I use Avalara's CertCapture program for filing all of the tax certs my company receives. If you are still keeping physical copies, you need to consider this. CertCapture allows the user to assign account numbers and names to every cert uploaded - it also allows expiration dates to be set. A report is processed every couple of weeks to see which of our customers will need to send in updated paperwork. Then an automated email and fax are sent, reminding them what certs are needed. Staying in compliant is one of my top priorities and this allows me to do so with ease.

I am honestly struggling to think of anything negative to say about this software. We currently use Vertex for our tax calculations, i would like to start using AvaTax though. I work for a large corporation and from what I've been told AvaTax doesn't meet our business needs. I would like to see that change in the coming years.

Avalara reporting tools such as Credit Carry forward balance and liability worksheet. The reports are very detailed and would help in an audit situation.

I don't have any issues with the software It's the customer service that is lacking.

Please, please do not use this service if you can avoid it. I am a Shopify Plus member and am held hostage by Avalara because Shopify doesn't offer any other choices. If you can avoid them, you must. They are horrendous.

The salesman made Avalara seem like it would be SO easy to use & implement. They were really friendly and aggressive to tell me how wonderful Avalara was. It was all trickery. Once they got me to sign their contract, the support offered was absolutely terrible. I really can't believe that this company is still in business.

They charged me to register in 10 states. 5 of those states they then came back and told me they could not complete the registration and that I would have to do it. They never refunded me for what I paid for this. I asked at least 10 times and then had to file a VISA dispute. They change my rep. all the time and are very disorganized overall. During the first month I had to go into each of the 10 states and file my own $0 return. No one from Avalara even noticed. Thankfully I had been logging into each state myself to check on things when I saw their level of incompetence. Once there, I saw that I had returns due in a few days. Avalara didn't even know. Shame on them. I paid them a lot to help me.

Sales tax has become a hot issue and a difficult one to navigate. Avalara is a huge help in managing the process and despite a few flaws, it's pretty invaluable. Saves so much time and effort

Difficult to set up and when it is not working as expected it can get in the way of processing documents.

We had accuracy issues with our last sales tax provider and since implementing AvaTax, we have decreased our risk of charging the incorrect tax rates to our customers located across the US.

Once the initial setup is completed and tested, Avalara takes the guesswork out of sales tax. It is more accurate and cost effective than our previous third party sales tax provider. Also, the product is so easy to use and to navigate.

The implementation (like with all other software) hit snags that were unexpected, and took our IT team some extra time to link our billing system with AvaTax.

Overall, I am happy with product as it is has saved time for team in filing reports and also is a great repository for our sales tax related files.

Central location to review sales tax filings, transactions, payments, etc. The feature for tracking states that may trip nexus and require filings is great. Good connections with account manager to update us on features and changes to account.

Needing to login to Avalara to check tickets submitted for review instead of receiving e-mail notifications. Implementation seemed very cumbersome and time consuming especially when implemented with various systems.

No response to emails, 1-1.5 hour on hold wait time to talk with a rep that may or may not help you. Avalara claimed to have a solution that would handle the general/manufacturing tax rates in Alabama and Mississippi and this was a blatant lie. After waiting 3 months we had to contract for a customer solution with our software provider. I would not recommend going with Avalara due to the horrible customer service and the fact state agencies hate working with them (and that is a quote from 5 different states). Do your homework and if you have to tax at general or manufacturing rates then find another alternative. We had a delay during implementation due to a merger and Avalara would not credit any unused tax return filings. We were billed for tax returns they never filed and then sent a bill for the upcoming year.

Reports easy to read Exemption certificate management and repository. Keeps tax rates updated Geolocator for taxing purposes

Customer service is HORRENDOUS. No credit for unused tax return filings. Web portal is not easy to navigate Avalara servers are slow to update when working on month-end tie-outs to ERP system Dropped invoicing lines on backordered items, these have to be manually entered in Avalara

Terrible. Customer support is non-existent.

Technology and software seems pretty solid so far.

