Avalara Tax Calculation Outside of Checkout Page

[eholmes]

Our website has a mini-cart pop up that loads on every page except for the basket, and checkout process pages.

We have a custom function that allows the customer to enter in their Zip code and receive an estimated shipping cost on their mini-cart contents.

Is it possible to setup an endpoint to return the Avalara tax calculation to the mini-cart as well? I'm anticipating doing this through an AJAX call if possible.

Currently we are only able to get the Avalara tax calculation on the final page of our checkout process but would love to show it elsewhere to prepare the customer for the true final cost of their basket.

Thanks

[oliverands]

Not sure about the answer to your question, but let me provide a bit of a warning before you go ahead--since I just learned this the hard way.

Avalara now calculates your number of transactions based not just on the number of records created when a sale with sales tax is completed. In the fine print, they say that daily number of transaction are calculated based on the greater of the number of records or a fraction of the number of API calls made to their system. So if you implement this, any time someone does this it will count as an API call which may increase the number of transactions reported by Avalara beyond what you would expect based on sales.

For what it's worth, Avalara is currently showing that I have 69% more transactions YTD than I have recorded sales that have used their engine to calculate tax. I'm finding this very hard to believe and am currently auditing my Avalara systems usage because it appears that I'm going to exceed my contracted number of transactions for the year at this rate. I've historically been an advocate for Avalara, but with their rapidly escalating pricing and now with this situation I'm going to have to drop them and look for another solution at the end of my plan year.

[Bruce - PhosphorMedia]

BTW: I realize you want to show the correct 'total'...but i wouldn't expect to see 'tax' when i want to get a estimate for shipping...just sayin :)

As Todd mentioned, you could really get exposed on fees if a search or malicious bot ever notices the 'estimate' shipping trigger and starts firing off hundreds if not thousands of API calls.

[SNAGuy]

Not sure about the answer to your question, but let me provide a bit of a warning before you go ahead--since I just learned this the hard way.

Avalara now calculates your number of transactions based not just on the number of records created when a sale with sales tax is completed. In the fine print, they say that daily number of transaction are calculated based on the greater of the number of records or a fraction of the number of API calls made to their system. So if you implement this, any time someone does this it will count as an API call which may increase the number of transactions reported by Avalara beyond what you would expect based on sales.

For what it's worth, Avalara is currently showing that I have 69% more transactions YTD than I have recorded sales that have used their engine to calculate tax. I'm finding this very hard to believe and am currently auditing my Avalara systems usage because it appears that I'm going to exceed my contracted number of transactions for the year at this rate. I've historically been an advocate for Avalara, but with their rapidly escalating pricing and now with this situation I'm going to have to drop them and look for another solution at the end of my plan year.

Do you have a link to the "API call" language for charges?

I've looked through my agreement and the "terms" link and I don't see any mention to "API call".

Thanks,

Carl

[oliverands]

It's here: https://www.avalara.com/us/en/legal/avatax-terms.html

To quote:

1. TRANSACTION CALCULATIONS

a. Transaction Usage. Fees for usage of AvaTax are based on the number of “Transactions” used in AvaTax by Customer. Avalara will charge a number of Transactions used each day equal to the greater of the results of (i) or (ii) below:

i. The number of Documents recorded; or
ii. The number of API calls to the tax calculation service recorded, divided by 10.

In addition to the Transactions counted under (i) or (ii) above, every 10 API calls to the address validation service, other than API calls that are specifically associated with a tax calculation, will count as one Transaction. The number of Transactions used will be measured on a daily basis. For purposes of calculating Transactions used, fractional Transactions will be rounded up to the next whole number.

[SNAGuy]

It's here: https://www.avalara.com/us/en/legal/avatax-terms.html

To quote:

1. TRANSACTION CALCULATIONS

a. Transaction Usage. Fees for usage of AvaTax are based on the number of “Transactions” used in AvaTax by Customer. Avalara will charge a number of Transactions used each day equal to the greater of the results of (i) or (ii) below:

i. The number of Documents recorded; or
ii. The number of API calls to the tax calculation service recorded, divided by 10.

In addition to the Transactions counted under (i) or (ii) above, every 10 API calls to the address validation service, other than API calls that are specifically associated with a tax calculation, will count as one Transaction. The number of Transactions used will be measured on a daily basis. For purposes of calculating Transactions used, fractional Transactions will be rounded up to the next whole number.

I now see that additional link now.

When I view my AvaTax usage in the admin they are showing my usage to be lower then the number of orders my database shows.

From the language you have cut and pasted from the terms and conditions I read they aren't charging for every API call but for every 10 API calls = 1 "transaction", unless I'm misreading it.

[oliverands]

Well, yes, but... I don't do a large volume of sales that use Avalara. I only use them for one state. Most days I don't take an order from that state. So if I have a day where I don't take an order but I do have one API call, I get nicked for a transaction because "For purposes of calculating Transactions used, fractional Transactions will be rounded up to the next whole number." At least that's what I'm assuming. I haven't been able to really understand API calls vs. transactions because when I asked for data to audit my usage they dumped me a large file of data with no column headers so I don't know what the data is or how they are using it to calculate. And they have not been responsive to my requests for data definitions for the file.

If you're showing Avalara usage below what you think it should be there might be something wrong. I would suggest looking at the number of transactions they are reporting for you, comparing that to the number of committed records for your plan period that they show in the Avalara admin, and comparing that to your own reporting to see if you can pinpoint where the discrepancy is.

[SNAGuy]

Well, yes, but... I don't do a large volume of sales that use Avalara. I only use them for one state. Most days I don't take an order from that state. So if I have a day where I don't take an order but I do have one API call, I get nicked for a transaction because "For purposes of calculating Transactions used, fractional Transactions will be rounded up to the next whole number." At least that's what I'm assuming. I haven't been able to really understand API calls vs. transactions because when I asked for data to audit my usage they dumped me a large file of data with no column headers so I don't know what the data is or how they are using it to calculate. And they have not been responsive to my requests for data definitions for the file.

If you're showing Avalara usage below what you think it should be there might be something wrong. I would suggest looking at the number of transactions they are reporting for you, comparing that to the number of committed records for your plan period that they show in the Avalara admin, and comparing that to your own reporting to see if you can pinpoint where the discrepancy is.

I only used "raw" transaction numbers from my internal database not accounting for the number of transactions that would be from non sales tax states so that most likely is where most if not all of my discrepancy is coming from. But I should dig deeper into it when I do have the time. We collect and remit for all states/authorities that do have a sales tax.