The 1 sales tax product to AVOID
Use Cases and Deployment Scope
We used Avalara to monitor our nexus thresholds in each state, collect and file sales tax for us. We used their Shopify connector and went through the migration with Shopify tax. Avalara was mostly used to file sales tax on our behalf. This was pitched as a value add, but you'll end up managing their time, and in my experience the product doesn't work as advertised. If it fails, in my experience, they'll take zero responsibility.
Pros
- Files sales tax
- Notification of nexus thresholds
Cons
- Consistently paying taxes
- Customer service
- Communication
- Response time
- User experience of their portal
- Billing
- ACH settings
Return on Investment
- In my experience, poor communication, they take weeks to respond or don't at all
- In my experience, zero management, you will manage them. Every communication starts from square one and you have to explain everything in detail
- Lack of ownership. In my opinion, they are not proactive in anything
- High employee churn. In my opinion, our account manager turned more than any other company we work with
- In my opinion, expensive. You can go with any other option and get at least the same level of service (low bar) and pay less
- No responsibility. In my experience, when their software makes mistakes, it costs you money. In my experience, they don't help you with the bills and put everything on you. You'll need a team to manage their team
