Exemption certificate management made easy
Help ensure effortless exemption certificate management with Avalara. Want to learn how automation can benefit your business? Watch the video or schedule a call now.
Schedule a call
Exemption certificate management made easy
Help ensure effortless exemption certificate management with Avalara. Want to learn how automation can benefit your business? Watch the video or schedule a call now.
Schedule a call
5 steps to exemption certificate compliance
01
Add customers and certificates with 1,200+ signed partner integrations and a robust API.
02
Request certificates from customers via email, mail, or collect them using our web portal.
03
Review and validate certificates automatically.
04
Manage expiring certificates through automated settings and reports.
05
Be audit-ready with comprehensive reporting and research.
STEP
01
Add customers and certificates with 1,200+ signed partner integrations and a robust API.
STEP
02
Request certificates from customers via email, mail, or collect them using our web portal.
STEP
03
Review and validate certificates automatically.
STEP
04
Manage expiring certificates through automated settings and reports.
STEP
05
Be audit-ready with comprehensive reporting and research.
Why choose Avalara for exemption certificate management?
Improve customer experience
Create better purchase experiences for customers and reduce headaches for your team
Collect certificates and apply exemptions seamlessly, at the point of sale whether it’s in-person, on the phone, or online.
Help customers identify the right certificates with auto-validation to reduce verification time and increase accuracy.
Streamline certificate collection and speed up sales.
Apply exemptions automatically when a valid certificate is on file to reduce credits and rebilling.
Let customers upload existing certificates or submit information to generate new ones.
SATISFY EXEMPTION COMPLIANCE REQUIREMENTS
Easily track and maintain your certificates
Keep up with new collection requirements due to remote employees, drop shipping, inventory storage, and economic thresholds, which exempt sales can trigger in some states.
Manage a secure, centralized document repository to use for future purchases, generating reports, and referencing during audits.
Get alerts when documents are expiring and automatically generate renewal request emails.
Confirm certificates are valid at the point of collection without needing more resources.
Provide read-only access to business departments, sales teams, partners, and external auditors.
BOOST RESOURCE EFFICIENCY
Manage exemption compliance as you scale, with flexibility for your team and changing tech stack
Keep all required certificates up to date in a secure, central location accessible to multiple departments, business systems, and remote employees.
Improve cash flow by reducing tax calculation errors that can result in rebilling and delayed orders.
Increase accuracy and reduce staff workloads with auto-validation.
Integrate your common ERP, CRM, accounting, and other systems with our signed partner integrations.
TRACK ECONOMIC NEXUS FOR EXEMPT SALES
Together with Avalara AvaTax, monitor potential sales tax obligations and maintain exemption compliance
Nexus, a connection that creates a sales tax obligation in a state, is triggered by the dollar amount or number of sales you have in a state. This is your nexus threshold. In some cases, even exempt sales count toward economic nexus thresholds. Know where you may owe sales tax in new states, even for exempt transactions.
Keep up with business growth by tracking where you may have triggered nexus.
Collect the exemption certificates you need from customers in new states.
Create, store, and manage exemption certificates in all states where you may owe sales tax.
Tax Challenges
- Process inefficiency
- Exemption management
- Compliance risk
Results
- Improved processes
- Increased compliance
- Integrated systems
Having these processes automated is vital as we continue to grow.
—Sarah Musser, Operations Manager
Bartlett Bearing Company, Inc.
Tax Challenges
- Process inefficiency
- Exemption management
- Compliance risk
Results
- Improved processes
- Increased compliance
- Integrated systems
Bartlett Bearing Company, Inc.
Tax Challenges
Process inefficiency
Exemption management
Compliance risk
Results
Improved processes
Increased compliance
Integrated systems
Products to simplify the exemption certificate management process
Avalara AvaTax Exemptions
Exemption management through our core calculation product
Only have a few exemptions to manage? Try Avalara AvaTax Exemptions, included with Avalara AvaTax. It’s ideal for businesses that need quick processing for invoicing without the need to attach, store, and manage certificate images.
Apply tax exemptions quickly and easily.
Get basic exemption services with no-touch onboarding.
Avalara Exemption Certificate Management (ECM) Essentials
Basic automation for exemption certificate storage and management
ECM Essentials is a powerful AvaTax product add-on for businesses that want to capture and store certificates electronically while tracking expiration dates.
Easily send requests for certificates and apply sales tax exemptions.
Generate basic reporting of certificate status.
Manage exemption rules, exposure zones, and expiration dates.
Get started quickly with no-touch onboarding.
Avalara Exemption Certificate Management (ECM)
Pro
Automation for processing large volumes of sales tax exemption certificates
ECM Pro is a next-generation product that simplifies processes, improves compliance efficiency, and increases audit preparedness. Available as a standalone product, it integrates with AvaTax or other tax engines to help collect, verify, store, and update exemption certificates. It also gives you access to vendor certificate management, the exemption tax help content library, and the Avalara Tax Research content library.
Automate compliance-related administrative tasks, such as validating and reporting.
Recognize incorrect forms and information with optical character reading and machine learning.
Digitize paper documents and attach exemption certificates directly to customer records, whether in-person or online.
Create campaigns for bulk certificate requests from targeted customer groups.
Get thousands of prebuilt forms with rules and logic that drastically reduce the need for expertise.
