Avalara: integration guide

About this document

This document describes how to install and configure the tax automation solution Avalara on ChannelEngine.

Table of contents

Introduction

Requirements

Installing Avalara on ChannelEngine

FAQs

Introduction

ChannelEngine's Avalara integration allows you to simplify your tax compliance, reduce the time and cost of value-added tax (VAT) reporting, and access reports and analytics.

Requirements

• An Avalara account.
• A custom Tax code field, populated per product category, according to Avalara's Tax Code Search tool. For more information on how to add a custom field, check out the ChannelEngine: product custom fields/extra data fields management article. E.g.: if you are selling sneakers via B2C, all products under your sneakers category should contain the code PC040147.

Installing Avalara on ChannelEngine

1. To install Avalara, go to ChannelEngine and select Settings > Tax providers.
2. Select + Add, followed by OK to confirm.
3. Once Avalara is installed, you can view and edit the integration by going to Settings > Tax providers, selecting View, and then selecting the Setup section.
   
   
4. Under Setup, add your Avalara Username and Password.
   
   
5. Select the Tax code field you created for tax purposes, as seen in the Requirements section of this article.
6. The Tax group code field can be ignored, as it has no functionality for now.
7. Select Save.
8. Go to the Activation tab. If the status is red, make sure that you have added all required information. If it is green, toggle the Activate synchronization for Avalara to complete the installation process
   
   
9. Go to Settings > Settings and enable the Use external VAT calculator setting. This allows Avalara to start handle your VAT calculations
   
   
10. Select Save.

FAQs

My company fulfills orders from multiple warehouses, based in different countries. Depending on the warehouse where the product is shipped from, the VAT rate may be different. Is this integration for me?

Although the scope of the integration can be expanded in future, currently it is not a complete solution for businesses that rely on warehouses in multiple countries, deal with business customers, or work with external fulfillment services such as FBA, LVB, and ZFS.