How L.L. Bean Created One Source of Truth for Tax Determination

As part of a company-wide transformation initiative, L.L.Bean sought to simplify operations, standardize processes, and reduce application complexity across the business. A critical component of that effort was modernizing a complex network of legacy tax systems.

By implementing Vertex O Series as its centralized tax determination platform, L.L.Bean established a single tax engine that all calling systems could rely upon. Instead of maintaining multiple tax solutions and reconciling inconsistent results, the company gained one source of truth for tax determination across the business.

With more consistent tax results delivered at the point of transaction, L.L.Bean improved customer service, reduced financial risk, and strengthened confidence in tax decisions across channels. The tax team also cut its reliance on IT by approximately 50% and reduced manual compliance effort by approximately 25% through automation with Vertex Returns On-Demand.

Today, L.L.Bean benefits from greater agility in responding to tax law changes and a stronger foundation for audit readiness and risk management.

Watch the video to hear how L.L.Bean transformed tax operations by getting tax right at the source.

Key Outcomes:

• Established a single source of truth for tax determination
• Reduced tax team's reliance on IT by approximately 50%
• Reduced manual compliance effort by approximately 25%
• Improved consistency across systems and channels
• Reduced financial risk and strengthened audit readiness
• Increased agility in responding to tax rule changes 

"The Vertex team is collaborative, innovative, and helps me solve my problems."

— Meg McLaughlin, Tax Accountant at L.L.Bean