Release Date: 4/28/23

Version: 8.6 & Above

Log files can be very important when investigating why taxes may not be calculated as expected. In particular, the AvalaraAPICalls.xml file is important when you speak with Avalara reps for support.  This file contains the details Elliott passed to Avalara web services.  You can find various Avalara log files in the <ElliottRoot>\Log\CompanyID folder.  See sample screen below:

In Global Setup -> Add-on-> Avalara Sales Tax Interface, you may set up "6. Logging Level" with the following options:

• E=Errors Only – system will produce AVErrors-YYMMDDHHMMSS.log. This can be generated due to an Avalara error or a programming error.
• B=Brief – system will produce AVErrors-YYMMDDHHMMSS.log and AVAPILog- YYMMDDHHMMSS.log, which captures a brief description of all of the API calls that are performed and whether they were successful.
• D=Detail – system will produce AVErrors-YYMMDDHHMMSS.log, AVAPILog- YYMMDDHHMMSS.log, and AvalaraAPICalls.xml. The xml file will be valuable for Avalara to assist you when you have questions about the calculated tax.

At this moment, we are forcing this flag to be "D" so that all log files (see examples below) are applicable.

Log File Examples

AVErrors...log
This log file is created when an error has take place when interfacing with Avalara web services. The following is a sample:

----ERROR----
6/30/2022 6:48 AM Unable to authenticate connection
----ERROR----
6/30/2022 6:48 AM Unable to establish connection with AvaTax Service. Ping failed.
----ERROR----
6/30/2022 12:02 PM Retail delivery fee entered for COLORADORDF should be 0.27 . Please change the price on the line item.

AVAPILog...log
The log file is created when there's a communication between Elliott and Avalara web services. The following is a sample:

----Avalara API----
8/1/2022 10:31 AM CommitTransaction: Success Invoice: 510737
----Avalara API----
8/1/2022 10:51 AM CreateTransaction: Failed Order: 202039 Value cannot be null.
Parameter name: String
----Avalara API----
8/1/2022 10:51 AM CreateTransaction: Success Invoice: 510741
----Avalara API----
8/1/2022 10:51 AM CreateTransaction: Success Invoice: 510742
----Avalara API----
8/1/2022 10:51 AM CreateTransaction: Success Invoice: 510743
----Avalara API----
8/1/2022 10:51 AM CreateTransaction: Success Invoice: 510744
----Avalara API----
8/1/2022 10:51 AM CreateTransaction: Success Invoice: 510745
----Avalara API----
8/1/2022 11:26 AM CreateTransaction: Failed Order: 202039 Value cannot be null.
Parameter name: String

AvalaraAPICalls.xml
This xml file is useful for Avalara reps to help you when you have questions about how the tax is calculated. It takes up a significant amount of disk space. Therefore, we limit the maximum file size to 10MB. If this file should exceed 10MB, we will rename it "-YYMMddHHMMss" (i.e., Date & Time Stamp in the file name) and create a new AvalaraAPICalls.xml file. Hence, AvalaraAPICalls.XML is always the latest file. We recommend that you open the file with Internet Explorer or Notepad++ (a free utility that you can download) which provide good support for displaying xml files. The following is a sample. 

  <API>
    <Method>Ping</Method>
    <StartDate>8/17/2022 4:41:05 AM</StartDate>
    <EndDate>8/17/2022 4:41:05 AM</EndDate>
    <Request>
    </Request>
    <Response>{"version":"22.7.0","authenticated":true,"authenticationType":2,"authenticatedUserName":"anonymous@2001606391","authenticatedUserId":1442077,"authenticatedAccountId":2001606391,"authenticatedCompanyId":null,"crmid":"0013300001eOTxHAAW"}</Response>
  </API> 

AVCommitLog....log
When we delete a transaction from the AVTAXAPI database file when a tax transaction is committed, a record is written to AVCommitLog- YYMMDDHHMMSS.log regardless of the error log setting.  This will store the request that was made for the transaction. Here is an example of the data it contains:

