E-Invoicing, Live Reporting and Electronic Data Interchange Customer Support Supplemental Terms
Last updated 1 July 2022
These Customer Support Supplemental Terms (“Customer Support Terms”) govern Customer’s use of Support Services for Avalara’s e-Invoicing, Live Reporting and Electronic Data Interchange services (collectively “ELR Services”). These Customer Support Terms are in addition to and incorporate by reference the Avalara Service Terms and Conditions located at https://www.avalara.com/terms (the “Terms”).
1. Commencement
Support Services described herein for Avalara’s ELR Services commence following any implementation work and the go-live of the ELR Service.
2. Incident management
The steps below define the process flow for registering and resolving faults experienced by the Customer in respect of ELR Services.
Step 1: Fault detection
If the Customer or Avalara identifies a fault within the ELR Services, it may notify Avalara via an email / telephone. Avalara may otherwise identify faults via automatic monitoring. Faults shall be logged within Avalara’s customer service centre (“CSC”).
Step 2: Incident analysis and classification
Avalara analyses the fault and assigns the fault to a fault class (system or process).
Step 3: Incident prioritisation
A priority is assigned to the incident at hand in relation to the severity of the fault or of the anticipated side-effects.
Step 4: Troubleshooting:
Troubleshooting is made according to the purchased support level and the incident classification and prioritisation. If necessary, Avalara will contact the Customer to carry out troubleshooting.
Informing the Customer in case of an incident
Customer will be informed about detected faults and troubleshooting by email (incident message). Incident reports shall be provided to the Customer to allow them to track the progress of the fault resolution process.
3. Customer Service Centre Availability
Customer Service Centre availability is dependent on the applicable support level as set out in the Order.
Standard | Business | Enterprise | |
| Support hours | Mon-Fri 9:00 – 17:00 (CET) | Mon-Fri 07:00 – 19:00 (CET) | Mon-Sun 00:00 – 23:59 (CET) |
| German National holidays | Not included | Not included | Included |
| Incident language | German / English | German / English | German / English |
| CSC email | |||
| CSC phone | +49 (0) 721 50955 500 | +49 (0) 721 50955 500 | +49 (0) 721 50955 500 |
4. Incident Classification
Incident classification | Incident description |
| System | Fault in one / multiple system components A central service (software / hardware / network) is unscheduled unavailability or functioning or defective functioning. |
| Process | Processing errors Process processing errors which are not attributable to a "system" incident. |
5. Incident prioritisation
Incident priority | Definition | Response times depending on the chosen support level |
| PrioA - Very high | The problem has a very severe impact on important business processes, and urgent works cannot be carried out. The incident requires immediate attention since it may lead to serious damage. | Standard: 4 hours |
| PrioB - High | A business process has been interrupted, important processes cannot proceed. The incident requires immediate attention, since it may affect the entire productive business process. | Standard: 8 hours Business: 4 hours Enterprise: 2 hours |
| PrioC - Medium | A business process cannot proceed as expected with minor effects on the productive operation and foreseeable quick troubleshooting. Not consequential disruptions are to be expected. | Standard: 16 hours Business: 8 hours Enterprise: 6 hours |
| PrioD - Low | The fault does not cause any or only a minor impairment of the normal business process. | Standard: 32 hours Business: 16 hours Enterprise: 8 hours |
6. Support organisational levels
Support organisational level | Support organisational level description |
1st level / Customer Service Centre
| Direct point of contact for the Customer in a support case; analysis and processing of problems in case of simple processing errors |
| 2nd level | System incident: Analysis and processing of issues in case of system failures, which must be resolved through user actions. Process incident: in case of severe processing errors in which a far-reaching intervention in productive processing programs are required, which prevent or put at risk a permanently smooth operation. |
| 3rd level | System incident: Analysis and processing issues in hardware and software components within the manufacturing system, which cannot be resolved through user actions (e.g. software bugs, hardware defects). The productive operation of the affected components is significantly at risk, does not function. |
7. Use of support outside agreed support level
If the Customer makes use of support outside the CSC standard hours based on their support level, the Customer may be charged for effort expended to resolve incidents that relate to Process (as defined above) at 250% of Avalara’s standard hourly rates.
Avalara shall inform the Customer about the use of support services outside the agreed support level and obtain the consent of the Customer for the continued performance of the requested service; such consent may be provided orally.
8. Customer Obligations
The provision of support services is dependent on the following:
a. Nomination of Responsible Officer:
i. The Customer must appoint at least one person responsible who shall act as the point of communication in respect of the fault ("Responsible Officer”).
ii. The Responsible Officer shall be the central contact person for Avalara in relation to the fault.
iii. The Responsible Officer must have good knowledge of contracted ELR Services.
iv. The Responsible Officer must have the necessary specialist qualifications to be able to provide assistance and cooperation to Avalara.
v. The Responsible Officer must be authorised to
A. take decisions in the name of the Customer.
B. transmit fault messages to the CSC.
C. provide and coordinate further support to the Customer.
b. Cooperation
i. Customer must provide operational, human and project resources as are reasonably necessary to assist Avalara to resolve the incident
ii. Customer must communicate foreseeable disturbances (incidents) and defects of the object of agreement to Avalara in a timely fashion
iii. Customer must ensure the availability of its own systems that interact with Avalara services
iv. Customer must notify Avalara in relation to any planned maintenance windows with a lead time of no less than two weeks
9. Limitation of services
Support services comprise exclusively services between the Customer and Avalara.
Avalara does not provide support services to third parties, such as EDI business partners of the Customer or service suppliers of the Customer. Support services vis-à-vis third parties are within the sphere of responsibility of the Customer.
Support services do not apply to any unavailability, interruption or termination of the Avalara services due to:
a. scheduled maintenance windows or other scheduled downtimes.
b. factors that are beyond the reasonable control of Avalara (e.g. force majeure, internet problems).
c. acts or omissions and duties of cooperation of the Customer or third parties involved.
d. the equipment, the software or other technical systems of the Customer or their suppliers.
e. incidents that are caused by processes or content that is not provided for in the scope of the Services.