How to Set Up your Avalara Tax Integration

Video Walkthrough

Step-by-Step Instructions

Connect Your Avalara Account

1. Go to the Integrations Page: Log into your Elective account, click "Settings" in the bottom left corner, and access "Integrations". Under "Avalara", click "Connect".
   
   
   You will see a form that looks like this:
   
   
   
2. Log into your Avalara Account: In a separate browser, log in to your Avalara dashboard using this link and click "Avalara Product Portal". Use your login credentials to sign in.
   
   
   
3. Obtain Your Account Number: Click your name in the top right corner of the dashboard to retrieve your Account ID. This is your account number. Paste this into the Elective app.
   
4. Find Your License Key: If you've connected your Avalara to any other applications, you will need to find your existing license key. Avalara does not save this in their database but offers an option for you to download your license key as a text file. If you are able to retrieve your existing license key, skip step 4, otherwise you will reset your license key and break all other integrations with Avalara.
   
   If Elective is your first Avalara integration, go to "Settings" and click "License and API keys".
   
   
   
5. (Optional) Generate a New Key: If you were not able to retrieve your existing license key, or do not have an existing key, generate a new one, Go to "License Keys" and click "Generate New Key".
   
   This key will not be stored by Avalara after you leave this page. You will need to save this key in a secure location before using it in the Elective application. Once complete, please input this into the Elective application.
   
   
6. Select Your Account Environment: If you are testing a connection with a sandbox account, select "Sandbox". If you are connecting a live Avalara account with the intent to immediately collect tax on your checkouts, select "Production. Then, click "Validate".
   
   Note: Avalara can be slow to register the creation of a new license key. If you receive the following validation error, please try again in 5 minutes. Do not generate a new license key.
   
   
   
   
7. Choose Your Company Account: Avalara allows you to have multiple companies under the same account. Select the company that you want to connect to Elective.
   
   
   
   
8. Choose Your Tax Collection and Reporting Options: There are three options for how Elective treats your new transactions:
   
   
   
   Calculate and Collect Tax Only: Elective will calculate and add tax to the price of your checkouts but will not report transactions to Avalara.
   
   Calculate/Collect Tax, Report to Avalara: Elective will calculate and collect tax, and report transactions to Avalara. However, transactions will remain uncommitted. These transactions will not be included in tax returns until you manually review and commit them in the AvaTax dashboard.
   
   Calculate/Collect Tax, Commit to Avalara: Elective will calculate and collect tax, and commit transactions to Avalara. These transactions will be automatically included in your next tax return, unless you uncommit them in the AvaTax dashboard.
   
   
9. Done! Once you've inputted all four of these fields, click "Submit" and your Avalara account should be set up with Elective.

Set Up Taxable Products

Now that your integration is set up, you're ready to set up taxable products.

1. Navigate to Your Products Dashboard
   
   
2. Create or Edit an Existing Product
   
   
3. Toggle On Tax for Your Product: Turning this option on will tell Elective to calculate and collect tax for this product.
   
   If you do not see this option, you may need to refresh your page.
   
   
   
4. Find Your Product's Tax Code: Avalara has a directory of tax codes, which can be found here. Search for the type of product you are selling and copy the appropriate tax code.
   
   
5. Paste in Your Tax Code: Paste in the tax code you retrieved into the Elective app.
   
   
   
6. Done! That's all you need to do to set up a taxable product! You'll need to repeat this for any other products that you want to collect tax on.