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Avalara

Avalara

Overview

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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Recent Reviews

Avalara Review

7 out of 10
February 29, 2024
Incentivized
We use Avalara to track our sales tax eligible sales and calculating the correct amount of sales tax that should be charged and remitted …
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Indirect Tax

9 out of 10
December 05, 2023
Incentivized
I played a pivotal role in implementing AvaTax at Alchemee. I used to manage the system. We filed our US and Canadian returns through this …
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Great!

10 out of 10
December 05, 2023
Incentivized
We use Avalara for our sales tax compliance. Avalara is excellent at tracking the data necessary to fill out the sales tax returns. We …
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Awards

Products that are considered exceptional by their customers based on a variety of criteria win TrustRadius awards. Learn more about the types of TrustRadius awards to make the best purchase decision. More about TrustRadius Awards

Popular Features

View all 11 features
  • Sales and Use Taxes (294)
    8.9
    89%
  • Tax Exemption Processing (201)
    8.3
    83%
  • Tax Data Reporting (247)
    8.3
    83%
  • 3rd-Party Software Integrations (222)
    8.0
    80%

Reviewer Pros & Cons

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Pricing

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Entry-level set up fee?

  • Setup fee optional
For the latest information on pricing, visithttps://www.avalara.com/us/en/products/…

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services

Starting price (does not include set up fee)

  • $21 per month
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Product Demos

Avalara AvaTax Demo

YouTube
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Features

Type of tax

A list of the different types of taxes that can be filed using tax compliance software.

8.4
Avg 8.5

Tax Reporting & Compliance

Activities relating to tax filing, reporting, document management, and exemption certificate processing.

8.2
Avg 8.4
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Product Details

What is Avalara?

Avalara helps to make tax compliance faster, easier, more accurate, and more reliable for 30,000+ business and government customers in over 90 countries. Tax compliance automation software solutions from Avalara leverage 1,200+ signed partner integrations across ecommerce, ERP, and other billing systems to power tax calculations, document management, tax return filing, and tax content access. Visit avalara.com to learn more.

Avalara Features

Type of tax Features

  • Supported: Sales and Use Taxes
  • Supported: Cross-border Taxes
  • Supported: VAT / GST Taxes
  • Supported: Energy and Fuel Taxes

Tax Reporting & Compliance Features

  • Supported: Geolocation for Tax Assessment
  • Supported: 3rd-Party Software Integrations
  • Supported: Tax Data Reporting
  • Supported: Compliance Administration Management
  • Supported: Tax Exemption Processing
  • Supported: Tax Document Management
  • Supported: Complex Tax Scenario Management

Additional Features

  • Supported: Centralized tax management: Unifies sales and use tax calculation, document management, and returns preparation.
  • Supported: Integrations: AvaTax connects with more than 700 prebuilt integrations to connect with accounting, ecommerce, POS, and other systems, plus an advanced API.
  • Supported: Cloud-based: A software-as-a-service solution, AvaTax updates take effect as soon as they are deployed, helping to ensure the most current information is used.
  • Supported: Exemption management: Certificates from vendors are stored electronically for access and to track expiration dates. Automatic renewal requests are sent out before certificates expire.
  • Supported: Returns filing and remittance: Returns preparation and remittance in multiple jurisdictions. Avalara Returns can track and manage due dates and payment requirements, enabling users to pay returns with a single source of payment.
  • Supported: Lodging: Lodging tax for hotel or rental property are managed with a solution that plugs into reservation software to deliver lodging tax calculations in real time as well as preparation, filing, and remittances of lodge tax returns.
  • Supported: Communications: Tax calculations are delivered on an array of communications transactions by directly connecting to a current billing or ERP system, or to an in-house build via API.
  • Supported: Beverage Alcohol: Simplified regulatory compliance for suppliers, distributors, and retailers in the beverage alcohol industry.

Avalara Screenshots

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Avalara Video

Why Avalara?

Avalara Technical Details

Deployment TypesSoftware as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based
Operating SystemsUnspecified
Mobile ApplicationNo

Frequently Asked Questions

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.

Avalara starts at $21.

Vertex, Sovos Intelligent Compliance Cloud, and Thomson Reuters ONESOURCE are common alternatives for Avalara.

Reviewers rate Sales and Use Taxes highest, with a score of 8.9.

The most common users of Avalara are from Mid-sized Companies (51-1,000 employees).
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(719)

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(151-175 of 412)
Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Keeping up to date with tax calculation for each State
  • User friendly Tax Returns system to manage Returns
  • Managing the Tax Returns on time and simplify filing amendment if needed
  • During Tax Returns reconciliation, i've encountered where sales tax were not being calculated as it should, and I usually have to open the particular transaction in NetSuite and refresh it, then it will assign an Avatax Doc code, as an indication that the transaction is now accounted for in Avatax. It will be great is Avalara would be able to send notification for "flagged' transactions where there's no exemption shown but not calculating sales tax
  • If Avalara can send out notification to its clients for Sales Tax related subject (Tax holiday, change in rates starting on certain date of the month etc), so that when we receive those from the State, we know that Avalara is already aware of it and already implementing it in the system
November 17, 2020

