Wholesale Auto Supply enjoys worry-free growth
Results
Cost savings
Integrated systems
Improved processes
Increased compliance
Summary
Results
- Cost savings
- Integrated systems
- Improved processes
- Increased compliance
Tax challenges
- Tax complexity
- Compliance risk
- Company growth
- Process inefficiency
Products used
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 Returns
Automatically gathers data from Avalara AvaTax to prepare and file sales and use tax returns and remit payments across multiple jurisdictions every filing cycle.
Avalara CertCapture
A highly scalable solution to securely collect, store, and manage tax documents in the cloud and automate exemptions at checkout.
Benefits
- Simplified tax calculation and filing
- Time and effort savings
- A secure feeling regarding tax compliance
Industry type
Distribution
Meet customer needs and improve compliance when you’re facilitating product sales across multiple jurisdictions.
Company overview
Customer
Wholesale Auto Supply
Industry
Distribution
Tax type
Sales and use
Integrations
Epicor Prophet 21
As a cooperative owned by a group of about 200 automobile dealers, Wholesale Auto Supply pools their purchasing power to provide everything a dealership might need for its facility — from flags to furniture, motor oil to mops.
Based in South Hackensack, New Jersey, the company serves over 900 automobile dealer stores located in New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, eastern Pennsylvania, and northern Delaware.
Tax challenges
After years of selling only in New Jersey, the company grew quickly in 2009. During the financial crisis, they helped automobile dealers survive through streamlined and efficient purchasing.
“New Jersey is a pretty cut-and-dry state from a sales tax point of view,” explains Chief Executive Officer Andrea Karsian. “We don’t have local or county sales tax. As we moved into New York and Pennsylvania, with their local and county taxes, as well as Connecticut, we needed to make sure that we filed if we had nexus.”
“We also needed to make sure that the filings were timely,” she adds, “because we’ve been hit with late penalties in the past.”
Adding to the increasing tax complexity, items sold by the company are taxed differently depending on location. For example, Andrea found that nitrile gloves worn by shop technicians might be taxable in one state and exempt in another. Within the same jurisdiction, the same item might be taxable for one use and exempt for another. “From what I’ve seen, use tax is a big issue for auditors,” says Andrea. “Our ability to manage that was really almost nonexistent.”
Why Avalara?
Andrea found out about Avalara at a 2012 event hosted by Epicor, the ERP solution used by Wholesale Auto Supply.
“I saw it and thought, this is very interesting. Avalara seems to have everything we need in their package, and I didn’t know of another solution that integrated with Epicor,” Andrea notes.
Customer
Wholesale Auto Supply
Industry
Distribution
Tax type
Sales and use
Integration
Epicor Prophet 21
Tax challenges
- Tax complexity
- Compliance risk
- Company growth
- Process inefficiency
Products used
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 Returns
Automatically gathers data from Avalara AvaTax to prepare and file sales and use tax returns and remit payments across multiple jurisdictions every filing cycle.
Avalara CertCapture
A highly scalable solution to securely collect, store, and manage tax documents in the cloud and automate exemptions at checkout.
Benefits
- Simplified tax calculation and filing
- Time and effort savings
- A secure feeling regarding tax compliance
Industry type
Distribution
Meet customer needs and improve compliance when you’re facilitating product sales across multiple jurisdictions.
“It’s really important to have the whole suite of Avalara services. I can’t imagine what we would do without it.”
—Andrea Karsian
Chief Executive Officer
“It’s really important to have the whole suite of Avalara services. I can’t imagine what we would do without it.”
—Andrea Karsian
Chief Executive Officer
Results
“With Avalara we can manage sales tax much better than we did before,” Andrea says. “And if we’re coming close to creating jurisdictional nexus, we have experts on our side.”
Andrea says she no longer worries about timely filings, and the days of managing exemption certificates manually are long gone. “It’s such an automated process, we have become in the habit of taking tax management for granted,” she says. “When we do our audits every year, we don’t have to go digging through data. It’s so easy to get our accountants the information very quickly.”
“It’s really important to have the whole suite of Avalara services,” Andrea adds. “I can’t imagine what we would do without it. I interact with quite a few accountants, and I always recommend this automated process for their clients, especially in case of an audit. With all the information Avalara puts at our fingertips, and the many resources that the company provides, I feel comfort.”
