Create and activate a company

About this task

About this task

The Avalara Help Center provides detailed information about how to set up a company, including the information you need to collect, adding your company information, and specifying where you will collect taxes.

For the purposes of this integration guide, we’ll walk through the setup process for creating a company in the Sandbox environment. Technology partners have the option to create a test company with generic information; API customers may want to use their actual company information.

Note

You have the option to create multiple company profiles within a single AvaTax account. In this case, you must designate one company as the default company. When creating transactions in AvaTax, if the company code isn’t specified, then the default company code will be used to process that transaction.

More information about adding child companies is available in the Add a child company Help Center topic.

Steps

Sign in to your AvaTax Sandbox environment.
1. Check your email for the confirmation that you received from Avalara when you signed up for your account.
2. Sign in to your account using the username and link in your confirmation email.
3. Follow the prompts to create a new password.
4. Select I accept to the Terms and Conditions.
Select Get Started to begin the walk through for adding a company. The first step is to specify a name and taxpayer ID for the company, and then select Next. This information isn’t verified, so technology partners can specify a generic name and taxpayer ID.
Enter a mailing address for your company. The examples in this guide use an address in Seattle, WA. Validate the address, and then select Next.
Once you've validated your company's primary address, AvaTax enables tax collection in that jurisdiction. The next step is to add more regions where this company will collect tax. Select Yes, add more US regions, then choose Select from a list.
For the purposes of this integration guide, we recommend that technology partners enable jurisdictions in locations where they’ll perform test transactions. Select Add selected regions when you’re done.
For regions where a sales and/or sellers use tax could apply, you’ll be prompted to specify the type of tax to collect. For technology partners and for the sake of testing, select Sales or sellers use tax. For merchants and API customers, the tax type you select should match the tax return you need to file. Select Next when you’re done.
When prompted to confirm whether this company is registered to collect and pay tax in other countries, make your selection based on the scope of your integration. If you’re finished, select No, where I collect tax is complete.
A confirmation page opens. Select Done with tax jurisdictions.
Finally, select Activate Company to begin using AvaTax.