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.
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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.
Benefits
A complete platform for end-to-end exemption certificate management
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.
How it works
5 steps to exemption certificate compliance
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.
Exemption Certificate Management (ECM) Pro
Automate the creation, collection, storage, retrieval, and renewal of exemption certificates.
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.
Integrations
ECM can connect to 35+ accounting and ecommerce platforms, including AvaTax
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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
Create and submit compliance documents in minutes.
Capture and store electronic certificates in real-time for businesses with straightforward tax exemptions.
Boost compliance and simplify workflows, and integrate seamlessly with expert support for businesses of all sizes.
Get advanced document management and enhanced configurability for complex business needs.
Outsource day-to-day compliance activities to our Managed Services team to improve efficiency and compliance.
Collect, store, and manage vendor exemption certificates efficiently while improving accuracy.
Dive deeper
Want to learn more about exemption certificate management? Here are some resources to get you started.
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Frequently asked questions
Can’t my ERP do this?
Although some ERPs may identify tax-exempt customers, they cannot manage exemption certificates, including automatically tracking expiration dates, identifying missing certificates, running outbound campaigns to collect certificates, and assisting with certificate validation.
How will Avalara Exemption Certificate Management help me during an audit?
During an audit, quickly access the certificates you need with just a few clicks.
Can Avalara Exemption Certificate Management help determine if a tax exemption certificate is valid?
Yes. Avalara Exemption Certificate Management automatically and efficiently increases the validation accuracy of your exemption certificates.
Can’t I just collect the tax exemption certificate the next time my customer places an order?
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.
Is Avalara Exemption Certificate Management only for large companies?
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.
I already have the tax exemption certificates I need. How does Avalara Exemption Certificate Management help with compliance?
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.
How does exemption certificate management software fit in with the Avalara tax compliance platform?
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.
Streamline your exemption certificate management process
Avalara can help you save time and reduce risk by simplifying how you manage exemption certificates.
