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Each month, we recognize a K2 consultant whose outstanding performance, expertise, and unwavering commitment have led to outstanding client feedback on their recent projects. This month, the K2 Consultant of the Month is Scott Elliott, an SAP Indirect Tax Analyst. Find out more by reading his interview below:
Tell us a little bit about yourself.
"I specialize in SAP and indirect taxes (Sales/Use/VAT/GST/HST/PST/QST/Excise) as a functional analyst. I also have experience with third-party tax software integration with SAP in Taxware (Sovos) and Vertex. I have worked in this tax area exclusively for over 20 years consulting, and I am based in Houston, Texas, USA."
Tell us a little about your most recent K2 project.
"In the second project, we created custom development in SAP to facilitate the filing, tracking, payments, and more, for US and Canadian excise taxes, which included signature-ready outputs as well as electronic filing. The company has huge amounts of data that are needed to feed the processes for creating the returns on a daily basis. We had to ensure that we kept the design and coding as efficient as possible to ensure that all the processing could finish in a reasonable amount of time daily."
What do you enjoy most about your job?
"I really enjoy the breadth of knowledge that you have to have to support the indirect tax area in SAP. The indirect tax area has touchpoints with the purchasing, goods movement, sales and distribution, financials modules within SAP. You have to have a good understanding of these areas to help with troubleshooting issues between taxes and the other areas. Indirect taxes vary widely from company to company and from country to country. There is always something new to learn. Indirect tax also is challenging due to the impact being down to the individual line level of almost every transaction that flows through SAP."
Which technical development do you think will have the biggest impact on your field or the wider world of IT over the next couple of years?
"I believe that the rapid expansion of the capabilities in third-party tax software applications will have the largest impact on the indirect tax area over the next couple of years. Just a couple of years ago, there was not really any product that could enable the calculations for all tax types in one product. There are now several products either currently available or developing quickly that have such capabilities. I believe that the use of AI and machine learning will only expand and accelerate these system capabilities."
What advice would you give to someone who is starting out as a freelance IT consultant?
"Getting the first contract is the hardest. I have found that after your first one, things tend to get easier to find. You need to force yourself to take time off, even if you don't get paid vacation. Resting your mind and body with vacation breaks is really important to keeping a good work-life balance."
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If you’re an IT consultant looking for your next opportunity, contact us. Or if you’re a client looking for help staffing a project, contact us.
