Avatax: How can you credit an invoice for tax only to an SST state?

Question

I know what you're thinking -- ask Avalara. I have created multiple cases for this question and they just email me a link to a KB article that tells me how SST states work and don't answer the question. Then they close the case. They will not answer the question. 
 For non-SST states, we follow the Sage procedure. One line taxable, one line non-taxable using TX and NT respectively. For SST states, as soon as you use an NT line, the whole thing goes to $0.00. You are apparently not supposed to use NT lines when you use AvaTax in SST states. 
 So I've been just overriding the tax amount in both Sage 100 AND then I have to go into Avatax and manually override it there too. But you're not supposed to do that either with SST states. But I don't know what else to do to make it credit sales tax. 
 Anyone else use Avatax with Sage 100 and have an answer for me?

Beevet · Answer

I also saw somewhere that you have Amazon sales. We are new to Avalar and Amazon, so here is what I have gathered on that: 
 Amazon collects sales tax from the customer. They send that to the state on your behalf. I am not sure where all the recording is for each state. Avalara will not allow you to set the invoice to 0 tax. You can set up a marketplace location in Avatax. They tell me that has to be a number or it will not work. It has to match the location code used in Sage according to others since Sage will pass that location code. I cannot find anywhere in Sage that this is used, so this is part of the NOBODY at Avalara understands Sage problem. 
 With the marketplace location made in Sage, you need to go to the advanced custom rules and make a rule that says don't report the sales tax, just change the location code. They will still show it, it will still be on your invoice in Sage, but they will not report it to the state. Just trust them. This is not in my list of accepted things for software, so we are waiting to verify with our first returns after 1 January 2020. They will offer you a start date. That just means, if you enter a new transaction after this date, it will be affected. They will not go back and fix old ones, though you can do that manually. When I was doing this, Avalara had a lot of messages saying "our servers are overloaded, your changes might not be seen for 22-24 hours. Don't worry, we will go back and fix everything" That was not really true as they only fixed newly entered items. It is also difficult to understand how your changes affect the software when you have to wait 24 hours to make sure your changes worked. 
 The documented example of the custom rule to make shows making everyone in a state marketplace. We don't work that way so had to customize the rule to fit our method (one customer with multiple ship to addresses). 
 In Sage, you still have the sales tax on the invoice, so you need to make a holding account to use in Cash Receipt Entry to be able to clear your Amazon money movement. Don't ask Avalara for any pointers on this. They don't know anything about accounting. That is why you have a CPA.

Sage100User · Answer

We are aware that the customer ID is Division+CustomerID even if you are not using Divisions. 
 To credit out the entire invoice and re-bill it is just as much extra work as just crediting the tax manually. 
 I will agree with you that Avalara is very frustrating. I feel like now that I have gone through everything, I wish I could to back in time and things would have been much smoother. We started on our own in May and didn't get an implementation person until July and she was not very helpful. We didn't even get on the SST program until November even though we signed our documents back in July. 
 However, if anyone else on this forum is planning on implementing Avalara, I feel I could answer many of their questions and/or write a "how to with Sage 100" after all the experiences I've had.

Beevet · Answer

It is a little more work. You have to fully reverse the invoice and reenter it. 
 Create a return of the items on the invoice. You will end up with a credit memo with the tax on it.. This should balance out with the invoice you want to fix, so the customer is now showing 0 due. 
 Then, if you have non taxable items, enter them in AVATAX. You can upload a spreadsheet or enter them individually. Avalara has a spreadsheet that you can reference to get the tax code that they will see as non-taxable. Some codes on that spreadsheet are not usable in SST states. Those have a note about that. 
 Or, if the customer is exempt, go enter them in certcapture. For Sage, a key for this operation is despite the documentation telling you to enter the customer number exactly as it is in Sage or it won't work, Avalara considers a Sage customer number to have the Division number in front ot it. no periods, no dashes, just immediately in front. We use 7 digit customer numbers. Our customer numbers in certcapture are all 9 digits. On the third support call, we found that out from a support rep who happened to have someone sitting next to them that had figured that out the week before and was so proud, had bragged. Glad she did. It is a total PITA that is undocumented. 
 With the items exempt entered in AVATAX or the customer in CertCapture, when you put through the invoice now, it should go with no tax, and the customer has the correct bill amount. 
 If you have an old invoice to fix, you have to fix it in this month, you don't go back and fix it in the previous month as it will not get reported correctly. 
 Hope that helps. Avalara is a very frustrating system that has a Sage integration, but NOBODY at Avalara understands Sage. I had one rep tell me they only concentrated on modern software and did not get into knowing about the esoteric ones like Sage 100. The documentation is poor at best. Our go live person did not have time prior to going live, so we were really on our own. They will assign someone to your account. They will work with you for two months, then you are not go live anymore, your only help will be the support queue. The go live person's first appointment available might not be for 3 to 4 weeks, so if you do get assigned someone, get an appointment as soon as possible. IF you have nothing, then just cancel. Support takes an hour or two to answer. We thought our SOP should be to call Avalara first thing, get in hold queue and then start working. If we had no questions, just hang up. If you came up to a question, and there were many, it was a long time on hold to get through to anyone. 
 Good luck, 
 Chris

Sage 100

Avatax: How can you credit an invoice for tax only to an SST state?

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