Item: Avalara
Rating: 8
Author: Verified User

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Avalara is being used to keep us compliant with sales and use tax regulations. In dealing with the railroads and taxation, there are quite a few exemptions with each of them being different depending on the state you in. Avalara helps us from having to figure out each area's taxation manually.

Pros and Cons

Tax calculation automation
Notification of taxation problems
Covering the portfolio of taxation needs

Classification of items for tax purposes
Internal ERP reporting
Covering all the ERP modules that need tax calculations

Return on Investment

Saves time spent calculating taxes during invoicing.
Ease in summarizing and reporting taxes owed.
Easily saves time from looking up tax code compliance for every item, customer, and location.

Implementation Rating

Unfortunately, we implemented Avalara when they were a very young company so implementation was a bit haphazard, not to mention the integration connector was not fully fleshed out. To Avalara's credit, their team worked with us to get things correct as needed. Recent dealings have been positive and their growth has lent them the ability to streamline their product and processes.

Systems Integrated With

Microsoft Dynamics GP
SalesPad

SalesPad has and only needs a very light integration - so in this respect, the integration was very simple and easy. Barely even a minute to implement. Dynamics GP has a good integration to the Sales side of the house, but unfortunately, Avalara does not integrate at all with the Service, Project, or Returns management modules. The integration implementation for the connector module was detailed for tax purpose and not hard, but the lack of integration with the other ERP modules means some things still have to happen manually.

Usability

The rating is lower due to lack of integration with all of our ERP modules, which means we have to still consolidate some sales taxes manually and upload them to Avalara. Otherwise, the software works as expected and saves a lot of time in just the process it automates. This also helps with any tax audits that come up as the information is organized in one place in an easily viewable format. Again, only their lack of integration to all of our needs is why I give Avalara such a rating.

Additional Capabilities

Since they do not cover our entire tax reporting needs due to lack of integration with certain modules, we actually do not use anything beyond the Avalara main system itself. We have looked at the tax reporting module, but until lately, the need and the amount of work it would save have not been needed. We look to actually add certificate management and possibly returns in the future.

Alternatives Considered

CCH SureTax

Avalara was easily ahead of the competition. Their ease of integration and reporting put them ahead. CCH at the time had even fewer modules and integrations than Avalara did, which was a consideration as we try to be agile and did not know how long we would stay on our current ERP.

Likelihood to Recommend

Avalara is well suited for any size company. It could easily work with you as you grow from an SMB to an enterprise level company. The abundance of integrations it has for the ERP or webspace means you aren't locked into one solution as you continue to have greater needs.

Avalara for Dynamics GP from the beginning

Modules Used

Overall Satisfaction with Avalara