Tax Connect - how do you deal with it in Pilot environment?

We are live and want to actually see tranasactions move through Tax Connect in BOTH environments. My main company has to be active - that's live. Your method really only has one company live at a time - in my case I need them both.

From my research Epicor doesn't have a good solution for this.
Thanks for the feedback.

--- In vantage@yahoogroups.com, "jendmp" <jmesiano@...> wrote:
>
> This is what I did....
>
> You will need an independent test server!
>
>
> 1. Create your main company in Avalara and leave it inactive.
> 2. Create a test company in Avalara with the same company ID as the parent. Activate this company. Copy all permissions from main company.
> 3. On your test server, copy over your live database. You'll be working within your production company (if multicompany).
> 4. Setup Avalara in Company maint on your test server.
> 5. Your test server will now be linked to your test company in Avalara.
>
>
> When you are ready to go live, inactivate the test company in Avalara and activate the parent company. Setup Avalara on your live server and flip the switch.
>
>
> Or you can pay Avalara to have 2 independent companies...:-)
>
> Just remember that any transactions done in the test company will count against your alloted invoices for the year.
>
>
> Clear as mud right?
>
> Call me if you need help
> 210-933-1415
>
> Jennifer Mesiano
> Walton Signage
>
>
> --- In vantage@yahoogroups.com, "djojmis" <dougo@> wrote:
> >
> > This sounds all too familiar to me. We just implemented Tax Connect last year and this was our biggest stumbling block. Epicor promised to sort this out with Avalara; looks like it is still a sticking point. We managed to get the development access for free during implementation, but now they want money for it so we are just using our live connection. We have no sandbox with which to play.
> >
> > From what I remember it is pay for the development access or change your CompanyID.
> >
> > Doug Oswald
> > MIS
> > FLEETWOOD
> >
>
We have been live for some time and managed to have a "development" account at Avalara to handle our Pilot environment testing. Epicor had lots of issues going into Tax Connect initially and we did extensive testing to work out the sales tax kinks. The "development" environment worked great as we were able to actually test transactions end-to-end. Now Avalara would like to get paid for a "development" environment setup. In the live environment Avalara has a way to have a "test" company on their side.

The problem is it involves changing the company code on the Epicor side in the Pilot environment. If I wanted no DATA in Pilot that'd be fine, but who wants that? I take a copy of live and move it to Pilot. I alter some of the interface parameters and I am good to go. I don't want to have to write queries to change all of the company code info in Pilot tables. Right now I have Tax Connect turned off in Pilot until I work this out.

How are other people testing the tax interfaces and transactions in their Pilot environment? Did anyone else find a simple way to do it?
Use separate servers in a test/sandbox environment. I use VMware to create virtual servers with same names on a test server not connected to the normal network. I'm on SQL so very easy to dump live DB to the sandbox and beat it up all I want.
_______________________
Jared Allmond
IT Systems Administrator
Wright Coating Technologies
jallmond@...<mailto:jallmond@...>
voice: 269.344.8195
direct: 269.341.4353
fax: 269.344.3007



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Jared,

I pull all the data into the pilot environment, but from what Epicor is
telling me, I have to change the company identifier to get it to point
to a test sub-company at Avalara.



At Avalara in the past I had access to a development environment where I
could use the same company id and let those tax transaction just flow
into the bit bucket so to speak. If I have to change the company
identifier, that means update every table with a different company id.
We can do that, but it sure seems a gruesome route to make sure our
transactions don't flow into the Avalara environment and end up paying
taxes to states for test shipments. Is that what you are doing?



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
This sounds all too familiar to me. We just implemented Tax Connect last year and this was our biggest stumbling block. Epicor promised to sort this out with Avalara; looks like it is still a sticking point. We managed to get the development access for free during implementation, but now they want money for it so we are just using our live connection. We have no sandbox with which to play.

From what I remember it is pay for the development access or change your CompanyID.

Doug Oswald
MIS
FLEETWOOD
We turn off Tax connect in our Test environments at the company level.



--- In vantage@yahoogroups.com, "djojmis" <dougo@...> wrote:
>
> This sounds all too familiar to me. We just implemented Tax Connect last year and this was our biggest stumbling block. Epicor promised to sort this out with Avalara; looks like it is still a sticking point. We managed to get the development access for free during implementation, but now they want money for it so we are just using our live connection. We have no sandbox with which to play.
>
> From what I remember it is pay for the development access or change your CompanyID.
>
> Doug Oswald
> MIS
> FLEETWOOD
>
This is what I did....

You will need an independent test server!


1. Create your main company in Avalara and leave it inactive.
2. Create a test company in Avalara with the same company ID as the parent. Activate this company. Copy all permissions from main company.
3. On your test server, copy over your live database. You'll be working within your production company (if multicompany).
4. Setup Avalara in Company maint on your test server.
5. Your test server will now be linked to your test company in Avalara.


When you are ready to go live, inactivate the test company in Avalara and activate the parent company. Setup Avalara on your live server and flip the switch.


Or you can pay Avalara to have 2 independent companies...:-)

Just remember that any transactions done in the test company will count against your alloted invoices for the year.


Clear as mud right?

Call me if you need help
210-933-1415

Jennifer Mesiano
Walton Signage


--- In vantage@yahoogroups.com, "djojmis" <dougo@...> wrote:
>
> This sounds all too familiar to me. We just implemented Tax Connect last year and this was our biggest stumbling block. Epicor promised to sort this out with Avalara; looks like it is still a sticking point. We managed to get the development access for free during implementation, but now they want money for it so we are just using our live connection. We have no sandbox with which to play.
>
> From what I remember it is pay for the development access or change your CompanyID.
>
> Doug Oswald
> MIS
> FLEETWOOD
>
That is exactly what we have done and the only solution to move forward. My accounting group is none too happy about it either. hard to test tax issues when you are dealing with live data. Somehow the states aren't real "understanding" about that sort of thing.

--- In vantage@yahoogroups.com, "pklein256" <pklein@...> wrote:
>
>
> We turn off Tax connect in our Test environments at the company level.
>
>
>
> --- In vantage@yahoogroups.com, "djojmis" <dougo@> wrote:
> >
> > This sounds all too familiar to me. We just implemented Tax Connect last year and this was our biggest stumbling block. Epicor promised to sort this out with Avalara; looks like it is still a sticking point. We managed to get the development access for free during implementation, but now they want money for it so we are just using our live connection. We have no sandbox with which to play.
> >
> > From what I remember it is pay for the development access or change your CompanyID.
> >
> > Doug Oswald
> > MIS
> > FLEETWOOD
> >
>