HubSpot AvaTax Integration Guide

Built by Taxiom

This integration connects HubSpot to your AvaTax account, allowing for real-time tax calculation from Avalara inside HubSpot.

Click below to go to a section in the guide:

Connecting AvaTax & HubSpot

Configuring Tax Settings

How to Calculate Tax

How to Assign Taxability

How to Handle Exemptions

How to Handle Multiple Shipping Addresses

Overriding Avalara’s Tax Calculation

Validating Addresses

Accessing the Logs

Troubleshooting

This integration was built by Taxiom, a HubSpot & Avalara partner. Click here to schedule a call with the Taxiom team so we can help you with the setup.

A subscription to AvaTax will be needed, if you don't have one, contact us & we can help with that!

Connecting AvaTax & HubSpot (go to top)

To configure the integration and connect HubSpot to AvaTax:

1) Check your email for the credentials and login to the integration portal - https://avataxforhubspot.taxiom.com/login

2) You'll need to connect to HubSpot FIRST. In the menu on the left, click 'Connect to HubSpot' to initiate the connection and select the HubSpot account you want to connect to

3) Then under Company Settings, input your company address. This will be used as the 'Ship From' address for tax calculation.

4) Then go to 'Avalara Credentials', input your Account ID (see here), License Key (see here), and Company Code (see here), and then select Production for the environment. Please note, if you would like to connect to a Sandbox, select Sandbox from the dropdown, then input the Sandbox Account ID, License Key, & Company Code.

5) Click 'Save Info' to verify the information provided.


6) After, you'll want to configure the Tax Settings (see next section)

See next section for guidance on saving HubSpot transactions in Avalara for tax reporting & filing

Configuring Tax Settings (go to top)

This setting will allow you to control when the HubSpot transactions get saved and 'committed' in AvaTax.

In Avalara, the term "committed" refers to the status of a transaction, indicating that it is considered final and ready for inclusion in compliance reports and tax return filings.

And "uncommitted" means the transaction has not yet been finalized and is not included in reports or tax returns. It's a provisional status for transactions that are subject to review and might not be ready for reporting or filing liability calculations.

Option 1 - Commit when quote paid – If you are accepting payments through HubSpot, this is the recommended option. When a Quote is created, the transaction is saved in Avalara as ‘uncommitted.’ Once the Quote is paid in HubSpot, the transaction automatically updates in Avalara to ‘committed.’ Similarly, if the Quote is converted to an Invoice and the Invoice is paid, the transaction will also update to ‘committed.’

Option 2 - Commit when quote created – This option would save the transaction in Avalara as ‘committed’ when the quote is created. If you aren't using HubSpot to process your payments, then consider this option so the quotes are committed to Avalara when they are created.

Option 3 - Don’t commit to AvaTax – This option would NEVER save a transaction in AvaTax. Select this if you only want to receive tax calculation from AvaTax but not save the transactions in AvaTax.

See next section for guidance on how to calculate tax….

How to Calculate Tax (go to top)

To calculate tax, begin by creating a Quote as you normally would: create the Quote, link it to a Deal, and enter the buyer’s information.

If selling to an individual: Don't add a Company to the Deal, and tax will be calculated based on the individual’s address.

If selling to a business: Add the Company to the Deal, and tax will be calculated using the Company’s address.

When adding products to the Quote, you'll now notice a new 'Avalara Calculated Tax' product. Please add the 'Avalara Calculated Tax' product to EVERY Quote. This is where the tax total will be displayed and is needed for tax calculation to work. After you're finished adding products, adjust the price, quantity, or discounts as needed.

When you are ready to have tax calculated, set the 'Ava_InitiateTax' dropdown to Request. If you don't see the dropdown, hit Edit Columns, search for it, then add it to the view.

After setting the dropdown to Request, save the Quote & then refresh the page. Return to the Line Items section and you'll see the Avalara calculated sales tax amount. Once tax is calculated, the 'Ava_InitiateTax' field for each line item will get set to 'Done'.

If you need to recalculate, simply set any line item's 'Ava_InitiateTax' dropdown back to Request, hit save, then refresh.

Need Sales Tax on an Invoice?
Just create a Quote first, use this integration to have tax calculated, then convert the Quote to an Invoice as normal. Easy!

See next section for guidance on setting up product taxability….

How to Assign Taxability (go to top)

Out of the box, AvaTax doesn’t know what you’re selling—every company uses different SKUs and descriptions. Avalara Tax Codes tell AvaTax whether you’re selling software, a t-shirt, or anything else. By mapping your HubSpot SKUs to the appropriate Avalara Tax Codes, AvaTax can accurately determine taxability in each US jurisdiction.

Do you need to map your SKUs?

It depends on what you sell. If you skip this step, AvaTax will tax everything as tangible personal property, which may be fine for some, but not others.

Mapping is essential if you offer anything that could be taxed differently than tangible personal property - shipping, software, services, warranties, etc.

What should be mapped?

Any item that can appear on a quote—product, service, shipping, warranty—should be assigned an Avalara Tax Code.

Special note on shipping charges:

Shipping should be treated as its own product. Create a “Shipping” product in HubSpot and map it to the relevant Avalara Tax Code. If you have multiple types of shipping (e.g., by company vehicle vs. common carrier), create separate shipping products and assign each the appropriate tax code.

