Do you use Avalara Sales Tax Reporting integration to Sage MAS 90 or 200?
We’re getting a lot of feedback from users returning from the Sage Summit in Denver. Apparently the link between Avalara’s sales tax reporting and processing service to Sage MAS 90 and 200 was the subject of quite of few heated comments.
Aside from the fact that Avalara may be the only integrated solution that supports US and Canada sales tax, we continue to hear feedback from users about unresolved issues with the integration. These range from transactions that won’t update to the dashboard to lack of clear documentation. As best we can tell the issues aren’t so much to do with a lack of functionality as they are to do with finding someone to support the integration.
According to our sources on the ground at during the entire Sage Summit 2008 customer conference, several end users were vocal in discussing issues they’d experienced getting support with this Avalara integration to Sage MAS 90 or 200.
How about you? Are you using Avalara for Sage MAS 90 or 200? If so, leave a comment and let everyone know how it’s working for you — good or bad.
Were you at Summit and did you speak with Sage about this issue? If so, what was the outcome?
Update 11-24-08: I had a conversation with an Avalara representative Sunday who seemed surprised to hear there may have been conversations about the product during Summit that spotlighted potential issues. She assures me that people are happy with the Avalara to Sage MAS 90 integration and in instances where there are problems, they’ve been isolated.
As I said above, the comments are open and I’m looking for feedback.
Brian Austin says
November 24, 2008 at 6:42 pmSage MAS 90/200 and Accpac ERP customers, in addition to QuickBooks users, have an alternative SaaS sales tax management solution – SpeedTax (www.speedtax.com). Transaction-based pricing, no annual contract, simple to use, with a strong emphasis on customer service. SpeedTax handles a customer’s full range of sales tax needs, from research and calculation to returns and remittance.
Brian Austin says
November 24, 2008 at 1:42 pmSage MAS 90/200 and Accpac ERP customers, in addition to QuickBooks users, have an alternative SaaS sales tax management solution – SpeedTax (www.speedtax.com). Transaction-based pricing, no annual contract, simple to use, with a strong emphasis on customer service. SpeedTax handles a customer’s full range of sales tax needs, from research and calculation to returns and remittance.
steve kane says
November 24, 2008 at 11:44 pmpm me for comments
steve kane says
November 24, 2008 at 6:44 pmpm me for comments
Joe Noll says
November 26, 2008 at 8:04 pmWe have the Avalara solution deployed at several clients. All of which are MAS500 clients. There solution has been worked very in our solutions.
We have also integrated the Avalara solution in our new ePortal for MAS 500 and Point of Sale for MAS 500 enhanced solutions. They have been very supportive during this integration, other than the time difference between them on the West Coast and us on the East Coast.
I am unable to speak for the other comments mentioned above but from our perspective it has been a viable solution.
I would be welcome to a phone call or a pm to discuss further.
Joe Noll says
November 26, 2008 at 3:04 pmWe have the Avalara solution deployed at several clients. All of which are MAS500 clients. There solution has been worked very in our solutions.
We have also integrated the Avalara solution in our new ePortal for MAS 500 and Point of Sale for MAS 500 enhanced solutions. They have been very supportive during this integration, other than the time difference between them on the West Coast and us on the East Coast.
I am unable to speak for the other comments mentioned above but from our perspective it has been a viable solution.
I would be welcome to a phone call or a pm to discuss further.
Cherry Williamson says
December 1, 2008 at 3:50 pmWe have had GREAT success with both MAS 90 and MAS 500. The MAS 90 installation was clean and the client was up and running in no time. Avalara’s support worked with them and we had our consultant on site just to make sure we could answer questions in the future.
Regarding our MAS 500 success… We had a client that had tax issues from previous years and knew they had liabilities that they needed to get their arms around. Patrick Falle came up with a perfect solution for our client and sent them a pre-formatted spreadsheet that they could format and run pre-MAS 500 transactions thru Avalara and saved our clients man days of manual calculations. They really went beyond the call of duty on this one… I highly recommend working with them.
Cherry
Cherry Williamson says
December 1, 2008 at 10:50 amWe have had GREAT success with both MAS 90 and MAS 500. The MAS 90 installation was clean and the client was up and running in no time. Avalara’s support worked with them and we had our consultant on site just to make sure we could answer questions in the future.
Regarding our MAS 500 success… We had a client that had tax issues from previous years and knew they had liabilities that they needed to get their arms around. Patrick Falle came up with a perfect solution for our client and sent them a pre-formatted spreadsheet that they could format and run pre-MAS 500 transactions thru Avalara and saved our clients man days of manual calculations. They really went beyond the call of duty on this one… I highly recommend working with them.
Cherry
Russ Nobbs says
December 2, 2008 at 12:43 amOdd that “an Avalara representative … seemed surprised to hear there may have been conversations about the product during Summit that spotlighted potential issues.”
I spoke with CEO Steve and his daughter from the WA office about the “bad connection ” problems that continue to occur after they fixed the major SQL server problems of a month ago. I also spoke to Heidi at Irving about the problems. As I said in the community forum, aside from this annoyance, it does work well for us in 4.1 Mas90, Washington state retail sales only. Ours is a one state use under the current tax laws.
Russ Nobbs says
December 1, 2008 at 7:43 pmOdd that “an Avalara representative … seemed surprised to hear there may have been conversations about the product during Summit that spotlighted potential issues.”
I spoke with CEO Steve and his daughter from the WA office about the “bad connection ” problems that continue to occur after they fixed the major SQL server problems of a month ago. I also spoke to Heidi at Irving about the problems. As I said in the community forum, aside from this annoyance, it does work well for us in 4.1 Mas90, Washington state retail sales only. Ours is a one state use under the current tax laws.