Indirect Tax & Customs Duty Optimization
Recover the VAT, duty and levy leakage hiding in operations.
The executive challenge
The problem this program solves
Audit findings repeat, controls live in spreadsheets, and indirect tax is managed as a compliance chore rather than built as a capability. The analysts who wanted to build decision support leave for employers whose data lets them — and the capability gap compounds. You leave with the FIT Framework™, an artefact you built yourself, and a 90-day plan your finance team can start on Monday.
Context
Why this matters now
Capability
What you will be able to do
- Redesign the indirect tax operating model around decision support, not transaction processing.
- Automate close and reconciliation processes in indirect tax with controls auditors accept.
- Diagnose indirect tax failure at the architecture level, not the symptom level.
- Architect financial data so indirect tax automation becomes possible rather than aspirational.
The IPAT Course Standard
The five-day journey
Each day is a deliberate progression in managerial capability — from strategic context, to analytical frameworks, to applied practice, to executive judgement under pressure, to a capstone that produces something your organisation keeps.
IPAT Signature Case™
Two Versions of the Truth, One Signature
Days before a bond issuance, the two largest divisions of a regional airline report materially different group numbers; the charts of accounts disagree, and the CFO must sign the offering circular. The market opens in 72 hours.
Your decision: Delay the issuance, disclose with qualifications, or force a reconciliation overnight — and decide who owns the indirect tax architecture that allowed this.
IPAT Data Lab™
The indirect tax close at a national power utility runs on spreadsheets held together by three indispensable people.
Dataset: Synthetic general-ledger extract with the reconciliation issues every month-end reveals.
Your task: Rebuild the close as a controlled pipeline, automate the reporting layer, and document the audit trail.
An automated indirect tax close design an auditor would accept.
Data → Analysis → Decision, not Data → Code → Certificate
Day 5 · The Capstone
What will you change when you return to work?
Design the finance function your institution needs: data architecture, automated processes, and a decision dashboard — with a 90-day starting sequence.
Methodology
Frameworks you will master
- • IPAT FIT Framework™
- • IPAT Data-to-Decision Framework™
- • Financial close and reporting benchmarks
- • Master data management principles
- • Zero-based process design
Cohorts
Upcoming cohorts
New dates are being scheduled
Register with your preferred start date and our admissions team will match you to the next available cohort — or contact us to arrange an in-house delivery for your organisation.
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