Avalara AvaTax Tax Content Badge Requirements

Prerequisite - Avalara Certified for Sales Tax

Avalara strategy for transaction tax calculation for Point-of-Sale (POS) applications includes two primary models:

100% connected, direct call to AvaTax
Hybrid, provide tax content for in-store, disconnected transactions & direct call to AvaTax for send sales

This document provides requirements and business process flow for the Hybrid model, specifically the requirements and flow for requesting AvaTax tax content, consuming the content, and generating a transaction feed from the POS application to AvaTax for all sales activity using the POS disconnected tax calculation. The 100% connected model noted above is designed and developed in a similar fashion as an eCommerce application.

Requirements

Avalara shall generate tax content in a standard format providing a data feed that is consumed by the POS application supporting its native tax functionality. The tax content feed shall be tailored to each Avalara AvaTax client. The tax content data shall include, at a minimum, tax jurisdiction, tax rate and product/service taxability information for each brick & mortar store location.

The merchant shall provide the following information facilitating the generation of its tax content feed:

Nexus information – nexus selections made by the merchant on its AvaTax account shall provide this information
Store Location(s) – the merchant must define each of its brick & mortar stores as AvaTax Location Codes with a Location Category of Storefront
Tax Code(s) – the merchant must select the AvaTax Tax Codes (Goods & Services Type) applicable for its product catalog

The POS application shall call AvaTax for the tax content feed. The Development Solution Partner (DSP) is responsible for transforming the tax content data into a format compatible with the application’s tax tables and loading the transformed data into the application’s tax tables.

The DSP is responsible for capturing POS transaction data calculated using the AvaTax tax content and submitting, via transaction feed, to the merchant’s AvaTax account. The DSP shall:

Capture transaction data from POS application
- Daily
- Weekly
- Monthly
- On Demand
Transform transaction data into standard AvaTax transaction format
Submit Transformed transaction data into AvaTax

Business Process Flow - Tax Content Request

The AvaTax tax content request process is defined as follows:

Merchant configures its AvaTax account via the AvaTax Website:
- Define Nexus Selections
- Setup each brick and mortar store location as Location Code
  - Complete street level address required
  - Storefront Location Category required
- Merchant selects AvaTax Tax Codes (Goods & Services types), and records desired Tax Codes locally in the POS application that sends tax content requests to AvaTax
Merchant defines tax content request schedule via the integration in its POS application
- Suggested frequency: Daily
  - AvaTax integration in the POS application makes tax content request to AvaTax
  - AvaTax collects Location Code and Tax Code information, generates requested tax content, and sends response, response can be packaged
- File format - CSV or XML
  - AvaTax integration un-packages tax content in response, and consumes tax content for local tax calculation
  - Merchant adds new brick & mortar store location, and can request tax content selectively for one or more Location Codes

Tax Content Request - Disconnected

Name	Type	Description	Comments
Send API tax content request with required data elements	Required	Company Code Document Date Tax Codes Location Codes
Capture Tax Content response and transform content into application compatible format	Required	The transformation requirement mandates making the Tax Content response, in either JSON, CSV or XML format, and convert it into the import-ready format for tax content, including: Transform Tax Jurisdiction content to application tax schedule/tax item format Transform Tax Rate content to application tax schedule/tax item format Transform Tax Code content to application product/service taxability format
Load application-compatible tax content into application and distribute to store locations	Required	Suggest leveraging existing application import and distribution functionality when available.
Store AvaTax Location Codes associated with merchant's brick & mortar sites in application	Required	Location Codes retrieved by integration for use in Tax Content request.
Store AvaTax Tax Codes selected by merchant in application	Required	Tax Codes retrieved by integration for use in Tax Content request.
Schedule Tax Content Request job	Required	Suggest leveraging existing application scheduling functionality when available.

Tax Content Request - Disconnected

Name	Type	Description	Comments
Capture complete sales transaction and transform into AvaTax transaction import format	Required	The following link provides comprehensive set of information concerning AvaTax transaction import - Add or Import Transactions.
Submit transaction import file to AvaTax service for upload	Required	Use Avalara Batch Services API `LocationCode` required Lane Code Required Provide error handling capability Batch Import must use Process code 1 (Import without a calculation)
Schedule transaction upload job	Required	Suggest leveraging existing application scheduling functionality when available.

Tax Calculation Tests - Disconnected

Name	Type	Description	Comments
Calculate tax applying tax threshold	Required	New York apparel – Tax Code PC040100 - $110 single item threshold Massachusetts apparel – Tax Code PC040100 - $175 single item threshold
Calculate tax applying tax cap	Required	Florida $5,000 county surcharge cap – Tax Code P0000000
Calculate tax applying tiered tax	Required	Tennessee $1,600/$3,200 tiers – Tax Code P0000000

Tax Calculation Failover - Connected to Disconnected

Name	Type	Description	Comments
Automatically revert to disconnected mode when online tax service is unavailable	Required	When transacting in a connected mode, and the online tax service becomes unavailable, automatically revert to disconnected calculation mode or alert the user to take action.