Avalara

The system works okay. It helps us manage rate tables and customers with multiple jurisdictions.

TERRIBLE and SLOW customer service. In fact, the worst I've ever experienced. It takes over a week to get a response unless you call-in, wait over an hour and get lucky with a knowledgeable rep. They love to pass the buck and point you to Avarala Help articles that are unrelated or not particularly useful.

Implementation - We went with their "guided implementation" to cut costs as we have a strong IT team and a lot of great internal and experienced resources. They were not helpful at all. No engagement (we had to reach out to them multiple times to get things moving), no project plan, limited guidance, slow responses and flat-out wrong recommendations. They gave us incorrect configuration information, and their data upload is downright antiquated. We had to CSV upload our customers (oh yeah, they don't know how to bulk upload data). We figured out a way to do it, but they also don't tell you any null values will delete those fields of data, so you get to do it all over again.

We then had to manually associate every single certificate for existing customers. We had to go through 3 reps and implementation types to properly handle marketplace facilitators (hint: setup an exempt customers in CertCapture like Amazon FBA/FBM, flow marketplace transactions through those customers, then create tax exemptions for each state that marketplace collects/remits on your behalf). We went live with lots of issues, and we're still working through several of them months later.

Their NetSuite integration is okay - but weak at best. Not intuitive at all. Permissions are a headache and we had to open a ticket to request they actually connect CertCapture correctly. All state liabilities also post to a single tax GL. If you want to report by state this is a challenge to reclass and reconcile.

Their reporting is mediocre at best . The reports they provide don't actually provide enough data to file your reports, likely because they want you to utilize their services and pay the $50/per filing for them to file on your behalf. If you have budget and you're not a small business, this would probably be fine.

UI - their User Interface is really pretty antiquated and frustrating to work with. Instead of having a single place to login and manage your account, there's an AvaTax login, there's an Avalara Admin login, there's a CertCapture login, and you have to handle them all separately. Many aspects just aren't super intuitive, and their Help isn't all that helpful. For instance, you can create a template cover letter to email to customers for exemption certificate requests, but you can't set it as a default form - unless you delete their default form and rename it (it took them 2 weeks to figure that one out).

The tax has automatically calculated the instance that invoice is generated.

The sales tax rates are maintained on Avalara's side. Whenever there's a sales tax rate change for any jurisdiction, Avalara will update the rate.

The User Interface is very user-friendly. Reports can be constructed and filtered in many ways (by state, by types of documents, etc.)

Avalara doesn't have the ability to tax multiple jurisdictions if you have one invoice line item but have a quantity of more than 1. This is relevant for when you have 100 software licenses and these licenses are used throughout multiple jurisdictions.

Avalara needs to find a solution to handle and remit use tax that is not manual-intensive work.

It sometimes takes a while to connect to chat support when you try to get support during peak hours.

Calculate state and local taxes.

House exempt certificates.

File and pay tax returns to states.

Easier reporting website.

Customer service and friendly staff

Account management

Easy API implementation

Integration of existing systems to form one single sign on system

Helps with returns

Files our returns

Helpful Customer Account Managers

Customer Support has been lacking.

Response time to cases lately has been too long.

Retaining and communicating when account managers are reassigned.

Great at address level tax calculations.

Simple and easy to use interface.

Easy connection to ERPs.

The options of “sellers use or sales tax” and “sales tax only” when selecting nexus states on AvaTax. I believe the process of selecting what tax type a client has needs to be more fleshed out. The consequences of selecting incorrectly could be major. Examples or a more detailed description of what selecting one or the other means for each state would be really helpful. I selected the “sellers use or sales tax” option for Iowa on a client’s set up and it missed an additional 1% local tax on a transaction as a result, which ended up not collecting an additional $3K in sales tax on an invoice. Each state defines one or the other differently, and it is important to know which option does what. It’s not as easy as knowing what type of tax the client has in the state in situations when that may not be apparent (such as new registrations when the tax type is not defined yet, but as a consultant, you know how the tax will be collected).

Documentation for clients such as a users guide, implementation manual for a company’s ERP that details what has changed on a client’s interface system, process diagrams on how everything connects, etc. Some of this is found on the online help, but some clients want actual documentation.

Support and guidance on CertCapture.

Support and guidance on proxy installations. A client was given a proxy installed on their NetSuite that allowed customer information to be passed to CertCapture. It was installed and no guidance was given on how to use it, even after requesting.

