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AI-first exemption certificate management

Avalara Exemption Certificate Management (ECM) automates a core part of the compliance life cycle, helping businesses save time, reduce risk, scale efficiently, and stay audit-ready.

See Avalara Exemption Certificate Management in action with an instant, self-guided demo — no sales pitch, no commitments.

Screenshot of Avalara's Exemptions Compliance Management (ECM) dashboard with tasks, insights, and favorites sections, featuring a "Take the tour" button and a tooltip highlighting ECM's ease of use.
See Avalara Exemption Certificate Management in action with an instant, self-guided demo — no sales pitch, no commitments.
Screenshot of Avalara's Exemptions Compliance Management (ECM) dashboard with tasks, insights, and favorites sections, featuring a "Take the tour" button and a tooltip highlighting ECM's ease of use.
See Avalara Exemption Certificate Management in action with an instant, self-guided demo — no sales pitch, no commitments.

AI-first exemption certificate management

Avalara Exemption Certificate Management (ECM) automates a core part of the compliance life cycle, helping businesses save time, reduce risk, scale efficiently, and stay audit-ready.

See Avalara Exemption Certificate Management in action with an instant, self-guided demo — no sales pitch, no commitments.

Trusted by companies in every industry
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Let’s solve your tax compliance challenges together

Fill out this short form to connect with an Avalara tax solution specialist.

 

You can expect the following once you submit:

 

  • We’ll review your business needs.
  • One of our specialists will contact you to discuss tailored solutions.
  • You’ll get insights into how Avalara can help streamline your compliance.

 

Connect with us now — we’re excited to speak with you! Already a customer? Get technical support.

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The Total Economic Impact™ of Avalara

Avalara commissioned Forrester Consulting to uncover the potential return on investment (ROI) that companies can achieve by implementing a tax automation solution.

Video: See all the ways businesses can benefit from automating tax compliance with Avalara.

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Benefits

A complete platform for end-to-end exemption certificate management

A complete platform for an end-to-end tax compliance solution 

Built for scale and trusted by tax authorities

ECM manages millions of documents and fully integrates with Avalara tax calculation and returns solutions. As exemption certificates are submitted, they’re validated in real time and reconciled directly within the tax workflow. This streamlines compliance, connecting exemption data to automated filings and aligning with how tax authorities expect to receive information. As a result, customers benefit from audit-ready documentation and increased filing accuracy, providing greater defensibility and trust. defensibility and trust.

Integrates with the business applications you use

Engineered to fit into virtually any financial system landscape, ECM supports seamless certificate automation without custom code. Avalara has over 1,400 signed partner integrations across ERP, ecommerce, procurement, and POS platforms. Avalara AvaTax also connects to the systems you already use and unifies them through a single, AI-powered tax and compliance platform.

Uses machine learning to reduce risk and increase efficiency

ECM uses machine learning to match exemption certificates to buyers and transactions, reducing manual work and improving accuracy. It recommends required forms based on transaction and jurisdictional data to speed up the compliance process. Proactive validation also helps prevent issues before they become audit risks.

Ensures greater precision and efficiency

ECM is powered by a centralized, compliance content engine that ensures every certificate form and rule is regularly updated, jurisdictionally accurate, and ready for automation. Prebuilt tools also allow users to quickly and efficiently request, track, and manage exemption certificates for thousands of customers. This combination of dynamic content intelligence and automation enables faster certificate collection from customers and more efficient distribution to vendors.

Delivers enterprise-grade performance — without enterprise-grade effort

The cloud-native architecture of ECM is part of the globally distributed, active-active Avalara deployment model. It’s built to deliver high availability, geo-redundancy, and real-time responsiveness. It has achieved SOC 2 Type 2 compliance and is continuously monitored, helping to ensure your exemption operations stay up and running even in the face of system failures or traffic spikes.

Provides audit-proof visibility

ECM does more than simply store certificates; it transforms exemption management into a real-time risk control function. ECM flags expired, invalid, or missing certificates and highlights jurisdiction-specific gaps, helping compliance teams take preemptive action before issues surface during an audit. And with built-in dashboards and configurable alerts, you can track exposure by customer, geography, or document type.

AGENTIC TAX AND COMPLIANCE™

Let AI agents do the work

Imagine a digital compliance team that works 24/7, never fatigues, and always stays current with the latest rules for all jurisdictions. That’s agentic compliance in action.

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Illustration of an AI-powered robot with Avalara branding, surrounded by icons representing trust, automation, and technology.

AGENTIC TAX AND COMPLIANCE™

Let AI agents do the work

Imagine a digital compliance team that works 24/7, never fatigues, and always stays current with the latest rules for all jurisdictions. That’s agentic compliance in action.

HOW IT WORKS

5 steps to exemption certificate compliance

  • Add customers and certificates with 1,400+ signed partner integrations and a robust API
  • Request certificates from customers via email, postal mail, or collect them using our web portal
  • Review and validate certificates automatically
  • Manage expiring certificates through automated settings and reports
  • Be audit-ready with comprehensive reporting and research
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Video: Ease the headache of compliance document management by automating your processes with Avalara ECM.

The ECM suite has solutions designed to handle complex challenges across several industries

Exemption Certificate Management (ECM) Essentials

Automate the process of collecting and storing exemption certificates.

  • For small to medium-sized businesses with straightforward tax exemptions that need basic document storage and management
  • AvaTax required
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Exemption Certificate Management (ECM) Essentials

Automate the process of collecting and storing exemption certificates.

  • For small to medium-sized businesses with straightforward tax exemptions that need basic document storage and management
  • AvaTax required

Exemption Certificate Management (ECM) Pro

Automate the creation, collection, storage, retrieval, and renewal of exemption certificates.

