Item: Avalara
Rating: 9
Author: Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Avalara AvaTax

Implementation Rating

The implementation team was really helpful. I didn't know a ton about sales tax at the time of implementation and they helped a lot on figuring out which tax codes to use, etc. They had a pretty streamlined process of what exactly needed to be done for implementation, which made my job much easier.

Usability

Overall it's pretty intuitive and easy to use. There are a couple of areas (i.e. adding in consumer use tax) that are very confusing and not user friendly. However, they the online help site has pretty good instructions, so if it's not easily figured out on your own you can usually find help.

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We currently use AvaTax within the finance department for all of our sales tax compliance needs. We used to do all of the calculations and returns internally but, with a growing business, we did not have the bandwidth to manage all of our sales tax needs, so we outsource to Avalara.

Pros and Cons

Pros

Avalara does a very good job of staying on top of tax law changes. We have had situations where we were not aware of a change and would have incorrectly charged sales tax, but Avalara caught it for us.
Avalara integrates seamlessly into our accounting system. Before we post a sales invoice the tax is automatically calculated so it is minimal work for the AR person.
Avalara has a very good customer support team. If we call them on an issue they have been very helpful in getting it resolved.

Cons

We use Avalara for returns processing as well, and their procedure for back filing isn't great. If a return is missed or needs to be back filed for any reason, it takes a very long time and is extremely expensive, compared to other returns filed.
While their support team is helpful, they can be a little slow at times on getting an issue resolved, especially if it's not a very straightforward issue.

Return on Investment

AvaTax has had a VERY positive impact on our tax compliance operations. At the time that we implemented AvaTax we had one person who did all of the AR, AP and sales tax compliance. With the amount of additional states that we have added on, we would have had to hire another person for sure, which would have been significantly more expensive than the cost of the AvaTax product.

Systems Integrated With

FinancialForce, our accounting system.

It was very straightforward, right out of the box. There was a connector already set up and we were provided instructions on how to use. Overall, the process was very easy. We've only had a couple of integration issues/outages in the 4 years we have been using.

Additional Capabilities

The returns filing process has been extremely important to our organization. We probably would not have chosen to use Avalara if this option was not provided. It integrates really well with AvaTax, so the tax is calculated and returns are filed all together. We also use exemption certificate management but not to the level it is capable. At this point we are really just using it to store exemption certificates. I believe they have the capability to send out requests, but because of the type of customer we deal with it wouldn't really be helpful to us.

Alternatives Considered

Avalara is the only sales tax software I have used. I believe we evaluated a few others but I can't recall which ones

Likelihood to Recommend

Avalara works really well for smaller companies that are rapidly growing. I can't speak to how well it works for large companies, but at a mid-size transaction level it is very seamless. Also, if you are in an industry with unique sales tax rules (i.e. medical devices) they are very good at keeping up on nuances and changes.

Comments

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Highly Recommend Avalara AvaTax for Sales Tax compliance!

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