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Avalara

Score8.4 out of 10

966 Reviews and Ratings

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What is Avalara?

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.

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Categories & Use Cases

Media

Screenshot of the Avalara portal homepage
Screenshot of returns, appearing in the Avalara portal
Screenshot of transactions
Screenshot of reports
Screenshot of jurisdiction details

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Screenshot of the Avalara portal homepage

Avalara Key Features

Learn about the best (and worst!) features Avalara has to offer, as determined by TrustRadius' reviewers.
Based on 966 ratings of Avalara's features
View all Avalara features

Top Performing Features

  • Sales and Use Taxes

    Software is capable of calculating and filing sales and use taxes.

    Category average: 9

  • Geolocation for Tax Assessment

    Ability to use geolocation, which is more precise than zip codes, for mapping taxes to specific jurisdictions.

    Category average: 8.5

  • 3rd-Party Software Integrations

    Pre-built integrations with various systems such as ERP, ecommerce, CRM, invoicing and billing, accounting, and procurement applications.

    Category average: 8.1

Areas for Improvement

  • Cross-border Taxes

    Software is capable of calculating and filing taxes, such as customs, across countries.

    Category average: 7.8

  • VAT / GST Taxes

    Ability to calculate and manage VAT and GST taxes.

    Category average: 8.1

  • Complex Tax Scenario Management

    Ability to automate handling of tax holidays and other anomalies.

    Category average: 7

Who Buys & Uses Avalara

Avalara Reviews

What users are saying about Avalara.
View all Avalara reviews

Pros

  • Simplifies complex tax processes, including sales tax and 1099 filing
  • Accurately calculates sales tax across multiple jurisdictions
  • Streamlines 1099 filing preparation, e-filing, and distribution

Cons

  • Inconsistent customer support quality, including slow response times and generic replies
  • User interface is perceived as dated and could be more intuitive for corrections
  • High cost, particularly for state registrations and per-transaction fees

Avatax is great tax tool in handling taxes and exemptions efficiently.

Incentivized
Manvitha Katta
Staff Business Solutions Partner, Finance Systems in Finance and Accounting at 6Sense (1001-5000 employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Avalara is used to handle taxes for our organization. We have Avalara integrated with Sage Intacct for handling taxes. Avalara handles taxes based on a set of rules, and exemptions are handled efficiently. Sales tax is added promptly for Invoices in Sage Intacct as soon as the invoice is created. Reporting is easy on Avalara for taxes that have been added or are exempt.

Pros

  • Customer exemption certificates are handled well.
  • Exemptions and state rules are handled well.
  • Reporting out of Avalara is great.
  • Integration with Intacct is very easy for setup and product codes are easier for sync.

Cons

  • Custom rules can be improved.
  • India taxes are not been handled well and GST rules can be improved further.

Return on Investment

  • With Avalara, manual tax reporting and calculations have been reduced drastically, reducing manual effort and increasing efficiency.
  • Since it is integrated with Sage Intacct, reporting in both Sage Intacct and Avalara is well balanced, and reporting with tax authorities has been handled well.

Usability

Other Software Used

Sage Intacct, Navan, Snowflake

Avalara Review

Incentivized
Julia Herring
Staff Accountant in Finance and Accounting at Alliance Technical Group (1001-5000 employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We have Avalara integrated into Coupa and NetSuite. We are using it to calculate both use and sales tax. We are also using it to file and manage our use and sales tax filing. In addition, we use the customer exemption management. It addresses our business' desire for compliance and accuracy. We feel more confident in the fact that our returns are all being filed in a timely manner and our accurate when they are filed. It also gives us the ease of letting Avalara determine if a customer is exempt based off the certificates stored. We do not have to constantly check on those invoices to make sure taxes have been added.

Pros

  • Avalara is very good about filing returns in a timely fashion
  • The customer exemption certificate is wonderful
  • I also think that Avalara is very good at explaining why an invoice has taxes on it.

