EDITOR’S QUESTION
Digitally archiving your
VAT records
Archiving VAT papers records is no longer feasible and businesses need to
consider digital techniques, explains Chris Govier at Xerox Emirates.
N
Chris Govier, General Manager,
Xerox Emirates.
W
ith the introduction of the 5%
value-added tax law in the
UAE, companies today face
the challenge of digitising and securing
their business transaction history. The
federal law mandates organisations
maintain accounting records – like sales
invoices, import and export records,
accounting books and purchase invoices
– in paper or electronic format for a
period of at least five years post each
financial year.
However, storing transaction
information in a paper format creates a lot
of administrative work, inefficiencies and
additional costs.
To make VAT compliance a reality
but not a headache, companies must
leverage IT solutions that store
and manage sensitive information.
Digitalising VAT related documentation
will help organisations automate internal
procedures, provide a convenient
storage archive that can be referred to
at any time, and stay in line with the
government standards.
Consider the following five steps in
preparing for the VAT mandate:
50
ow that VAT has
been introduced
in the UAE and
Saudi Arabia, what are
the best practices that
have been embedded
in your products
and solutions?
Digitise Validate transactions
Digital documents are easier to manage
and audit than paper documents, so the
first step is to transition all hard copy
documents to digital. Automated validation involves
integration with other data sources such
as an existing database or enterprise
application. Manually validating
transactions is a time-consuming process
and risks human errors.
On the other hand, digitally automating
the validation process means the business
will have more accurate scripts while
saving time.
Classify the content
With the help of artificial intelligence,
automated classification solutions can
identify document types and classify them
through a combination of text and image-
based analyses.
Machine learning makes assigning
digital files very easy while minimising
the time taken to manually categorise
paper transactions.
Extract key figures
Once documents are captured and
classified, data within the file can be
extracted using Optical Character
Recognition, an advanced technology
that helps convert scanned documents
into an editable format. The extracted
information is then fed and collated into
solution empowered devices to identify
patterns in transactions and make
intelligent decisions.
Deliver online
Digital data, images and documents can
be exported and made available to other
content repositories, databases, and
business systems in a variety of formats.
After the digital system and processes
are in place, they can be scaled to suit the
volume of work in the organisation.
A well planned and implemented
system will save time, reduce costs and
digitally improve productivity in
document management.
It will also allow the company to
remain VAT compliant and enable
critical documents to be shared through
e-government platforms when required.
Issue 17
INTELLIGENT TECH CHANNELS