Avalara

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Avalara
Score 8.6 out of 10
N/A
Avalara AvaTax connects to the software that businesses already have and delivers sales tax decisions based on precise geo-location in more than 12,000 taxing jurisdictions in the U.S.N/A
Pricing
Avalara
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Avalara
Free Trial
No
Free/Freemium Version
No
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
Yes
Entry-level Setup FeeOptional
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Avalara
Considered Both Products
Avalara
Chose Avalara
I don't have experience with any similar products.
Chose Avalara
Tax connect - Not able to integrate with ERP system in place Tax Jar - for a smaller business. Tax Connex and other software
Chose Avalara
Our company spent over a year researching competitors, and Avalara was an obvious standout choice.
Chose Avalara
I think it's very comparable. Avalara was already in place prior to me joining my current employer.
Chose Avalara
We never used any other tool; we worked with tax consultants in the past and did the filings manually.
Chose Avalara
We've looked at some other products but have been satisfied enough with Avalara that we've never had an interest in moving to another platform. It integrates well with our systems and does a great job for us. We have had some relationship management turnover and unmet …
Chose Avalara
I find Avalara easier for me to use and find information
Chose Avalara
We will be using this service when we implement new software. Avalara provides accurate and timely cross border information in the current dynamic tariff environment. That will allow us to transact international business accurately with our clients. We appreciate the accuracy …
Chose Avalara
Avalara is the only tax software I have used. It was selected because it integrates well with my Epicor ERP
Chose Avalara
Avalara was in place when I came on board, and the experience has been so positive that as we have encountered other needs, we have gone directly to Avalara.

