Earmark Expo

From Data Entry Nightmare to Automated Workflow in One Demo Session

Earmark Team · February 2, 2026 ·

You’re ten days away from the 1099 and W-2 deadline, and you’re still wrestling with QuickBooks, fielding a flood of W-9 request emails, and dreading the inevitable data entry marathon. Sound familiar?

You’re not the only one. As David Leary admitted during a recent Earmark Expo webinar, “I’ve been procrastinating on issuing 1099s. It’s just not a great experience.” He described the dual frustration that many accountants know all too well. “It’s annoying work on both sides. I need to do my 1099s, but then, as a business that receives them, I get a slew of emails from other companies asking for a W-9.”

In the webinar, David and co-host Blake Oliver took TaxBandits for a test drive with Nikita Sullivent, the company’s Support Specialist, to explore how this IRS-authorized e-file platform handles over 70 tax forms. The live demo included the authentic technical hiccups we all face with real-world software and shared practical solutions for the compliance challenges that hit every January.

Getting your data in: from hours to minutes

Manual data entry for hundreds of 1099s is a bottleneck that keeps you from serving more clients. TaxBandits tackles this with multiple import options that meet you where your data lives.

The platform offers three main paths for getting data in. You can:

Enter forms manually one at a time (perfect for that forgotten contractor),
Use bulk upload templates for larger volumes, or
Connect directly with accounting software (current integrations include QuickBooks Online, Xero, Sage Intacct, and Zoho, with Karbon integration coming soon).

The bulk upload process stands out for its simplicity. As Nikita demonstrated, “You’re reviewing the columns at the top and inputting the data beneath them. Once we have all of that data input, we’ll just download it as a CSV and drag and drop it in.”

David particularly appreciated one detail. “I like how on your templates, in the header of each column, you give the instructions for the values you accept in that field.” No more guessing whether to use “CA” or “California,” or whether TINs need dashes.

The workflow breaks down like this:

Download the Excel template with clear column headers
Fill in your data following the built-in instructions for each field
Drag and drop the file into TaxBandits
Review the automatic error check that flags issues like missing digits in EINs or duplicate records
Fix any problems by either editing in the app or exporting just the error records for correction

For QuickBooks users wondering about the process, David confirmed you can export your vendor list, filter for 1099 vendors, and use the “upload your own file” feature. The first time requires mapping your fields to TaxBandits’ fields, but that mapping saves for future uploads.

One webinar attendee asked whether they needed to re-enter last year’s payees. “Absolutely not,” Nikita answered. “Everything stays in your account and rolls over year after year.” When you import this year’s data and the system finds a duplicate, you can either delete it or update the existing record with any changes.

The platform also distinguishes between importing only recipient data and importing both payer and recipient data. If you maintain TaxBandits throughout the year, importing just recipients during filing season works best since you’ve already set up your payers. But if you’re adding everything at once, the combined import saves steps.

With data flowing smoothly into the system, the next challenge is ensuring that data won’t bounce back from the IRS.

TIN verification: the new compliance reality

Getting data into the system efficiently matters only if it passes IRS validation. The agency’s transition from the FIRE system to IRIS (Information Returns Intake System) brings stricter requirements that every accountant needs to understand.

“The IRIS system is going to be far stricter on TIN matching than the FIRE system was,” Nikita warns. “Which means if the SSN, the EIN, the TIN, and the recipient name don’t identically match the IRS database, it’s going to kick the form back to you as accepted with errors, and you have to file a correction.”

The keyword is “identically.” A contractor who goes by “Mike” but whose Social Security card reads “Michael” could trigger a rejection. Even punctuation differences in business names can cause problems.

TaxBandits builds TIN verification into multiple touchpoints:

When collecting W-9s throughout the year
When adding recipients to your address book
During the 1099 workflow as a final check

The smart approach starts early. “When you get a W-9, when you get a new employee or contractor, you go ahead and do the TIN matching on that prior to the filing season,” Nikita advised. This prevents last-minute surprises when deadlines loom.

Verification typically returns within two to four hours during normal periods. But during peak season “it can be up to 24 hours,” Nikita warned. If you’re verifying TINs within the 1099 workflow itself, the system waits for results before transmitting, which is potentially problematic if you’re filing on January 31st.

