Item: Avalara
Rating: 9
Author: Kristy Golliver

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Avalara to manage our exemption certificates, maintain and file our state returns. We currently ship to every state in the US and many international countries. This type of program will track all the various information, returns and help us gather the correct exemption certificates for each location to ensure compliance.

Pros and Cons

Certificate Library
Webinar training
Support/knowledge center is excellent

Automated messages from Managed Services to customers should be easier to understand. These are too technical for the average non-accountant getting the initial request for an exemption certification or other information.
Communication options within the system between users and customers or other users. When trying to figure something out, we always have to go outside the system. It would be helpful to have a way to do it all within the system easier.

Key Insights

Do you think Avalara delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Avalara's feature set?

Yes

Did Avalara live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Avalara go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Avalara again?

Yes

Return on Investment

Prepping for tax returns has been reduced by half.
Only takes one employee rather than 2. Gives us value time added for the other employee on other tasks.

Systems Integrated With

Ecommerce
ERP software

Our Ecommerce was integrated first. I was not part of that integration, but because of that groundwork, the integration with our ERP was smoother. We have an industry specific ERP so Avalara didn't have a premade API, but they worked well with our programmers before, during, and are still to make everything work correctly.

Usability

The overall system is very easy to use and understand. The main reason that I can not rate it at the full 10 is because the reporting is not where I would like it to be. We have four separate divisions in our system that all combine to file together. I would like to see some better reporting to allow me to easier tie each of these division out prior to approving our tax returns.

Additional Capabilities

Avalara Returns
CertCapture
Professional Services (nexus studies, registrations, backfiling, etc.)

We are using Avalara due to the high number of exemption certificates that we need to manage. Prior to CertCapture, we had them saved in digital format and were just hoping that they were correct. When we need to request a new one, it would take weeks just to figure out who we would need to request new ones from. Avalara has provided us a way to capture, store, request and verify that we have the correct form in far less time than before.

Likelihood to Recommend

Avalara would be well suited for any company that has exemption certificates that it needs to track and monitor. Also, if there are sales in multiple jurisdictions where returns need to be filed, or the internal employee's knowledge base is low, Avalara would be a great fit. If a company only has sales in one state, then Avalara may not be appropriate, depending on the state and the product being sold, because there my not be many exemption certificates and there could be as little as 1 return.

Avalara Review

Modules Used

Overall Satisfaction with Avalara