February 15, 2017 - Blog

The Brexit Series: Business & IT Change Strategies

The Brexit negotiations between Europe and the UK are likely to be protracted. The outcome of these negotiations may result in the introduction of new tariffs, customs and excise duties for trade between the EU and the UK. As the UK seeks to release itself from EU regulatory oversight, future legislative change may result in further disparate changes in corporate reporting and accounting requirements between the EU and the UK. These are likely to include changes to both financial and data protection regulatory contexts. The formal exit process will take a maximum of 2 years to complete, but it is to be expected that there will be little time from the finalisation of the negotiations to the full implementation of any business changes required.
Businesses must therefore engage today in scenario planning for the most likely outcomes, reviewing the implications, risks and opportunities the new environment may present. A set of likely scenarios should be drawn up for each aspect affecting a company’s trade, reporting and compliance obligations. Using these scenarios, an analysis of the implications for your organisation should be undertaken, including group company structure, accounting and reporting structures in use, data locations and jurisdictions. The analysis should review the implications for Finance and Accounting systems, for ERP systems, for reporting platforms and their underlying data structures, as well as for online marketplaces and ecommerce platforms.