1. Home
  2. Tax Compliance Software
  3. Avalara Reviews
  4. User Review of Avalara
A Good Product For Certain Industries
Updated February 14, 2020

A Good Product For Certain Industries

Braxton Todd | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Modules Used

  • AvaTax

Overall Satisfaction with Avalara

We used Avalara in respect to our state sales and use tax compliance. We are a multi-state construction company and have different divisions offering a variety of services nationwide. Because we have nexus in a large number of states, researching all of the tax answers ourselves is not be feasible. Plus, tax rates changed dramatically across tax jurisdictions. We used Avalara to help us understand the complexities of sales and use tax.
  • Providing accurate tax rates across differing jurisdictions.
  • Providing accurate tax answers.
  • Providing tailored answers for the construction industry (tax compliance for the construction industry is immensely complex).
  • We spent less time looking up tax rates by jurisdiction.
  • We spent less time looking up simple tax answers.
  • Vista by Viewpoint
Although we have some serious reservations about using Avalara again with respect to specific, construction-oriented, tax questions, the service itself is not a poor product. The staff at Avalara are amiable and very useful when you are having a problem. Thus, the overall usability is a good fit for most individuals or companies.
  • We honestly didn't use any of the other services offered by Avalara. We feel that most of the services are good, solid services but are something that we simply do not need right now. For entities that don't have a dedicated tax expert within their ranks, other services offered by Avalara may be valid considerations.
We currently use Transaction Tax Resource (TTR) which is a comparable product to Avalara. Both products provide accurate tax answers and rates. They both offer additional services to help with tax compliance, like exemption certificate management systems. However, TTR is tailored more towards the construction industry and other similar industries (e.g. heating and air services, equipment rentals, etc).
I would be very careful when using Avalara for industries outside of retail, for example. We are a construction company and didn't always find the most appropriate answers for our complex projects. Other resources are better suited for the construction industry. For example, TTR (Transaction Tax Resource) provides appropriate answers for more complex construction projects.

Avalara Feature Ratings

Type of tax
8.0
Sales and Use Taxes
8
Cross-border Taxes
8
VAT / GST Taxes
Not Rated
Energy and Fuel Taxes
Not Rated
Tax Reporting & Compliance
7.3
Geolocation for Tax Assessment
8
3rd-Party Software Integrations
7
Tax Data Reporting
7
Compliance Administration Management
Not Rated
Tax Exemption Processing
Not Rated
Tax Document Management
Not Rated
Complex Tax Scenario Management
Not Rated

Cross-Border Tax Compliance with Avalara

In short, yes, Avalara has assisted us in interpreting and applying the new economic nexus laws. We use Avalara to determine what thresholds we need to consider in states that we do have nexus and we are uncertain if we will go well over any reasonable threshold. Avalara has provided us with our necessary answers.
Avalara has assisted us in opening additional divisions in our company (an electrical division in the Permian Basin and a nationwide industrial division). Because we are a construction company, sales and use tax tends to be more complex. Avalara has helped us to understand the nuances of each state our new divisions are working in.
N/A

Evaluating Avalara and Competitors

  • Product Features
  • Product Usability
  • Product Reputation
  • Vendor Reputation
Because of the complexity surrounding sales and use tax for the construction industry, we need sales tax answers that we can rely on. We also need to be able to access the answers with relative ease and minimal headaches. As such, a simple program presentation that allows us to zero in on our issue was needed.
We would probably do a more in-depth analysis of the system before actually purchasing it. We would probably ask for a trial period in which we could experience the system's usability and determine whether it was a good fit for our company. A hands on experience would help us to make sure that an unscrupulous sales person couldn't mislead us (not to say that we had an experience with such a sales person).