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How to configure Business Engine for Avalara tax calculation

Avalara Communications is a tax automation tool that automatically performs tax calculations for your subscriber invoices in Business Engine. This article explains how to configure Business Engine to activate the Avalara integration.

Applies to
Operators using end user billing in Business Engine and that are Avalara customers.

Introduction

Some of the services provided and invoiced through Business Engine are subject to tax. COS has partnered with Avalara to provide accurate tax calculation for Operators using the module Subscriber invoicing. Avalara keeps track of the tax rates and rules that apply for the services offered. Avalara also provides support for tax filing that the Operator is required to do. An Operator who wishes to use Avalara together with Business Engine also has to be an Avalara customer. For additional information about Avalara, please visit https://www.avalara.com/ or watch this intro video: How Avalara Works

Solution Overview

The tax calculation is done based on the service location address. Taxes are calculated and processed through Avalara when the invoice is created in Business Engine. Before the invoice is generated, the tax calculations are estimates only.


To set up the Avalara integration, the Tax codes that are applicable for the products offered need to be identified. The Tax codes are then associated with the applicable Price type for each service.  

Step by step instructions

Step 1 - Company settings

To set up the Avalara integration, COS needs the following information:

  • Avalara Username and Password
  • Avalara Client ID
  • Avalara Profile ID (if applicable)

Step 2 - Apply Avalara Taxation types to Business Engine Customer types

  • In the Settings menu, navigate to Customers and then Customer types. 
  • Click on Residential and then the edit icon. 
  • Select the corresponding Taxation type. Click Save
  • Repeat for all Customer types applicable for taxes. s1

Step 3 - Select Tax codes

  • In the Settings menu, navigate to Billing and then Tax codes. 
  • Click the + sign at the top of the page to add a Tax code
  • Select the correct Tax code and save.
  • Repeat until all Tax codes that are applicable are displayeds2

Step 4 - Associate Tax codes with Price types

  • In the Settings menu, navigate to Services and the Price types.
  • Click on the Price type that is associated with the service that is subject to tax, for example Monthly fee VoIP. 
  • In the section Tax codes, apply the Tax code(s) applicable for the Price type and click OK. 
  • Repeat until all taxable Price types are associated with the correct Tax codes s3-1

Step 5 - Associate Tax codes with Invoice adjustments

  • Invoice adjustments can be created as templates. If an invoice adjustment is taxable, it has to have a specific Price type so that a Tax code can be associated with it. Follow the same process as Step 3 above. 

Step 6 - Test Tax locations

  • To test that the tax is applied as expected, Business Engine has a feature called Text Tax locations. In the Settings menu, navigate to Billing and then Test tax locations. 
  • Select an address, a customer type, a tax code and add an amount. Click Show taxes for location and verify that the tax calculation is correct. Skärmbild 2025-04-29 120329

Reporting and statistics

Invoice rows and tax transacations for reporting and statistics can be accessed in several ways, depending on the purpose:

  • instantly through COS BE Billing API.
  • in the COS reporting database, updated daily.
  • as tax transactions in Avalara, and the reference is the COS BE invoice number, for example C00001212-0005 

Note that the tax transaction will be generated when the invoice is processed.