Avalara

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Avalara
Score 8.1 out of 10
N/A
Avalara AvaTax connects to the software that businesses already have and delivers sales tax decisions based on precise geo-location in more than 12,000 taxing jurisdictions in the U.S.N/A
Pricing
Avalara
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Avalara
Free Trial
No
Free/Freemium Version
No
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
Yes
Entry-level Setup FeeOptional
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Avalara
Considered Both Products
Avalara
Chose Avalara
Avalara makes tax compliance easier with automation, multi-state filing, and error detection, plus secure e-filing and TIN matching to help avoid IRS penalties
Chose Avalara
We did not evaluate other software platforms. Avalara was the recommended solution and integrates well with Net Suite.
Chose Avalara
TaxJar is integrated with Kaseya autotask, and this integration is very inefficient and was not easy to set up. Neither TaxJar nor Kaseya support was helpful at all, "rude" is the only word to describe that, whereas Avalara has always tried to be helpful and has been very …
Chose Avalara
I have not researched any similar products.
Chose Avalara
When I first started my position, we were already in the process of going into Avalara. I am unsure why our previous Controller selected Avalara, but I do believe it was because of the ease of use and aiding with determining nexus in states where we ship our products.
Chose Avalara
We have not used or evaluated any other Avalara products.
Chose Avalara
We previously used TR OneSource and did not find the UI to be user friendly at all. Avalara is more straightforward for our business needs.
Chose Avalara
It's easy to use and integrated with existing accounting applications.
Chose Avalara
We have a long standing partnership with Avalara. We value these relationships & know Avalara is a proven solution.
Chose Avalara
We use Avalara for the day-to-day research.
Chose Avalara
Sage is our accounting system but it's not really comparable to what Avalara does. Avalara is the only tax-specific platform I have used.
Chose Avalara
Avalara offers the most robust content around the transaction taxes for the hospitality/hotel industry.
Chose Avalara
We selected Avalara because our prior service did not have the range of tax codes required for our products. They had nothing related to medical devices or supplies, so we used a generic 'taxable' tax code. Customers were unhappy because some states exempted the product we …
Chose Avalara
We use Stripe but duplicate our transaction in QuickBooks so our Stripe orders are uncommitted orders in Avatax.
Chose Avalara
We have used SOVOS and they are archaic compared to Avalara. Their customer service was sales focused and unable to assist with reporting issues that their reports were populating as results for State figures. Would recommend a switch ASAP to anyone thinking about the two.
Chose Avalara
Avalara has provided additional content for product taxability and tax rates. Additionally the ease of use or user friendliness of the platform for our tax team to utilize the full capabilities of Avalara has proven to be best in class. Other platforms may require additional …
Chose Avalara
Avalara outshines all its competition.
Chose Avalara
The initial reasoning behind making the switch from the Wolters Kluwer product to Avalara were two-fold. First, we were migrating to a new ERP system and felt more was needed from our tax software. Secondly, it was the due to the DOR in the state of TN. The current tax …
Chose Avalara
Setting up a state in Vertex was not intuitive or user friendly. The system itself was clunky. Trying to set up a custom tax override was a nightmare. Whereas any of these tasks are very simple with Avalara. Setting up a state is as simple as checking a box and entering a start …
Features
Avalara
Type of tax
Comparison of Type of tax features of Product A and Product B
Avalara
7.4
339 Ratings
6% below category average
Sales and Use Taxes8.9332 Ratings
Cross-border Taxes7.471 Ratings
VAT / GST Taxes5.960 Ratings
Energy and Fuel Taxes7.526 Ratings
Tax Reporting & Compliance
Comparison of Tax Reporting & Compliance features of Product A and Product B
Avalara
8.4
317 Ratings
7% above category average
Geolocation for Tax Assessment9.0191 Ratings
3rd-Party Software Integrations7.8253 Ratings
Tax Data Reporting8.5283 Ratings
Compliance Administration Management9.0216 Ratings
Tax Exemption Processing8.5229 Ratings
Tax Document Management8.1219 Ratings
Complex Tax Scenario Management7.8151 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Avalara
Small Businesses
TaxJar
TaxJar
Score 8.6 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
LOVAT
LOVAT
Score 10.0 out of 10
Enterprises
ADP SmartCompliance
ADP SmartCompliance
Score 8.6 out of 10
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User Ratings
Avalara
Likelihood to Recommend
8.1
(451 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(30 ratings)
Usability
8.7
(443 ratings)
Availability
8.0
(9 ratings)
Performance
8.0
(9 ratings)
Support Rating
3.7
(21 ratings)
In-Person Training
8.0
(2 ratings)
Online Training
9.0
(4 ratings)
Implementation Rating
10.0
(198 ratings)
Configurability
9.0
(6 ratings)
Ease of integration
9.0
