Avalara Reviews

The software is mostly plug and play. Once it's installed, there's little to worry about afterwards, which is great because SALT is only a small portion of my job responsibilities!

There's been a couple of items where there's a tiered rate within the state however the base rate pulled through to charge to the customer, causing us to override. However, customer service has been a great help and I hope to have that issue resolved shortly.

Avalara provided the most accurate and updated tax calculations and tables. Daily updates to region and city taxes which helps us balance our books.

The support is the least favorite thing about Avalara. Calls and Chats should be more accessible and quicker to get a person. Other than that, everything else is solid.

David, thank you for sharing about your experience with Avalara AvaTax, we look forward to continuing to serve you. We're sorry to hear you've had challenges with support calls and chat. Please know we're working to improve that experience.

I liked that it integrated with all of our platforms (i.e. NetSuite, Magento and future state Shopify+) and the quoted price came in much lower than other comparative software solutions.

The setup is not intuitive. There are tons of issues where it doesn't calculate sales tax correctly or at all for some states or on returns. There are multiple different logins for different services/features (i.e. AvaTax, CertCapture, General Avalara account) which are frustrating. Also had a number of issues with our NetSuite integrations. CertCapture required us to manually upload each state certificate...

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Blake, thank you for sharing about your experience using Avalara. We are sorry to read you've experienced challenges, we understand it's been frustrating, and we'd like to address your concerns. Please contact our VP of Customer Excellence Bobby Sands at customercare@avalara.com so we can learn more and work to assist.

I didn't have a choice as to what product I could use with RCP to collect taxes. It was the only one available that would work with this app. The software seems to work well, although I can't access some of the features because of the app I am using.

I was shocked when they gave me the price. I am paying over $1 for a $23.95 transaction. If I let them submit the taxes, it would be even more. I had to raise prices to cover the cost.

Hi Carolyn, thank you for taking the time to share your experience. We strive to offer the best service possible for our customers and the billing frustrations you've described are not what we want. We apologize if pricing expectations were not clearly expressed and we understand how unexpected costs would be upsetting. We'd like to learn more about your experience to avoid any recurrences. Please contact us at customercare@avalara.com if you're open to a conversation.

- Portal is easy enough to navigate. Lots of training and tutorials provided - "Set it and forget it" .. well not exactly .. you still have to monitor and reconcile monthly to ensure everything is running smoothly. But saves a lot of time logging in and figuring out how to file taxes monthly for each state. - Reporting is very transparent. Easy to download reports, and compile and save info for auditing purposes.

- Use Tax functionality is not fully automated for all software. We use NetSuite, and there's no way to capture Use Tax on Expense Reports so these must still be entered into Avalara manually. - Customer Support is sometimes lacking. It takes forever to get a hold of someone on the phone, and when you do, many of the times the case just gets escalated to someone else so no immediate help. Also, they may point you to an article online that you've already found by Googling on your own.

What I like most about Avalara is they file our sales tax returns. (That is the worst part about business)

The Avalara team is terrible about following up with customers. Also, the account manager (CAM) changes very frequently without letting the customer know.

Hi Marissa, thanks for taking the time to share your feedback. We aim to provide the best service possible, and we'd like to learn more about your experience so we can improve. If you're willing to share more, please contact us at customercare@avalara.com.

It does what it says it is supposed to do. Online reports are fine

Very buggy Slow Frequently shuts itself down

David, thank you for taking the time to share your experience using Avalara. We work hard to deliver our customers a reliable and easy-to-use solution. From what you wrote, we recognize that there are things that have gone well and areas that may need improvement. We would appreciate an opportunity to learn more about your experience. If you're open to a conversation, please contact customercare@avalara.com.

I love the software and find Avalara to be user friendly

when you have updates that effect our current processes for example recurring billing

Hi Debra. 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.

Avalara has all the features we require and integrates completely with our ERP system

The pricing structure is somewhat confusing

Thank you for sharing your experience using Avalara. We work hard to deliver our customers a reliable, and we're happy to read our products are working well for you. We apologize if pricing expectations were not clearly expressed, and we'd like to learn how we can improve this experience. Feel free to share your insights with us at customercare@avalara.com.

Before we used Avalara services, we would manually update the sales tax rates for all of the states we were doing business in (over 35). Not only did we save time with Avalara, the rates were up to date and accurate for the individual placing their online order. The team at Avalara are great to work with - super helpful and friendly!

The assumption of how many transactions will occur instead of being charged a monthly per transaction fee.

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...

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Thank you for sharing about your experience using CertCapture. From what you wrote, we recognize that there are things that have gone well and areas that need improvement. We would appreciate an opportunity to learn more about your experience. If you're open to a conversation, please contact customercare@avalara.com.

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...

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Ronnie, thank you for taking the time to write about your experience, though the frustrations you've described are not what we want. We strive to offer the best service possible and apologize for the challenges you've experienced. Please contact customercare@avalara.com if you're open to a conversation.

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?

John, thank you for taking the time to write about your experience using Avalara, though it's not the type we aim to deliver. The frustrations you've described are not what we want. If you're open to a conversation, we'd like to address your concerns. Please contact VP of Customer Excellence Bobby Sands at customercare@avalara.com.

The ease of use and the versatility of the different programs they have that are available. It's like a one stop shop.

Getting some items cleared up through support are slow, but I try to keep in mind that since the Pandemic started, EVERYONE is short handed.

Hi Linda, thank you for taking the time to share your experience using Avalara. We work hard to deliver our customers peace of mind, and we're grateful for the opportunity to work with you.

