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We would love to have more information on how to use Avalara after going live.
Updated December 02, 2021

We would love to have more information on how to use Avalara after going live.

Jessica Gorbett | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 5 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Modules Used

  • AvaTax

Overall Satisfaction with Avalara

We are currently new with Avalara. We went live with a new web platform in April 2019. We are using it to calculate our tax on our web, but we are not entirely sure if it is working correctly for us. We have gone to Avalara University for training, but it isn't helpful to our situation. Currently, we don't see committed transactions, so we don't actually know if or even how to use it correctly.
  • Has tax exceptions, such as tax-exempt holidays, already figured in.
  • Training has been a difficult area for us.
  • Being able to receive timely contact with our rep has been a challenge. Particularly since the Wayfair decision.

Do you think Avalara delivers good value for the price?

Not sure

Are you happy with Avalara's feature set?

Yes

Did Avalara live up to sales and marketing promises?

No

Did implementation of Avalara go as expected?

No

Would you buy Avalara again?

Yes

  • Currently, from a reporting standpoint, it has not helped us.
  • It is currently capturing rates we were not certain if we were calculating correctly. This is a positive for us.
  • We are finally able to utilize Avalara as it was meant to be utilized, but we do have some problems.
  • Microsoft D365
I think it would be great if we knew how to use it.

Training has still been an issue.
  • CertCapture
Cert Capture has been helpful.
None at this time.
I think this is a fantastic product. However, I feel we went live and were not prepared on how to utilize it to our full benefit. Training and connection with a live person could be better. I would like to take advantage of more products from Avalara, but until some of this is resolved, my CFO will not allow us to do so.

Avalara Feature Ratings

Type of tax
7.0
Sales and Use Taxes
7
Cross-border Taxes
Not Rated
VAT / GST Taxes
Not Rated
Energy and Fuel Taxes
Not Rated
Tax Reporting & Compliance
7.3
Geolocation for Tax Assessment
7
3rd-Party Software Integrations
7
Tax Data Reporting
Not Rated
Compliance Administration Management
Not Rated
Tax Exemption Processing
Not Rated
Tax Document Management
8
Complex Tax Scenario Management
Not Rated

Cross-Border Tax Compliance with Avalara

No.
No, we just added Avalara to our already existing business.
I'm not sure - We have not talked about the possibility of expanding.
We do not sell on marketplaces.

Using Avalara

79 - Avalara is working on all of our registers in our stores and on the web. We have 90+ stores. Two people in the Corporate office do the maintaining and reporting.
  • Sales Tax Calculation
  • Certificate Capture
  • Cert Capture has been wonderful
  • We would like to have Avalara file our returns, but that may be a 2022 project.
I have not been able to find a company that does it better than Avalara. I still have lots of problems, but we are working through them. Based on other demos i have seen and talking with peers in other companies, this is the best.
Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365), Microsoft Azure

Evaluating Avalara and Competitors

  • Price
  • Product Features
  • Product Usability
  • Product Reputation
I would not change my evaluation process.

Avalara Implementation

  • Third-party professional services
RSM
  • connection from Avalara and D365 seem to drop and only state rates calculate
Contact with ANYONE at Avalara has been extremely challenging from the very start of the project. (this was from 2018-2019)

(2021) Since our newest integration, we finally have a dedicated rep that is great and responsive. She helped us with coordination of the right people and stayed involved with every step of the process

Avalara Training

Configuring Avalara

I am not on that side so it is hard for me to answer.
Again, I don't use that side so it is hard for me to answer.
Some - we have done small customizations to the interface
No - we have not done any custom code

Avalara Support

Based on prior question, support is not great unless it is from our dedicated rep.
ProsCons
Knowledgeable team
Quick Initial Response
Problems left unsolved
Escalation required
Difficult to get immediate help
We have not purchased premium support. I do not feel like we should have to spend that extra money. The customer service dedicate rep we have is WONDERFUL! When I have to go to support, I feel like it takes a long time, and my problems don't really get resolved. I feel as a customer, I shouldn't have to purchase extra to get some help on a product I already pay a large amount of money for.
Any single time I have called my dedicated rep, I know I am going to get immediate help. She is very attentive to our needs. We recently did an acquisition, and she reached out to another rep that had more experience in doing these, walked us through the process beforehand, then on the day of, stayed on the phone with us to make sure it was done correctly. They also scheduled a follow up call to make sure everything was working well. I admired that she felt she needed a partner on this and worked to have one when the time came. I also liked that we had a "pre call" to get everything talked through and ready so that the day of, the actions were pretty seamless. Debbie Sweeney-Radice is our dedicated rep.

Using Avalara

ProsCons
Consistent
Convenient
Requires technical support
Lots to learn
  • Adding locations into Avalara has been pretty easy
  • We struggle with reporting

Integrating Avalara

  • Microsoft D365
  • File import/export
We did not have a smooth integration. We had high turnover on the Avalara side, so no one knew our company and responses were very slim.
  • Sales Force
  • Microsoft D365
This was very difficult. We were supposed to go live in 2018 and did not complete until April 2019.

Relationship with Avalara

I do not recall at this time.
Follow up with the company would be great. This was a big challenge for us.

Upgrading Avalara

Avalara Reliability

We only use two services with Avalara and so far, those seem to be pretty good.
To my knowledge, the availability of Avalara has not been an issue.
We do have trouble tying Avalara's reporting back to our POS, but we just got a new POS system and there are bugs we are still trying to work out within the POS system. I do not believe this is an Avalara issue.