----Avalara Successful Commit----
8/1/2022 10:31 AM
Method: CreateTransaction
Model: {"code":"510737","lines":[{"number":"1","quantity":2.000,"amount":10.00,"addresses":null,"taxCode":"P0000000","customerUsageType":null,"entityUseCode":null,"itemCode":"00004","exemptionCode":null,"discounted":null,"taxIncluded":null,"revenueAccount":null,"ref1":null,"ref2":null,"description":"Raw Material of Toner - Resin ","businessIdentificationNo":null,"taxOverride":null,"parameters":null,"userDefinedFields":null,"hsCode":null,"merchantSellerId":null,"merchantSellerIdentifier":null,"marketplaceLiabilityType":null,"originationDocumentId":null,"originationSite":null,"category":null,"summary":null}],"type":1,"companyCode":"DEFAULT","date":"\/Date(1659374000085)\/","salespersonCode":null,"customerCode":"001435","customerUsageType":null,"entityUseCode":"TAXABLE","discount":null,"purchaseOrderNo":"","exemptionNo":null,"addresses":{"singleLocation":null,"shipFrom":{"locationCode":null,"line1":"4030 Valley Blvd Ste 101","line2":"","line3":null,"city":"Walnut","region":"CA","country":"US","postalCode":"91789-0931","latitude":null,"longitude":null},"shipTo":{"locationCode":null,"line1":"601 E Midlothian Blvd","line2":"","line3":null,"city":"Youngstown","region":"OH","country":"US","postalCode":"44502","latitude":null,"longitude":null},"pointOfOrderOrigin":null,"pointOfOrderAcceptance":null,"goodsPlaceOrServiceRendered":null,"import":null,"billTo":null},"parameters":null,"userDefinedFields":null,"referenceCode":null,"reportingLocationCode":null,"commit":false,"batchCode":null,"taxOverride":null,"currencyCode":"USD","serviceMode":null,"exchangeRate":null,"exchangeRateEffectiveDate":null,"exchangeRateCurrencyCode":null,"posLaneCode":null,"businessIdentificationNo":null,"isSellerImporterOfRecord":null,"description":null,"email":null,"debugLevel":null,"customerSupplierName":null,"dataSourceId":null,"deliveryTerms":null}
----Avalara Successful Commit----
8/1/2022 12:32 PM
Method: CreateTransaction
Model: {"code":"510746","lines":[{"number":"1","quantity":1.000,"amount":2.75,"addresses":null,"taxCode":"P0000000","customerUsageType":null,"entityUseCode":null,"itemCode":"00004","exemptionCode":null,"discounted":null,"taxIncluded":null,"revenueAccount":null,"ref1":null,"ref2":null,"description":"Raw Material of Toner - Resin ","businessIdentificationNo":null,"taxOverride":null,"parameters":null,"userDefinedFields":null,"hsCode":null,"merchantSellerId":null,"merchantSellerIdentifier":null,"marketplaceLiabilityType":null,"originationDocumentId":null,"originationSite":null,"category":null,"summary":null}],"type":1,"companyCode":"DEFAULT","date":"\/Date(1659377599657)\/","salespersonCode":null,"customerCode":"000300","customerUsageType":null,"entityUseCode":"TAXABLE","discount":null,"purchaseOrderNo":"","exemptionNo":null,"addresses":{"singleLocation":null,"shipFrom":{"locationCode":null,"line1":"4030 Valley Blvd Ste 101","line2":"","line3":null,"city":"Walnut","region":"CA","country":"US","postalCode":"91789-0931","latitude":null,"longitude":null},"shipTo":{"locationCode":null,"line1":"9872 Round Circle Drive","line2":"Bldg. 18, Back Door","line3":null,"city":"Knoxville","region":"TN","country":"US","postalCode":"59006","latitude":null,"longitude":null},"pointOfOrderOrigin":null,"pointOfOrderAcceptance":null,"goodsPlaceOrServiceRendered":null,"import":null,"billTo":null},"parameters":null,"userDefinedFields":null,"referenceCode":null,"reportingLocationCode":null,"commit":false,"batchCode":null,"taxOverride":null,"currencyCode":"USD","serviceMode":null,"exchangeRate":null,"exchangeRateEffectiveDate":null,"exchangeRateCurrencyCode":null,"posLaneCode":null,"businessIdentificationNo":null,"isSellerImporterOfRecord":null,"description":null,"email":null,"debugLevel":null,"customerSupplierName":null,"dataSourceId":null,"deliveryTerms":null}

CLS