The software works great. Once you have it set up, it runs in the background and involves almost no review. I know we are always charging the correct tax rate and with the tax return processing, I know my returns are being submitted correctly and on time. With exposure in most US states, staying up to date on all tax changes and filing individual returns would require a small team to keep accurate. With Avalara, we set up the states and localities we are in and the software takes care of the rest.

When questions do come up, customer service could do a better job. I have also had our individual customer rep changed on us multiple times in the last year, which is frustrating. I have also experienced billing issues around the time of renewal each year, which can take up to 4 or 5 months to get resolved.

Once everything is set up, the service performs its basic (and very important) task: it files accurate, timely sales tax reports. If you love having lots of zoom meetings, you'll love Avalara. Nothing gets done without several video calls.

If you ever encounter a problem (and we encountered MANY), do not count on anyone taking responsibility for the issues, or being able to fix them. Avalara's employees are hopelessly "siloed" ... sales does their thing and passes you off to implementation, who then leaves you in the hands of an account rep. In our case, none of these people did their job correctly, and they do not work together well....

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Thank you for taking the time to write and bring your experience to our attention. The frustrations you've described are not what we want. If you're open to a conversation, we'd like to learn more about your specific experience and how we can improve. Please contact us at customercare@avalara.com.

I think this package has great potential, but onboarding meetings were "no shows", we have had this package for a year and are still not implemented. When I asked for a refund of the final month...keep in mind...we paid for 12, the politely said no. Just disappointed that they did not have the capacity to onboard us in an efficient manner and then to not offer any concessions for their inability to have people available to help with onboarding.

Very poor onboarding. WE attempted to schedule with several different specialists who would not show up for appts. When they did they were productive, but just dissapointing.

Hi Amy, thank you for taking the time to write about your experience; it's not the type we aim to deliver. We apologize that getting set up and running has been a challenge and we'd like to help. Please contact us at customercare@avalara.com so we can work to address your frustrations.

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

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

Lisa, thank you for sharing about your experience with Avalara, we're happy to hear it's been positive. We are committed to offering a reliable and easy-to-use solution, and we look forward to continuing to serve you.

The website is fairly easy to use once you get used to it, including the Avatax and Avacerts websites. Integration was relatively painless with Netsuite and was mostly handled by the Avalara team. No having to worry about rates being correct. With the filing service no having to worry about tax filings.

The software is fairly expensive, and there are no like-for-like alternatives on the market. Some of the tier breaks are strange (specifically with the certificate capturing portion). Doing a few things isn't as intuitive as it could be, such as taxing a regularly exempt customer one time on a specific order.

As with most Bigcommerce integrations, setup was super easy. Signing up for an account and a couple clicks and you're good to go. Calculating sales tax/setup on the backend of an online store can be time-consuming if you don't have Avalara. I do not use the software to do any tax return prep or reports so the version I use is completely free. You can't beat free for a no hassle sales tax calculation experience. State laws change and it's nice to have software that keeps my stores up to code.

I cannot think of any cons to the software. It is free and truly takes the hassle out of calculating state sales tax for all my customers. If you are looking for a software to take care of all of your sales tax needs, such as reporting, you might be able to find cheaper alternatives.

Once implemented, it is simple to use both for the administrators and our customers. AvaTax has covered a wide gamut of situations that my business presents. The software itself is thorough no matter what jurisdiction or product/service is sold and the product help desk is quick, user friendly and complete.

The integration with our ERP software and e-commerce website yields a frequent rounding issue on the customers' invoices. Not blaming AvaTax for the issue, but neither AvaTax nor our ERP have the flexibility to address the problem.

Automated the sales tax process reduced errors from previous manual process.

would like more flexibility in reporting. extra selection criteria fields in Avatax reports, like wanting to run on a specific customer. in certcapture, would like to pick and choose fields to print on downloaded reports. you can select on these fields, but some fields aren't on the report.

Bonnie, thank you for taking the time to write about your experience with Avalara. We appreciate your feedback and are passing along your thoughts on AvaTax and CertCapture reporting to our product team.

There is nothing positive to say. An atrocious customer experience.

Can’t list them all, but mains ones are: - Appear to be Incentivised to delay VAT registration - Appear to be incentivised to delay cancellation of agreement - Atrocious customer service – Account Managers default reply is “Refer T&C’s” - Overall incompetance seems to be the theme

Hi David, thank you for taking the time to share your experience. We strive to offer the best service possible for our customers and the billing frustrations you've described are not what we want. We apologize if pricing expectations were not clearly expressed and we understand how unexpected costs would be upsetting. We'd like to learn more about your experience to avoid any recurrences. Please contact us at customercare@avalara.com so we can work to address the issue.

Avalara has saved our company so much time and hassle with sales tax. Our company does business in all 50 states and it is hard to keep up with the changing tax rates. Having Avalara by our side gives us confidence that the taxes we are charging the customer are correct.

Avalara has grown a lot since we started using them. Our company was one of the first. For a while, it seemed as though it was taking Avalara a bit more time to respond to our requests and inquiries, but the company has added more staff and the response rate has improved.

Overall, it accomplishes the goal we set out. We needed a more accurate way to charge sales tax, down to the county, city, and specific area when it comes to California. Alvalara AvaTax can do just that! It has saved us so much time in calculating this ourselves.

It is not very customizable and is not 100% accurate. It basically just rounds differently, so you have to get used to that. When it is off, it's just a few pennies, so we've worked around it.

Elyse, thank you for taking the time to share your experience using Avalara. We work hard to deliver our customers a reliable and easy-to-use solution, and we're grateful for the opportunity to work with you. Accuracy is extremely important to us, so if you've experienced inconsistency with a particular tax rate, please reach out to your account manager or contact customercare@avalara.com so we can look into it.