Planitax offers automated surveys One of the most challenging aspects to paying taxes, besides coming up with the money, is collecting the data–particularly when you have to reach across various geographies and lines of business. Planitax Inc., a software and services company based in Emeryville, Calif., says it has the answer: The company's newly released Data Collector module provides a technology platform to streamline and centralize the tax data gathering process from across multiple business units. The new module fills a void in an earlier release by Planitax, Corporate Tax Horizons, a hosted, Web-based suite that helps organize tax documents and work papers across an organization, while empowering users to implement controls and manage the audit process. Released late last year, the application is less a numbers crunching tool and more a system to streamline data storage and usage that can improve the accuracy of tax planning and strategy efforts.

With Data Collector, the system automates data gathering with a series of electronic surveys that are sent to business units for keeping track of details needed for tax reporting or other tax information needs when they occur, such as merger and acquisition planning or financial reporting. Since they're Web-based, surveys that have been issued to business units can be easily updated with the latest regulatory changes, without the need to start the process all over again. The system also contains centralized tracking features, to help tax departments meet their deadlines by automatically checking the status of each separate survey and verifying that the right employees have begun the process of filling out their survey forms. "The net result is greater efficiency and a lot more accuracy in collecting data from the sources," says Seda Taysi, chief strategy officer and founder of Planitax. "You can go to one central dashboard to see the status of hundreds of different tax information request and tax projects." Data Collector includes best practice templates for common tax schedules. In the coming months, new compliance software integration and customization updates will be released.