A documented method. Not a speech.
Diagnostic, Stabilization and Continuous Governance are three phases, each with a defined input, output and completion criterion. What DFSpro does, how it decides and what it delivers can be explained and checked at any stage of the project.
Most failures of tax vendors do not show up in the commercial proposal. They show up later, when a risk committee asks how a decision was made and the answer is a verbal memory, not a record.
The method has three phases: Diagnostic, Stabilization and Continuous Governance. Each has a defined input, output and completion criterion. You hire specialist consulting with a defined scope and deliverables, not staff placement. Every phase produces a written record.
Choose your starting point by role
Four entry points, one for each role, straight to the section that answers your question.
01Tax and finance
What the phases are and what comes out of each one.
Go to the section02Legal
What kind of contract relationship this is and what is hired.
Go to the section03Compliance and internal audit
How decisions and work are documented in each phase.
Go to the section04IT and information security
How tax and financial data is handled.
Go to the sectionThe three phases of the method
DFSpro organizes all its work in three sequential phases. Each one has its own goal, a completion criterion and an explicit decision point before moving on. No phase skips the one before it: there is no Continuous Governance proposal without a prior Diagnostic, and there is no project Stabilization without the risk priorities that the Diagnostic produces.
Diagnostic
The entry point. A structured review of the tax environment and of how SAP and GUEPARDO Tax work together, to find where the real risk is and what must come first, before any project proposal. The Diagnostic produces a risk priority plan, not a list of generic recommendations.
Stabilization
When the Diagnostic points to one concentrated technical problem, such as a migration from ECC to S/4HANA or a fix to the GUEPARDO Tax setup, Stabilization is the focused project that solves that specific problem. It also follows the environment right after the technical delivery, the period when the risk of regression is highest.
Continuous governance
After the operation proves stable under real use, the follow-up moves to the continuity model: ongoing monitoring of tax changes, upkeep of the setup and direct advisory support, with no ticket queue and no team rotation.
How each phase is carried out
Each phase has a defined input, execution and output. Every SAP environment has real particularities, but the process structure is the same in every project.
| Phase moment | Diagnostic | Stabilization | Continuous governance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Input | Access to the SAP environment and to GUEPARDO Tax for the technical review, and an initial conversation with the person who feels the problem (usually the Tax Director or Tax Manager). | The priority plan produced in the Diagnostic, or an equivalent technical assessment the client has already done. | An environment that is already stable and moving to normal operation. |
| Execution | Mapping the environment, finding mismatches between tax and accounting calculation, and ranking risks by severity. | A senior team dedicated to the specific problem, with intensive follow-up right after the technical delivery. | Ongoing monitoring, upkeep of the setup as tax rules change, and direct advisory support through a dedicated technical channel. |
| Output | A risk priority plan, with a clear recommendation on what to tackle first and why. | An environment that is stable under real use, confirmed by the client during operation, not only declared finished on paper. | There is no output in the sense of an ending. It is the permanent state of operation, reviewed continuously while the contract is active. |
Senior consultants carry out every phase. DFSpro does not put junior staff in place of a senior specialist on the core technical work of any of the three phases. The continuous phase is described in the SAP Tax Governance Program.
Nature of the contractual relationship
DFSpro works as a specialist consultancy. This distinction matters because it changes the legal framing of the relationship.
What is hired
What you hire is the delivery of a diagnostic, a stabilization project or a continuous governance service, with scope, deliverables and deadline defined in a commercial proposal. DFSpro delivers a defined work result (a diagnostic, a completed migration, a governance service in operation).
What is not hired
This is different from a staff placement or outsourcing relationship, where what you hire is the time of a professional made available to the client, a person placed full-time under the client's direct supervision.
What the commercial proposal sets out in each engagement
- Scope of work (what is included and what is not).
- Concrete deliverables (diagnostic report, priority plan, migrated and validated environment, periodic governance report).
- Execution deadline, when it applies to the phase hired.
Specific contractual guarantees are handled case by case, in the commercial proposal.
How we document decisions and the work
Each of the three phases of the method produces a record:
Diagnostic
Produces a written risk priority plan, with an explicit severity level (critical, high, medium, monitor) for each item found, not a verbal impression of what was found.
Stabilization
Is followed against completion criteria defined in advance, not a subjective feeling of "done".
Continuous governance
When the environment already uses or is assessing an SAP AI assistant (such as Joule), continuous governance adds one more question: what can that assistant change or suggest inside the tax flow, and what control reviews it. Governance first, automation after, never the other way around. See how this applies to SAP Joule.
