Boll & Branch does what’s right with Avalara

Boll & Branch was founded in 2014 with a simple mission: to produce sheets that feel good, inside and out. The business vision has evolved since then, adding clothing and accessories to their line, but the spirit in which the company was founded remains. 

The entire operation, from sourcing organic materials and dyes to delivering heirloom-quality design, is geared toward quality, sustainability, authenticity, and fair-trade practices. Boll & Branch operates with the mantra: We don’t do what’s easy. We do what’s right.

The company’s website was launched in February 2014. At the time, they were headquartered in New Jersey with a warehouse in California. “Filing in just two states was a very painful process, especially for California, which is probably the most complicated state,” Robin Hecht, the company controller, remembers.

The process involved generating reports from the credit card platform then manually moving that data into filing forms for each state. “I dreaded every time I had to do one of those returns,” says Robin.

In 2018, the United States Supreme Court decision in South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc. opened the door for additional tax liability for Boll & Branch. The first sales tax notice the company received as a result of the Wayfair decision came from the state of Washington. “That was the beginning of the avalanche,” says Robin.  

After consulting with her outside accounting firm, Robin engaged them to begin a nexus study while sales tax notices began flooding in from other states. Robin had been registering online with each state as the first trickle of notices arrived and soon found her small department overwhelmed.

In 2016, Boll & Branch moved its credit card platform to Shopify. The platform came with Avalara to handle sales tax calculations as an embedded function, presenting customers with a single interface and a single bill. Robin chose the add-on option to have Avalara file the company’s returns.

After learning Avalara can handle state registrations, Robin opted to use that service as well.