Avalara makes managing exempt sales easier in BigCommerce

Key takeaways

• Tax-exempt sales require significant documentation and records management, creating compliance challenges for many businesses.
• Ecommerce businesses that sell in multiple states can find it particularly difficult to keep up with exemptions, due to varying rules across jurisdictions.
• Disconnected systems and manual exemption management can turn tax-exempt sales into a drag on business.
• The new Avalara Exemption Certificate Management enhancement in BigCommerce Merchant Dashboard gives BigCommerce merchants access to a powerful solution right in the platform they use every day.

Managing tax-exempt sales is one of the biggest compliance challenges for companies that rely heavily on ecommerce. That’s because taxing authorities won’t just take your word that a sale should be exempt — they require documentation, meaning you need to collect, validate, and maintain exemption certificates from the purchasers.

What’s the big deal about that? Here are a few reasons exemptions can be a big hassle:

• Different states have different rules — not just for exempt sales, but also for the certificates themselves.
• Auditors look closely at these sales, because they know the probability of finding errors is high.
• An incorrect, missing, or expired certificate usually means you’re on the hook for fines and penalties, not the buyer.

Trying to manage it all manually requires collecting, validating, and applying certificates; keeping them filed and organized; and monitoring expiration dates. Even companies that use tax compliance tools often have to toggle between those tools and their ecommerce platform, reducing efficiency by adding time and friction.

For companies making online sales across jurisdictions, the impact can be severe: Not only does all of this slow down business, it increases risk.

It doesn’t matter whether you sell B2B or you’re a wholesaler or manufacturer; exemption challenges span industries and verticals. Those challenges only grow as your business scales — and your audit exposure does as well.

For instance, when you begin selling in new markets (or scaling in existing ones), how do you know if your exempt sales are included in economic nexus thresholds? How do you stay on top of regulations so you’ll know when a jurisdiction changes its rules around certificates?

If your systems are disconnected, or worse, you’re struggling to handle this on your own, exempt sales can be a drag on your business.

But there’s a better way: embedding compliance workflows within your ecommerce platform. And now it’s easy for BigCommerce merchants to do that, thanks to the new Avalara Exemption Certificate Management enhancement within BigCommerce Merchant Dashboard.

A game changer for BigCommerce users

Avalara Exemption Certificate Management (ECM) eases the hassle of exempt sales. It streamlines the process of collecting certificates — with AI helping validate certificate data and completeness — and offers central, searchable storage so certificates are easy to find if an auditor should come calling. (Yes, it even keeps track of expiration dates and can help you request new certificates from buyers.)

This enhancement to the Avalara for BigCommerce integration adds a slide-out panel with embedded Avalara ECM features, placing exemption management in the platform you use every day. That means there’s no need to leave the BigCommerce Merchant Dashboard and switch to a separate tax tool — it’s all right where you already work.

Here’s a step-by-step workflow:

1. Select a customer in BigCommerce.
2. Click Upload Exemption Certificate.
3. Open embedded Avalara ECM panel.
4. Search or create customer record.
5. Upload certificate and validate fields.
6. Receive real-time status and confirmation.

If it sounds simple, that’s because it is. Avalara ECM in BigCommerce makes tax-exempt onboarding fast, accurate, and scalable.

Why it matters for ecommerce and finance teams

In just one workflow, Avalara ECM in BigCommerce allows you to search or create ECM customer records, upload certificates, validate them, and get real-time status feedback. Here are some of the key benefits:

• Less manual work and context switching. Centralizing workflows in BigCommerce means you can eliminate system-hopping between platforms — saving time and effort.
• Improved data accuracy. Real-time validation helps reduce certificate errors while creating stronger links between certificates and your customer records.
• Faster tax-exempt customer onboarding. Speeding up your certificate processing means less back-and-forth with your customers.
• Stronger compliance and audit readiness. Automated management and AI-powered validation reduce the chance of missing, invalid, or expired certificates, which means you’ll have solid documentation in the event of an audit.
• Built for scale. Avalara ECM supports growing exemption volume and is perfect for small businesses and midmarket sellers expanding into wholesale.

A more connected compliance experience

This is part of a larger shift in the compliance landscape toward making tax workflows part of everyday operations — Avalara is bringing AI-powered compliance to where people are actually doing the work, versus making them switch systems or applications.

The old approach was reactive, largely reliant on manual processes and work-arounds. And years ago, that might have been enough. Today, though, companies that want to scale need a unified platform for tax and compliance that integrates seamlessly with their operations.

Avalara ECM in BigCommerce is a significant step toward that unified future — and there’s much more to come.

Learn how ECM works in BigCommerce

Connect with an Avalara ecommerce expert

FAQ

Why are tax-exempt sales such a compliance challenge?

Sellers must collect, validate, and store exemption certificates for these sales — and different jurisdictions have different rules for the sales and certificates.

What happens if you don’t have the right documentation?

Your business could be on the hook for fines and penalties. There’s a reason audits often target exempt sales: Auditors know it’s likely they will find errors.

My business is small. Do I really need to worry about this?

Yes, especially if you’re managing exempt sales manually. Missing, invalid, or expired certificates can increase your audit exposure — and trying to stay on top of the various rules in different jurisdictions can be a tall order.

Is there a way to automate managing exemption certificates?

There is — and even better, the new Avalara Exemption Certificate Management enhancement in the BigCommerce Merchant Dashboard means BigCommerce merchants can solve this compliance challenge right in the platform they use every day. Learn more here.