How do different Salesforce integrations handle sales tax compliance?

In the old Westerns and period shows I watched as a kid, there were often general store scenes in which the proprietor greeted customers by name, knew exactly what they came in for, and asked after Aunt Mable and her bout of the grippe. Granted neighbors in population: 120 towns are easier to keep track of than, say, online buyers across all 50 states and Canada.

But businesses can get shockingly close to those old-timey portrayals, with the help of a sophisticated Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. Salesforce, a trailblazer in the CRM domain, has not only revolutionized the way organizations manage their customer relationships but has also become a cornerstone for building powerful ecommerce storefronts. 

The power of Salesforce to create a seamless customer experience can be superpowered by integrating the right software. For sales tax calculation, Avalara and Salesforce work together to provide greater accuracy for customer transactions and improved tax compliance for your business.

In this post, we’ll take a look at some common Salesforce questions, from a tax compliance perspective:

• How does Avalara integrate with Salesforce?
• What is Salesforce Sales Cloud?
• What is Salesforce Commerce Cloud?
• What is Salesforce B2C Commerce?
• What is Salesforce Revenue Cloud?
• What is Salesforce Service Cloud?

Automating sales tax compliance is more efficient than using manual or disparate processes. But saving time with tax software is only so helpful if it doesn’t integrate with your existing transactional host systems. Avalara offers prebuilt managed package integrations that allow you to connect our solutions directly to your Salesforce platforms, so you can share transaction and tax data between Avalara and Salesforce. 

With Avalara working within Salesforce, you can:

• Automate the tax processes that occur at the point of sale or time of invoice. Avalara calculates the tax rate based on the latest regulations and rules for the type of product and the location of the sale.

• Track nexus thresholds across the United States. As you sell into multiple states, Avalara tracks your obligations based on state-specific nexus rules. You’ll see when you approach the requirements for registering and collecting in new states using your actual sales data.

• Collect and manage customer documents. For tax-exempt customers or resellers, you can collect and store a digital copy of exemption or resale certificates. You’ll get a notification when documents are about to expire, so you can request updated certificates from your return customers.

• Consolidate information to prepare or file tax returns and create reports. With your systems connected, it’s easier to run reports or prepare returns using a broader range of sales data. Rather than pulling from each system and sorting the data, Salesforce can gather tax data directly from Avalara.

• Stay compliant at scale. Avalara serves all kinds of B2B and B2C businesses, from home-based to enterprise. Our solutions can help you stay tax compliant as you grow your business, expand your product lines, or sell into new markets.

About Salesforce Sales Cloud

Salesforce Sales Cloud is a CRM system focused on sales and customer data points. It’s specifically designed to enable sales automation, lead management, contact management, opportunity management, and analytics.

Integrating Avalara with Salesforce Sales Cloud allows you to:

• Automate sales tax, VAT, and custom imports and duties calculation on opportunities, quotes, and orders 
• Improve tax rate accuracy with address validation 
• Incorporate exemption functionality by using exemption numbers, exemption certificates, and entity and use codes
• Sync data with the Avalara AvaTax for Salesforce Mapper, a simple tool to map your Salesforce fields to AvaTax fields 

Visit our Knowledge Center for information on how to set up and use Avalara for Salesforce Sales Cloud.

About Salesforce Commerce Cloud

Salesforce Commerce Cloud is a suite of products that help businesses set up their ecommerce sites and create seamless, personalized customer experiences along with robust fulfillment workflows. Within Salesforce Commerce Cloud, Avalara integrates with Salesforce Order Management, B2B Commerce Lightning, and the D2C (direct-to-consumer) add-on.

Integrating Avalara with Salesforce Commerce Cloud allows you to:

• Finalize transactions with order management features that support partial fulfillment on orders as well as partial returns and cancellations
• Automate calculation of sales tax, VAT, and custom imports and duties, all within the storefront checkout flow
• Improve tax rate accuracy with address validation 
• Leverage Lightning Web Runtime components that plug in to the Experience Builder in B2B Commerce Lightning seamlessly 
• Sync data with the AvaTax for Salesforce Mapper, a simple tool to map your Salesforce fields to AvaTax fields 

Visit our Knowledge Center for information on how to set up and use Avalara for Salesforce Order Management and Avalara for Salesforce B2B Commerce Lightning. 

About Salesforce B2C Commerce

Salesforce B2C Commerce is a highly customizable platform for online sellers. It’s designed to help retailers provide personalized, cohesive shopping experiences across channels, like social media, ecommerce, mobile sales, and in-store shopping.

Integrating Avalara with Salesforce B2C Commerce allows you to:

• Automate calculation of sales tax, VAT, custom imports and duties, and beverage alcohol taxes, all within the storefront checkout flow 
• Improve tax rate accuracy with address validation 
• Manage exemption certificates and allow users to seamlessly add new exemption certificates during the checkout process

Visit our Knowledge Center for information on how to set up and use Avalara for Salesforce B2C Commerce. 

About Salesforce Revenue Cloud

Salesforce Revenue Cloud is more removed from the customer and helps businesses manage the processing of transactions. It connects operations, sales, and finance by supporting quoting, invoicing, contracts, and billing. Within Salesforce Revenue Cloud, Avalara integrates with Salesforce CPQ, Salesforce Billing, and Salesforce Subscription Management.

Integrating Avalara with Salesforce Revenue Cloud allows you to:

• Automate sales tax, VAT, and custom imports and duties tax calculation on quotes, orders, and invoices 
• Improve tax rate accuracy with address validation 
• Sync data with the AvaTax for Salesforce Mapper, a simple tool to map your Salesforce fields to AvaTax fields 

See our Knowledge Center for information on how to set up and use Avalara for Salesforce Billing, Avalara for Salesforce CPQ, and Avalara for Salesforce Subscription Management. 

About Salesforce Service Cloud

Salesforce Service Cloud is less about the sales side of the customer life cycle and more about customer support through empowering manufacturing, retail, telecommunications, engineering, and construction industries while out in the field. It comes with tools designed to help streamline and enhance customer experience throughout support calls, open issues, and account management.

Integrating Avalara with Salesforce Service Cloud allows you to:

• Automate sales tax and VAT calculation on work orders
• Improve work order tax rate accuracy with address validation
• Add custom Avalara fields to service reports for visibility into tax data
• Incorporate exemption abilities through entity use codes and certificate features
• Sync data with the AvaTax for Salesforce Mapper, a simple tool to map your Salesforce fields to AvaTax fields

Watch our Avalara for Salesforce Service Cloud demo video and visit our Knowledge Center for information on how to set up and use Avalara for Salesforce Service Cloud.

Avalara has modular programs that allow you to create the solution that’s right for your tax compliance requirements, including different tax types, global commerce, online and offline sales, and special rates or tax holidays. 

Connect to additional business systems with our more than 1,200 signed partner integrations, or our API that allows even more customization via Apex code. 

No matter which Salesforce solution you’re using, you can connect it to Avalara AvaTax for smoother, easier tax compliance management. If you’d like to know how Avalara would work with your tech stack, schedule a demo today.