Taxing Via Avalara
Avalara AvaTax is a cloud-based solution automating transaction tax calculations and the tax filing process. Avalara provides real-time tax calculation using tax content from more than 12,000 US taxing jurisdictions and over 200 countries, insuring your transaction tax is calculated based on the most current tax rules. This guide covers how to integrate Avalara AvaTax with Octane to attach taxes on invoices sent out via Octane.
After installing the AvaTax integration you need to configure the integration
- Go to Settings and click "Connect" on the Avalara Tile.
- Enter your Avalara Tax credentials: a. Select whether to configure Avalara in Sandbox mode. b. Enter your username and password. c. Test the connection to ensure the credentials are correct.
Once connected, you will see additional configuration settings. Enable Integration - Let's you turn the Avalara connection on/off. Enable Document Committing/Submission - Enables tax document to Avalara’s AvaTax service for record keeping. With this setting enabled, transactions will be posted and committed to the AvaTax Admin Console. Enable Logging - Log detailed transaction activity for troubleshooting purposes. Enable only when instructed by support. Company - Let's you select which company in Avalara to connect to.
All line items on an Octane invoice will correspond to a single item code in Avalara. On clicking "Next" after configuring the settings above you will be able to set the item code, item description and tax code that corresponds to the product you are selling via Octane. To see a listing of all available AvaTax System tax codes, visit http://taxcode.avatax.avalara.com. If any of these fields are left empty, we will use Avalara defaults when creating transactions in AvaTax.
Customer settings are configured by default
AvaTax is enabled by default across your customers when Avalara is configured at the project level. The Entity Use Code and Tax Exemption Number are empty by default.
Once Avalara is configured for your project, you can now configure tax settings on a per customer basis:
- Navigate to the "Customers" tab in Octane and click on a customer you want to validate the address for.
- In "Integrations" tile on the bottom left, click on the "Tax" tab and then click "Edit Configuration".
- You will now be able to configure the customer's tax settings:
- Enable Integration: Let's you enable/disable AvaTax integration for specific customers.
- Tax Exemption Number: Let's you enter a specific tax exemption number for the customer.
Customer address validation can only be done after Avalara has been connected.
Similar to the step above, navigate to the customer's "Tax" tab in the "Integrations" tile. You can click on "Validate Customer Address" to ensure that the address entered for the customer is a valid taxable address. The green checkmark next to the button indicates the validity of the address. If invalid, you can update the customer's address in Octane and try again.