Avalara Exemption Certificate Management (ECM) Pro
Automation for processing large volumes of sales tax exemption certificates
ECM Pro is a next-generation product that simplifies processes, improves compliance efficiency, and increases audit preparedness. Available as a standalone product, it integrates with AvaTax or other tax engines to help collect, verify, store, and update exemption certificates. It also gives you access to vendor certificate management, the exemption tax help content library, and the Avalara Tax Research content library.
Automate compliance-related administrative tasks, such as validating and reporting.
Recognize incorrect forms and information with optical character reading and machine learning.
Digitize paper documents and attach exemption certificates directly to customer records, whether in-person or online.
Create campaigns for bulk certificate requests from targeted customer groups.
Get thousands of prebuilt forms with rules and logic that drastically reduce the need for expertise.
Avalara Exemption Certificate Management (ECM) Premium
Advanced exemption certificate management, ideal for businesses with teams handling complex exemptions
ECM Premium offers all the features of ECM Pro, with an even higher level of configurability, integrating with AvaTax as well as third-party tax calculation engines and other business systems.
Configure options to allow for the flexibility required to meet complicated needs.
Gain efficiency at scale with automation and autoverification.
Respond to audit requests with on-demand documentation for complete compliance confidence.
Enable in-store collections and verification from mobile devices or web-based point-of-sale systems.
Accommodate complex workflows and collection with omnichannel integration.
Choose the right exemption management option based on the needs of your business
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| Apply customer exemptions |  | | |
| Digitize certificates | | | |
| Store certificates as images | (up to 1,000) | (unlimited) | (unlimited) |
| Search and generate reports | | | |
| Collect with Avalara CertExpress | | | |
| Manage renewals | (single requests only) | (automated requests) | (automated requests) |
| Integrate with Avalara AvaTax | | | |
| Available as a standalone product | | | |
| Expanded API implementation | | | |
| OCR certificate review and validation | | | |
| Bulk certificate requests | | | |
| State tax ID validation | | | |
| Exemption tax help content library | | | |
| Access to Avalara Vendor Exemption Management (product fees apply) | | | |
| Configurable emails and templates | | (enhanced) | |
| Available ecommerce integration | | | |
| Available retail integration | | ||
| Configurable/advanced user role | | ||
| Advanced search options | | ||
| Configurable reports | | ||
| Configurable exemption rationale | |
Avalara Vendor Exemption Management
Help save time and improve efficiency with Avalara Vendor Exemption Management
It costs time and money to manually manage exemption certificates. Incorrect certificates can result in tax overpayment and put vendors at risk. Avalara Vendor Exemption Management helps you save time, protect customers, and improve efficiency.
Securely collect, store, and manage exemption certificates.
Increase supply chain agility to help avoid product delivery delays.
Reduce risk of incorrect exemption certificates.
Centralize storage of exemption certificates for easy access.
Manage information for basic vendor accounts.
Create and send documents to vendors.
Report on outgoing certificates.
Avalara CertExpress
Take advantage of this free tool to help increase customer satisfaction
Empower buyers to create and distribute sales tax exemption certificates to help save time and avoid invalid certificates.
Request certificates from customers.
Automate certificate creation for buyers.
Reduce friction in exchanging documents between buyers and vendors.
Minimize purchasing delays by proactively updating certificates before they expire.
Integrate with existing business systems to help make filing fast and easy.
Avalara CertExpress
Take advantage of this free tool to help increase customer satisfaction
Empower buyers to create and distribute sales tax exemption certificates to help save time and avoid invalid certificates.
Request certificates from customers.
Automate certificate creation for buyers.
Reduce friction in exchanging documents between buyers and vendors.
Minimize purchasing delays by proactively updating certificates before they expire.
Integrate with existing business systems to help make filing fast and easy.
Featured awards and recognitions
Featured awards and recognitions
Features and benefits
Published and standardized APIs
Proactive collection during checkout
Efficient auto-validation
Secure, wizard-based customer portal with digital signature
Single sign-on access through identity management programs
Integrated search to access any certificate
Published and standardized APIs
Proactive collection during checkout
Efficient auto-validation
Secure, wizard-based customer portal with digital signature
Single sign-on access through identity management programs
Integrated search to access any certificate
Frequently asked questions
Though many ERPs support document attachments within a customer record, they can’t apply the information in the document to customer transactions.
During an audit, access the certificates you need with just a few clicks.
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.
The time it takes to implement Avalara Exemption Certificate Management depends on the number of certificates you need to migrate, the number of customers in your system, and the number of entities within your business. To find out more, contact one of our exemption experts who can give you an estimate.
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.
Pricing depends on several factors that are unique to each business. The cost consists of a one-time setup fee, charges related to the number of certificates you manage, and any professional services you use for implementation. To get an estimate, contact one of our exemption experts. They’ll talk to you about your business and recommend a solution based on your needs.
Our exemption certificate experts are available to help you migrate from manual processes to the automated world. Choose the level of support you need, ranging from a standard plan to customized implementation and management by our experts that handle Avalara ECM Managed Services.
See more sales tax exemption resources
Streamline your exemption certificate management process
Learn how Avalara can help you save time and reduce audit risk by simplifying how you handle exemption certificates. Speak with a tax solution specialist today.
Streamline your exemption certificate management process
Learn how Avalara can help you save time and reduce audit risk by simplifying how you handle exemption certificates. Speak with a tax solution specialist today.