Is reported periodically, with what was monitored and what was adjusted in the period.
The client can audit this documentation while the work is under way: at any time during the contract, it is possible to review the priority plan, the completion criteria of the Stabilization phase and the periodic Continuous Governance reports. This is a structural feature of how the work is run, not a promise of an external audit by a third-party certifier.
The client can audit the follow-up at any time during the contract.
Data handling and confidentiality
Every project involves access to the client's sensitive tax and financial data.
Contractual handling
Confidential handling of this data is standard practice in every DFSpro project. It is set out in the terms of the commercial proposal and of each contract, not only a verbal promise.
Internal anonymization protocol
The DFSpro technical team already works with an internal anonymization protocol for any use of client information outside the direct context of the project (for example, in internal training material or case discussions between consultants). No client data or name circulates without this care, even internally.
How the team is composed
Senior consultants lead the core technical work of each phase (Diagnostic, Stabilization, Continuous Governance), not junior staff in training inside the client's environment. This is a structural decision about the service model, consistent with the rest of DFSpro's positioning: low bureaucracy and direct seniority, with no support layer in a queue between the client and the people who actually carry out the work and decide technical matters.
Why this team makeup matters
This team makeup matters especially to those who assess contract scope risk (Legal) and to those who check that the service hired matches what is actually delivered (Compliance): the "senior team" described in the proposal is the team that actually works on the project, not a quiet swap for less experienced staff after signing.
For those who want to go deeper before approving
The method and the contract model. Two other pages add to this assessment, for those who need more information before taking the decision forward:
Where this fits
Each phase of the methodology has its own page with scope and completion criterion:
SAP Tax Diagnostic
Phase 1: a senior review of about eight weeks.
AMS Fiscal Advisory: stabilization post-go-live
Phase 2: 90 days of assisted follow-up.
AMS Fiscal Advisory: continuous governance
Phase 3: a recurring discipline, with no end date.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about model, timeline and contracting.
Frequently asked due diligence questions
01Is the contract with DFSpro an advisory service or a staff placement?+
It is an advisory service, with scope, deliverables and deadline defined in the proposal (see "Nature of the contractual relationship" above). DFSpro delivers a defined piece of work. It does not place a professional under the client's direct supervision.
02How do we know the method is actually followed, and not only described in a commercial proposal?+
Each phase produces a verifiable record during execution: a risk priority plan in the Diagnostic, completion criteria in Stabilization, periodic reports in Continuous Governance (see "How we document decisions and the work" above). The client can review these records at any time during the contract.
03Is there any formal contractual guarantee on the result of the work?+
Specific guarantees are handled case by case, in the commercial proposal of each project. DFSpro does not publish a generic guarantee clause because it varies by the scope hired. The right way to get this information is to take the question directly to the team before signing.
04Is the team that signs the proposal the same team that carries out the project?+
Senior consultants lead the core technical work of each phase (see the section "How the team is composed"). If your due diligence requires named confirmation of the team assigned to a specific project, that confirmation is handled at the proposal stage.
05How long does the Diagnostic take within the methodology?+
From 5 to 8 weeks, led by a senior team. The Diagnostic is the first formal step of the methodology and comes before any project proposal.
06How do you prioritize the risks you find?+
By severity and real impact, not by order of discovery. The result is a prioritized map (critical, high, medium or monitor only), so the effort goes first to what creates the most exposure.
07Can Legal and Compliance use the methodology to assess the vendor?+
Yes. The methodology documents how the work is carried out and how decisions are recorded, in a format suited to Legal and Compliance due diligence before approving a contract.
08Do you document technical decisions?+
Yes. Each decision and each setup change is recorded with its technical justification, for traceability and so the operation does not depend on the memory of a single person.
09Does the methodology change by industry?+
The structure (mapping, analysis, risk prioritization) is the same. What changes is the technical focus specific to each industry, applied on top of the same diagnostic discipline.
10Where does the methodology start?+
Always with the SAP Tax Diagnostic. No project is sized before the diagnostic maps the real state of the environment and ranks the risks.
From a checked process to the Diagnostic
If the validation process is already settled, the natural next step is the SAP Tax Diagnostic: the same entry point used in every new project, with no step in between. If a specific question remains about the contract model, data handling or team makeup before you move on, the most direct path is to talk to the team now, not wait until the proposal stage to raise it.