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.
Thank You for Helping Us Track Nexus!!
Avalara helps a lot!
Avalara Review
So much potential and such disappointing customer experience
Using Avalara Software has been Great for our Company
Satisfied Customer
Indirect Tax
Avalara is great for small businesses
Avalara is what you need for Sales Tax.
Great!
Unforunately no real benefit
Avalara - My Evaluation
The good, the bad and . . .
My professional advice is to try to find an alternative to Avalara!
How Avalara Differs From Its Competitors
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Avalara Business Impact
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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
- Sales and Use Taxes (295)8.888%
- Tax Exemption Processing (201)8.383%
- Tax Data Reporting (248)8.383%
- 3rd-Party Software Integrations (223)8.080%
Reviewer Pros & Cons
Pricing
Entry-level set up fee?
- Setup fee optional
Offerings
- Free Trial
- Free/Freemium Version
- Premium Consulting/Integration Services
Starting price (does not include set up fee)
- $21 per month
Product Demos
Avalara AvaTax Demo
Features
Type of tax
A list of the different types of taxes that can be filed using tax compliance software.
- 8.8Sales and Use Taxes(295) Ratings
Software is capable of calculating and filing sales and use taxes.
- 7.8Cross-border Taxes(65) Ratings
Software is capable of calculating and filing taxes, such as customs, across countries.
- 7.3VAT / GST Taxes(56) Ratings
Ability to calculate and manage VAT and GST taxes.
- 8.5Energy and Fuel Taxes(25) Ratings
Ability to calculate and manage energy and/or fuel taxes.
Tax Reporting & Compliance
Activities relating to tax filing, reporting, document management, and exemption certificate processing.
- 8.6Geolocation for Tax Assessment(168) Ratings
Ability to use geolocation, which is more precise than zip codes, for mapping taxes to specific jurisdictions.
- 83rd-Party Software Integrations(223) Ratings
Pre-built integrations with various systems such as ERP, ecommerce, CRM, invoicing and billing, accounting, and procurement applications.
- 8.3Tax Data Reporting(248) Ratings
Ability to export transaction data for tax filing.
- 8.3Compliance Administration Management(191) Ratings
Ability to facilitate tax preparation, filing, and tax remittances across local, state, and federal jurisdictions.
- 8.3Tax Exemption Processing(201) Ratings
Ability to generate, track, exemption certificates from sales invoices.
- 8Tax Document Management(193) Ratings
Collection and storage of tax documents, especially exemption certificates, and ability to retrieve them to use for tax audits.
- 7.1Complex Tax Scenario Management(128) Ratings
Ability to automate handling of tax holidays and other anomalies.
Product Details
- About
- Integrations
- Competitors
- Tech Details
- Downloadables
- FAQs
What is Avalara?
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
Avalara Video
Avalara Integrations
Avalara Competitors
Avalara Technical Details
Deployment Types | Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based |
---|---|
Operating Systems | Unspecified |
Mobile Application | No |
Avalara Downloadables
Frequently Asked Questions
Comparisons
Compare with
Reviews and Ratings
(720)Attribute Ratings
- 9.2Likelihood to Renew26 ratings
- 8Availability8 ratings
- 8Performance8 ratings
- 8Usability405 ratings
- 5.7Support Rating18 ratings
- 7.3Online Training3 ratings
- 8In-Person Training2 ratings
- 6.4Implementation Rating197 ratings
- 5Configurability5 ratings
- 8Product Scalability7 ratings
- 5.1Ease of integration11 ratings
- 7.9Vendor pre-sale8 ratings
- 1.1Vendor post-sale8 ratings
Reviews
(76-100 of 413)All Around Efficient Program
- Communicates directly with your online shopping cart so that tax exempt customers' information is stored and there is no lapse in service.
- Troubleshooting is efficient.
- Helpdesk staff are friendly and knowledgeable-- they understand that they are working with small business owners and not tax professionals.
- If a list of tax-exempt codes is available, I have not found it and the help desk has not shared it. That code is necessary for Avalara and the online shopping cart to communicate that a customer is tax-exempt.
- When I first started using Avalara I could upload documents. Now I need a higher subscription level (as in, pay more money) to do the exact same task I was already doing for years.
- The one or two issues that I had that were not resolved right away were never really resolved. Luckily, we were able to eventually figure it out, but there were one or two cases (out of many, so still a low number) that were closed without a resolution.
Avalara Benefits
- Sales Tax Calculation
- Filing Returns
- Providing Summary Data
- Customer Service
- Technical Support
Avalara has helped but needs improvement.
- Collection of data
- Producing reports
- Communication with clients
- Accuracy of returns
- Tax Notices of Delinquency received after returns have been filed
Sales Tax Compliance Simplified
- Filing Sales Tax Returns
- Correctly Calculating sales tax
- Support for voluntary disclosure agreements
- Setting up new companies
- Easier summary for monthly activity for multiple companies
Avalara is a Great Product
- Avatax
- CertCapture
- Better How To's - sometimes it doesn't give enough information.
- Responding to questions that need a response sooner than later.
- Easier training.
Avalara is Awesome for Multistate operations
- Calculates sales tax for our invoices.
- Files our sales tax returns.
- Maintains exemption certificates from our customers.
- Entering sales tax credits and other adjustments is a cumbersome process.
