Customer Success Story
Customer
Wondersign
Industry
Software
Tax type
Sales and use
Integration
Chargebee
Sage Intacct
Tax challenges
- Process inefficiency
- Tax complexity
- Compliance risk
Products used
Avalara AvaTax
Dynamically delivers sales and use tax calculations, based on the latest rules and rates in our tax engine, to a shopping cart or invoicing system at the time of purchase.
Avalara Returns
Automatically gathers data from AvaTax to prepare and file sales and use tax returns and remit payments across multiple jurisdictions every filing cycle.
Benefits
- Confidence in applying multiple tax rates on a single invoice
- Efficiency through automation and offloading time-consuming tasks
- Cost-savings through the SST program
Industry type
Software
Manage the varied requirements of where and how SaaS, software, and subscriptions are taxed.
Company overview
Wondersign, based in Tampa, Florida, is a cloud-based data syndication platform that automates product catalogs and pricing across selling channels. The company’s flagship product, Catalog Kiosk, is used primarily by furniture retailers to create an “endless aisle” shopping experience by syncing live data feeds from more than 40 manufacturers.
Tax challenges
Wondersign invoices could include subscription fees for their SaaS offering as well as kiosk purchases and installation services. Everything they billed was taxed differently, with services exempt in some states but not others. With over 3,000 customers in 49 states, maintaining tax compliance was a daunting task.
“It gets very complex very quickly, especially for a customer that has locations in multiple jurisdictions,” says Hector Camacho, the company’s controller. “It would be time-consuming and expensive to track all of the different tax rates and file several hundred returns accurately over the course of the year.”
Why Avalara?
Wondersign needed a tax compliance solution for calculation and returns filing. “Doing this work internally would be costly and inefficient and would require staffing up the internal accounting team,” says Hector. “There are certain things that make sense to outsource. This is the perfect example. There is no need for us to become experts on sales tax and try to keep up with rate changes in different jurisdictions.”
Integrations
We invoice everything out of Chargebee, and we use Sage Intacct for financial management, so the easy integrations with Avalara are key for us,” Hector explains. “The API connection to Avalara makes sure we apply the right tax to each line item based on rates for the applicable jurisdictions.”
“Chargebee loves working with businesses that help define the next generation for their industries, and Wondersign is a great example of that,” says Matthew Clarke, customer success manager for Chargebee, a subscription management and recurring billing product. “Chargebee’s strong partnership with Avalara also means that our customers can confidently grow and scale across boundaries while we help scale their recurring revenue.”
Results
“We’ve been very happy with Avalara,” Hector says. “We deal with a high volume of monthly transactions, so not having to file individual returns is a big deal for our team. All I have to do is verify the total sales tax Avalara received ties to what I show on my end. It makes my life a lot easier.”
“As we’re growing our volume, we need to increase our efficiency, and the people at Avalara have been very helpful,” Hector says. “For example, right now we are transitioning to their Streamlined Sales Tax (SST) solution, which will simplify compliance in several states.”
Avalara is one of a small handful of Certified Service Providers (CSPs) for the SST program. With SST, participating sellers may qualify for free sales tax calculations, returns preparation, and filing in up to 24 states.
“We have 100% confidence in Avalara,” he concludes. “They’ve proven themselves to be a perfect fit for our business.”