Cons

  • I believe that some of the AI functions could use some improvement. They sometimes are inaccurate or take longer to process something.
  • I think that it needs to be easier to identify the exact transactions that are being included when approving returns

Return on Investment

  • It saves us lots of time
  • Saves us from paying late fees and interest on late returns
  • Ensures accuracy

Usability

Other Software Used

NetSuite ERP, Coupa, Brex, ServiceMax, Navan, Anthropic Claude

A Comprehensive and Future-Ready Solution for Sales Use Tax Compliance.

Incentivized
preya chandan
SNR. TAX ACCOUNTANT in Finance and Accounting at SINGER EQUIPMENT COMPANY (201-500 employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We utilized Avalara's ATR (research) for trusted, source-backed guidance on evolving tax legislation; ECM for exemption certificate compliance and management; AvaTax for accurate tax determination at the transaction and product level; and managed returns to support the timely filing and remittance of sales and use tax across all applicable jurisdictions.

Pros

  • Excels at translating complex, ever-changing tax regulations into practical guidance.
  • Delivering highly accurate, intelligent tax calculations at the line or product level, based on business needs.
  • Streamlining highly complex compliance into audit-defensible data for clarity and integrity.

Cons

  • Managed Returns - Clarity on the nuanced Home Rule States - Compliance.
  • Platform Aviator to accurately access internal code to accommodate non-standard requests, including customizations to tax rules or product codes.

Return on Investment

  • Improved operational efficiency, reduced compliance risk, and enabled scalable growth.
  • Provides the confidence to support business expansion into additional jurisdictions without a proportional increase in compliance resources.
  • The platform's integrated approach helps us mitigate P&I and compliance risks while ensuring accurate calculation, collection, and remittance of taxes.

Usability

Seamless tax calculations and filing

Incentivized
Jordan DavisView profile
Website Manager in Professional Services at BoxoUSA (11-50 employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I am the Website Manager for BoxoUSA, a tool and tool storage manufacturer. I use Avalara for all things taxes for our business. It is used to calculate sales taxes on our e-commerce website based on shipping location, file state sales tax returns on our behalf, and monitor nexus status in the states we sell in.

Pros

  • They handle sales tax calculations seamlessly in our Shopify store via their Shopify integration.
  • As long as we approve our tax returns in a timely manner they file on our behalf which helps us a ton.
  • Their nexus status monitoring is really helpful to get the heads up when we need to register with a state's department of revenue.
  • Their customer service is superb. I am always able to chat with a live person and get my technical or tax questions answered quickly.

Cons

  • Taxes are naturally very confusing so having easier access to help docs or guides would be nice.
  • Not having to leave the user portal to start support would be nice.

Return on Investment

  • Avalara has actually saved us money despite how expensive the platform is. Without them we would have had multiple tax violations or incorrect tax returns that could have come back to bite us.
  • Their seamless integration into Shopify saves us time and money by importing our transaction data into their platform and reporting taxes based on that.
  • I do not have to worry about tax collection or filing now thanks to Avalara.

Usability

Alternatives Considered

Shopify

Other Software Used

Klaviyo, Anthropic Claude, Google Workspace, Shopify Plus, NetSuite ERP, Teamwork.com, Trello, Google Trends, Shopify, Shopify Flow

Helpful and Organized but Needs Better Onboarding

Incentivized
Jessica HoytView profile
Payroll in Finance and Accounting at Multipure International (11-50 employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Avalara to help manage sales tax for our business. The main problem it solves is reducing the amount of manual work and the chance of errors when calculating sales tax. We use it as part of our sales and accounting process to make tax handling easier and more consistent.

Pros

  • stay organized
  • Good reports
  • files timely

Cons

  • better customer service
  • more intuitive website
  • better access to account manager
  • ***** getting emails or calls from account manager to check in with us.

Return on Investment

  • it has freed up much of my time. About 65% . Now I can use this time elsewhere needed

Usability

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