Avalara Names Chip Schooler Business Development Manager.

BAINBRIDGE ISLAND, Wash. -- Avalara, provider of the first affordable, on-demand sales tax calculation solution designed for small and medium businesses by integrating into commonly used accounting packages, has named Chip Schooler Business Development Manager for the Southeastern Region. "Small and medium businesses need a better, more accessible way to calculate sales and use tax for the more than 8,000 distinct U.S. taxing jurisdictions -- and we are delivering on those needs with AvaTax ST," explained Avalara's Chairman and CEO, Jared Vogt. "To help us reach these businesses in the critical Southeastern Region, Chip Schooler has joined Avalara as our on-site regional Business Development Manager."

AvaTax ST is currently integrated with some of the SMB market's most popular accounting systems, including Best Software's ACCPAC, MAS 90 and MAS200, as well as Microsoft's Great Plains, Navision and Microsoft Small Business systems among others. Other significant accounting-system integration versions of AvaTax ST are scheduled for release in Q2 and Q3.

"AvaTax ST is an affordable alternative to expensive software installations and updates, or worse, the error-prone, manual system of sales tax calculation many businesses now employ," Vogt pointed out. "When taking on sales tax calculations internally, businesses have the harrying task of assigning one or several of the more-than-8000 U.S. tax jurisdictions to a customer's location and grouping all applicable rates to the customer. On top of that, these businesses have the responsibility to track and apply the more than 900 new sales tax law changes that are enacted in the U.S. market each year.

"Other factors," Vogt noted, "such as product taxability, exemptions, amnesties and a myriad of statutory regulations, which vary state-by-state, must also be taken into account. The more states in which a business has a legal presence, the more complex dealing with sales tax becomes. Savings generated by replacing such a time-intensive, manual updating system with a web-service solution adds directly to the bottom line."

"With more than twenty-five years experience managing business solution sales through the channel of VARs, consultants and CPAs, Chip Schooler brings to Avalara a proven record of success in creating value for businesses and developing channel relationships for business technology providers," according to Marshal Kushniruk, Avalara's Vice President of Sales and Marketing. "As our Southeastern Region Business Development Manager, Chip is responsible for working with accounting software business partners -- as well as directly with prospective end-users -- to increase the already significant roster of Avalara business partners and customers in the Southeastern Region."

"Chip's responsibilities include all sales and support efforts throughout the Southeastern Region territory, a region that includes South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee," explained Kushniruk.

Schooler has already begun to incorporate his sales and brand marketing expertise into taking Avalara and its Southeastern Region partners to the next level of marketing-driven success. "I'm glad to be part of an organization committed to growth -- and willing to innovate to achieve that growth," he noted.

"We are already well into an aggressive plan to more than double our sales in 2005," Kushniruk explained. "To help make this happen, Chip is an excellent example of the kinds of skilled, experienced Business Development Managers we are adding to our team in key locations across the U.S. and Canada. Our on-demand, integrated sales and use tax service is specifically geared to small and medium businesses," Kushniruk said, "and for those companies who match our profile, we can make a significant and direct impact on their bottom line."

Avalara's AvaTax ST is a comprehensive sales tax solution that integrates into small and medium businesses' accounting systems. Instead of taking on the significant burden of assigning and maintaining sales and use tax information for over 8,000 tax jurisdictions nation-wide, Avalara's innovative web service solution performs those tasks.

In addition, AvaTax ST comes with an instant address validation to ZIP +4 service -- AutoAddress+ -- which ensures correct assignment of tax jurisdiction; the service also includes complete reporting for use at remittance time. Pricing for AvaTax ST is transaction-based and geared to the SMB market, making total compliance accessible to businesses that have been unable to cost-justify expensive, difficult-to-maintain software solutions.

"AvaTax ST gives businesses, as well as our partners who serve the business community, an opportunity to solve a common, frustrating and costly problem -- and in doing so, delivers a cost-effective approach to sales and use tax compliance," Kushniruk pointed out.

To learn more about how Avalara can help build your business's bottom line, visit http://www.avalara.com or contact Chip Schooler at Avalara's Southeastern Region offices -- 770-449-9386 or [e-mail].

To schedule an interview with Avalara CEO Jared Vogt, Vice President of Sales Marshal Kushniruk, or Southeastern Region Business Development Manager Chip Schooler, please call Ned Barnett -- 702-696-1200 or email Ned at [e-mail].