Use tax

AvaTax

Avalara AvaTax for Accounts Payable

From purchase to accrual, Avalara handles use tax calculation, validation, and reporting so you can focus on strategy, not spreadsheets. 

Avalara powers millions of businesses worldwide

Centralize tax decisions for purchases
across every system

Maintain consistent tax treatment across entities, systems, and geographies to give tax teams consistent oversight, even in decentralized environments.

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Automate tax code assignment with AI-powered
item classification

Use intelligent analysis of product descriptions and images to automatically classify items into the right tax categories, reducing guesswork, saving time, and ensuring consistent taxability on purchases.

Get up and running fast with AI-assisted onboarding

Accelerate time-to-value with AI-guided onboarding that auto-maps ERP exports and recommends configurations, while tax teams manage rules in a no-code interface without waiting on IT.

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Stay compliant with AI-powered updates across thousands of jurisdictions

Help your AP team stay compliant without chasing updates; the Avalara tax engine regularly updates tax rules across 12,000+ U.S. sales and use tax jurisdictions.

AvaTax for Accounts Payable helps ensure the right tax is applied to every purchase

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Meet Avi. The agent that takes the guesswork out of use tax work.

Use AI-recommended rules, intelligent data mapping, and item classification to allocate and accrue use tax more accurately across purchases.

  • Avi, Avalara’s AI assistant, guides setup and answers questions in plain language.
  • Tax content across 12,000+ U.S. sales and use tax jurisdictions is regularly updated.
  • AI automatically generates rule recommendations based on thresholds and purchase risk profiles.

HOW IT WORKS

Consolidate compliance for procure-to-pay processes in one location

Connect

Bring your transaction data together — seamlessly

Connect purchase transactions from AP and procurement systems so tax determination can happen automatically — whether through batch uploads, APIs, or real-time integrations.

  • Ingest purchase transaction data through batch upload or real-time integrations.
  • Connect directly to AP and procurement systems through native integrations, APIs, or MCP.
  • Use AI-powered data mapping to standardize and prepare transaction data.
  • Support hybrid environments with both uploaded and integrated data sources.

Determine

Establish the right tax logic for your purchases

Use intelligent classification and configurable rules to determine how tax should apply across vendors, items, cost centers, and usage locations.

  • Leverage AI-powered item classification for purchase taxability.
  • Apply AI-recommended tax rules to accelerate setup.
  • Configure rules by vendor, GL account, or item category.
  • Allocate tax across multiple locations using multiple points of use logic.
  • Set thresholds and variance rules to flag discrepancies.

Apply

Ensure the right tax is applied to every purchase

Automatically apply sales or use tax across transactions while keeping AP systems and tax determinations aligned.

  • Apply the correct sales tax on purchases and avoid overpayments.
  • Support separate logic for uploaded transactions and real-time integrations.
  • Keep tax determinations synchronized with AP and procurement systems.
  • Provide vendors with exemption certificates through Avalara Vendor Exemption Management.

Analyze

Turn tax data from purchases into actionable insight

Understand where tax is owed, where vendors overcharged, and where use tax should be accrued.

  • Use AI-powered analysis to review tax determinations.
  • Identify use tax obligations across purchase transactions.
  • Track vendor tax overpayments and variances.
  • Generate AI-powered reports to support compliance and audit readiness.
  • Apply calculated use tax directly to returns and accrual workflows.

Proven at global scale

Trusted by hundreds of thousands of businesses and the platforms that power global commerce

We have all the automation we need to go into the day-to-day for seamless work operations. It’s been amazing!

Nikki Nielson

Director Business Process 

I wanted to avoid tax challenges, not respond to them after they happened. From my experience, I knew Avalara was our best bet.

Necia Rebello

Finance Controller

Partnering with Avalara allows us to be a one-stop tax compliance shop for our clients.

Robin Hall

President and Principal Consultant

Calculate tax with confidence

Explore AvaTax for Accounts Payable and see how easy accurate use tax can be.

Integrate with your business applications

Connect to the ERP and procurement systems you’re already using through prebuilt integrations, APIs, or our AvaTax MCP server.

WHO IS AVALARA FOR

Built for every business

Midmarket finance and accounting professionals

Reduce manual effort, improve accuracy, and scale tax operations across every state.

Enterprise tax departments

Centralize global tax calculations with enterprise-grade performance and always-on, multicloud resilience. Avalara is active-active across AWS, Azure, GCP, and OCI.

Avalara AvaTax for Accounts Payable features

Apply predefined tax codes that track taxability regardless of the delivery methods in all U.S. states. AI-powered Avalara Item Classification uses product images and descriptions to suggest the right tax code.

Define and manage tax rules across vendors, items, GL accounts, and cost centers in one place — ensuring consistent tax treatment across all purchase transactions.