I don't trust people at Avalara. We went live on 1/1/2021 and they processed returns for non-SST states for the month of January but they did NOT process returns for SST states for the month of January. Wait. What? How does it make any sense? They said my SST service starts on 2/1/2021 and not on 1/1/2021 (but somehow non-SST state service starts on 1//1/2021?!). How does it make any sense when we went live on 1/1/2021. The sales reps rushed to sign me up in December so I can start my service at the beginning of the year. They never mentioned anything about my service not starting until 2/1/2021. When I contacted them about why they haven't filed returns for SST states, they were extremely slow in their response. Customer support is terrible. I don't recommend it. They said they can still back file January returns but they would charge me $250 per state. That's $6,000 for 24 states. If you aren't willing to pay this extra fee in the first month of service, don't bother going with Avalara. I don't recommend it.

The reports and it is very user friendly

The responses to ticket tend to be oversimplified

Overall experience is very good. No more need to maintain thousands of jurisdictions in the ERP system, no more need to run sales reports by state to check thresholds.

It is all automated once you have it set up correctly.

The integration was a bit difficult considering the model of our business.

It would be impossible to correctly charge tax and file in the various states where we now have "economic nexus" without Avalara, so Avalara has been indespensible. However, they have completely ignored my suggestions for improvements for over 4 years. We need them, but I hope they get better at the certificate capture part of the business.

Certcapture provides the ability to create a campaign to email or fax customers for whom exempt certificates are required, and it makes it easy for them to supply the certificate(s). It is also simple to followup with those that did not initially respond. For daily use, the Walk me Through help feature, and the great wealth of help articles and FAQs, make it easy to find the answer to any questions.

CertCapture allows you to select an Exempt Reason that isn't valid for the state of the certificate. Avalara knows it isn't a valid reason, but it lets you select it anyway, and doesn't give you an error. After you finish validating the certificate and saving it, you can then look at a "History" tab and there you will see an API Call Failed error which if you research you'll find out the reason. But why set the user up for failure? Another issue: how is it useful to allow only the last PO number to be used for a single-use certificate, but at the same time allow multiple PO numbers to be saved? That’s also setting people up to fail! The Avalara University videos on Certcapture do not mention that only the last PO number saved is effective. The “Walk me through” feature doesn’t either. The field says “PO Numbers” and allows multiple PO Numbers to be saved, but it doesn’t actually work. The only way someone could learn that the field that says PO Numbers really means PO Number is by having orders they expected to be exempt be taxed, then have customers complain when they are not. Avatax should validate the selected Exempt Reason, and check all the PO numbers listed for a certificate and exempt orders with PO numbers that match any of them. I've told them this, but instead of “That’s a good idea, I’m going to forward your idea to our product development team and see if we can get it implemented.” they say “the software is working as designed.”

Awful, support staff has very clearly never used the software, some have never seen it. Software does not provide the basic functionality that is advertised. Our account manager is incredibly rude and ignores emails. So phenomenally frustrating. The few helpful people I have worked with that actually understands how the software is supposed to work have made it clear that the issue we are experiencing are back-end programming problems that need to be resolved by their back-end support team. Despite following up multiple times I have yet to receive any resolution. After putting in countess hours and way too much in subscription costs into getting this software setup I can honestly say it is more time and cost effective to manually calculate tax on each order than it is to use Avalara.

After over a year of use, nothing. there is nothing redeemable about this software.

On an entirely basic level, the software does not function. It is advertised as integrating with QuickBooks Desktop but I have yet to see it function properly for an entire day. It has created such a phenomenal mess of our QuickBooks file and is completely unreliable to calculate taxes correctly to the point that each transaction has to be manually checked to ensure tax filings are correct. I have been told by numerous support staff that this is not normal but after spending literal hours working to try and rectify the issues, have come to realize that the software does not function as advertised and likely never has. Absolutely atrocious that this was ever advertised to work with QuickBooks Desktop. DO NOT USE THIS SOFTWARE.

This is a horrible company if you value customer service and resolution of issues in a timely manner.

Hard to find any pros. The reporting is good when it works.