  • For small to medium-sized businesses that need additional expertise and integration support
  • Use with AvaTax, as a standalone product, or with third-party tax engines
Illustration of a cart with boxes transitioning to a mobile device and payment terminal, symbolizing e-commerce and digital transactions.
Illustration of a cart with boxes transitioning to a mobile device and payment terminal, symbolizing e-commerce and digital transactions.

Exemption Certificate Management (ECM) Pro

Automate the creation, collection, storage, retrieval, and renewal of exemption certificates.

  • For small to medium-sized businesses that need additional expertise and integration support
  • Use with AvaTax, as a standalone product, or with third-party tax engines

Exemption Certificate Management (ECM) Premium

Get all the amazing features of ECM Pro, plus added configurability for your company’s unique needs and complex processes.

  • For large and enterprise businesses that need to manage unlimited certificates
  • Use with AvaTax, as a standalone product, or with third-party tax engines
  • Directly integrated with a growing number of ERP and ecommerce applications for easy management of exemption certificates within the customer record
  • Developer tools are available for those who want to build custom integrations­­­­­­­
Illustration of a cart with boxes transitioning to a mobile device and payment terminal, symbolizing e-commerce and digital transactions.
Illustration of a cart with boxes transitioning to a mobile device and payment terminal, symbolizing e-commerce and digital transactions.

Exemption Certificate Management (ECM) Premium

Get all the amazing features of ECM Pro, plus added configurability for your company’s unique needs and complex processes.

  • For large and enterprise businesses that need to manage unlimited certificates
  • Use with AvaTax, as a standalone product, or with third-party tax engines
  • Directly integrated with a growing number of ERP and ecommerce applications for easy management of exemption certificates within the customer record
  • Developer tools are available for those who want to build custom integrations­­­­­­­
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Integrations

ECM can connect to 35+ accounting and ecommerce platforms, including AvaTax

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Product comparison table

Choose the right product for your business

ECM Essentials

ECM Pro

ECM Premium

Apply customer exemptions

x

x

x

Digitize certificates

x

x

x

Store certificates as images

x (up to 1,000)

x (unlimited)

x (unlimited)

Search and generate reports

x

x

x

Collect with Avalara CertExpress

x

x

x

Natural Language Search

x

x

x

Manage renewals

x (single requests)

x (automated requests)

x (automated requests)

Integrate with Avalara AvaTax

x

x

x

Available as standalone product

x

x

Expanded API implementation

x

x

AI-assisted certificate validation

x

x

Bulk certificate requests

x

x

State tax ID validation

x

x

Exemption tax help content library

x

x

Access to Avalara Vendor Exemption Management (product fees apply)

x

x

Configurable emails and templates

x

x (enhanced)

Available ecommerce integration

x

x

Available retail integration

x

Configurable/advanced user role

x

Advanced search options

x

Configurable reports

x

Configurable exemption rationale

x

Customer stories

See what our customers have to say

“Having a centralized exemption certificate management software program to make sure that we are using ones that are legitimate and active was huge. It also helped us in terms of improving our audit defense and mitigation costs as we would have all the historical returns easily available to pull down from Avalara and provide to auditors.”

  • Senior Tax Director, Software

“What I appreciate about the products we purchase from Avalara is the integration, ease of use, and practically hands-off capabilities. We started with AvaTax and Returns and added Exemption Certificate Management (ECM) as we manage close to 25k exemption certificates currently. Our tax returns are also completed by the Avalara team. I highly recommend it!”

  • —Linda Tenda
  • Senior Director of Planning & Administration, FIRST

“We are a rapidly growing ecommerce business that very quickly went from having nexus in three states to having nexus in over 20 states. We could not have managed the sales tax implications of that growth without Avalara and Exemption Certificate Management!”

  • —Jere Allen
  • Vice President, The Lab Depot

Related products

CertExpress

Create and submit compliance documents in minutes.

ECM Essentials

Capture and store electronic certificates in real-time for businesses with straightforward tax exemptions.

ECM Pro

Boost compliance and simplify workflows, and integrate seamlessly with expert support for businesses of all sizes.

ECM Premium

Get advanced document management and enhanced configurability for complex business needs.

Managed Services for ECM

Outsource day-to-day compliance activities to our Managed Services team to improve efficiency and compliance.

Vendor Exemption Management

Collect, store, and manage vendor exemption certificates efficiently while improving accuracy.

Awards

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Frequently asked questions

MCP lets users query customer records and certificates, and request statuses directly from connected systems — without logging into ECM.

Our AI agent scans incoming certificates, extracts key details, checks for completeness, and flags issues before you decide whether to auto-save or manually review.

Yes. Avalara Exemption Certificate Management automatically and efficiently increases the validation accuracy of your exemption certificates.

Requesting certificates for prior purchases is time-consuming, inconvenient, and can delay order processing. In addition, you may end up exempting tax based on an expired, invalid, or incomplete certificate, which can put you at risk during an audit.

Avalara Exemption Certificate Management is designed for companies that manage a large number of exemption certificates, from smaller manufacturers to enterprise organizations. It easily scales with business changes and growth.

Avalara Exemption Certificate Management consolidates paper and digital certificates into a single, easily accessible document repository. Any certificates you need to collect for future purchases can be processed automatically at the point of purchase, and you can set reminders for expiring certificates and run campaigns for automated collection. This helps improve the customer experience and reduce the workload for your employees.

Determining whether a customer is taxable is a part of the sales and invoicing process for exempt sellers. Avalara AvaTax and Avalara Exemption Certificate Management work together to properly assess the taxability of a transaction, verify whether a current certificate is on file, and apply the tax or exemption accordingly.

Avalara Exemption Certificate Management also supplies information for reporting and works with Avalara returns products for returns preparation and filing.

Ready to see what Avalara can do?

Schedule a demo to see our solution.