Avalara and Open Systems Form Technology Partnership; On-Demand Sales Tax Service Will Streamline Order Entry and Remove Hassle of Sales Tax for OSAS and Traverse Users.

MINNEAPOLIS -- Avalara and Open Systems, Inc. today jointly announced a partnership that will incorporate Avalara's on-demand sales tax automation service as an optional feature built into OSAS(R) and Traverse(R). The announcement was made at the 2005 Open Systems Partner Conference, taking place June 9-11 in Minneapolis, where a "first look" of the integration is being exhibited. "New and existing users of Open Systems' award-winning accounting software will now be able to fully automate their sales tax compliance function," according to Jared Vogt, Avalara's CEO. "Especially for businesses selling into multiple states or jurisdictions, the ability to automate the various tasks that go into sales tax compliance will quickly add up to a significant time and resource benefit."

When AvaTax's Web-based technology is user-enabled within either OSAS or Traverse, a range of sales tax automation functionality will be activated: Instead of end-users having to manually research and assign to each customer a set of specific tax groups and locations, one group will apply to all customers: "AVATAX." Each micro-second calculation will take into account all of the complex dimensions of sales tax for the transaction, including nexus, sourcing rules and product taxability. Comprehensive reporting -- detailed at a level exceeding audit requirements -- will be available, on demand and in real-time. In addition, Avalara's powerful AutoForms(TM) feature will automatically pre-populate and generate returns for any of the 8000 taxing authorities in North America.

"Any business running OSAS or Traverse will very easily realize the resource benefit of eliminating the time-consuming, inaccurate, manual way of dealing with sales tax," noted Vogt. "But the ROI is not the whole story: business owners are also looking for ways to reduce audit risk amidst an increasingly complex and changing sales tax environment, and with Avalara's professionally-maintained and updated sales tax engine doing all the work, each and every transaction is sales tax compliant."

"We are pleased to be offering businesses using our OSAS and Traverse software packages a new option to streamline their everyday operations," Paul Lundquist, VP Sales, Open Systems, said. "By removing the burden of the sales tax compliance processes, we address a real end-user pain point -- reducing data entry time, freeing up IT resources, and ensuring full compliance.

"With this technology partnership, sales tax automation will become an implementation-free feature within both OSAS and Traverse," Lundquist noted. "Clients need only 'flip a switch' within their accounting systems in order to get started, enabling them to set up business-specific taxability and nexus settings within the AvaTax ST Administrative Console, and in the process, immediately activating the full spectrum of sales tax automation.

"Open Systems is well-known for offering scalable, flexible and affordable solutions to mid-sized businesses," Lundquist pointed out. "This complementary addition of Avalara's Web-service based sales tax technology into our product line signifies our continued commitment to those principles, and to the businesses we serve."

About AvaTax ST(TM)

AvaTax ST is the only Web-service-based sales tax solution currently on the market that runs seamlessly integrated within commonly-used SMB accounting systems. AvaTax ST automates the sales tax compliance function by instantly and accurately performing a variety of critical functions, including: address validation, jurisdiction and rate research, tax calculation, detailed reporting, and the automatic generation of pre-populated returns for any of the over 8000 North American taxing jurisdictions.

Designed for small and medium businesses, AvaTax ST integrates with more SMB financial applications than any other sales tax solution on the market today. The growing list of integrated editions includes AvaTax ST for Best Software's MAS 90(R) and MAS 200(R), ACCPAC Advantage Series(TM), Microsoft's (MSFT) Great Plains, Navision(R), MS Small Business Financials, Scala, and now Open Systems' OSAS and Traverse (OEM). AvaTax ST's affordable, subscription-based pricing means sales tax automation can fit the budget of any business, any size.

For businesses running e-commerce, third-party, custom-built, or any other system, Avalara's AvaTax On-Demand(TM) makes the Avalara Web services API available, with Software Developer's Kit (SDK) and full testing and support, for easy integration with any system.

About Avalara

Headquartered on Bainbridge Island near Seattle, Washington, Avalara is changing the sales and use tax landscape by delivering innovative and affordable solutions to small and medium businesses. Led by a team of industry experts in sales and use tax, and security and information technology, Avalara is focused on providing the easiest, most accurate and affordable way for businesses to address all their statutory sales and use tax requirements. Additional news and information is available at www.avalara.com.

About Open Systems, Inc.

Founded in 1976 on the premise of delivering powerful accounting software solutions to small and mid-market customers, Open Systems is a single-source provider of accounting, distribution, manufacturing, CRM and eBusiness solutions. Products offered include: OPEN SYSTEMS Accounting Software (OSAS) for Windows, UNIX, and Linux users; TRAVERSE for the Microsoft platform; and TRAVERSE eBusiness Solutions. Source code for Open Systems products is provided at no additional cost.