Sage 100

Both ideas you have from Beth and Brian are solid.  Additionally, I always thought the calculation was 1/10th of a click for anything "pre posted".  Meaning 10 sales order inquires would cost the same as one single posted invoice. Is that still how it functions?  Also, make sure they are not routinely running Avalara Batch Address Validation nor Sales Tax Recalculation utilities. Those also count as being processed.

Watch the video to see how they calculate billing.  Understanding Avalara AvaTax Usage - YouTube

What Avalara products are they using besides AvaTax?  Certificates? Returns? Support? Risk Assessment?   Look at all billing and usage stats.  

Do they qualify for SST?  Those transactions are free.

Look at usage on their Avalara account.  Are any calculations coming from eCommerce?  Any other connections?

Set Validate Addresses to No in AvaTax Configuration.

If lots of address validations, hide the Avalara icon next to Address Line 1 or enable only for users who need it.

PS.  Vertex is discontinuing support for Sage 100 integration.

Both ideas you have from Beth and Brian are solid.  Additionally, I always thought the calculation was 1/10th of a click for anything "pre posted".  Meaning 10 sales order inquires would cost the same as one single posted invoice. Is that still how it functions?  Also, make sure they are not routinely running Avalara Batch Address Validation nor Sales Tax Recalculation utilities. Those also count as being processed.

I've been through this with a customer, including "giving Avalara a chance to explain.". In my experience, Avalara never could explain, and talking to Avalara executives just made them never return my calls again. Dealing with Avalara in my experience was a non-stop merry-go-round of being passed from one employee to another. I am not exaggerating this in the least. Nobody seemed able to explain to the customer why their bill doubled over the course of two years.

Here's a video that I looked at that explains the Avalara billing : 

https://www.avalara.com/simplify/en/customer/avatax-usage.html

My notes from when the customer was reviewing Avalara billing: 

This may or may not be currently accurate or apply to your customer depending on their agreement

a. API calls are 1/10th of a transaction
b. Each invoice with up to 35 lines that are posted counts as 1 transaction
c. If there are over 35 lines then Avalara does a computation to compute the transaction
d. Address validation counts as a transaction ( unsure if a full transaction )

There is an online billing dashboard. For one of my customers, this wasn't working, and we had to ask Avalara several times to fix it. And another customer, the billing dashboard did work. 

Ultimately one customer gave up out of frustration once their bill exceeded $20,000 annually. The other customer sold their business and no longer needed to use Avalara.

My biggest takeaway that I would share with customers is they really need a controller/CFO level person to even think about implementing Avalara. And once implemented it can get very expensive with little backup to why costs increase.

We also struggled with sales tax for online marketplace transactions. Perhaps Avalara has resolved that issue. 

I ping my clients 60 days before renewal and ask them to ask for, then include me on their annual renewal call with their Avalara Account Manager.

I've been through this with a customer, including "giving Avalara a chance to explain.". In my experience, Avalara never could explain, and talking to Avalara executives just made them never return my calls again. Dealing with Avalara in my experience was a non-stop merry-go-round of being passed from one employee to another. I am not exaggerating this in the least. Nobody seemed able to explain to the customer why their bill doubled over the course of two years.

Here's a video that I looked at that explains the Avalara billing : 

https://www.avalara.com/simplify/en/customer/avatax-usage.html

My notes from when the customer was reviewing Avalara billing: 

This may or may not be currently accurate or apply to your customer depending on their agreement

a. API calls are 1/10th of a transaction
b. Each invoice with up to 35 lines that are posted counts as 1 transaction
c. If there are over 35 lines then Avalara does a computation to compute the transaction
d. Address validation counts as a transaction ( unsure if a full transaction )

There is an online billing dashboard. For one of my customers, this wasn't working, and we had to ask Avalara several times to fix it. And another customer, the billing dashboard did work. 

Ultimately one customer gave up out of frustration once their bill exceeded $20,000 annually. The other customer sold their business and no longer needed to use Avalara.

