You know a new idea … a new product … a new business is great when people look at it and say, “I should have thought of that!” How many times have you had that thought when you open up a bread bag and ponder that little clip? Well, it seems so obvious, but only Floyd Paxton can take credit for that idea.
Sales tax was different. It’s been a pain for businesses big and small for decades. It sure seemed like technology could help. But with more than 11,000 tax jurisdictions, byzantine taxability rules and nexus complexity, it wasn’t so easy to come up with a sales tax automation system that was affordable to small and medium businesses.
But Rory Rawlings was up to the task. He built a tax decision engine that could take these huge variabilities into account and deliver an accurate sales tax rate in sub-one second time. In 2004, Scott McFarlane and Jared Vogt became partners with Rory – and founded Avalara.
With a few other intrepid souls, the early Avalara team set about refining the product, writing software that would connect our AvaTax product to scores or different financial and ERP systems (and today, POS, e-commerce and mobile systems). The team has worked to refine our mapping technology to deliver tax jurisdiction boundary assignments on a geospatial basis for the most accurate data possible – with boundaries literally zig-zagging around specific homes or businesses.
And, at Avalara, we continue to look to refine our products and services – and to expand our services around all kinds of transactional tax compliance – including calculation, compliance, reporting and remittance.
For us, making our customers lives easier is serious business. That’s what we mean when we say, “Less Taxing. More Relaxing.”