Acuity | Avalara

Results

Improved processes

Tax expertise

Increased compliance

Company overview

Acuity is on a mission to make ecommerce businesses better, specializing in outsourced bookkeeping and accounting services built for the ecommerce entrepreneur. To strengthen its commitment to ecommerce sellers, Acuity merged with the leaders of ecommerce accounting, Catching Clouds, in 2021.

As a part of Acuity’s outsourced ecommerce services, it handles paying bills, time and expense reporting, accounts receivable management, depreciation, reconciliation, and other accounting functions.

Over the past 20 years, Acuity has become the trusted financial backbone for over 2,000 entrepreneurs. With a team of dedicated experts, it empowers you to scale your business efficiently, make more informed business decisions, and free up valuable hours in your week.

Tax challenges

While sales and use tax automation is only one component of the ecommerce services Acuity offers, President Matthew May said it was the most challenging because the company has clients across the country and tax laws vary from state to state.

Then, in 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court’s South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc. decision overruled a longstanding physical presence rule, allowing states to require remote sellers to collect and remit sales tax. With each state setting its own sales threshold for tax obligations, as well as rate and taxability rules, the impact on businesses was substantial.

Even though Acuity had experience in state and local tax (SALT), trying to keep up with the increase in reporting requirements for thousands of jurisdictions was cumbersome and prone to error, translating to a higher risk of noncompliance and penalties.

Why Avalara?

In response to changes brought about by the Wayfair decision, Avalara introduced Avalara Managed Returns for Accountants, designed for firms to use on behalf of their clients. It helps practitioners start or grow a sales tax practice by automating the filing and remitting of sales tax returns. The system imports sales tax data from most accounting and ecommerce systems, eliminating manual labor and reducing the risk of error.

Acuity saw the value in an outsourced tax compliance solution that solves one of the most complex headaches for its clients. After all, according to Matthew, one of the major keys to Acuity’s success is standardization of technologies and processes across all clients.

“With Managed Returns for Accountants, we’ve eliminated tactical tasks and reduced risk, freeing up our time to focus more on management services and strategic business advisory.”

— Matthew May
Co-Founder and President, Acuity

Results

Once Acuity has its clients set up with Managed Returns for Accountants, Avalara handles virtually all of the sales tax reporting processes. Avalara determines when thresholds are met in any jurisdiction and automatically prepares, files, and remits sales taxes where required.

Acuity maintains managerial oversight of the process at each step via a streamlined management dashboard, which shows the status of all returns with drill-down functionality for more specific data.

“We tried different solutions, but none were efficient enough,” Matthew explained. “Managing clients with hundreds of returns was overly complicated, with too many steps involved. We spent so much time on data entry, preparing forms, filing, and making sure we followed all the rules in different places. With Managed Returns for Accountants, we’ve eliminated tactical tasks and reduced risk, freeing up our time to focus more on management services and strategic business advisory.”

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