Get certified

Congratulations! At this point, you’ve completed all previous milestones. If you’re a technology partner, you’re now ready for Avalara to review your integration with AvaTax for Accounts Payable.

How do I submit?

To initiate a functional review:

1. Create a recording demonstrating your integration that includes the following detail:

   1. All required configuration steps for all countries (US, CA, and VAT countries if in scope)

   2. All configuration requirements to master data elements, or the impact of the configuration on master data elements.

   3. Demonstrate the creation and posting of a vendor invoice transaction in each country in scope:

      1. Show the resulting journal entry postings in the accounting system, detailing the posting of the taxes accrued, recoverable taxes, and all expense entries.

      2. Show the resulting transaction updated to the AvaTax portal.

2. Send the recording along with the user guide to DG-PartnerLaunch@avalara.com.

Avalara will review your demo and then follow up with you. During this follow-up, Avalara will either request more information from you or inform you that you achieved certification.

What do I include in the demo?

Your integration should include all requirements mentioned in the previous chapters. Specifically, we want to see the following in a step-by-step demonstration:

Steps

Demo

How you install or enable your integration

Instructions to install and enable your integration.

How you configure and authenticate

Your configuration screen and authentication process, including:

• Demonstrate inputting your credentials.

• Show that your integration includes:

  • A test connection button

  • An option to disable document recording/committing.

  • An option to disable address validation (if supported)

  • An option to designate connecting to a Production or Sandbox environment.

  • Configuration objects that are required in the platform to enable the tax calculation and reporting, that is, Tax Codes, Tax Groups, and any other tax enablement features/concepts.

  • Configuration required for GL Account assignments and determination (what configuration is required to ensure that the correct GL Accounts are debited/credited for the various tax types)

  • Explain what configuration can be maintained at the Company Code/Entity level, that is, if we have a Canadian entity and a US entity, can the configuration be maintained by entity, allowing different configuration by country?

• Show that you defined a company code in AvaTax.

• Show that you defined the nexus in AvaTax.

How you identify vendors

Show how you pass the vendor identifier.

How you maintain your address

Show how you maintain the address for the vendors and how those addresses are passed to AvaTax, that is, the Origin Address.

How you identify the destination of the purchase

• Show the data element that represents the Destination/Delivery Address of the purchase.

• Show how you maintain the address for the data element that represents the destination/delivery address.

• Show how you can override the destination/delivery address on the line item of the purchase order and/or invoice.

How you identify products/services and associate tax codes

• Show what you send to AvaTax as the item code and description.

• Show that you can map items to Avalara tax codes in the platform, if applicable.

How you identify “how” the purchase is being used

• For some industries, such as Manufacturing and R&D, there are state and local exemptions and reduced rates.

• Show what can be passed to AvaTax and mapped to an Entity Use Code for the customer to take advantage of these special tax reductions.

How you identify the tax calculation date

• Show the date on your transaction that will be passed to AvaTax and represent the date to which the tax rate should be determined.

• This date should match the date that the vendor used to calculate the sales tax on the invoice.

How you identify the tax reporting date

• Show the date that will be used as the reporting date for the transaction.

• This date should align with the filing period so that the transaction is reported on the return in the same period that the invoice was posted, and the expense was recognized in the platform.

How to process from procurement to pay

The procure-to-pay process, including transaction scenarios along with doc codes:

The procure-to-pay process should specifically call out the times when the system reaches out to AvaTax for tax calculation and when the system records a transaction to AvaTax for further reporting and remittance.

US Entity - Vendor transaction scenarios and expected accounting postings

Vendor charges same tax

When the vendor charges the same amount of tax as calculated by AvaTax, pay the vendor as billed:

GL Account

Debit ($)

Credit ($)

Expense/Asset Account (Chair)

106

Accounts Payable (Vendor)

106

Vendor charges no tax

When the vendor charges no tax, AvaTax calculates a tax amount. In this case, pay the vendor as billed and accrue all tax.

GL Account

Debit ($)

Credit ($)

Expense/Asset Account (Chair)

106

Accounts Payable (Vendor)

100

Use Tax Payable (Self-Assessed)

6

Vendor charges less tax

When the vendor charges less tax than calculated by AvaTax, it results in vendor undercharge. In this case, pay the vendor as billed and accrue the undercharged tax amount.

GL Account

Debit ($)

Credit ($)

Expense/Asset Account (Chair)

106

Accounts Payable (Vendor)

104

Use Tax Payable (Self-Assessed)

2

Vendor charges more tax

Scenario 1:

When the vendor charges more tax than calculated by AvaTax, it results in vendor overcharge. In this case, pay the vendor as billed.

GL Account

Debit ($)

Credit ($)

Expense/Asset Account (Chair)

120

Accounts Payable (Vendor)

120

Scenario 2:

When the vendor charges more tax than calculated by AvaTax, it results in vendor overcharge. In this case, short pay the vendor by the overcharged tax amount and accrue only the tax amount as calculated by AvaTax.

GL Account

Debit ($)

Credit ($)

Expense/Asset Account (Chair)

100

Accounts Payable (Vendor)

100

Use Tax Payable (Self-Assessed)

6

Scenario 3:

When the vendor charges more tax than calculated by AvaTax, it results in a vendor overcharge. In this case, short pay the vendor by the overcharged tax amount and do not accrue any tax amount.

GL Account

Debit ($)

Credit ($)

Expense/Asset Account (Chair)

100

Accounts Payable (Vendor)

100

Trusted vendor

Create an invoice for a vendor that has been defined as a “Trusted Vendor” in AvaTax. The transaction should be updated to AvaTax with “Ignored status” and no modification proposed to the invoice.

Entity use code exemption

Create an invoice that has the data element on the line item that is mapped to a Manufacturing Entity Use Code that would result in an exemption in the ship to state.

CA Entity - Vendor transaction scenarios and expected accounting postings

Vendor charges same amount of tax in a PST province

When the vendor charges the same amount of tax as calculated by AvaTax in a PST province, pay the vendor as billed and recover the GST portion.

GL Account

Debit ($)

Credit ($)

Expense/Asset Account (Chair)

107

GST/HST Input Tax Credit (ITC)

5

Accounts Payable (Vendor)

112

Vendor charges GST only

When the vendor charges GST but does not charge PST in a PST province, it results in a vendor undercharge. In this case, pay the vendor as billed and accrue the undercharged PST amount

GL Account

Debit ($)

Credit ($)

Expense/Asset Account (Chair)

107

GST/HST Input Tax Credit (ITC)

5

Accounts Payable (Vendor)

105

PST Payable (Self-Assessed)

7

Vendor charges more tax than calculated by AvaTax

Scenario 1:

When the vendor charges more tax than calculated by AvaTax, it results in a vendor overcharge. In this case, pay the vendor as billed.

GL Account

Debit ($)

Credit ($)

Expense/Asset Account (Chair)

115

GST/HST Input Tax Credit (ITC)

5

Accounts Payable (Vendor)

120

Scenario 2:

When the vendor charges more tax than calculated by AvaTax, it results in a vendor overcharge. In this case, short pay the vendor by the overcharged tax amount.

GL Account

Debit ($)

Credit ($)

Expense/Asset Account (Chair)

107

GST/HST Input Tax Credit (ITC)

5

Accounts Payable (Vendor)

115