Great Services with Lots of Help!
- Avalara helps with personalized assistance for the VDA process.
- Avalara has webinars that help new employees get trained.
- Avalara properly runs tax to add to invoices so that is does not have to be done manually.
- Avalara helps keep a record of exemption forms.
- The only issue I have run into is usability. There is so much information in Avalara that it can be hard to find what you are looking for.
Just Getting Started
- Avalara has a good taxability matrix
- Clearer information in the taxability of service industries
Avalara Review
- Tax rate update
- Periodical informational newsletter
- Q&A tax information
Avalara Handles the Bulk of Sales Transactions with Ease.
- Organizing customer exemptions
- Calculating sales tax as orders are being written
- More than one state's exemption cannot be associated with a customer ship to.
- The sales tax information for reconciliation and review prior to filing a return can be hard to interpret, especially if there were unique adjustments.
Avalara is a Powerful Tool
- Tax calculation.
- Reporting to various state agencies.
- Tax support.
- Everything seems to be an add-on (US based support, better tax support libraries)
- Service/website/setup in general has a bit of a learning curve for non-tech people.
- Not always easy to discuss billing issues. You have to schedule appointments most of the time.
Avalara review
- Generate sales tax liability reports for each state
- Let us know when we have reached nexus for filing in a new state
- Certcapture - customer sales tax exempt forms
- Integrates with our ERP (Navision) to generate correct sales tax on customer invoices
- Responding to questions more timely (email and/or phone call)
Avalara owns this space.
I recently worked with Janay Bridges to implement SST for 5 states. She was thorough, knowledgeable, and communicative. The project was completed without a hitch.
- Accurate tax calculations
- Plethora of reporting and data importing/exporting tools
- Integration with ERP
- Use Tax integration with Sage 100
Another case needed extensive use of Avalara Tax Codes. The Tax Matrix builder is a phenomenal tool for this research.
Marketplace configuration seamlessly handled an Amazon MFN client need.
Avalara license management streamlined our compliance!
- We were their first legacy portfolio conversion client (from BLMS to ALMA). Their technical team was very responsive!
- The contract negotiation process while long, went smoothly for the most part.
- They've been receptive to our feedback on future roadmap development needs.
- Probably due to them acquiring (vs developing) the BLMS product, but we later found out one of the roadmap requests we gave them was actually already available in the system.
- Contract pricing metrics is not very user friendly (renewals, overages etc.).
Great product, easy to use. Reduce your risk!
- Easy to set up.
- Great interface.
- Pricing for larger businesses.
Good small business option
- Keeping tax rates updated.
- Providing multiple report options for creating returns.
- Sales. There is a definite disconnect between sales and what happens been you are signed up.
- Training. Having good tools for learning how to navigate your account.
- Communication. Our current account Rep, which is our third, is great, but prior ones were not. Most previous never made contact and never responded to the email. The first one was not truthful.
Huge Crucial Time Saver Software
- Monitoring Sales Tax Nexus
- Calculating Accurate Sales Tax
- Providing Reporting for Ease of Remitting Taxes to Various Jurisdictions
- Speed - sometimes the calculation call-outs can take several seconds
- Monitoring # of transactions versus just $ of transactions for economic nexus
Tax compliance made easy
- Tax calculation
- Tax filing
- Historical data retention
- Tax consult and tax support
- Conversion to CAD
- Selecting all states as one option vs. having to list state after state individually for setups, such as for our marketplace
- Filing refund requests vs. carrying credits
- Calculate Sales Tax.
- Tax Compliance.
- Stay up to date with tax laws.
- Updating the companies accounts when they have reached a new level of filing status.
- Better follow-up from sales team.
- Tax Exemptions
- Tracking tax on all transactions
- customer service
- transitioning accounts to new account managers
- Accuracy
- Timeliness
- Completeness
- Account rep communications
- deeper assistance in registering in nexus areas
If Avalara Owns It-Try It!
- Service
- Knowledge
- Integrity
- There is a need for a centralized account manager across all products. We struggle with knowing who to speak to depending on which product we need help with.
Absolutely Fantastic tool for Sales Tax
- Nexus creation
- tax calculation
- product codes
- Adding more returns to standard service, may help other companies as well
- 1:1 Service rather than going to Customer Service every time with any issues
- Every account should have a TM assigned so we can reach out when needed.
Let Avalara take the stress out of sales tax
- Track nexus status.
- File SST returns.
- Store exemption certificates.
- Implementation - did not have much help in setting up.
- Flow of website - format changes often.
Takes a load off our minds - especially at month-end!
- Portal is very helpful, detailed, and user friendly.
- I love how I can generate a lot of different reports on sales and sales tax by state, etc.
- Can reach assistance by phone whenever you have a question.
- Better trained phone assistants - often I figure out a problem I've called after a while of waiting on hold while they check on it.
- Need to be able to mark invoices to Canada as "customer's broker used" so they don't assess GST or HST on these ones. The broker has to collect it by law so it makes the customer get charged twice, which they don't like and refuse to pay us as well as their broker. So we have to process these ones without going through Avalara - kind of a pain.
- Need to show the accrued amount on "tax details and adjustments" for any states where you have filing periods larger than one month. I have to go back in my records to see what the accrued taxes are for previous months to make sure that the tax amount listed is correct before I approve each month.