify issues.
Business Processes Supported
  • Validity of the tax rates
  • Ability to file returns timely and accurately
  • Ability to remain tax compliant
Future Planned Uses
  • Global tax engine
  • Future upgrades to the latest platforms
Likelihood to Renew
10
We are satisfied with the overall performance of Vertex. The software has provided my company with many efficiencies. We have shorted our audits and found that many audits are happy that we are using Vertex to calculate our taxes. We no longer need to worry about updating our rates each month since Vertex sends us a file to upload.
Post-Sale Experience
9
On many occasions I've reached out to Vertex support for issues I've encountered. In most cases they have been successful in resolving my issue relatively quickly. There have been a few occasion where it took a longer time to resolve but they would reach out to me to keep me updated on the status.
Products Replaced
No
Implementation Details / Implementation Partner
  • Third-party professional services
Implementation Phases
No
Change Management Lessons
Change management was minimal
Implementation Issues
  • Installing the software
Implementation Rating
9
The implementation went relatively smooth, we spent months several months prior to the installation preparing and research the taxability of the products we buy and sell.
Training Types Used
  • Online training
  • In-person training
  • Self-taught
In-Person Training
8
The training was sufficient. As I became more seasoned user I learned many tricks using the system. I've also attended a few of the Vertex annual conferences where I was able to strength my knowledge of Vertex. I also found that their online library and videos can be helpful in resolving issues and answering questions.
Online Training
8
Vertex has offered multiple webinars for the products we have purchased that are informative and helpful. I've also attended a few of the Vertex annual conferences where I was able to strength my knowledge of Vertex. I also found that their online library and videos can be helpful in resolving issues and answering questions.
Ease of Vertex Training
As I became more seasoned user I learned many tricks using the system. I've poked around in the system and found better ways to improve the process. I've learned out to import tax rules and create reports in VRA.
Configuration Lessons
I would suggest using the knowledge center to see other users feedbacks.
UI Customization
Some - we have done small customizations to the interface
Our developers did the customization of the interface so that certain fields can be brought over into Vertex to determine taxability. At times the customization can be tricky and not always intuitive.
Extensibility and Customization
No - we have not done any custom code
Additional Customization Considerations
no
Premium Support
Not Available
Bug Resolution
Yes
Yes, it was resolved within a few days in one instance and the other time it was resolved in the following monthly update.
Easy Tasks
  • Setting up state registrations
  • Add taxability drivers
  • returns exports
Difficult Tasks
  • tax rules
  • locating mapping categories
  • locating rule IDs
Mobile Interface Availability and Impressions
No
Usability
9
Overall Vertex is easy to use and in most cases intuitive for the user once trained.
Scalability
9
Overall I'm happy with the product
Reliability and Availability
8
We rarely have Vertex outages or application errors since the software sits out our servers
Performance
8
Reports running in a timely time depending on the size and data requested. Vertex does interface with our ERP system and we do not see any slow down between the systems even when a large amount of documents are being sent over through the interface
Future Integration Plans
  • No
We have no plans for additional integrations with Vertex
Types of Integration
  • File import/export
No
Ease of Integration
8
Overall Vertex integrations well with our ERP system.
Integration Lessons Learned
Have a knowledgeable team that understands both systems that will need to be integrated.
Key Negotiation Points
I was not responsible for Vendor negotiations.
Dealing with Vertex Inc.
No
Upgrade Benefits
  • improved reporting
  • improved security
  • improved functionality
Anticipated Benefits from Future Upgrades
  • better interface
Future Edition Upgrade Plans
No
Migrating Between Editions
No
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