Create Avalara Account
If you have not already, visit https://www.avalara.com/ and click the Get Started button to contact a Avalara representative to help get your AvaTax account setup.
To connect Avalara with Ricochet:
In Ricochet,
From the navigation bar, click Preferences -> Integrations
Click the Avalara Tax tab.
Enter your Account details:
a. Account Number (Located in your Avalara admin console)
b. License Key (Located in Avalara admin console, Settings -> License and API Keys -> Generate License Key)
Click Connect
Avalara Settings
Once you have connected your Avalara account to Ricochet, there are a few settings to go through.
Company Code - Select the company in which this integration will be attached to. In most cases there will only be one that you have setup in Avalara, but in the event you use Avalara with other companies you operate, select the appropriate one.
Enable Document Recording - This option is enabled by default as it must be enabled for Tax information to passed to Avalara from Ricochet and recorded in the Admin Console. Can be disabled if needed for any reason.
Enable Logging - Logging would be enabled in troubleshooting scenarios if instructed by support from Ricochet or Avalara to do so.
Enable Address Verification - Optionally, you can enable address verification with Avalara. This enables a verification process during Checkout on the webstore, that the customer has typed a valid address. (This may come with an extra fee from Avalara. Please check your Avalara account for any cost association with this feature.)
Test Connection - Once you have chosen and saved your settings, you can then test that the connection is correctly established by clicking the Test Connection link.
Avalara Usage and Assigning Tax Codes
With the Avalara and Ricochet integration, you can now assign tax codes to your product to leverage the dynamic sales tax calculation from AvaTax. With this integration, tax codes can be established at the Category level as well as at the individual item product level.
Category Tax Code Setup:
In Ricochet,
From the navigation bar, click Preferences -> Product.
Click the Categories tab.
Select the category you wish to assign a tax code to. You can select a Parent category to assign a code to, or even assign codes to child and tier 3 categories.
Click Edit xxxxx category button to edit the category.
Click the Avalara Tax Code dropdown to select the code appropriate for the category, then click Save.
Product Tax Code:
In Ricochet,
Add/Edit a product (store inventory or consigned)
In the Online Store & Shipping section, select Avalara Tax Code
(Important: This overrides any category level tax codes. You only need to set a tax code here at the product level if the item deviates from the set category tax code.)
Save
Avalara Reporting
With this integration enabled, your webstore transactions will automatically be taxed appropriately based on the customers purchasing location. Each transaction will appear in your Avalara Admin Console, where you can then leverage the tools Avalara provides in submitting sales tax to the proper tax authorities.
Sandbox Testing
When connecting your Avalara account to Ricochet, there is also an option to connect to a Sandbox environment for testing. There is a Sandbox Mode toggle button, that once toggled on, you would follow the same steps from the beginning of this article in connecting your Avalara account to Ricochet, but instead using Sandbox credentials provided from your Avalara account.
Note: Switching to sandbox mode will only switch your Avalara account to sandbox. As Ricochet does not have a sandbox mode, all webstore transactions within Ricochet will be live transactions and recorded as such. All webstore transactions while in sandbox mode will be recorded in your Avalara Sandbox account.