What to Look for in Ecommerce Sales Tax Software

Your online business is growing. But with growth comes complexity, particularly regarding sales tax. Sales tax rates vary across jurisdictions, and there are thousands of jurisdictions. The right ecommerce sales tax software keeps on top of tax for you, so you can focus on business growth. Look for features that make your job as easy as possible.

User-Friendliness and Automation

You shouldn’t have to be a tech wiz to use ecommerce sales tax software. Nor should you have to be a sales tax know-it-all. Leave that job to the people behind the software and look for a platform that offers ease of use and automation.

Your sales tax software should calculate how much tax you need to collect in each state (and if you need to collect tax in certain areas). It should collect tax for you during every applicable transaction. And, it should give you the option of filing your returns for you.

Filing

Thousands of sales tax jurisdictions means potentially thousands of sales tax returns. You don’t have time for that. Choose a sales tax software that takes care of filing for you, submitting the right returns to each state, at the right time.

With the right sales tax software, you can focus on your business, not on taxes.

Integrations

You may have a lot of platforms in your ecommerce tech stack. Ideally, your ecommerce sales tax software will integrate with those platforms, ensuring everyone plays along nicely and cutting down on hassle and headache.

Customer Support

In a perfect world, you’d take your sales tax software out of the (figurative) box, load it up, and go. But everyone has questions occasionally, and you want someone to be there to answer them.

Choose an ecommerce sales tax software with tax experts (self-proclaimed ‘Tax Geeks’ in our neck of the woods) available when you need them. You want someone to walk you through any tricky spots or address any concerns that come up. Support should take the form of an online support center, chat, or customer service phone line.

Flexible Pricing

Your sales tax software shouldn’t break the bank. The software should offer pricing based on the service level you need and your company’s size or sales volume. Flexible pricing makes it easy for your sales tax software to grow as your business grows. The software will scale up as your company expands, but the price shouldn’t skyrocket.

Pricing structures include rates based on your sales volume and on API requests. You’ll only pay for what you use.

You may prefer an annual plan, which charges a flat monthly fee, so you can more easily budget for your software expenses.

Audit Support

In case of a sales tax audit, who are you gonna call? If you choose the right sales tax software, your software support team.

Audits are annoying and you don’t want to have to go through them alone. Look for an ecommerce sales tax software that guides you through the audit process, making you audit-ready and helping you respond to any audit inquiries.

Pro tip: Along with choosing sales tax software that holds your hand through the audit process, look for one that reduces the risk of getting audited in the first place. You’ll sleep better at night knowing you’re not about to get a nastygram from a tax agency.

TaxCloud is a user-friendly ecommerce sales tax software that automates sales tax calculation and collection, files sales taxes for you, and offers flexible pricing and friendly customer support. Talk to us today to learn more.