Use this article as a guide when integrating your account with Avalara AvaTax.
At any time, you can come back to the Integrations page (Settings > Integrations) to make changes to the Integration.
Important Note: Impact to current Quotes when turning Avalara on/off
It's important to understand what will happen to existing Quotes when you turn Avalara off and on, particularly in the case where the Quote has Optional Items or Single Select elements whereby the end-customer's selections can change the taxes included in the Quote.
When turning Avalara on/off, for existing Quotes without Optional Items and/or Single Select, the Quote will respect the taxes calculated upon creation. These Quotes can be accepted and paid by your customer with no issues.
Upon turning Avalara on/off, Quotes with Optional Items and/or Single Select:
Will not be accessible to your end-customer. This is to avoid incorrect tax calculations when the end-customer interacts with the optional elements on the Quote.
Quotes can be revised, at which point the revision will start using Avalara/Quoter-calculated taxes.
Quotes can be copied, at which point the new Quote will use Avalara/Quoter-calculated taxes.
Prerequisites:
You must have an active Avalara account.
To sign up with Avalara, you can contact their sales team here.You must have the Avalara Integration Add-on or be on our Pro Plan or above. Please contact us for more information about adding the Avalara Integration Add-On or upgrading your Plan.
Integration Overview
When creating Quoter Quotes, a call will be made to Avalara to get the correct Taxes based off the location of the Person (USA and Canada currently supported).
During the Quote Checkout process, the Avalara Taxes will be refreshed (to make sure it's still accurate).
Setting up the Avalara Integration
First, you must enter your Avalara Username and Password:
You also have the option to sign in via your Account Number and License Key.Account Number: Provided during your AvaTax account activation process.
Software License Key: Provided during your AvaTax account activation process.
Next, you will be prompted to select your Company in Avalara. If you have only one Company, it will be pre-selected for you:
Note: When the "Create Sales Invoice" setting is on, a request will be pushed to Avalara to create an Avalara Sales Invoice when the Quote is Won.
Won = Any status change (system-driven or manual change) to any of these statuses: Accepted, Ordered, or Fulfilled.
If you have an existing Integration between Quoter and Quickbooks Online, you can optionally push a lump sum of Tax as a Line Item on each of your Quotes to Quickbooks Online.
(Optional) Assign an AvaTax System Tax Code to Quoter Categories
You have the option to assign Taxes in Avalara based on the Product Category in Quoter. This will let you make Quotes with Category-specific Taxes applied.
First, under Tax Code Settings, set a Default Tax Code and a Shipping Tax Code.
Next, under Category Mapping, type in the Avalara Tax Codes that you wish to apply to each Category.
IMPORTANT: You must type in the Tax Code exactly as it appears in Avalara. See here for a list of AvaTax System Tax Codes. Incorrectly typed Tax Codes will not find matches in Avalara.
If this mapping is set, all Quoter Items on a Won Quote associated with that Category will show in Avalara as being associated with that Tax Code.
Click Save Integration.
Setting Up Tax Exempt Customers
Avalara lets you set customers as Tax Exempt within their AvaTax system. With our Avalara integration, you can add these Tax Exemption Numbers to people in Quoter so that the exemption settings from Avalara will be respected.
When creating a Quote with Avalara enabled, you will see an option to add a Tax Exemption Number. Entering the number from Avalara will mean that customer will be exempted from tax for this Quote:
You can also set the Tax Exemption Number under People > Edit Person if you would like to set it in advance. When you add this Person to a Quote, the Tax Exemption Number will be pulled in automatically.
Test the Integration
Now that you have added the Avalara AvaTax integration, give it a quick test.
On the Quotes tab, click New Quote and choose any Quote Template.
Find a Person with an address that you know is configured in Avalara with recognizable taxes.
Add an Item to the Quote that you know is set as Taxable.
Open the Shipping and Taxes section and click Preview Taxes.
If your Integration is working as expected, you will see the Taxes that have been returned from Avalara:
Have fun!