Results
Improved processes
Increased compliance
Integrated systems
Summary
Results
- Improved processes
- Increased compliance
- Integrated systems
Tax challenges
- Tax complexity
Compliance risk
Products they recommend
Avalara AvaTax
Dynamically delivers sales and use tax calculations, based on the latest rules and rates in our tax engine, to a shopping cart or invoicing system at the time of purchase.
Avalara CertCapture
A highly scalable solution to securely collect, store, and manage tax documents in the cloud and automate exemptions at checkout.
Avalara Returns
Automatically gathers data from AvaTax to prepare and file sales and use tax returns and remit payments across multiple jurisdictions every filing cycle.
Benefits
- Automating sales tax frees up resources
- Tax compliance confidence
Company overview
Customer
TaxOps
Industry
Services
Tax type
Sales and use
From its base in Colorado, Judy Vorndran of TaxOps has built a thriving state and local tax (SALT) specialty business consulting practice serving companies across the U.S. and beyond.
While all of the firm’s clients have capable finance departments, few have the specific expertise needed to ensure the tax compliance, minimization, and planning essential to growth-oriented businesses.
Tax challenges
TaxOps balances strategic thinking and tactical advice in its SALT practice to foster closer relationships with clients. Judy and her team pride themselves on their deep knowledge of nexus and taxability studies, apportionment analysis, audit assistance, and sales tax automation.
SALT compliance has always been a source of potential risk for just about every business, but the 2018 United States Supreme Court decision in South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc. raised the stakes. “Businesses are the government’s invoicing system,” says Judy. “Tax calculation needs to be done with fidelity and integrity or somebody gets in trouble. After Wayfair, nobody knows how to easily identify what their liabilities are.”
Why Avalara?
There are as many state tax collection systems as there are states, and each one has its own idiosyncrasies. Compliance requirements are changing all the time, and tracking them across multiple states can be overwhelming.
Judy and her TaxOps team are vigorous proponents of sales tax automation for their clients. “It’s problematic to have to know all that,” Judy explains. “For example, Colorado has a combination of close to 900 statutory cities and counties for sales tax collection. If you were to select all of them, you’d be wrong. There’s a lot of minutiae — different kinds of licenses based on the flow of transactions that many clients don’t understand. We help them make the right selections for their nexus within Avalara.”
“If they need to collect taxes in a lot of places, they’re not going to do that themselves. I say, let’s solve the problem with a solution that’s incredibly affordable and effective. That’s where Avalara comes in.”
—Judy Vorndran, Esq.
Owner and CPA
A major selling point for Judy is Avalara’s 1,200+ signed partner integrations for ERP, accounting, and other business systems. Judy usually recommends clients implement Avalara AvaTax, Avalara CertCapture, and Avalara Returns. TaxOps then helps clients manage the suite through secure access to Avalara.
In addition to the obvious risk mitigation benefit, Judy estimates that getting her clients automated with Avalara saves them at least a day in processing time for each jurisdiction. “I remember doing a bid for a multinational restaurant chain with 76 entities,” she recalls. “They had several people working around the clock for three weeks every month to file their sales tax returns.”
Tax challenges
- Tax complexity
- Compliance risk
Products they recommend
Avalara AvaTax
Dynamically delivers sales and use tax calculations, based on the latest rules and rates in our tax engine, to a shopping cart or invoicing system at the time of purchase.
Avalara CertCapture
A highly scalable solution to securely collect, store, and manage tax documents in the cloud and automate exemptions at checkout.
Avalara Returns
Automatically gathers data from AvaTax to prepare and file sales and use tax returns and remit payments across multiple jurisdictions every filing cycle.
Benefits
- Automating sales tax frees up resources
- Tax compliance confidence
“It’s better to gain efficiency and expand the scope of services. Be curious, understand the nuances, and always learn. It delivers a better client experience, and it’s more fun.”
—Judy Vorndran, Esq.
Owner and CPA
“It’s better to gain efficiency and expand the scope of services. Be curious, understand the nuances, and always learn. It delivers a better client experience, and it’s more fun.”
—Judy Vorndran, Esq.
Owner and CPA
Benefits
Automating sales tax for clients has a compelling benefit for TaxOps. Judy says, “Avalara liberates us to focus on the more strategic aspects of our practice. The way you make money is by providing value to customers and knowing and solving the issues. By embracing automation, you can free up resources to enhance the higher-margin aspects of your practice. When something changes, we have work to do. It’s way more interesting, and it enriches your experience and your relationship with your clients.”
Judy admits that most CPA firms would have to embrace a new way of thinking about their businesses in order to adopt this approach. “It’s a culture change,” she says. “It’s better to gain efficiency and expand the scope of services. Be curious, understand the nuances, and always learn. It delivers a better client experience, and it’s more fun.”
