TOTAL ECONOMIC IMPACT ™ OF AVALARA
Put a number on tax compliance automation
The ROI of tax compliance software is no longer a guess. Forrester Consulting interviewed Avalara customers to quantify the Total Economic Impact™.
Customer testimonial
“The biggest thing for me is peace of mind. With Avalara, returns are filed on time, the rates are right, and everything is documented. I don’t worry about waking up to a notice or an audit surprise anymore — I can actually sleep at night.”
CFO, Medical Device Manufacturing
Main highlights of the study
Quantified results, by the numbers
About the study
Forrester interviewed seven real Avalara customers and combined their experiences into a composite organization: a global B2B2C business with 2,000 employees and $300M in annual revenue. Before Avalara, these teams relied on manual processes and third-party resources, facing audit risk, penalties, and the constant drag of reconciliation. The numbers below reflect their actual, verified outcomes — independently measured by Forrester Consulting.
Results are based on a composite organization. Actual results will vary.
The ROI speaks for itself
A 322% ROI means the composite organization didn’t just recover its investment in Avalara — it multiplied it. With a payback period of under six months, the platform starts delivering measurable value before most software implementations are even complete.
The dollar value behind it
$881K is what’s left after every cost is accounted for — the real, net dollar gain the composite organization realized over three years with Avalara. Not a projection. Quantified return, independently measured by Forrester Consulting.
A product bundle built for ROI
Forrester quantified the impact of each Avalara product independently. Here’s what the composite organization saved.
Avalara Managed Returns eliminates 570 hours of filing work per year, resulting in $93K in labor savings.
Avalara Exemption Certificate Management (ECM) eliminates 95% of certificate errors, resulting in $203K in labor savings.
Avalara AvaTax for Accounts Payable eliminates 45 hours of manual use tax work per month, resulting in $267K in savings.
Avalara VAT Reporting drives a 90% increase in VAT compliance efficiency, resulting in $53K in savings.
Avalara Tax Research saves 18 hours per month on tax research, resulting in $35K in savings.
Streamlined Sales Tax (SST) delivers 50% savings in returns and transaction fees across 24 states, resulting in $38K in savings.
Avalara 1099 & W-9 saves $57 per form filed, resulting in $96K in savings.
Audit preparation is 90% faster, saving 36 hours per audit, resulting in $52K in savings.
Avalara Use Tax eliminates 45 hours of work, resulting in 267K in savings.
Every number above is from the same independent study. One platform. Quantified outcomes across your entire compliance workflow.
Based on the results of a composite organization in a commissioned Total Economic Impact™ study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Avalara. Results may vary.
The AI advantage, independently validated
The 2026 Forrester TEI study isn’t just about savings. It’s the first to capture how Avalara’s AI-powered platform is changing what compliance teams can do.
Forrester describes Avalara as providing “an AI-powered platform that automates tax and compliance workflows. Through agentic workflows, AI-powered assistants and automation capabilities, the platform can help tax teams accelerate research, improve decision-making, and automate routine compliance activities while preserving visibility and control.”
Forrester Consulting, Total Economic Impact™ of Avalara, 2026
“Once we receive an exemption certificate from the customer, we upload it and the AI (functionality in Avalara ECM) pulls up all the information and feeds it into the customer account.”
European Tax Accountant, Manufacturing and Distribution
What Avalara customers are saying
Consistency that holds up under audit
“Avalara, without a doubt, made us more consistent, which has significantly helped with audits. Filing 500 to 600 returns a year means that, at any one time, there are a couple of audits going on in the U.S. Having an automated solution has removed the human error aspect. That’s made us a lot more consistent and a lot more reliable, which has made audits quicker and easier.”
Tax Compliance Leader, Professional Services
From two days to zero
“We were spending up to two days every month just to reconcile the use tax portion. With the implementation of the AP module from AvaTax, we were able to let that run on its own, which eliminated all the manual filtering and determining which purchases we needed to pay use tax on.”
Lead Financial Analyst, Biotech
Growth without growing pains
“As we grew and started adding more states and acquisitions, there’s no way our old tax processes would have worked. We would have needed more people just to keep up.”
Tax Manager, Manufacturing
What you’ll learn
What’s inside the study
How the composite organization achieved a 322% return on investment over three years with Avalara
How the $1.2M in total quantified benefits breaks down by product area
How compliance teams reduced manual effort by up to 95% across returns, certificates, and use tax
How payback in under six months changes the business case conversation with your CFO
How the Forrester study captures real AI-driven outcomes, in customers 'own words
How Avalara scales across tax types, jurisdictions, and entities without adding head count
This is an independent study commissioned by Avalara and conducted by Forrester Consulting. Forrester maintains full editorial control over the findings and methodology. Results reflect a composite organization; individual results will vary.
