Sage 100

Avalara installations for AvaTax Calc for Sage 100-Multi-state - How involved does the reseller need to be for this? Avalara sold a deal directly to the client telling them that it was a self install. My experience is that this is a statement too good to be true. What is the rest of the story???

The install is not that difficult but you do have to go on the dashboard and set it up for the appropriate nexuses and in Sage 100. Sometimes there are workstation setup issues that require a local registration.

Did Avalara try selling the $795 install fee?

Not sure. There is a mysterious $495 fee that Avalara is billing the client directly. Perhaps this has been discounted.....

The installation isn't that involved. The implementation is a different thing depending upon how may different items are carried, how many states they do business in, and the number of different type of items sold. To get things working correctly two things have to happen: 1) nexus is determined based upon the customer address. This means that each customer address has to be reviews and updated to make the format appropriate for Avalara to process. Fortunately, there is a batch process for this so it doesn't have to be done one at a time. 2) Each item in inventory (stock or misc) must have a tax class (probably have the term wrong) that tells Avalara how the item is handled for taxability. The list of codes was over 100 pages (2 columns wide) when we implemented internally 5 to 7 years ago. For us, services had to be broken down between services provided with custom software, services provided with packaged software delivered electronically, services provided with packaged software delivered via media, services for on-going support on-site, services for on-going support remotely, etc. The list is long because the differentiation is required by all the differences between states and localities. For example, services are taxable in Texas but not in Oklahoma. Services on implementations are taxable in Florida but services on support or follow-on projects are not taxable. The process of analyzing the tax classes and the customers inventory and services is where there is a great opportunity for service revenue. Happy consulting.

Love the opportunity for revenue, however, since this was basically a direct Avalara sell, I worry that this was not properly explained during the Avalara sales cycle. Luckily, client sells a tangible product so we may not have the service revenue issues to deal with.

Client should also be fore-warned that Avatax will change Customer and Ship-to Addresses to ""their way"". Sometimes the client will use Address Lines 1/2/3 uniquely. Reporting and reconciling to the GL is challenging. Avatax reporting is by Invoice Date irrespective of posting date. Their reporting tool and options are a big change from Sage 100.

The last time I touched Avalara was for a client on v4.1 (back when v4.1 was the latest release). The installation instructions were for v4.05 (useless as v4.1 was the business framework release for AR and SO). Unfortunately, the user experience went downhill from there. I am hoping that #2 will be a much smoother process.....

Jeff, how did this go? I have a client that just did a demo and they were told the client's staff would be all that is needed to setup the Avatax but to expect about 10 to 30 hours of the client's staff time to get it up and running. The client said, Accounting Tech can do that for us. I am not getting a warm fussy regarding a good implementation plan from Avalara.

The client does need to get involved because they will be the ones accessing the Avalara web site, etc. From a reseller standpoint, you figure out where to download the Avalara interface from (THAT took a while), go through the set up on the server, copy the Avalara set up folder to EVERY workstation. Once the client has identified which customers they want to have the Avalara tax schedule, you have to change the customer master fields as well as the ship to tax schedule fields. Depending on timing, you also need to change open SO's. I did not get involved with anything else on the Avalara dashboard as @ThereseLogeais noted above. And for training the client in the Sage usage, I enlisted the help of a reseller more experienced with the Avalara interface. All in all, it was like going to the dentist for a teeth cleaning, not a tooth extraction.

Well, I like teeth cleaning... With whom did you partner?

Give @ThereseLogeais a shout. She has done quite of few Avalara installs in Minnesota.