Avalara AvaTax
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StoreConnect supports calculating taxes using your Avalara AvaTax account. 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.
Create an Avalara account
This feature requires an Avalara account. Sign up with Avalara if you don’t already have an account.
Connect StoreConnect to AvaTax
To connect StoreConnect to your Avalara account, create a Tax Provider record on your Store:
- Search for the record type Tax Providers and select New.
- Choose Avalara from the Provider list.
- Configure the Tax Provider details as follows:
- Active: when checked, Avalara will be used to calculate taxes. Uncheck to disable Avalara and use the built-in StoreConnect tax calculation.
- Company Code: this is an Avalara code to identify the Company you are configuring. If not supplied, uses the default code set in Avalara.
- Default Freight Tax Code: the default Avalara AvaTax System Tax code is always used for Freight/Shipping.
- Block Transactions When Offline: If AvaTax is unavailable, should transactions be blocked? If unchecked, transactions will be allowed and taxes will be set to zero. If checked, transactions will be blocked and an error message will be displayed to the user.
- Block Transactions Markdown: This is the error message displayed to the user when transactions are blocked due to AvaTax being unavailable.
- Enter the API Info:
- API Mode: controls which AvaTax endpoint is used. Enter
production(exact value, case-sensitive) to connect to the live AvaTax service. Entersandboxor leave blank to use the AvaTax sandbox endpoint for testing. - API Key: this is your Avalara Account Number
- API Secret: this is the License Key for your Avalara account
- API Mode: controls which AvaTax endpoint is used. Enter
- Enter a fallback address. This is used if a product has no stock location, a product has no stock locations matching the tax provider’s country, a product stock location address is incomplete.
- Add any advanced configuration options in the Configuration Options field. (See details below)
- Save the record.
Advanced configuration options
These options only need to be set if you intend to override the default value. They should be on their own line and should follow a YAML format: “{option_name}: {option value}”. Here are the available options:
| Option Name | Expected Value | Default Value | Setting Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| commit_transactions | true or false | false | If true commits all transactions in Avalara. Not applicable when disable_invoices is true |
| disable_invoices | true or false | false | If true, does not create transactions in Avalara for invoices |
| log_requests | true or false | false | If true, turns logging on. All API requests and responses will be logged in the Tax Provider Log object |
| log_limit | integer | 1000 | Sets the number of rows to keep in the log. When the log reaches the limit, the oldest rows will be deleted |
Test and sandbox credentials
Use sandbox (or leave the field blank) while testing, then change the value to production when you are ready to go live. The value production must be entered exactly as shown — it is case-sensitive.
Assign a tax exempt category on the Account record
Use Tax Entity Code on the Account record to assign an Avalara tax exempt category to an existing customer. Select one of the options from the picklist.
Assign a tax code on the Product record
Use Tax Code on a Product record to assign an AvaTax System Tax Code to a Product. Any tax code you assign will be passed through to AvaTax for tax calculation. If you do not assign a tax code, AvaTax’s default tax code will be used. To see a listing of all available AvaTax System tax codes, visit [http://taxcode.avatax.avalara.com].
Set a product code on the Shipping Product record
StoreConnect has a dedicated ‘shipping’ product that is assigned to Shipping line items - SHIP001. This value appears in AvaTax transactions.
Test the connection
Once you have configured your store to use Avalara, you can test the connection to ensure everything is working properly. Use the Test button in the Connectivity panel on the Tax Provider record page. If the connection is successful, you will see a message indicating the connection was successful. If the connection is not successful, you will see an error message indicating the problem.
Troubleshooting the tax provider
AvaTax won’t work without these set in the provider record:
- API Key and API Secret — authentication, no fallback
- API Mode — determines the endpoint called
sandboxorproduction. These have to be entered exactly to work as intended. - Active checkbox — AvaTax is bypassed entirely if unchecked