For those worried about the cost of corrections, TaxBandits offers some protection. Their “TaxBandits Commitment” covers correction filings at no additional charge. But even free corrections cost you time and stress.

The platform also streamlines W-9 collection. Instead of chasing paperwork, you can send electronic W-9 requests. Recipients complete them online, and the data flows directly into your TaxBandits account, ready for immediate TIN verification if desired.

Once your forms are prepared and verified, you still need to get them into recipients’ hands compliantly.

Distribution flexibility that actually works

The old choice between hours at the post office or forcing everyone into electronic delivery is over. Modern distribution needs flexibility, and TaxBandits delivers exactly that.

“Everything is very customizable to your needs,” Nikita explained when asked about mixing delivery methods. “You can choose some postal mail, some online access, and some want both.”

The three distribution paths each serve different needs:

USPS postal mailing handled entirely by TaxBandits
Electronic recipient portal requiring just an email address
Both options for recipients who want backup

The electronic portal solves a critical compliance issue. The IRS requires formal consent for electronic delivery, so you can’t just email a PDF. TaxBandits automates this. Recipients receive a secure link, enter a PIN for verification, and provide documented consent.

If someone ignores that email, the system tracks everything. You can see who consented, who declined, and who never responded and then handle postal delivery for the holdouts.

For returning recipients, the portal builds value over time. “If you file for that same recipient next year, they’ll use the same link, and they’ll access all of the documents from the same portal,” Nikita noted. Recipients get their own organized tax document archive without any extra work from you.

State filing adds another compliance layer, but TaxBandits simplifies this, too. The platform tells you exactly what each state requires:

States requiring direct filing (you handle separately)
Combined Federal/State Filing participants (automatic forwarding)
States requiring no 1099 filing

Throughout the process, you get real-time status updates so you can see which forms were transmitted to, received by, and accepted by the agency. For postal mail, statuses are submitted to USPS and en route to the recipient. When a client claims they never received their form, you have documentation. After transmission, watermarks disappear from your copies, and you can reprint professional versions anytime.

For firms with multiple preparers, the platform offers even more control through team management features.

Scaling with teams and support

Larger firms need more than just bulk upload; they need workflow management. TaxBandits’ team management features let you maintain control while delegating the actual work.

The system offers three permission levels:

No roles: Any team member can prepare, approve, and transmit
Two roles: Preparers create forms, approvers review and transmit
Three roles: Preparers create, approvers review, transmitters handle payment and filing

You can also create location-based groups. Nikita shared an example. “Say you have a group in Indiana and a group in Tennessee. Anytime you add a new payer and assign them to the Tennessee group, then all of the team members included in the Tennessee group have access to that payer.”

Support is critical when things get complex. During busy season, TaxBandits extends hours to 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern. They offer phone, email, and chat support, plus an AI assistant that pulls from both their knowledge base and IRS guidelines.

The platform’s YouTube channel provides step-by-step videos for specific workflows. For Sage Intacct users who asked about integration, Nikita recommended checking their channel for detailed walkthroughs showing the complete process from Sage to TaxBandits.

Pricing works on a credits system with bulk discounts. Buy more credits upfront, pay less per form—and credits never expire. As Nikita confirmed when asked about rollover, “Your credits will never expire. So if you want to purchase for the next five years now and get the best price we can give you, go for it.”

Making next year easier starts now

The strategies demonstrated in this webinar show a fundamentally different approach to information returns. TaxBandits treats compliance as a year-round process rather than a January panic.

The IRS’s push toward e-filing mandates and stricter validation isn’t slowing down. The IRIS system is just the beginning of modernization efforts that will continue tightening requirements. But the webinar demonstrated real workflows you can adopt immediately, from template imports to electronic W-9 collection to role-based team permissions.

Ready to transform your 1099 and W-2 workflow? Watch the full Earmark Expo webinar to see TaxBandits in action, including the complete demo of bulk uploads, error checking, and team management features. The platform offers over 70 tax forms beyond just 1099s and W-2s, making it a comprehensive solution for year-round compliance needs.

