What is Avalara ?
Avalara AvaTax (https://www.avalara.com/us/en/products/sales-and-use-tax/avatax.html) is a cloud-based sales and use tax calculation system.
When the EvolutionX App for Avalara is installed, taxes will be calculated by AvaTax live in Storefront, during the checkout steps and applied to the given order. Orders placed in Admin will not trigger tax calculation through Avalara.
Setup Avatax
You will need to have an active Avatax Account to use the tax integration. Documentation for setting up Avatax can be found here.
Install from the App Store
Enable the Avalara Tax Integration App from the App Store under the Tax category. Go to the EvolutionX Admin and click App Store → Avalara Tax Integration.
Guest Customer Code: Default Customer Code to be used for customers that don't have account number saved and for guest users.
Default Product Tax Code: Default Product Tax Code to be used as fallback in products without tax code set. Use "P0000000" in case you have nothing more suitable.
Default Shipping Tax Code: Default Shipping Tax Code sets the shipping tax code for all shipping methods. Use "FR020100" (Shipping only - common carrier - FOB destination) in case you have nothing more suitable.
Use Supplier Addresses for Products origination addresses: We evaluate this setting per line item in the order. When disabled we use the customer's branch address (in store settings) as the order origination addresses. When enabled we use the supplier's address (in supplier settings) if available and we fallback to the branch address if it is not specified.
Account/Username & License Key/Password: Setup your login method by providing either Account Number and License Key or Username and password. Avalara recommends using account ID / license key authentication when implementing connectors. Note that the Avalara license key might be shared with multiple applications and if you reissue the Avalara License key you will need to update all applications using it.
Company Code: The company code that all transactions will be created for, if empty the default company will be used.
Enable Transactions Recording in Avalara: Enable saving transactions in Avalara
Sandbox Mode: Turn on Sandbox mode for testing
API Key: API key for EvolutionX API. Create EvolutionX API key
When the App is installed you will have an option to test connection with Avalara and verify that your credentials are correct. Keep in mind to always update the App before you test so the inserted values are used.
Customer Tax Exempt
You can set a customer as tax exempt by toggling the tax override to enabled. This will let Avalara know that the customer is tax excempt. When true then the Avalara field exemptionNo is set to "tax exemption".
Product Tax Code
The following product fields are used when determining the tax that applies to a product.
Taxable — features field
When unticked the product is exempt from tax. Unticked will force Avalara to treat it as non taxable. If ticked this will allow Avalara to determine the tax that applies (which may still be 0 tax). The API field is product.features.taxable and is set as true or false. Overlay is supported for this field.
Tax Code — Tax Class ID
The product record has a Seller Tax Reference to store the Tax Code that describes the tax purposes. The API field is product.tax_class_id. This can be set to the Avalara tax code found here https://taxcode.avatax.avalara.com/.
If there is no tax code for the product we will use the app store configuration setting for this value. Overlay is supported for this field.
Frequently Asked Questions — FAQ
Is the Product Overlay supported for tax class or seller tax reference?
Yes, currently the Avatax integration supports the main product record and the overlay for the tax class ID which is stored in the Seller Tax Reference field and the taxable flag.