Tax season can be a major challenge for small businesses. Navigating complex rules, managing paperwork, and meeting tight deadlines often stretches already limited teams and resources. One Stewart Tech client needed an automated solution to organizing their filing and exemption paperwork. With upwards of 5000 documents and almost 1000 exemptions to account for, antiquated manual processes weren’t going to work. That’s where Avalara, integrated with Sage accounting software, was able to offer a better way.
Avalara automates and simplifies tax compliance – especially sales and use tax – so businesses can focus more on growth and less on paperwork.
What Is Avalara?
Avalara is a cloud-based solution that automates tax calculations, return filing, and compliance tracking. It integrates directly with systems already built to run the Sage Sales Tax suite products such as Sage 100, Sage Intacct, and others. Designed for growing businesses, Avalara supports both domestic and international tax obligations, helping to automate and manage all the moving pieces of sales and use tax compliance, like a behind-the-scenes tax assistant.
Who Is Avalara Right For?
Avalara is designed to support a wide range of business types and sizes. It’s especially valuable for:
- Businesses operating in multiple states that need help keeping up with different tax rates and rules.
- Online retailers or e-commerce businesses that sell across state lines and trigger economic nexus thresholds.
- Manufacturers and wholesalers managing tax-exempt sales and complex exemption certificates.
- Companies expanding internationally, needing to calculate VAT, GST, and customs duties.
- Small teams with limited time who want to automate tax filings, reduce errors, and free up resources.
Whether a company has one location or is growing into new markets, Avalara offers flexible tools that scale with evolving compliance needs.
Six Key Benefits for Small Businesses
1. Accurate Tax Calculations Across Jurisdictions
Avalara calculates real-time sales tax based on specific street addresses – ensuring accuracy in over 12,000 U.S. tax jurisdictions. This is especially helpful if you sell across state lines.
2. Automated Filing and Payment Remittance
Instead of scrambling at the end of the month or quarter, Avalara gathers your data, prepares your tax returns, files them, and remits sales tax returns to the appropriate tax authorities on the business’s behalf, simplifying what is typically a manual and time-consuming process. Essentially, you just review and approve. Done.
3. Economic Nexus Tracking
With state tax laws constantly evolving, you could have sales tax obligations in another state – even if you don’t have a physical presence there. Avalara monitors your activity and where your business may have economic nexus and provides alerts when registration in new states is required.
4. Exemption Certificate Management
For businesses selling to tax-exempt customers, Avalara manages exemption certificates – automating collection, storage, verification, and renewals directly within Sage. This simple organization can significantly reduce manual error and unnecessary paper in the office.
5. Significant Time Savings
Automating tax compliance processes reduces manual workload. Some Sage users have reported saving up to 60 staff hours per month. That’s time you can put into growing your business, not chasing down tax forms.
6. International Tax Support
Powered by Avalara, the Sage Sales Tax suite calculates customs duties and international taxes such as VAT and GST, making it easier for businesses to scale globally while staying compliant with local regulations.
A Smarter Approach to Tax Season
Avalara offers an efficient, scalable solution to reduce errors, avoid missed deadlines, and ensure compliance across jurisdictions. For small businesses using Sage, it is a powerful tool to simplify tax season and free up valuable time and resources. If you want to learn more about how Avalara and Sage can help your business get ready for next tax season, reach out to Stewart Tech for a demonstration. We’re here to help!