After installing Elliott V8.6 for the first time, you will need to make some configuration changes. Bring up <ElliottRoot>\Bin86\EL860CF.exe utility or alternatively login Elliott as SUPERVISOR and run the top left tool bar icon for configuration. In Elliott 8.6 configuration utility, go to the Databases tab, choose the company that you wish to starting using Avalara and drill down to the details by clicking on the "Info" button of the corresponding company. This will display the following Optional Database Properties window. You will need to configure the Avalara Integration settings..

Setup the Avalara Tax Integration fields.

Use Avalara Tax Engine: During the various areas of interfacing with Avalara, this flag will be checked first. If the feature is not enabled but the calculate taxes option is enabled in Global Setup, the user will be given a message to indicate Avalara Tax Integration is not turned on in Configuration.

• Account ID: Enter the Avalara Account ID. This is provided by Avalara.
• License Key: Enter the Avalara License Key. This is provided by Avalara.
• Service URL: Enter the URL to access the Avalara web site admin page. This is provided by Avalara.
• Timeout: Choose value between 0 - 5 (in minutes). We cannot tell you exactly what timeout value is best for you. General speaking, interactive web applications tend to have a shorter timeout and desktop accounting programs tend to have a longer timeout. If you are not sure, set the value to "1" to start.
• Company Code: Choose the appropriate company code (setup on Avalara portal, Settings -> Manage companies) from the drop down list that corresponds with the Elliott company/database being setup.
• Test Connection: After entering the appropriate Account ID and License Key, press the button to test the connection to the Avatax web services.

See https://support.elliott.com/knowledgebase/articles/1937566-elliott-v8-6-configuration-utility-el860cf-exe for complete instructions.  Make sure you exit all Elliott 8.6 sessions on your desktop before starting up Elliott 8.6 again to ensure the configuration changes are loaded into new Elliott sessions.

To use Avalara interface, you also need to setup Report Desk and PowerSearch. You may need to review the status of your database index.  If you have previously converted your database with the DDF2BTR.EXE to make your data compatible with third party relational applications like Crystal Reports or Web Services, then there’s no need to convert it again. If you are not sure if you have previously done so, call Netcellent to confirm. 

If you determine that you need to run DDF2BTR, you should schedule an evening or weekend since no Elliott users can be in the system during the conversion. Do it before proceeding with Report Desk or PowerSearch setup. DDF2BTR.EXE can be found in <ElliottRoot>\bin86 . For more information on how to use this utility, see http://support.elliott.com/knowledgebase/articles/850704-when-and-how-to-use-ddf2btr-exe-utility  

Tax Adjustment Expense Account Setup

In General Ledger-> Maintenance-> G/L Account File you will need to add a tax adjustment expense account. This account is used when there is an internet service interruption at the time of invoice printing and there is a difference in the tax amount estimated by Elliott versus the amount calculated by Avalara later on. The adjustment amount will be posted to this account during the stage of committing tax queue to Avalara. Generally speaking, this is an expense account. The value posted to this account is the difference between Avalara calculated tax liability and the tax collected from customers.

Enable Report Desk
By default, Report Desk is not enabled in Elliott V8.6. To enable it, you will go to System Utilities -> Global Setup -> System -> Comp. Specialized Control and answer “Y” to “Enable Report Desk?” flag. See

https://support.elliott.com/knowledgebase/articles/1959568-report-desk-setup-and-configuration for complete instructions.

Enable PowerSearch
By default, PowerSearch is not enabled in Elliott V8.6. To enable it, you will go to System Utilities -> Global Setup -> System -> Comp. Specialized Control and answer “Y” to “Enable PowerSearch?” flag. 

COP Line Item Global Setup Flags

Enable Avalara Sales Tax Interface
By default, Avalara Sales Tax Interface is not enabled in Elliott V8.6. To enable it, you will go to System Utilities -> Global Setup -> Add-on-> Avalara Sales Tax Interface.

1. Use Avalara Sales Tax ? - Default is N. If you are on Elliott 8.6 or higher and are licensed to use Avalara Sales Tax Interface, enter Y to enable the Avalara integration. Make sure Validate Country, Auto Assign Tax Codes and Use Zip Code & City Xref Table are also enabled in A/R Global Setup. Also, the Avalara Tax Integration section must be setup in Elliott Configuration (i.e. EL860CF.exe) utility.
2. Enable Document Recording? - Default is Y. If you don't have a sandbox environment and are not ready to use Avalara integration, you could leave this flag as "N" temporary while you setup the system. Enter Y to commit sales transaction. This must be enabled to commit sales tax transactions and record sales and return transactions on the Avalara portal.
   