(12 ratings)
Product Scalability
10.0
(8 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
7.5
(9 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
8.0
(9 ratings)
User Testimonials
Avalara
Likelihood to Recommend
Avalara
I find Avalara to work very well if you are using a software system that is integrated with Avalara, and it is set up to calculate the tax and file the returns. It is very streamlined and efficient. It doesn't work as well if the tax is calculated elsewhere and you have Avalara filing your returns; the options for getting the tax info into Avalara are very limited.
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Pros
Avalara
  • Sales tax rates at a "roof top" level
  • Has extensive research and documentation on telecommunications industry
  • Research is always up to date
  • The ability to ask questions and get clarification on specific situations with no limit as to how you ask a question and often get the answer the same day
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Cons
Avalara
  • Avalara needs to be able to provide tax and legal advice, so we don't have to go to an outside source.
  • Some states we file in have more than just sales tax on the return. For example, Washington has B&O tax, tire tax, sales and use tax. It would help a lot if Avalara could report all of these taxes, so we don't have to file manually.
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Likelihood to Renew
Avalara
We need their help with filing and keeping track of things. It is very likely we are in the process of renewing right now. Autumn is our case manager and she has been a great help in keeping us updated on our usage and renewal. I feel we will be using this for a very long time.
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Usability
Avalara
The UI is simple and straightforward. The site is organized in a manner that is easy to understand for beginners and experts alike. There's also tons of resoruces on Avalara University at your disposal to better understand how Avalara can work best for your business needs. I would recommend Avalara to anyone wanting to investment in the betterment of their business's sales tax function
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Reliability and Availability
Avalara
I have been using Avalara for years and do not remember ever having an outage during working hours. The service is accurate and dependable.
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Performance
Avalara
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
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Support Rating
Avalara
In my experience, numerous questions, and particularly those regarding billing issues are just ignored, and it is impossible to get to someone to discuss. Your account manager will tell you they are taking care of it and then it just goes into a black hole.
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In-Person Training
Avalara
I wasn't here when they first started with Avalara.
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Online Training
Avalara
The documentation online we informative and helpful. The videos from the Avalara institute and the help tab if we have any questions and the search too were helpful. We like the ease of using the click here for more information tool about nexus and the information for the ECM Pro training were helpful. Whenever we have a question we normally get an email along with the tool as to where to find our answer. We also like that it shows information about nexus status of the states we maybe approaching and we can look more into it.
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Implementation Rating
Avalara
The implementation team from Avalara was very knowledgable and did a good job of passing along information so that we could maintain the system and be able to make future changes ourselves. We had asked for some custom tax setup and they worked with us to get additional taxes set up that they didn't previously have. They worked with us to pull our documentation on tax rules and make sure those were included. I had hoped more scenarios would be there out of the box to cut down on the configuration time.
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Alternatives Considered
Avalara
When I first started my position, we were already in the process of going into Avalara. I am unsure why our previous Controller selected Avalara, but I do believe it was because of the ease of use and aiding with determining nexus in states where we ship our products.
Read full review
Scalability
Avalara
There is no change that has to happen as your company grows, Avalara continues to do it's job for any size company
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Return on Investment
Avalara
  • The ROI with Avalara has been significant. We did not have to hire additional staff to manage sales tax. Before Avalara, when we managed taxes in-house, we constantly received late filing notices and paid related penalties. That all stopped once Avalara took over.
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ScreenShots

Avalara Screenshots

Screenshot of the Avalara portal homepageScreenshot of returns, appearing in the Avalara portalScreenshot of transactionsScreenshot of reportsScreenshot of jurisdiction details