Table of Contents

• Introduction
• International Sales Tax
• Connect to AvaTax
  • Configure Avalara AvaTax
  • Assign an AvaTax Tax Code to a Product
  • Assign an AvaTax Tax-Exempt Entity Code to a Customer
  • Link an Ordway Customer to a Certificate in CertCapture
  • Preview Sales Tax for a Subscription
  • Calculate Sales Tax for an Invoice
  • Reverse Posted Invoices
  • Integration Status
• Disconnect Avalara AvaTax Integration

Introduction

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, ensuring your transaction tax is calculated based on the most current tax rules.

Ordway's integration with Avalara allows you to calculate tax and link Ordway customers to their tax exemption certificates maintained in CertCapture, if applicable.

International Sales Tax

Reach out to your Avalara Sales Rep/Account Manager to enable this feature in your Avalara account. 

Connect to AvaTax

Preconditions: Ensure your company address is populated within Menu > Organization Structure > Company Profile before proceeding. To get started with AvaTax, configure the integration. 

Steps: 

1. Navigate to Menu > Setup > Integrations.
2. Click Connect next to the Avalara AvaTax listing.
3. Enter the Avalara AvaTax Credentials:

• • Account Number: Provided during your AvaTax account activation process.
  • License Key: Provided during your AvaTax account activation process. Be sure to save this license key for future use. 
  • Company Code: Company profile identifier in the AvaTax Admin Console. 

4. When using Sandbox Mode to test the integration, toggle Sandbox Mode ON before entering the AvaTax Sandbox environment credentials.

5. Determine Avalara Settings:

Note: Once the first two settings are enabled, additional settings display. 

• Enable Commit Transactions for Reporting in Avalara: When enabled, table transactions are committed in Avalara and reported to the proper taxing authority. Non-taxable transactions are excluded. When disabled, estimated tax is calculated but not committed to Avalara.

Note: When enabled, posted transactions do not necessarily sync as Committed when sent to Avalara. The initial status is Uncommitted, and the client must change the status to either Reject or Commit.

Therefore, think of this toggle as sending transactions to Avalara in Uncommitted Status. 

• Once toggled ON, Calculate Tax on Partial Addresses displays. When enabled, tax is calculated on addresses that include just State, Zip, and Country. When disabled, only Customers with complete and valid addresses are calculated with tax.

Note: An incomplete address can cause inaccuracies in tax calculations, for which Ordway is not liable.

• Enable Commit Non-Taxable Transactions. When enabled, all transactions including non-taxable transactions are committed in Avalara and reported to the proper taxing authority. 
  • Once toggle ON, Default Tax-Exempt Entity Use Code displays. This is the default entity use code for tax-exempt transactions.

Note: This value can be overridden at the Customer level.

6. Save when finished.

Configure Avalara AvaTax

Once connected, enable transaction reporting to commit transactions to Avalara. When disabled, taxes are still calculated but transactions are not sent to Avalara. When finished, click Save.

Assign an AvaTax Tax Code to a Product 

Steps:

1. Navigate to Menu > Products & Plans > Products. 
2. Click Edit from the Actions Column for the Product to make tax exempt.
   
3. Toggle Taxable ON and select a Tax Code from the drop-down menu.
   
   
4. Save when finished.

Assign an AvaTax Tax-Exempt Entity Code to a Customer

Tax Exempt Entity Use Codes exempt purchases made by specific business entities and are represented by a letter.

Steps:

1. Navigate to Menu > Customer Accounts.
2. Click Edit from the Actions Column for the Customer.
   
   
3. Toggle Tax-Exempt ON and select the appropriate Tax-Exempt Entity Use Code from the drop-down menu.
   
4. Save when finished.

Link an Ordway Customer to a Certificate in CertCapture

When using Avalara CertCapture to manage Customer tax exemption certificates, link Customer objects created in Ordway to the corresponding Customer created in Avalara. When the AvaTax integration is enabled, Customers created in Ordway are also created in Avalara, allowing you to capture and link certificates for these Customers.

When Customers exist in Ordway prior to setting up Avalara integration, manually link the two Customer objects using the avalara_customer_code custom field on the Ordway Customer object. Steps:

1. Navigate to Menu > Customer Accounts.
2. Click Edit from the Actions Column for the Customer. 
3. Scroll down to the Custom Fields section. 
4. Enter the Avalara Customer Code. 
5. Save when finished.
   

Once linked (either manually or automatically at creation), relevant changes to the Customer (e.g. address) within Ordway are reflected on the Customer object in Avalara.

Note: Changes made within Avalara will not automatically be reflected in Ordway. 

Best Practice: Always update shared information within Ordway to ensure the synchronization of data between Ordway and Avalara.

Preview Sales Tax for a Subscription or Order

Estimated tax is shown at the bottom of the Plans and Charges or Product lines. Click Calculate. 

Once Calculate is clicked, the estimated tax is displayed. 

Note: This does not create a Transaction in AvaTax, it is simply an estimation of total taxes to be collected. The transactions are created at time of Invoice generation and tax may be updated based on the actual date of invoicing.

Calculate Sales Tax for an Invoice

When AvaTax integration is enabled, taxes are automatically calculated and included on new Invoices and the corresponding transaction is created in Avalara. This transaction entry in Avalara is Uncommitted until the Invoice is posted within Ordway, at which point it is updated to Committed status in Avalara.

When an invoice line has multiple tax codes applied, the invoice line tax amounts can be referenced and displayed separately in Invoice PDFs. These line tax amounts can also be referenced in the API.

Reverse Posted Invoices

When an Invoice is reversed within Ordway, the corresponding transaction in AvaTax is marked as Voided. Learn more about Reversing Invoices.  

Integration Status

Avalara Integration Status is identified by a icon in both records and lists. Read more about Integration Status. 

Disconnect Avalara AvaTax Integration

The Avalara integration can be disabled at any time by using the Disconnect option from the main Avalara integration page in Ordway. 

Warning: Disabling the integration will stop the data sync between the data types that have been configured. All configurations are retained should you need to reconnect at any time. 

Disconnect the Avalara integration at the bottom of the main Avalara integration page.