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Grant Thornton Signs with Thomson Reuters as Certified Implementer

Grant Thornton has become the first accounting firm recognized by Thomson Reuters Tax & Accounting as a “Certified Implementer” of its software, but it probably won’t be the last.

The two organizations announced the deal earlier this week (see Grant Thornton Teams with Thomson Reuters). The new Certified Implementer program is similar to a reseller program, but the accounting firms that sign up won’t be reselling any software.

Clients would still acquire the software through Thomson Reuters as they normally would, according to Joe Harpaz, senior vice president and general manager of global tax technology at Thomson Reuters. The firm would then provide individual training and implement the product at the client.

“The firm brings in their tax and audit expertise that they then apply on top of their product,” Harpaz told me. “They provide advisory services and are familiar with the tools to implement the workflow.”

Thomson Reuters just launched the program a couple of months ago and is targeting large firms that service major corporations.

Randy Robason, the national partner-in-charge of tax accounting and risk advisory services at Grant Thornton, told me the firm is starting with a group of about a half dozen personnel who will be trained in the Thomson Reuters software this month. That will expand later to additional partners and staff members. The firm so far has been certified to implement two of Thomson Reuters’ products: ONESOURCE Tax Provision and ONESOURCE WorkFlow Manager.

Robason sees a large need for such software at public companies. “Restatements for public companies for each of the last several years has created a need for companies to focus on getting their tax provisioning done right on time and in a cost-effective manner, so the natural consequence of that is companies focus on software as an opportunity to accomplish those objectives, and while software is never the only part of the solution, it is almost always a significant contributor to the solution.”

He anticipates significant growth in the market for such services both domestically and internationally in the next five to 10 years.

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