My biggest takeaway that I would share with customers is they really need a controller/CFO level person to even think about implementing Avalara. And once implemented it can get very expensive with little backup to why costs increase.

We also struggled with sales tax for online marketplace transactions. Perhaps Avalara has resolved that issue. 

Thank you for all your recommendations and great information on how to navigate this. We will be working with Avalara and I will be doing some testing. We had a meeting with Vertex and they admitted they had to turn away a prospect that had Sage 100 v2023 because they will no longer support any Sage 100 version higher than v2021 and would check if that was still currently the case. Will advise on the outcome.

I ping my clients 60 days before renewal and ask them to ask for, then include me on their annual renewal call with their Avalara Account Manager.

I've been through this with a customer, including "giving Avalara a chance to explain.". In my experience, Avalara never could explain, and talking to Avalara executives just made them never return my calls again. Dealing with Avalara in my experience was a non-stop merry-go-round of being passed from one employee to another. I am not exaggerating this in the least. Nobody seemed able to explain to the customer why their bill doubled over the course of two years.

Here's a video that I looked at that explains the Avalara billing : 

https://www.avalara.com/simplify/en/customer/avatax-usage.html

My notes from when the customer was reviewing Avalara billing: 

This may or may not be currently accurate or apply to your customer depending on their agreement

a. API calls are 1/10th of a transaction
b. Each invoice with up to 35 lines that are posted counts as 1 transaction
c. If there are over 35 lines then Avalara does a computation to compute the transaction
d. Address validation counts as a transaction ( unsure if a full transaction )

There is an online billing dashboard. For one of my customers, this wasn't working, and we had to ask Avalara several times to fix it. And another customer, the billing dashboard did work. 

Ultimately one customer gave up out of frustration once their bill exceeded $20,000 annually. The other customer sold their business and no longer needed to use Avalara.

My biggest takeaway that I would share with customers is they really need a controller/CFO level person to even think about implementing Avalara. And once implemented it can get very expensive with little backup to why costs increase.

We also struggled with sales tax for online marketplace transactions. Perhaps Avalara has resolved that issue. 

I'm adding on to this thread because I was able to validate many places where a call to Avalara is made, during sales order entry, and it's a lot especially if you have work tickets and chargeable components.  

Thank you for all your recommendations and great information on how to navigate this. We will be working with Avalara and I will be doing some testing. We had a meeting with Vertex and they admitted they had to turn away a prospect that had Sage 100 v2023 because they will no longer support any Sage 100 version higher than v2021 and would check if that was still currently the case. Will advise on the outcome.

I ping my clients 60 days before renewal and ask them to ask for, then include me on their annual renewal call with their Avalara Account Manager.

I've been through this with a customer, including "giving Avalara a chance to explain.". In my experience, Avalara never could explain, and talking to Avalara executives just made them never return my calls again. Dealing with Avalara in my experience was a non-stop merry-go-round of being passed from one employee to another. I am not exaggerating this in the least. Nobody seemed able to explain to the customer why their bill doubled over the course of two years.

Here's a video that I looked at that explains the Avalara billing : 

https://www.avalara.com/simplify/en/customer/avatax-usage.html

My notes from when the customer was reviewing Avalara billing: 

This may or may not be currently accurate or apply to your customer depending on their agreement

a. API calls are 1/10th of a transaction
b. Each invoice with up to 35 lines that are posted counts as 1 transaction
c. If there are over 35 lines then Avalara does a computation to compute the transaction
d. Address validation counts as a transaction ( unsure if a full transaction )

There is an online billing dashboard. For one of my customers, this wasn't working, and we had to ask Avalara several times to fix it. And another customer, the billing dashboard did work. 

Ultimately one customer gave up out of frustration once their bill exceeded $20,000 annually. The other customer sold their business and no longer needed to use Avalara.

My biggest takeaway that I would share with customers is they really need a controller/CFO level person to even think about implementing Avalara. And once implemented it can get very expensive with little backup to why costs increase.

We also struggled with sales tax for online marketplace transactions. Perhaps Avalara has resolved that issue.