Avala - IMO

Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Calculate tax by location across the entire US
  • Integrate with multiple systems
  • Streamline reporting
  • Streamline filing
  • Our biggest issue is Avalara not being able to recognize the address of a customer and having to choose a "fake" location in the same zip code to run tax.
  • It will not recognize the same invoice within 2 systems. It assigns different doc codes. If we adjust an invoice in our accounting system that was original created and taxed in our tracking system, we must login to Avalara and delete the original tax on the original doc code.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Easy understanding of both AvaTax and Certcapture programs
  • Great support structure
  • Always keeping up the changes
  • CertCapture program have a few issues which slows down our sales department at times
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Customer Service is quick and helpful, and don't let you off of the phone till you are happy.
  • Making an appt with my rep is easy to talk with him and get any answers I may need.
  • Continuity of my company's rep so that a relationship can be cultivated.
November 17, 2020

Sales Tax Simplified

Kaysha Menge, MAFM | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • The depth of knowledge of the tax laws and implementation into the software.
  • Timely processing of returns
  • Responsive Customer Service
  • At times we have down time between the connection of Avalara and our ERP which is a loss in time or incorrect invoicing.
  • Cert Capture - Validation of certificates should be able to validate with each state
  • Proactively let us know about things like Tiered Tax laws or unusual taxation based on settings between Avalara and our ERP instead of the customer having to drill in and determine those when customers question.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Keep track of the ever evolving sales tax changes
  • Manage our Exemption Certificates
  • Calculates not just the state sales tax but also the many jurisdictions/counties, etc within the state
  • We have had some API issues that certain customers numbers fail for unknown reasons, we have worked with Avalara support and they have a fix to roll out early December
  • We use to get "canned" answers to support questions, quick to offer a work instruction when we really wanted to talk to someone. Moving up to a dedicated TM resolve this issue.
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Housing of Certificates with Expiration Warnings
  • Automatic calculations of tax using predefined, up to date, tax tables
  • Lack of prompt support when needed
  • Lack of hands on implementation , we hired a team and expected them so say "Here is how it is best established for you company". That was not the case
November 17, 2020

WE LOVE AVALARA!

Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Easy to manage excempt certificates
  • Easy to request exempt certificates
  • Calculates taxes within our CRM for sales people
  • Options for when someone is out of home country and don't need to collect taxes
November 17, 2020

Loving Avalara!

Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Tax Filings
  • Organized information
  • Very helpful staff that answers all questions in a timely manner
  • Educating people new to the tax world
  • Giving more information on registering to collect tax in more states
  • Making auto withdrawal of funds easier to update
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • File and pay sales tax in a timely manner
  • Great customer service
  • Easy to use their site
  • They consider themselves a software rather than a service
  • The interaction between Avalara and our EDI
  • Not voiding items that we have voided in our system, we have to manually void them
November 13, 2020

Avalara is Great

Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Simplicity of use
  • Accurately tracks tax
  • Great for managing exempt customers
  • Ease of use in item taxability
  • Better notification settings/alerts for when we are nearing our plan thresholds for document counts
  • System sometimes "shorts out" when adding new customers and causes us to have to enter all of the information a second time
Peggy Lobdell | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Communications
  • Returns
  • Documentation
  • Tech Support - terribly challenging. It takes forever to get a trustfile code. Several cases were never answered, and I was referred back to account manager who only said they'd open a case. Several issues were not resolved with a phone call. It's very discouraging. Especially being fairly new. We just hesitantly renewed, but feel the lack of proactive and successful assistance isn't worth the $12k per year.
  • Inconsistent communication from Account Manager & their turnover for us
  • We had a TTR contract prior to the "merger" - we certainly don't use the $5k / year of services. I asked for a discount on CertCapture because of this and was promptly denied.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
  • Calculating the correct tax including state increased rates when applicable.
  • With a little adjusting, I was able to find a way to get an audit report of the sales and sales tax charged for an audit that satisfied an auditor.
  • Taxing based on an address that correctly taxed even though the city was different than the ship to city. I verified this by checking on the state as when running different reports I was confused why, but when I checked on the state there was a reason that explained it.
  • I had an issue where my general ledger recoded one state for the sale, but Avalara recorded another. When I looked at the zip code it was evident that the state listed on the invoice was incorrect, but Avalara taxed on the correct state because it taxed on the zip code.
  • I use multiple reports - because in different states my company is classified different - and I have to watch the total gross because it is different on reports, as some give the gross after the discount and others do not. This sometimes causes an imbalance. The discount is a cost reduction of the item so it should be considered in all reports as a reduction to the gross.
  • At month end I have some manual billings that need to be entered and even though I am working in the system the system times out on me. At times in the middle of a transaction.
  • On entering exemptions, if I have multiple to enter for one customer the system will sometime[s] log out in the middle and does not save it so I have to re-enter data.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • System integration
  • Reporting
  • Responsive customer service
  • TrustFile is a service we use and it auto-bills on a credit card that we used to initiate the service. It would be better if all of Avalara's services were invoiced, as it creates a consistent and clean audit trail, which assists not only in audits but also in tracking these expenses (i.e., budgeting).
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