Review and analyze all AP transactions, regardless of source or processing status, identify variances from over- and undercharged transactions, and take action to automatically accrue use tax on returns or report overpayments for vendor credits and refunds.

Centralize and apply all tax configurations within AvaTax for Accounts Payable to support both real-time and batch transactions through a hybrid design.

Ingest purchase data through batch uploads, APIs, or real-time integrations with AP and procurement systems — supporting hybrid workflows across multiple data sources.

Automatically map and normalize transaction data fields using AI to accelerate onboarding and reduce manual setup effort.

Configure tax logic based on vendor type, GL account, item category, or cost center to reflect how purchases should be taxed across the business.

Allocate tax across multiple jurisdictions based on where goods or services are used, improving accuracy for shared or distributed purchases.

Set tolerance thresholds to automatically flag transactions with tax discrepancies for review, helping prioritize high-risk variances. AI provides rule suggestions for thresholds, variance patterns, and tax treatment based on transaction history. 

Use natural language to ask questions about your purchase data; generate custom reports; and maintain a clear audit trail of tax decisions, adjustments, and accruals to support compliance and audit readiness.

Apply calculated use tax directly to downstream filing workflows or returns, streamlining compliance and reducing manual handoffs.

FAQ

Avalara AvaTax for Accounts Payable is a use tax automation solution that connects to your accounts payable, procurement, or ERP system to evaluate purchase transactions for sales tax accuracy. It identifies undercharged tax, self-assesses consumer use tax, and also flags overcharged sales tax to help prevent overpayments. The solution automatically accrues the tax you owe to the correct jurisdiction, tracks overpayments for vendor credit or tax recovery, and automatically includes accrued use tax in Avalara Returns to streamline reporting and filing. AvaTax for Accounts Payable is built for finance and procurement teams — especially those operating in audit-intensive industries such as manufacturing, construction, retail, distribution, healthcare, hospitality, financial service, and technology — that have outgrown manual processes and fragmented, invoice-by-invoice reviews.

 

When a vendor invoice enters AvaTax for Accounts Payable through an agentic process, connector to purchasing system, API, or batch CSV upload, the platform checks the tax the vendor charged against Avalara tax content for more than 12,000 U.S. sales and use tax jurisdictions, factoring in jurisdiction, product taxability, exemption status, and any rule you have set up across vendors, GL, cost centers, or variance and tolerance rules. If the vendor undercharged tax, AvaTax for Accounts Payable accrues the use tax variance and adds it to the correct return. If the vendor overcharged tax, the platform flags the overpayment and creates a record you can use to pursue a vendor credit or refund. Configure tolerance and threshold rules to control when transactions are automatically accrued, excluded, or submitted for review. This enables routine purchases to be processed efficiently while focusing reviewer attention on exceptions and higher-risk transactions.

 

AvaTax for Accounts Payable supports prebuilt connectors to the purchasing system, an open API for custom integrations, agentic workflows through the AvaTax MCP, and various other Avalara agents so you can plug it into the system you already use to process vendor invoices. Certified AP integrations include NetSuite (Basic, OneWorld, and SuiteTax), Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance, Microsoft Dynamics GP, Microsoft Dynamics NAV, Sage Intacct, Oracle E-Business Suite, Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP, SAP S/4HANA, SAP ECC, and Coupa. If your AP system is not yet on the certified list, you can post purchase invoices to AvaTax for Accounts Payable via the API or upload them with a CSV template, and Avi, our AI assistant, will help map fields automatically using AI-powered data mapping. 

 

Yes. AvaTax for Accounts Payable is built as a hybrid product. Real-time mode posts each purchase invoice to AvaTax for Accounts Payable as it is created in your AP or procurement system, so use tax is calculated and accrued the moment the invoice is captured. Batch mode lets you upload purchase data as a CSV file and our AI will automatically map to required fields. Many customers run a hybrid workflow. For example, real time for ERP-native PO, RO, and purchase invoices, and batch for sources that live outside the ERP. An automated implementation experience lets batch customers upload, complete AI-assisted column mapping, and reach go-live as a self-serve flow. 

 

Use tax management is consistently ranked among the top compliance mistakes state auditors find. AvaTax for Accounts Payable produces an audit-ready trail by recording purchase and taxability determinations made on your purchases. Reviewers can view AI tax summaries that explain, in plain language, why a given decision was made on a transaction. This creates a clear record of overpayments for refund recovery and underpayments accrued for remittance, helping support audit readiness. 

 

Yes, Avalara AvaTax for Accounts Payable works with Avalara Vendor Exemption Management to make it easy to manage exemption certificates for vendors directly within the purchase review workflow. Finance teams can ensure proper documentation is applied at the time of review — reducing the need for manual follow-up or separate tracking. This reduces friction caused by missing or outdated documentation and helps minimize purchasing delays, corrections, and payment issues.

 

Calculate tax with confidence

Explore AvaTax for Accounts Payable and see how easy accurate use tax can be.