Better support for clients with special requests. We requested phone time with NetSuite specialist from Avalara and AvaTax specialist in order to discuss some open questions the client had.

Tax calculations with the Avalara AvaTax API system returns pretty accurate taxation results.

AvaTax website is easy to navigate.

Avalara's blog provides valuable tax information regarding rate changes and tax holidays or changing tax rules.

When paired with our POS system, which does not utilize an API but utilizes an Avalara-designed static rate file, tax results are often inaccurate, resulting at times in significant tax undercollection.

Reports are hard to use when the same data is on multiple lines for multiple jurisdictions.

Website often is slow in looking up transaction details.

Customer support on the product/technical side leaves much to be desired. Poor communication, unresolved issues but tickets are closed anyway, and often, unhelpful "contact your rep" or "we don't support that" types of answers.

Timely remittance

Rate changes

Multiple state jurisdictions

Customer service. Very good compliance team though

Dealing with tax notices

Manual entries are difficult

Accurate calc of taxes. The tax rate is determined by a combination of the tax code of the item being invoiced, as well as the ship to address.

Files returns so that I never again have to file a state sales tax return

File VDAs for me

Our EPicor ERP system combined with Avalara allows us to easily do Use Tax during the AP Invoice Processing - much easier than the old way of writing on invoices.

A little slow in VDAs, due to being overwhelmed with volume

Backdated transactions are not always included in the appropriate return, and it is hard to find them.

I have had trouble reconciling my monthly transactions since they include monthly/quarterly/annual returns and some have prepayments and carryover credits. Better training and templates on reconciliation would be nice.

Online training

Conferences

Webinars

CertCapture

Billing - we have had issues in past

Turnover in client reps

Cost of some products

Tax summary

Visibility of transactions

Timely filing

Research

Updates to clients

Multi-entity reporting

Keeps tax rates up to date

Reports are very concise and easy to read

They keep up well on rate changes

More person to person support contact rather than "watch this webinar"

Eliminate the rounding problems

Run customer and certificate reports

Store customer and certificate data

Provide links to helpful info on how to use the system

The CertExpress customer interface is limited in its capabilities and confusing to customers.

There is no way to specify if address info is Bill To or Ship to when it is entered into CertCapture.

The Chat feature in all programs has extremely long wait times and rarely provides answers.

The Nexus Alert feature in Avatax does not take into account any transactions that are not passed through Avalara.

Customers are not automatically notified by email when certificates are validated.

Email campaigns from CertCapture stall in process and have to be resent.

Avatax provides up to minute tax solutions to charge customers accurately.

The sales tax can be pinpointed down to exact address.

Allows us to remain compliant and up to date.

Recently used registration service and felt we could have been walked through the status of state registration.

I have not run into any other concerns.

Tax calculation.

Cert validation.

State registrations.

Tax return reports could be set up better to aid in return filing. Many of the reports are not set up in a format that is ready to file.

Dynamic acquisition and application of address-based tax rates

Tax filing per the current tax laws and regulations

Provide necessary data for monthly reconciliations

Support center often has long phone queues. It can be frustrating when you need immediate assistance

System gets bogged down around the time for approvals

Customer service has been exceptional, thanks to David West, our rep

Cert capture is easy to use and saves us time

None noted

Calculation

Communication

Finding help questions. I'm always trying to research and always spend too much time finding the correct topic.

I have had three account managers in 6 months.

Calculate tax

File returns

Helps manage our exemption certificates

Help desk email responses could be addressed timelier.

User friendly

Modern UI

Great customer service

Keeps my team updated on changes in the tax world

Integration with certain ERP systems

Meeting the needs of large corporations with Avatax

A tax calculator / transaction tester would be nice

Calculate tax

Address validation

API response time

Support response time is bad. Does not meet SLA.

Support response quality is bad. It usually takes a few times to get the answer I want.

API sometimes goes down.

Calculations of tax

Returns filed timely

Knowledgeable people

Grow a customer service team that answers phone calls

When customer calls and leaves their phone number for a call back...have someone call

If customer service phone call gets strangely disconnected, call the customer back especially since the Avalara representative asks for a call back # in case of a disconnect.

Integration

End user calculation

CertCap

Continued refinement of dashboard and services

Filing returns on time

Calculating sales tax

Helping when there are issues

User manuals

Communications where there are outages or disruptions

Rooftop-level tax calculation.

Partner programs.

Returns filing.

Item taxability management.

Implementation and support could use some updating with their recent expansion.

Pricing could be better suited for each customer.

More dedicated partner resources across different departments.