Doesn't calculate tax based on the correct jurisdiction - tax will change between sales orders and invoices even though addresses did not change. The reconciliation report that is ran out of NetSuite stopped working after the latest update, absolutely no help in getting that resolved which means I can't reconcile back to our GL. When Avalara was contacted, they asked us for a "video" of what was going on. THE REPORT WILL NOT EXPORT TO A CVS.....why would they need a video???? Submitted a tax notice and after 2 weeks, contacted the Director of Customer Experience to find out why and was told "Avalara’s response time for notices is 4-6 weeks, and resolution time is 6-8 weeks per this article I found in Avalara Help Center." Seriously? According to their own website, the professional support service which we pay for is supposed to have an 8 hour response time.

Very aggravating. Don't expect to be treated like your problems are important, even if you're a multi-million dollar company paying way too much for this software. As someone who frequent reads product reviews for our business I take customer service complaints with a grain of salt. Usually someone has one bad experience and uses that to represent the entire company. I'm writing at the end of a pattern of neglect and hold music. Literally the best part about this whole experience is the hold music reminds me of a video game I played when I was 14 years old. You hate to see it.

Not much. The integrations are a huge pain to set up. It's what I would call a necessary evil for our company in lieu of ever increasing sales tax complexity.

The customer support. We're multiple months into having the same type of order's tax miscalculated and I'm still fighting to get any help on it, meaning hundreds of orders are being charged incorrect sales tax. On top of not getting replies to my emails every time I call the robot voice says I'm 20th or 30th in line, guaranteeing a minimum 30 minute on hold session. In a day and age where SAAS companies are starting to see the importance of quality customer service it feels like Avalara is either behind the ball or just doesn't care. Obviously writing this while on hold, because what else am I going to do?

Overall the software works well. If there is a special project and questions or anything out of the ordinary the project will likely have problems, good luck getting a response and assistance with questions. They also tend to only want to respond through e-mail and they don't answer all questions. It is an uneasy feeling to not get responses on critical projects.

The tax cal rates are reliable and the dashboard is easy to use.

Avalara managers are slow to respond to questions and assistance. They do not provide phone numbers to anyone except the account manager. If there are issues with the account manager no one will provide their supervisors phone numbers so basically one will be at the mercy of their account mangers response. On special projects for back filing projects they have taken over a month to answer questions. When sending in notices for Avalara to address for tax return prep they are slow to respond to notices.

Sales tax laws are incredibly confusing! After several years with Avalara and many questions while adding new jurisdictions and filing tons of returns, we have grown to trust Avalara completely with our sales tax needs!

The support process is not the best, though my issues are always resolved. Calling in takes forever and trouble tickets, it seems the biggest goal is to close as fast as possible which isn't always the best customer service.

Nightmarish! Had to hire an expensive CPA firm to assist in "fixing" issues and aid with training on Avalara.

IF you figure out how to code everything correctly, it does calculate sales tax and will file the returns.

Lack of support, virtually no communication from key support staff that are critical for most anything in Avalara, software is NOT intuitive and figuring it out is a nightmare AND if you don't code everything properly it will do as much harm as good. Person to person communication is extremely hard to get in sufficient quantities to be effective.

Absolutely awful, one of the most frustrating experiences I have ever had with a piece of paid software.

Nothing, I am just typing to meet the character requirements here.

Well, first off the account manager for our VDA left the company and we were never notified or assigned a new one, that took me several weeks to resolve. (I was continued told my AM was person x, person x's email was not active and their phone number disconnected though...) Then, the decided to cancel our sandbox key even though we had paid for a live API key, making testing changes a bit tricky. When we asked for our sandbox key to be re-activated, they tried to charge us. (I have never see a software company try and charge a paying client for a sandbox....) This isn't to mention that I have yet to find anyone at the company I would consider responsive...

Have cut down the time considerable in processing returns using Avalaa.

Easy to use. The Avalara website is very helpful with sales tax questions.

Account manager is not always knowledgeable and will give incorrect info.

I like the ease of use - the drop downs and categories are perfect.

When I have technical issues with specific transactions customer support isn't always knowledgeable enough to help. When I have specific tax calc questions support will never respond with an answer - as you are "not" tax advisors and sometimes the question is not that limited.