In the EU, the application process was too hard for Avalara's team to navigate so we had to hire an outside party to get …
Chose Avalara
Avalara has a simple format that is easy to understand in comparison to Vertex.
Chose Avalara
I think what is good about AvaTax is the interface is easier to work with if you are a non-IT person. Not all products are as easy to use. Another good thing is the low cost of implementation. Other tax systems are not as affordable as Avalara products. The interfaces are also …
Chose Avalara
Can't remember the name of the old software but the reporting coming out of it was horrible. We have also used an accounting firm to file the returns and they charged me thousands of dollars to give me all my tax returns when I chose to move to Avalara.
Chose Avalara
I used Zytax, prior to Avalara purchasing the product, starting in 2007. The setup is similar, except that the user now can create the scenarios and profiles.
Chose Avalara
Avalara makes tax compliance easier with automation, multi-state filing, and error detection, plus secure e-filing and TIN matching to help avoid IRS penalties
Chose Avalara
We did not evaluate other software platforms. Avalara was the recommended solution and integrates well with Net Suite.
Features
Avalara
Type of tax
Comparison of Type of tax features of Product A and Product B
Avalara
8.2
362 Ratings
3% above category average
Sales and Use Taxes9.1356 Ratings
Cross-border Taxes8.377 Ratings
VAT / GST Taxes7.269 Ratings
Energy and Fuel Taxes8.028 Ratings
Tax Reporting & Compliance
Comparison of Tax Reporting & Compliance features of Product A and Product B
Avalara
8.4
341 Ratings
7% above category average
Geolocation for Tax Assessment9.0206 Ratings
3rd-Party Software Integrations8.3277 Ratings
Tax Data Reporting8.5306 Ratings
Compliance Administration Management8.8235 Ratings
Tax Exemption Processing8.4247 Ratings
Tax Document Management8.6234 Ratings
Complex Tax Scenario Management7.5163 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Avalara
Small Businesses
TaxJar
TaxJar
Score 8.1 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
LOVAT
LOVAT
Score 9.1 out of 10
Enterprises
ADP SmartCompliance
ADP SmartCompliance
Score 8.4 out of 10
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User Ratings
Avalara
Likelihood to Recommend
8.4
(472 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(35 ratings)
Usability
8.7
(464 ratings)
Availability
8.0
(11 ratings)
Performance
8.0
(11 ratings)
Support Rating
5.6
(24 ratings)
In-Person Training
8.0
(2 ratings)
Online Training
9.0
(4 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.9
(199 ratings)
Configurability
8.9
(8 ratings)
Ease of integration
8.9
(14 ratings)
Product Scalability
9.9
(10 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
7.3
(11 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
8.0
(11 ratings)
User Testimonials
Avalara
Likelihood to Recommend
Avalara
I find Avalara well-suited in the majority of situations when it comes to tax calculation. The only issues we run into are with more complex tax situations. It may be less appropriate for invoices that have significant variability that affects taxability. For example, if there is a business that sometimes is an installer and other times is not, there may need to be different tax codes set up for each situation. This requires the users to know how tax needs to be charged in different situations, rather than having Avalara do this automatically.
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Pros
Avalara
  • Sales tax rates at a "roof top" level
  • Has extensive research and documentation on telecommunications industry
  • Research is always up to date
  • The ability to ask questions and get clarification on specific situations with no limit as to how you ask a question and often get the answer the same day
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Cons
Avalara
  • Reporting could be more flexible - I'd like to customise what columns I want to export.
  • Adding bulk transactions is a bit cumbersome, and the user interface for required fields could do with some improvement.
  • It would be good to have more options to pay for tax settlements.
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Likelihood to Renew
Avalara
Avalara is the best sales tax compliance product on the market. Avalara allows us to accurately comply with our sales and use tax obligations in an accurate and timely manner for a reasonable cost. Avatax is a versatile and helpful product. We also are looking forward to implementing the cross-border product.
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Usability
Avalara
Avalara is hands down the best product available when it comes to what they offer, the robustness of their systems, and the diversity of their offerings. -All while being very cost-competitive. Avalara's tech is best in class while providing a total solution and integration between products and our systems, making processes much more convenient.
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Reliability and Availability
Avalara
I have been using Avalara for years and do not remember ever having an outage during working hours. The service is accurate and dependable.
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Performance
Avalara
We do have trouble tying Avalara's reporting back to our POS, but we just got a new POS system and there are bugs we are still trying to work out within the POS system. I do not believe this is an Avalara issue
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Support Rating
Avalara
In my experience, numerous questions, and particularly those regarding billing issues are just ignored, and it is impossible to get to someone to discuss. Your account manager will tell you they are taking care of it and then it just goes into a black hole.
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In-Person Training
Avalara
I wasn't here when they first started with Avalara.
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Online Training
Avalara
The documentation online we informative and helpful. The videos from the Avalara institute and the help tab if we have any questions and the search too were helpful. We like the ease of using the click here for more information tool about nexus and the information for the ECM Pro training were helpful. Whenever we have a question we normally get an email along with the tool as to where to find our answer. We also like that it shows information about nexus status of the states we maybe approaching and we can look more into it.
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Implementation Rating
Avalara
The implementation team from Avalara was very knowledgable and did a good job of passing along information so that we could maintain the system and be able to make future changes ourselves. We had asked for some custom tax setup and they worked with us to get additional taxes set up that they didn't previously have. They worked with us to pull our documentation on tax rules and make sure those were included. I had hoped more scenarios would be there out of the box to cut down on the configuration time.
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Alternatives Considered
Avalara
TaxJar is integrated with Kaseya autotask, and this integration is very inefficient and was not easy to set up. Neither TaxJar nor Kaseya support was helpful at all, "rude" is the only word to describe that, whereas Avalara has always tried to be helpful and has been very friendly to work with. TaxJar has no similar capability to retain their tax-calculated transactions and file the returns; TaxJar would calculate the taxes in Kaseya autotask and you would still have to manually import the data into TaxJar if you wanted to subscribe and have them file your returns. Needless to say that was a non-starter.
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Scalability
Avalara
It is usable across all departments
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Return on Investment
Avalara
  • We went from two staff members down to one staff member dedicated to monitoring and reconciling sales tax with the G/L.
  • It takes the one staff member less time to monitor sales tax than having to go through and calculate and file in each state.
  • Avalara gives us confidence that the returns are filed accurately and timely every month.
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ScreenShots

Avalara Screenshots

Screenshot of the Avalara portal homepageScreenshot of returns, appearing in the Avalara portalScreenshot of transactionsScreenshot of reportsScreenshot of jurisdiction details