Use Avalara and stop torturing yourself
July 26, 2023
Use Avalara and stop torturing yourself
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Modules Used
- AvaTax
- Returns
- CertCapture
- Business licenses
Overall Satisfaction with Avalara
Filing almost 100 return on a monthly, quarterly, annual basis for our entity - we are registered in all required states in the US and many individual cities/counties that have separately managed sales tax. This software prevents us from having to manually calculate tax each period and file returns. We also don't need to keep track of tax rate changes because the software updates them automatically. In addition we use the exemption portion to track certificates from our customers, many of whom are exempt because they are hospitals. WE also have the option to write custom rules when we don't agree with the outcome Avalara recommends.
Pros
- Correct tax rates charged to customers based on rate changes automatically
- Applies sales tax holidays which skips tax being charged on specific dates
- Tracking of exemption certificates and reporting on ones expiring soon so you can get ahead of the expiration and not have any gaps
Cons
- New exemption tool not as robust as previous version - cert capture
- Support can be frustrating sometimes and not give helpful answers.
- Passwords from business license should connect in Avatax so you don’t have to track twice and update in both places when you make changes.
- Website has been crashing a lot lately and we aren't able to log on.
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
- Much less time required at month-end completing returns
- Flags expired certs in a reportable format as well as ones expiring in the next 30 days so we can start requesting updates right away.
- Time spend calculating rates is no 0. Everything is automatic.
- I spent probably 1 hour during the month sorting sales tax charges by state on a spreadsheet to make sure nothing jumps out (large tax item in a state that normally only has exempt certs, etc.) Then another 1-2 hours during close reviewing amounts being filed to make sure they match what I withheld. That is it
I haven't used any other sales tax products except for calculating my returns by hand. Unfortunately we made the decision to implement Avalara almost 5 years ago and I really don't remember what other solutions we considered at the time.
Comments
Please log in to join the conversation