I started a free trial with Avalara and didn't have any issues with their software--I just decided to go with a different service. I couldn't find how to cancel my account in my settings so I messaged their customer support and asked if I needed to cancel or if I could let the time run out on the free subscription. The agent I spoke with stated "Yes, you can let the time run out since it is your free subscription." Their chat feature emails you with a summary of the chat so I have this conversation recorded and timestamped. A few weeks later I received an emailed invoice for a full year's subscription. I emailed accountsreceivable back explaining the situation and sent a screenshot of the email confirmation for my chat about cancelling. I got an email back advising that I should follow their link to confirm the cancellation of my account and that the bill was still due. The link they provided required that I acknowledge I would accept all payments due before I could cancel. I feel like Avalara isn't accepting responsibility for misinformation they gave and I'm being corralled into paying for a service that I made a good faith effort to cancel. It's been 7 weeks since they "opened an internal case with the support team" and would message me once they received an update. I've checked in with them since then and they didn't have an update. Because their support team is such a degree of inconsistent and negligent, I strongly recommend using a different service.

Automation features and variety of platforms that can be synced with Avalara make it appealing.

The software itself seems well constructed but it wasn't quite what I needed for my business. I contacted customer support before my free trial ended because I couldn't find where to cancel my account and they advised that because it was a free trial, I could let the free trial expire. Once it expired I was still charged for a full year's subscription.

From the very beginning, it was frustrating. They give you hours of classes that are supposed to help you set it up. But it didn't apply to my website. After several weeks, I finally got someone to look at it and set it up. It was nothing like the videos. It never did work properly. I ended up paying the taxes instead of the customer and it charged too much in taxes, I'm surprised my customers didn't complain. It was way overpriced compared to another tax program I am using on another website that worked perfectly from the beginning. Avalara should not have sold this product to me since the connecter to Restrict Content Pro did not work properly. They blamed RCP, but they shouldn't have sold it because it didn't work.

From the outside, they look very professional. They are eager to get sales, but everything was a hassle after signing up.

Too expensive. Too hard to get help. My connector never worked even after 9 months of trying back and forth with Restrict Content Pro and Avalara. No one seemed to know how to fix the problem, but I kept paying a very high price and getting bad results.

Since they charged me over $7,000 dollars for a product that never worked - zero benefits. I would never recommend this company. Avalara has had a history of terrible customer service but from recent reviews, that had seemed to change. It hasn't. If you encounter issues, be prepared to suffer through basic IT troubleshooting multiple times before your issue isn't resolved.

Avalara could never get the connector to work to use the software. But the online interface seemed like it would have been useful had Avalara gotten their software to work with QuickBooks.

The implementation process was miserable. From day one, I received a nondescript error that was simply a large red question mark in a dialogue box from the QuickBooks Connector. The application would also attempt to open a hundred windows while using QuickBooks. Three separate engineers walked me through the exact same troubleshooting - uninstall, reinstall, change permissions, restart computer, etc. All concluded "huh, that's weird!" It took nearly five months of effort to get that response continuously and escalated to development. Then the whole team fell silent about the issue. So I cancelled the implementation. Then, Avalara decides to bill me almost $5,000 for tax returns filing and support services when they couldn't even get their own products and services to work. It is even against their terms of service but the billing department doesn't care. It is extremely unscrupulous to even bill for services that were never rendered and could never have been rendered.

Our experience with Avalara has been a good one. Though no-one really likes dealing with Sales tax, this software has allowed us to manage it without having to add any staff - and that is a HUGE plus in my book. We have had some issues, but once we addressed them with the support staff - they were eventually corrected. Avalara also had a connection to the software we are currently using - Sage 300.

The amount of time my staff is saved by using Avalara to calculate and maintain Sales tax is enormous. This software accurately calculates tax and we also use it to file the taxes. The software has worked very well for us.

There were a few bumps in the road when we started, but we worked through them. Some of that required that we stay on top of the issue - because the support staff was overloaded due to the enormous increase of customers that Avalara had. But now that things are moving along, IF we do run into an issue, their support people are always available to help out.