3. Calculate Taxes? - Default is Y. If set to N, tax will just be estimated based on the downloaded Zip Tax Rate Table. This can be used in the initial testing period while you don't have a sandbox environment .
4. Validate Addresses? - Default is N. Enter Y to force address validation when an address is entered or changed in the Customer, Ship-To, Order, Recurring Order, Location maintenance applications with an UI. If system detect the address is not correct, it may suggest the correct address. If address matches, systems will update zip code to 9 digits. Address validation may incur additional cost with Avalara. Also, additional wait time will be needed when adding a customer or ship-to for address validation. On the other hand, if you set this flag to "N", Elliott perform the minimum internal validation to endure the zip code is valid. During Avalara tax calculation, zip code is the most important info in determining taxing jurisdiction. It will tolerate inaccurate address to some extent (e.g. zip code is correct, but city is incorrect.) If Avalara is not able to determine the address at all, Elliott order may be placed on hold.                                                                                                                                                                          If Validate Addresses is set to Y, a pop up window will prompt the user asking if the address validation should validate zip codes base on 9 digits. The default is Y. When Y, the validation routine will return and update addresses with the full 9 digit zip code if provided by the validation application. If set to N, the validation routine will only validate on the first 5 digits of the zip code. In the example below, the zip code returned from the validation routine is only 5 digits and not the full 9 digit zip code.  See https://support.elliott.com/knowledgebase/articles/2006935-feature-validate-9-digit-zip-code-in-avalara-add for more information.
5. Use AvaTax UPC? (N/A) - This is a reserved flag and we currently do not support this feature.  Use default value N. In the future, enter Y to pass the UPC code when calculating taxes and Avalara may determine the tax codes accordingly.
6. Logging Level (N/A) - Default is "D". B=Brief, D=Detail, E=Errors Only (all transactions are logged during initial release.)
7. Company Exemption Number - This field is optional. Enter your company's tax exemption code if applicable.
8. Next Tax Batch Queue ID - Next batch number for the tax queue. Defaults to 1. Once this value is setup, you should not change it in the future. Especially, you should not try to re-use previously Batch Queue ID. 
   
9. Tax Adjustment Account  - Enter the tax adjustment account. This is used when there is a internet service interruption at time of invoice printing if there is a difference in the tax amount estimated by Elliott versus the amount calculated by Avalara later on. The adjustment amount will be posted to this account during the stage of committing tax queue to Avalara. General speaking, this is an expense account. The value is the difference between Avalara calculated tax liability and the tax collected from customers.
10. Default Sales Tax Account - For Avalara Sales Tax, a utility is provided to create 3 Tax Codes per state like XX1, XX2, XX3 where XX is the 2-digit state code. 1, 2 and 3 represent state, county and city (district) tax codes. Enter the default tax code that should be used when created these tax codes. You still can manually change each tax code's sales tax account later. 
    
11. Default Item Tax Code - This is the Avalara tax code that classify the type of item. Defaults is P0000000. F7 Search is available. Enter the default tax code that will be used when creating _GOODSERVICES attribute records for items when not defined at the product category or user defined code which item inherit from if exist.
    
12. Default Misc Charges Tax Code - This is the Avalara tax code that classify the type of item. Defaults to OH010000.   F7 Search is available. Enter the default tax code that will be used when calculating taxes for miscellaneous charges.
13. Default Freight Tax Code - This is the Avalara tax code. Defaults to FR020100. F7 Search is available. Enter the default tax code that will be used when calculating taxes for freight charges when not defined for the order's ship via.
14. Default Foreign Addr Tax Code -   This is the 3 digits user definable Elliott tax code. Enter the default tax code to use for foreign addresses. This tax code will be assigned to customer, ship-to and sales order of foreign address based on value in country field.  An entry is required.
15. Report Nontaxable Orders Default - Default is Y. If set to Y, nontaxable orders will by default be submitted to Avalara for tracking. If set to N, nontaxable orders by default will not be submitted to Avalara for tracking. The Report Nontaxable to Avalara option in State Tax File Maintenance can override this default if  a particular state should always or never submit documents to Avalara for processing.
    

Inventory Locations (Ship From Address)

Go to Inventory Management-> Maintenance-> Location File. Verify that each location has a valid address. This is especially important if you have multiple warehouse locations at different states. Location address is used as the ship from address where it affects sales or use tax calculation. If the location address is not setup, system will calculate taxes by using company setup as ship from address.  System will try to parse city, state and zip codes from company address. If you don't have it setup, or not in a proper format, this can confuse the system. To avoid potential issue, it is best if you setup address in location file.

Log Files

Log files are very important for investigating why the tax is not calculated as expected.  Especially, when you call Avalara for support, their rep may ask you to provide the proper log files for them to analyze the issue. For detail of log files, please see the following KB article: https://support.elliott.com/knowledgebase/articles/1995157-avalara-log-files

CLS