Avalara Celebrates Small Business Successes

SEATTLE, WA--(Marketwired - Aug 31, 2016) - Avalara, Inc., a leading provider of cloud-based tax compliance automation for business, today announced a customer recognition program, Gimme 5 Small Business Customer Spotlight, to celebrate how small business customers benefit from efficiencies in using Avalara's tax compliance solutions.

According to the National Federation of Independent Business July Index of Small Business Optimism, the "Single Most Important Problem" for small business owners was "government regulations & red tape," followed by "taxes." On average, a small business owner can save about 5 hours a week* if they automate their sales tax compliance.

"Customers have better things to do with their precious time than worry about tax compliance," said Marshal Kushniruk, executive vice president of product at Avalara. "Gimme 5 gives us a chance to celebrate customers' achievements. We're delighted to help them grow their brand by leveraging Avalara's brand and website traffic. Today, we're excited to launch the Gimme 5 Small Business Customer Spotlight with Play It Safe Toys Worldwide."

Play It Safe Toys Worldwide is an online store that offers specialty toys chosen for their high quality, safe construction and excellent play value. Each year, 4% of its prior year's net profits and 4% of employees' working hours are donated to non-profit organizations that help children and families to learn, grow and live better lives. 

"When I was doing my own sales tax reports, it took me about eight hours to complete just my home state of Washington," said Adrienne Kosewicz, founder of Play It Safe Toys Worldwide. "Now with Avalara, I can file reports in 17 different states in about an hour!"

The Gimme 5 contest celebrates a different customer each month. Customers can enter the contest by creating a one-minute video or a written submission describing how they're using their incremental five hours a week, and posting it to Avalara's Facebook or Twitter accounts. Each month, Avalara will select a customer who will win $5,000, a free one-year subscription to either Avalara AvaTax or Trustfile, and will be featured on Avalara's blog, and enjoy the visibility and traffic of more than 1 million monthly visitors to Avalara's websites. More information about the Gimme 5 Small Business Customer Spotlight can be found here.

Avalara also launched its small business community center, a one-stop online location where companies can look up tax rates, learn more about where sales tax must be collected and remitted, download white papers, register for free webinars, browse a directory of accounting firms, 'test drive' Avalara's solutions TrustFile and AvaTax, and discover connector integrations with leading e-commerce, mobile commerce, accounting and invoicing applications. Avalara's solutions for small business leverage the company's Compliance Cloud™ platform, which is updated continually, processes billions of transactions annually, delivers outstanding up-time and reliability, and is used by more than 20,000 customers globally.

About Avalara
Avalara helps businesses of all sizes achieve compliance with transactional taxes, including VAT, sales and use, excise, communications, and other tax types. We deliver comprehensive, automated, cloud-based solutions that are fast, accurate, and easy to use. Our Compliance Cloud™ platform helps customers manage complicated and burdensome tax compliance obligations imposed by state, local, and other taxing authorities throughout the world.

Avalara offers more than 500 hundred pre-built connectors into leading accounting, ERP, ecommerce and other business applications. Each year, the company processes billions of indirect tax transactions for customers and users, files hundreds of thousands of tax compliance documents and tax returns, and manages millions of exemption certificates and other compliance related documents. 

A privately held company, Avalara' s venture capital investors include Sageview Capital, Battery Ventures, Warburg Pincus, Technology Crossover Ventures, Arthur Ventures, and other institutional and individual investors. Avalara's headquarters are in Seattle, WA and it has offices across the U.S. and in London and Brighton, UK; Brussels, Belgium; and Pune, India. More information at: www.avalara.com

Gimme 5 Business Customer Spotlight
Gimme 5 Small Business Customer Spotlight is open to current customers of Avalara that access the Avalara services through one of the following platforms: Intuit QuickBooks, X-Cart, VirtueMart, PrestaShop, PinnacleCart, BigCommerce, OpenCart, Pixami, CS-Cart, WooCommerce, 3dcart, Zen Cart, AccountingSuite, Drupal Commerce, 1&1, Fishbowl, Amazon, Etsy, Weebly, Xero, and PayPal. 

To enter, submit a one-minute video to Facebook or Twitter, or complete the written form, between 12:01 a.m. (PT) on 8/29/16 and 11:59 p.m. (PT) on 12/15/16. One winner will be selected each month during the contest period by a panel of judges by the 20th day of that month. The winner will receive $5,000 and a one-year subscription to AvaTax or Trustfile Online. Approx. Retail Value of the prize: $5,200 or $5,288. See Official Rules for more prize details. Odds of winning depend on the number and quality of eligible entries received. Contest subject to Official Rules; details and restrictions apply. 

For more prize details, further restrictions, and Official Rules, visit http://www.info.avalara.com/Gimme5Rules Sponsor: Avalara, Inc.

*According to Aberdeen Research, the time spent on sales and use tax compliance activities for small companies is 25.3 hours per month (per employee dedicated to tax management). This includes calculating and/or verifying sales tax rates; completing, filing and remitting returns.