Sandbox versus Production environments

Avalara provides 2 different environments for ATE.

Sandbox, for testing: excisesbx.avalara.com
Production, for live transactions and bill runs: excise.avalara.com

Each environment is separate, and each has its own credentials. If you have a Sandbox account, you can't use that account to sign in to Production and vice versa.

Note When you receive credentials for AvaTax, record the account number, name, and type. We keep Sandbox and Production credentials separate to help you test your software in Sandbox without the risk of accidentally affecting production data.

Some differences between Sandbox and Production:

Each environment is self-contained and doesn’t impact the other environment. Some examples:
- When you update a profile in 1 environment, that update doesn't impact the other environment unless you request to update both environments. You can use Sandbox to test profile changes before applying the same profile to Production.
- Calculations performed in 1 environment only appear in reports for that environment. If you test a bill run in Sandbox, you can perform the bill run repeatedly with no impact to Production reports.
- Access provided to users in 1 environment has no impact on who has access to the other environment. You can grant access to Developers, QA, and other team members in Sandbox, but not in Production.
Automated compliance reports for returns are generated from Production only.