Setting up the SCM Avalara Connector

Installations are carried out by the Certinia Onboarding team. To install the AvaTax for SCM package, first make sure that the required packages are installed in your org, then contact your Customer Support representative.

SCM Avalara Connector Winter 2023 requires the following Certinia packages to be installed:

  • SCM Winter 2023 or newer

Post-Install Steps

If you have permissions to do so, you can follow the steps described in this section to set up and configure the SCM Avalara Connector. You must be logged in as an administrator or equivalent to perform the steps.

Setting up Avalara

Before you can use the connector, you must ensure that the tax codes and companies you want to calculate tax for exist in Avalara. We also recommend that you set up your accounts in Avalara if they have some tax exemption. See the Avalara AvaTax documentation for further information.

Avalara Settings

Before you can use the SCM Avalara Connector, you must provide the following information on the Avalara Settings tab:

  • Account Number
  • License Key
  • Avalara Service URL
  • Company Code in Avalara

See SCM Avalara Connector Settings

To test the connection with Avalara, click Test Connection.

To validate the Organization Address against the address database in Avalara AvaTax, click Validate.

Permission Sets

The SCM Avalara Connector contains a single permission set named SCMAVA - Validate Account Addresses. You must assign this permission set to any users who need to validate the addresses of an account record. The permission set provides access to the relevant fields on the Account object.

For all other processes, you must manually provide users with access to the relevant fields and Visualforce pages. You can do this by creating your own permission sets or by providing access at the profile level. For more information, see the Salesforce Help. For a list of objects and fields added by the SCM Avalara Connector, see Field Reference.

Page Layouts

Here is a description of the changes that you must carry out on the page layouts in your organization after installing the connector.

Page Layout Checklist
Object Layout Changes
Account Add the Validate Addresses button.
Add the Valid Billing Address field.
Add the Tax Exempt Number field.
Add the Valid Shipping Address field.
Add the Valid Corporate Address field.
Add the Avalara Use Code field.
Add the Avalara Customer Code field.
Address Add the Validate button.
Add the Valid field.
AP Voucher Add the Calculate Tax button.
Add the Cancel Tax button.
Add the Commit Tax button.
Add the Post Tax button.
Add the Avalara Doc Id field.
Add the Avalara Tax Status field.
Add the Avalara Transaction Id field.
Add the Tax Message field.
Add the Tax Status Date field.
AP Voucher Credit Add the Calculate Tax button.
Add the Cancel Tax button.
Add the Commit Tax button.
Add the Post Tax button.
Add the Avalara Transaction Id field.
Add the Tax Message field.
Add the Tax Status Date field.
Add the Avalara Doc Id field.
Add the Avalara Tax Status field.
AP Voucher Line
AP Voucher Line Credit
Add the Override Avalara Tax Code field.
Add the Tax Description 1-7 fields.
Add the Tax Rate 1-7 fields.
Add the Tax Amount 1-7 fields.
Credit Invoice Add the Calculate Tax button.
Add the Cancel Tax button.
Add the Commit Tax button.
Add the Post Tax button.
Add the Total Tax field.
Add the Avalara Doc Id field.
Add the Tax Message field.
Add the Tax Status Date field.
Add the Avalara Transaction Id field.
Add the Avalara Tax Status field.
Credit Invoice Line Add the Tax field.
Add the Tax Description 1-7 fields.
Add the Tax Rate fields.
Add the Tax Amount 1-7 fields.
Customer Address Add the Validate button.
Add the Valid field.
Add the Avalara Use Code field.
Customer Quotation If tax is to be automatically calculated before printing, remove the existing Print button and add the Avalara Print button.
Add the Validate Prospect Address button.
Add the Calculate Tax button.
Add the Tax Message field.
Add the Total Tax field.
Add the Valid Prospect Address field.
Customer Quotation Line Add the Override Avalara Tax Code field.
Tax Code
Add the Tax Description 1-7 fields.
Add the Tax Rate fields
Add the Validate button.
Invoicing Add the Calculate Tax button.
Add the Cancel Tax button.
Add the Commit Tax button.
Add the Matched button.
Add the Post Tax button.
Add the Avalara Transaction Id field.
Add the Tax Message field.
Add the Tax Status Date field.
Add the Avalara Doc Id field.
Add the Avalara Tax Status field.
Invoice Line Item Add the Discount field.
Add the Override Avalara Tax Code field.
Add the Tax field
Add the Tax Amount 1-7 fields.
Add the Tax Code field.
Add the Tax Description 1-7 fields.
Add the Tax Rate fields.
Product Group Add the Avalara Tax Code field.
Add the Avalara Electronic Delivery field.
Add the Load and Leave field.
Purchase Order Add the Calculate Tax button.
Add the Validate Drop Ship Address.
Add the Valid Drop Ship Address field.
Add the Tax Message field.
Purchase Order Line Item Add the Override Avalara Tax Code field.
Add the Tax Amount 1-7 fields.
Add the Tax Description 1-7 fields.
Add the Tax Rate fields.
Sales Order Add the Calculate Tax button.
Add the Validate Drop Ship Address button.
Add the Valid Drop Ship Address field.
Add the Total Tax field.
Add the Tax Message field.
Sales Order Line Item Add the Override Avalara Tax Code field.
Add the Tax field.
Add the Tax Rate fields.
Add the Tax Code field.
Add the Tax Amount 1-7 fields.
Add the Tax Description 1-7 fields.

Email Deliverability

When the SCM Avalara Connector encounters a problem, it displays an error message. The error message may not reflect the nature of the problem if the Access Level in the Salesforce Email Deliverability settings is not set to 'All email' on your Salesforce organization. To check this setting, click Setup | Email Administration | Deliverability. For further information, see the Salesforce Help.

Accounts

If you don't need to collect tax for a customer account, you can do one of the following:

  • Select an Avalara Use Code.
  • Enter a Tax Exempt Number if you have one.
  • Use Avalara's tax certification management tool. We recommend this option for complex tax certification management.

Optionally, you can enter the Avalara Customer Code for the account. This is so that the account name on the Salesforce account does not have to match the customer account in Avalara. If you do not enter a customer code for the account, the account name in Salesforce must match the account in Avalara.

Addresses

Avalara uses address information to determine sales tax calculation based on location. We recommend that you validate each of the addresses on the Salesforce Account against the address database in Avalara AvaTax before calculating tax. To do so, click Validate.

Note:

If you choose not to do this, address validation is carried out at the time of tax calculation.

For information about Avalara fields on the Salesforce Account object, see Account Fields.

Product Groups and Item Types

Ensure the product groups and item types to which you want to map to tax codes exist in SCM.

Tip:

You can create new product groups using the Products tab in the SCM Codes tab.

What's Next?

The next step is to create your mappings. See Mapping Item Types and Product Groups to Tax Codes.

Create override tax codes as required. See Overriding Avalara Tax Values.