How to map Tax Codes

1) In HubSpot go to Commerce, then Products

2) Click on a Product to open details screen.

3) If you don’t see ‘Ava_TaxCode’, click Actions, Customize Properties, then Add a Property, and then select ‘Ava_TaxCode’

4) Look up the appropriate AvaTax Tax Codes at - http://taxcode.avatax.avalara.com

5) After finding the appropriate Tax Code, enter it in the ‘Ava_TaxCode’ field in the HubSpot Product details.

6) That’s it! Do this once per new product and any time that product is added to a Quote, it will automatically pass along the AvaTax Tax Code!

See next section for guidance on address validation & tax overrides…

How to Handle Exemptions? (go to top)

The best way to manage exempt customers is through AvaTax. See instructions here.

In the AvaTax console, under Exemptions, you can map your HubSpot customer code to an exemption certificate. Then, as long as the certificate is valid in the jurisdiction in question, AvaTax will recognize it and automatically exempt them.

Alternatively, you can Use Codes (for both Entities & Line items) from inside HubSpot to tell AvaTax that a company or a specific line item should be exempt from sales tax for a specific reason.

When you apply the Use Code to the COMPANY, all line items on any order for that company will have the company’s Use Code applied and then be exempted. To add or edit a company’s entity use code in HubSpot:

1) Go to HubSpot and find that company record.

2) From within the record properties, find the record called ‘Ava_EntityUseCode'.

3) Input the desired entity the code (see below).

a. Please note, the entity use code should be 1 LETTER only. So, for Resale you would just enter the letter ‘G’ in the ‘Ava_EntityUseCode’ field.

When you apply the Use Code to the LINE ITEM, only the specific line item that contains the use code will be exempted, but the other line items that don’t have a Use Code will be taxed as normal. To add or edit a line item’s Use Code:

1) Go to the HubSpot Quote and go to the Line Items section

2) Click on the product in question, then enter the 1 letter Use Code in the ‘Ava_LineUseCode’ field. Do this for each product/line item you want to apply a Use Code to.

a. Please note, the line use code should be 1 LETTER only.

Use Codes

A - Federal government (United States)

B - State government (United States)

C - Tribe / Status Indian / Indian Band (both)

D - Foreign diplomat (both)

E - Charitable or benevolent org (both)

F - Religious or educational org (both)

G - Resale (both)

H - Commercial agricultural production (both)

I - Industrial production / manufacturer (both)

J - Direct pay permit (United States)

K - Direct mail (United States)

L - Other (both)

M - Not Used

N - Local government (United States)

O - Not Used

P - Commercial aquaculture (Canada)

Q - Commercial Fishery (Canada)

R - Non-resident (Canada)

See next section for guidance on setting up product taxability….

How to Handle Multiple Shipping Addresses (go to top)

By default, tax will be calculated using your company's address as the Ship From and the main address of your customer (as listed in their contact or company record in your HubSpot account) as the Ship To.

If you need to ship line items to different addresses, you can have sales tax calculated based on the shipping address of each individual line item.


To edit the address for an individual line item:

Open the Quote, then go the Line Items section, click on the product/line item in question. You'll see the below fields where you can input the custom address that line item should use for shipping and tax calculation.

Ava_ShipToStreetAddress

Ava_ShipToCity

Ava_ShipToState

Ava_ShipToPostalCode

Ava_ShipToCountry

See next section for guidance on address validation …

Validating Customer Addresses (go to top)

For Avalara’s Tax Engine to accurately determine taxes, having a complete address is CRUCIAL. The address for your company will need to be complete (check your HubSpot settings under 'Account Defaults') and your customers address will need to be complete as well.

The address has to include the city, state, zip code, AND country for sales tax to calculate properly.

If you don’t receive a tax value back from AvaTax, it may be because the customer address is incomplete.

If there is an address error, our integration system will send you an email notifying you so you can correct the specific company record, then re-run the transaction.

If you’d like to get ahead of this, we have partnered with ZipCodeInfo, another member of the HubSpot App Marketplace, to help you validate addresses in bulk. Please see https://zipcodeinfo.org and use the discount code ‘Taxiom’ to save a few bucks.


After installing their add-on, it will connect to your HubSpot account, scan your company addresses, then make recommendations. You can update the addresses by clicking the 'Update Now' at the bottom of the page.

See next section for guidance on tax overrides….

Overriding Avalara's Tax Calculation (go to top)

In the event you don’t agree with Avalara’s tax calculation, you can override it.

1. Go to the HubSpot Quote and go to the Line Items section

2. If you don’t see ‘Ava_OverrideTaxValue’, then hit Edit Columns, and add the property to the Line Item View

3. Then Input the desired sales tax amount.

a. This amount will get used as the tax amount for that specific line, and get posted to Avalara as the tax (instead of what Avalara calculated)

See next section for guidance on accessing the logs…

Accessing the Logs (go to top)

You can find the record logs in the integration’s settings portal, in the menu on the left, under Avalara Tax Logs. This can be used for troubleshooting.

See next section for guidance on troubleshooting…

Troubleshooting (go to top)

If you run into issues with the AvaTax for HubSpot integration, feel free to:

Reach out to Taxiom Support – avataxforhubspot@taxiom.com

Reach out to Avalara Support – See here

Need a break from tax insanity? Check out our new Podcast, Tax Fun with Taxiom!