Wallis Companies Accelerates ERP Transition while Reducing Operational Complexity and Costs

The challenge

1. Supporting Expansion Plans while Migrating from a Legacy ERP

Wallis Companies, a diverse organization with a significant wholesale and commercial fuel division, faced a critical risk: its tax compliance application, PDI Ascend, was being sunsetted while its expansion plans were accelerating.

Waiting meant being forced into a rushed transition during an unknown future window, potentially while short-staffed or in the middle of other major initiatives.

“It was inevitable, and we didn’t want to be forced into something quickly,” Amanda Flowers, Controller at Wallis Companies, said. “Especially during that time when existing processes were already straining under the pressure of growth.”

2. Rigid Reporting Software Prevented Scalable Growth and Self-sufficiency

Wallis relied on another tax reporting software that demanded significant technical expertise. Rule changes or adapting to business needs meant relying on someone with a “data degree” just to keep things running, an unsustainable model for a lean team of just one tax professional.

“We don’t want to have to pay consultants every time we gain new customers or go through an acquisition; we need to be able to control that internally, and that’s just not how [our previous provider’s] product is built,” Flowers shared.

3. Compliance Exposure Due to Inefficient License Monitoring

With an aggressive plan to enter one or two new states every year, Wallis’s complexity was growing fast. Meanwhile, managing tax licenses across states remained a gap. Staff had to check licenses manually, a process that was simply unmanageable at scale.

“It wasn’t possible, unless you’re literally having somebody check all those licenses a couple times a week, and who’s got the resources to do that?” Flowers said.

In Illinois alone, verifying 40 to 50 distributors each month would consume hours and still expose the team to missed changes, risking costly errors and amendments.

“We would get a letter, you know, three to four months down the road that would say, ‘this customer is no longer a distributor. You should have been charging them taxes’,” Flowers noted. “Then we’re going back and amending four months’ worth of returns to correct those issues.”

The solution

Wallis Companies decided to take control. They began proactively seeking an alternative solution that would not only replace PDI Ascend, but also enhance their capabilities with reporting and license management.

The decision became clear when they saw what IGEN offered. Two features stood out as game changers:

• Automated license verification
• Flexibility to manage the system internally

“The deciding factor and kind of ‘aha’ moment for us was the license verification feature,” said Flowers. “We know it’s an area of risk for us, and it was something we were not currently able to manage well with our small team; to replicate this manually for all 21 states, we would have needed a full-time employee solely to check licenses.”

Equally important, Wallis could configure and manage the tax reporting software themselves as business needs changed without relying on expensive, time-consuming consulting engagements.

“We knew we had to have the ability to do setup within the software and manage it for changes as best as possible,” Flowers stated.

Onboarding and Support: A True Collaborative Partnership

The transition to IGEN was designed to empower the Wallis team from day one. Rather than having IGEN build everything, the process was a collaboration that saved Wallis both time and money.

The IGEN team built out the first two states to provide a model, and then Wallis’s team took the lead on the rest with IGEN providing support and guidance along the way.

“We would get to a certain point and then set up time to go over the progress that we had made and any hurdles that we were up against,” Flowers recalled. “The communication and support were good, and it really kept us moving forward.”

This hands-on approach ensured that by the time the system was fully live, Wallis’s team were super users, capable of managing their tax compliance and future expansion with confidence.

The impact:

By switching to IGEN proactively ahead of the PDI Ascend sunset, Wallis Companies avoided a high-pressure, high-risk transition. They implemented IGEN Tax Reporting and License Verification on a timeline that worked for them, while they were fully staffed and prepared.

They now operate with a level of control and efficiency that allows them to focus on their ambitious growth plans, knowing their tax compliance is in expert hands, their own.