Micro Matic streamlines sales tax

Established in 1953 and located in over 120 countries, Micro Matic is the leading global supplier of premium on tap dispensing solutions and equipment for a variety of beverages: beer, wine, coffee, cocktails, water, tea, and nitrogenated products. 

The privately held company serves the U.S. market through distribution centers in Florida, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and California. Customers include small, locally owned restaurants and small craft brewers, along with large national chains and global brands. A significant portion of Micro Matic’s sales involve tax-exempt wholesalers and equipment resellers.

“The system we were using for tax compliance wasn’t updated frequently,” remembers Accounting Manager Nick Carter. “We were audited by a few states, including Texas and New York, and were hit hard with penalties.” 

The 2015 Texas audit covered a three-year period and required a lot of heavy lifting by the Micro Matic team. “All exemption certificates were tied to individual customer records in Microsoft Dynamics,” Nick explains. “We had to go into each record, print the certificate, scan it, then add it to a file we put together to send to the state.” 

The reward for all those hours of manual labor? Texas found compliance issues and assessed a hefty penalty along with the taxes owed. “We needed to do a better job protecting the company,” says Nick. “We started looking for a solution and very quickly settled on Avalara.”

“We were impressed by the functionality of Avalara AvaTax and CertCapture and Avalara’s ability to integrate seamlessly with Microsoft Dynamics,” Nick explains. “Our sandbox testing went fine, and it didn’t take long to go from the first conversation to going live. The Avalara team worked with our in-house Dynamics specialist and made it happen without any issues.”

Micro Matic files about 350 returns every month in 31 states. Nick says his chief financial officer used to spend four to five days every month putting together returns for each state. By using Avalara Returns, his chief financial officer accomplished this same task in 15–20 minutes.

The software also reduced the amount of time required to add a new state. “Before, my CFO might spend days adding a state,” Nick recalls, “getting our system to spit out the data we’d need to complete a form, submitting it, then cutting a check when necessary. All that time has been erased by using Avalara. Now it takes minutes to add a state.” 

Texas audited Micro Matic again in early 2021, this time for a three-year period following the implementation of Avalara AvaTax, Avalara Returns, and Avalara CertCapture. This audit required much less work. “We were able to respond to this audit about 90% faster because we implemented Avalara,” Nick says. “With CertCapture, I can easily download a file of exemption certificates based on any search parameters I want. If I want all the certificates for Texas, for example, it takes a few minutes.” 

Nick learned he could be confident in Micro Matic’s compliance. “We owed Texas zero dollars this time,” he says. “That’s a great measure of how well Avalara is helping us protect the company. The human-error factor is almost completely eliminated.” 

Nick also uses the campaign function in CertCapture to manage exemption certificates that will expire soon. “For example, I’m based in Florida, where certificates expire yearly,” he says. “We start sending out messages in October or November, and it’s nice to get those handled early in the year. Especially compared to crediting a ton of invoices later when the customer realizes that they have been charged sales tax. It has saved us time that way as well. Plus, our customers feel like we’re proactively helping them avoid the irritation. We also utilize this function monthly to actively target future expiring certificates.”