Avalara or not to Avalara, That Should Not Even Be A Question!
April 14, 2021

Avalara or not to Avalara, That Should Not Even Be A Question!

Bruce Griffith | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Modules Used

  • AvaTax
  • CertCapture

Overall Satisfaction with Avalara

After the State of South Dakota vs Wayfair Supreme Court decision, we had no idea how we would be able to change our established software to collect sales tax. In researching this problem we found it was seriously more complicated that we ever imagined. We have a company that we contract with that takes care of our unclaimed property (which is another nightmare in and of itself) so I started looking for such a company that could help us with sales tax. We initially looked at Sovos but came to the conclusion that they were more geared for a larger company. One of my friends who works for the National Arbor Day Foundation told us about Avalara. It was a perfect fit. We use both Avatax and Certcapture in our business as a distributor of religious resources to members and entities of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

Pros

  • Our system meshes with their AVI seamlessly.
  • Using Avatax, we can give our customers a total order quote when they place an order.
  • Avalara's webinars have been especially helpful.

Cons

  • In the beginning our programmer wished to speak directly with a programmer at Avalara so he could have some specific questions answered. Instead he was referred to a forum where he had to post his questions. This delayed our implementation of Avatax.
  • I'm not sure if there is help available to assist in learning how to reconcile sales tax returns or not. We basically had to figure out how to do that ourselves.
  • Without Avalara we would have needed to hire a full time person just to keep up with the ever changing state tax laws.
  • It's really hard to say what the impact of Avalara has been as we have been substantially affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Once you get the integration figured out, AvaTax and CertCapture work flawlessly.
We looked at Sovos pretty hard but came to the conclusion that they are geared for larger companies and were very expensive. When we contacted Avalara, their software and price structure seems to be in line with what we were looking for so we went with them, a decision I do not regret.
Avatax is well suited to how we process orders. Our website goes to Avatax to calculate an initial sales tax amount right when an order is placed on our website. Once the order has been picked and packed it is fulfilled and then finalized the sales tax amount through Avatax. This is exactly what we need it to do!

Avalara Feature Ratings

Type of tax
9.0
Sales and Use Taxes
9
Cross-border Taxes
Not Rated
VAT / GST Taxes
Not Rated
Energy and Fuel Taxes
Not Rated
Tax Reporting & Compliance
9.0
Geolocation for Tax Assessment
9
3rd-Party Software Integrations
Not Rated
Tax Data Reporting
9
Compliance Administration Management
9
Tax Exemption Processing
9
Tax Document Management
9
Complex Tax Scenario Management
Not Rated

Comments

  • Bobby Sands | TrustRadius Reviewer
    Bobby Sands
    (Vendor Representative) commented 5 years ago
    Hi Bruce, thank you for taking the time to share your experience using Avalara. We work hard to deliver our customers the best service possible, and we’re grateful for the opportunity to work with you. Regarding your feedback about the AvaTax implementation process, if you have any additional thoughts we'd appreciate learning more about your experience and improvements you'd like to see. Please contact customercare@avalara.com so we can share your insights with our product team.

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