As an international accounting firm, CaN International supports both Japanese companies considering or making overseas expansions and foreign-affiliated companies considering or making entries into Japan. Additionally, it is also characterized by its extensive track record in cross-border M&A. One of the crucial elements when CaN International handles accounting and tax services related to cross-border transactions is the accounting system. For instance, in the Post-Merger Integration (PMI) support following cross-border M&A, it's essential for the parent company to have a mechanism to timely grasp the financial status of its overseas subsidiary. The role of the accounting system, serving as the operational foundation, is significant in delivering high-quality accounting services to clients.
In this context, the company underwent a revamp of its accounting system at its Thailand location in 2018. Mr. Hideki Oda, a certified public accountant and director of CaN International FAS Co., Ltd., who was then serving as the representative of the Thai corporation, recalls as follows: 'The accounting system we were using at that time was difficult for anyone other than the local staff to handle due to language barriers, and it had functional shortcomings, such as the inability to output reports in Excel. Moreover, in order to provide timely and appropriate accounting services to our Japanese-listed clients with tight closing dates, I, as the administrator, considered introducing a system that would allow me to check data and give instructions to the staff regardless of time and place.'
What they chose was GLASIAOUS. Regarding the deciding factors for the selection, Mr. Oda said, 'We appreciated that it could be used regardless of location, that its operation was easy, that it could book entries through external data imports, and that its output reports were easily customizable. Another reason was that when our Thai staff actually used it, the feedback was positive.'
At the Thailand location, nearly all client-oriented accounting operations are now conducted using GLASIAOUS, and since 2021, it has also been introduced in their branch, the Chonburi Office. Leveraging the benefits of the cloud, the Japanese representative in Bangkok can grasp the financial information of clients located in Chonburi and has established a system to respond promptly to inquiries from clients.

With the introduction of an accounting system that can be used regardless of location, the Thailand branch has realized a more flexible work style. This made the transition to remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic smoother. Furthermore, some of the company's clients have also reported improved communication efficiency through GLASIAOUS.
"The accounting person-in-charge at our clients' headquarters in Japan can now directly access and review the accounting information of their overseas subsidiaries, allowing for timely and in-depth communication. Moreover, since the accounting personnel at the Japanese head office can view the local situation in Japanese, it's said to have also contributed to strengthening the governance of their overseas subsidiaries," said Mr. Oda.
Another significant impact is the response to the digitization of Tax Invoices in Thailand (the e-TaxInvoice system). Traditional invoice processing involved time-consuming and costly steps such as issuing invoices, getting them signed by the authorized personnel, mailing them to clients, and storing the documents internally. GLASIAOUS can extract Tax Invoice data in a format that can be uploaded to the e-TaxInvoice issuance system. By using the e-Tax Invoice issuance system, invoices can be automatically sent to clients and the tax office with the click of a button, realizing savings in terms of working hours, printing, storage, and postage costs.
(For details on Thailand's e-Tax Invoice system, click here.)

In the Japan-based office as well, there were challenges related to the accounting system. Yasuhisa Yamaoka, the director in charge of international taxation at CaN International , explains as follows: 'In 2018, our company acquired an accounting firm specialized in inbound business. However, in the integrated company, there were multiple accounting systems in use, which were different from what our group had been using. Furthermore, our firm had been grappling with the issue of individualized tasks specific to each consultant, so unifying the accounting system provided an opportune moment to promote standardization of operations.'
As a result, GLASIAOUS was introduced in the Japan-based office in 2019. Yamaoka describes its impact as follows: 'By integrating the acquired company's system with ours, the varied operational procedures that differed among staff members were standardized. The dependence on specific individuals for certain tasks was eliminated, making the handover of work easier. Moreover, while our previous accounting system could only extract data in a fixed format, with GLASIAOUS, it's easy to extract and modify data in Excel, which has been highly evaluated for its features by our consultants.'
Furthermore, it was mentioned that the biggest challenge in both the Japan and Thailand offices during the introduction was ensuring the new system was fully adopted by the staff. In response to this, Yamaoka said, 'We explained the benefits of implementing the system and had experienced consultants use it in trials, then shared the results with the rest of the team. GLASIAOUS has a robust system that flexibly responds to users' needs and requests, adding new features and making improvements. This has also been helpful in establishing GLASIAOUS within our organization.'
Regarding future prospects, Mr. Oda said, 'In our company, we also support financial reporting for Japanese parent companies based on financial data gathered from overseas bases, and I believe that GLASIAOUS can contribute to such tasks. Especially in cross-border M&As, the overseas target company usually uses an accounting system different from the headquarters. Therefore, I think we can utilize GLASIAOUS during the PMI process as well. In order to provide our customers with higher-quality accounting services through the standardization and acceleration of tasks, the role GLASIAOUS plays will be significant,'" he said.