Significant time savings enables fast-growth company to focus on more strategic tax planning

SAN RAMON, CA – May 14, 2009 – Sabrix, Inc., a leading provider of transaction tax management for companies of all sizes, today announced that Metro Door (www.metrodoor.com), a leading security and service solutions provider, has reduced sales and use tax operations by 65 percent using Sabrix Managed Tax Service (MTS).

Founded in 1980, Metro Door originally used an internal system integrated with its accounting system to support all its unique requirements, including retail and contractor sales totaling over 5,000 transactions a month; and specific codes for manufacturing and material, capital improvement, distributing, labor, services and freight.  Sales and use tax administration started to become prohibitive to the growing company, which was trying to reduce overhead while limiting audit exposure. 

“Due to the nature of our business, it was very labor-intensive to get everything correct,” said Cindi Lanigan, Tax Manager, Metro Door.  “Combine tax complexity with our rapid growth, where orders come through around the clock, and we knew we needed a robust and complete tax system that was also cost effective — two requirements that typically do not go hand-in-hand.”

Metro Door embarked on a significant project of replacing their old accounting software, including the integrated applications they have come to bolt on over the years.  After making the decision that SAP Business One would be their enterprise management software, they determined due to the nature of their transactions, the sales tax component would need special consideration.  They looked at several competing on-premise tax management solutions, but decided instead to go with the Sabrix MTS, an outsourced sales and use tax service.  Leveraging the same trusted tax engine currently used by leading Fortune 1000 companies, Sabrix MTS was the ideal solution for Metro Door as it provided the required accuracy and reliability across company’s complex transaction tax landscape, access to Sabrix’s team of tax experts and all at a cost effective price point.

“I used to spend half my time every week staying on top of our monthly sales tax obligations,” added Lanigan.  “With Sabrix I am freed to be more strategic and proactively assess potential audit exposures related to our company’s growth.”

Like most companies and in light of the poor economy, Metro Door also found itself subject to increasingly frequent and aggressive state transaction tax audits, which prior to Sabrix was a major pain point.

Christine Vetrano, CFO at Metro Door concludes, “Every business has its particular tax management challenges.   This area is increasingly becoming more difficult as we see states move to capture more transaction tax revenues. Sabrix MTS gives us a complete, flexible and practically hands-off solution for managing our challenges, and it does so in a trusted and highly economical manner.  Now, instead of looking over our shoulder at tax issues, we can focus ahead on growing our top and bottom lines.” 

“It was a difficult and time-consuming task to get all the right information out of the system for the auditors,” added Lanigan.  “Between handling rate changes, tax decisions, return preparations and audits, entirely too much time was being spent on transaction tax management as opposed to growing the business.”

Benefits achieved using Sabrix MTS include:

• Deployed resources to more strategic tax activities – Before Sabrix, Metro Door allocated significant time managing transaction taxes, which with Sabrix has been reduced by a third of that, the time spent each month managing returns cut in half.
• Ensured accuracy across complex tax environment – From retail and resale to manufacturing and services, and across all taxing jurisdictions, Sabrix MTS reliably supports Metro Door’s complex tax landscape.
• Seamless integration with finance systems – Sabrix MTS integrates seamlessly with Metro Door’s back office finance systems to help streamline tax and other finance processes.
• Expert tax support – Sabrix’s team of tax experts is available to back up every aspect of Metro Door’s transaction tax management process, on demand.  This includes providing expert advice on complex taxability issues and extends to nexus studies and audit support.

About Metro Door

Founded in 1980, Metro Door is one of the nation’s leading suppliers of quality security solutions, with an extensive line of products including rolling and sliding security grilles, rolling shutters, and coiling service doors. Their service division, Metro Service Solutions, is a leading provider of 24/7 facilities maintenance services to national retailers.  They have built expertise in all types of door repairs/preventative maintenance, glass repairs and handyman services and is continually evolving to meet the industry’s needs. More information about this dynamic company can be found at www.metrodoor.com/serviceSolutions and www.metrodoor.com.

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Aimee Quemuel
Codey Communications
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