Acuity
Results
Improved processes
Tax expertise
Increased compliance
Summary
Results
- Improved processes
- Tax expertise
- Increased compliance
Tax challenges
- Process inefficiency
- Tax complexity
- Compliance risk
Products used
Avalara Managed Returns for Accountants
Give your clients the benefits of a fully managed returns service while you offload the time and manual effort of providing it.
Benefits
- Met an increased demand for returns processing
- Offloaded tedious manual processes that took time away from growth initiatives
- Reduced the risk associated with manually applying rates across more than 13,000 sales and use tax jurisdictions
Industry type
Accounting
Company overview
Customer
Acuity
Industry
Accounting
Tax type
Sales and use
Acuity is on a mission to make ecommerce businesses better, specializing in outsourced bookkeeping and accounting services built for the ecommerce entrepreneur. To strengthen its commitment to ecommerce sellers, Acuity merged with the leaders of ecommerce accounting, Catching Clouds, in 2021.
As a part of Acuity’s outsourced ecommerce services, it handles paying bills, time and expense reporting, accounts receivable management, depreciation, reconciliation, and other accounting functions.
Over the past 20 years, Acuity has become the trusted financial backbone for over 2,000 entrepreneurs. With a team of dedicated experts, it empowers you to scale your business efficiently, make more informed business decisions, and free up valuable hours in your week.
Tax challenges
While sales and use tax automation is only one component of the ecommerce services Acuity offers, President Matthew May said it was the most challenging because the company has clients across the country and tax laws vary from state to state.
Then, in 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court’s South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc. decision overruled a longstanding physical presence rule, allowing states to require remote sellers to collect and remit sales tax. With each state setting its own sales threshold for tax obligations, as well as rate and taxability rules, the impact on businesses was substantial.
Even though Acuity had experience in state and local tax (SALT), trying to keep up with the increase in reporting requirements for thousands of jurisdictions was cumbersome and prone to error, translating to a higher risk of noncompliance and penalties.
Why Avalara?
In response to changes brought about by the Wayfair decision, Avalara introduced Avalara Managed Returns for Accountants, designed for firms to use on behalf of their clients. It helps practitioners start or grow a sales tax practice by automating the filing and remitting of sales tax returns. The system imports sales tax data from most accounting and ecommerce systems, eliminating manual labor and reducing the risk of error.
Acuity saw the value in an outsourced tax compliance solution that solves one of the most complex headaches for its clients. After all, according to Matthew, one of the major keys to Acuity’s success is standardization of technologies and processes across all clients.
Tax challenges
- Process inefficiency
- Tax complexity
- Compliance risk
Products used
Avalara Managed Returns for Accountants
Give your clients the benefits of a fully managed returns service while you offload the time and manual effort of providing it.
Benefits
- Met an increased demand for returns processing
- Offloaded tedious manual processes that took time away from growth initiatives
- Reduced the risk associated with manually applying rates across more than 13,000 sales and use tax jurisdictions
Industry type
“With Managed Returns for Accountants, we’ve eliminated tactical tasks and reduced risk, freeing up our time to focus more on management services and strategic business advisory.”
— Matthew May
Co-Founder and President, Acuity
“With Managed Returns for Accountants, we’ve eliminated tactical tasks and reduced risk, freeing up our time to focus more on management services and strategic business advisory.”
— Matthew May
Co-Founder and President, Acuity
Results
Once Acuity has its clients set up with Managed Returns for Accountants, Avalara handles virtually all of the sales tax reporting processes. Avalara determines when thresholds are met in any jurisdiction and automatically prepares, files, and remits sales taxes where required.
Acuity maintains managerial oversight of the process at each step via a streamlined management dashboard, which shows the status of all returns with drill-down functionality for more specific data.
“We tried different solutions, but none were efficient enough,” Matthew explained. “Managing clients with hundreds of returns was overly complicated, with too many steps involved. We spent so much time on data entry, preparing forms, filing, and making sure we followed all the rules in different places. With Managed Returns for Accountants, we’ve eliminated tactical tasks and reduced risk, freeing up our time to focus more on management services and strategic business advisory.”
