“I sleep better at night knowing that TaxCloud handles our sales tax.“

Introduction

Music Direct is a leading retailer of high-end audio components, specializing in home audio equipment like turntables, speakers, and amplifiers.

Industry

Online retail

Location

USA

Website

musicdirect.com

Integration

Ability Commerce

Migrating from

Avalara

Founded in 1989, the company has grown from a small team to a business with over 160 employees, catering to audio enthusiasts across the United States.

With the resurgence of vinyl records in the mid-2000s, Music Direct experienced significant growth and expanded its reach to customers nationwide. This growth, however, introduced new challenges in managing sales tax compliance across multiple states.

The Challenge

As sales expanded across state lines, Music Direct encountered increasing complexity in complying with evolving sales tax regulations.

Initially, the company managed tax compliance manually and later onboarded Avalara for automated tax management. However, this solution fell short, with integration issues and inconsistent support.

According to Rocco Marra, who oversees sales tax administration, Avalara’s system was cumbersome, and their support left much to be desired.

“Their support wasn’t at the level we would have liked. There were issues with missed filings, penalties, and long delays in resolving problems,” Rocco explained.

The experience with Avalara became increasingly stressful as Music Direct continued to grow, prompting the company to look for a better solution.

The Solution

Music Direct switched to TaxCloud in May 2022, taking advantage of a partnership between TaxCloud and Ability Commerce. Music Direct is a long-time user of Ability Commerce’s multi-channel retail order management system, Ability OMS. Ability Commerce built and supports the integration between Ability OMS and TaxCloud.

This native integration allows for seamless data handling, with all sales transactions automatically calculated for tax compliance.

Rocco described the transition as a “set and forget” solution.

“Now, it’s a turnkey process. Transactions from our online and phone sales flow directly through Ability Commerce to TaxCloud. We don’t even think about it anymore,” he said.

The Results

With TaxCloud, Music Direct experienced a drastic improvement in managing multi-state tax compliance.

The integration with Ability Commerce made the process easy and stress-free, allowing Rocco to focus on other priorities.

“I sleep better at night knowing that TaxCloud handles our sales tax. Even when there’s an issue, the support team is right on it, working directly with the states to resolve it,” he noted.

The switch also significantly reduced the time spent on tax management. What once took two weeks a month is now down to just one day.

Additionally, adding new states became a much simpler process with TaxCloud’s proactive support, further streamlining compliance.

Final Thoughts

Rocco Marra summed up his experience with TaxCloud perfectly:

“It’s music to my ears.” The switch to TaxCloud gave Music Direct the confidence and support needed to manage sales tax effectively, ensuring compliance without the headaches that came with previous solutions.