Four Years of Cleanup in Four Hours: Inside the AI Ledger That Learns From Your Work

Earmark Team · January 15, 2026 ·

What if you could stop programming bank rules forever? No more tweaking text strings, adding exceptions, or debugging why “COSTCO WHSE #1234” won’t match your Costco rule. During a recent Earmark Expo webinar, accounting software company Digits demonstrated exactly how that future works, and they achieve 96% automatic categorization accuracy without a single bank rule.

Host David Leary has been watching Digits since before ChatGPT existed. “I remember seeing a pitch deck about Digits, and it was being emailed around on backchannels in the accounting industry,” he recalled. “This pitch deck was super ambitious. At the time, the back channel hallway talk was like, ‘Great, here comes another bank feeds accounting app.’”

Now, years later, that ambitious vision is reality. Rob Hamilton from Digits’ partnerships team showed David and his co-host Blake Oliver what the company calls the world’s first “agentic general ledger,” software built from the ground up with machine learning at its core.

Why Digits Took Six Years to Build

Before diving into the technology, Rob shared the origin story. Digits founder Jeff Seibert sold his previous companies to Box and Twitter. At both companies, he noticed a stark contrast: product and engineering teams had real-time dashboards showing exactly who was on their website and what buttons they clicked. But when he wanted to check if he had a budget for a team event, finance told him to wait 45 days for the books to close.

“As a founder of a company, you’re like, ‘This is crazy. I’m just going to do this event without your approval,’” Rob explained. When Jeff left Twitter, he wanted to use machine learning for good, and accounting emerged as the perfect candidate.

The result took six years to build. “Turns out that it takes a while to build a general ledger from the ground up in the machine learning era,” Rob admitted. But that ground-up approach makes all the difference.

The Three-Layer Intelligence That Replaces Bank Rules

Traditional accounting software makes you act like a programmer. You write rules, define patterns, and hope the software follows instructions. Anyone who’s debugged bank rules knows the frustration.

Digits flips this completely. Instead of you teaching the software through rules, the system learns from your work at three levels.

First, it learns from each specific company. When you connect QuickBooks to Digits, it imports your historical data and trains on how you categorize that company’s transactions. “We actually train on a company level,” Rob explained. “When transactions start coming in, it actually leverages the work you’ve already done within that individual company.”

Second, it learns from your entire firm. When a new vendor appears—say, a coffee shop that just opened—Digits checks if any other client in your firm has seen that vendor. Your work for one client helps all your clients.

Third, it taps into global intelligence. For truly novel transactions, Digits uses its global model trained on every transaction the platform has ever processed.

The payoff is significant. “For September, we’re at a 96% rate of transactions getting booked into Digits that then were subsequently not touched by a human afterwards,” Rob revealed. That’s not just categorized; that’s categorized correctly enough that accountants didn’t change them.

“You’re not editing any rules,” Rob points out, contrasting Digits with traditional systems. “You don’t have to add an extra appendage to pull out the specific Costco transaction. We learn from your behaviors directly inside the product.”

How the System Handles the Other 4%

No AI system is perfect. What matters is how it handles uncertainty. When Digits encounters a transaction it’s unsure about, it doesn’t guess silently. It flags the uncertainty and shows its reasoning.

During the demo, Rob showed a US Patent and Trademark Office transaction where Digits displayed, “I have this as taxes, but I actually think it could be legal.” The system even suggested adding “intangibles” as a new account category for companies still building their chart of accounts.

The learning happens instantly. “We’ve built our architecture to be uniquely quick in the training,” Rob emphasized. “The second we see a similar transaction, it’ll effectively be perfect based on your prior action.”

Quality control is proactive rather than reactive. Each month, Digits flags all new vendors so accountants can verify they’re categorized correctly. It also highlights vendors booked to multiple categories, like Apple transactions split between fixed assets and software subscriptions.

When accountants don’t know what something is, they can ask clients directly within the platform. Questions attach to specific transactions, clients get email notifications, and responses flow back to the same transaction. The AI suggests categorization based on the client’s answer, though accountants confirm before applying.

David appreciated the unified workflow. “Now I don’t have to have five browser tabs open where one browser tab is the report, the transaction is in a new browser tab, and I make the edit and refresh the report in the other browser tab.”

Reconciliation in Minutes, Not Hours

Bank reconciliation should be simple, but when something doesn’t match, like $15 missing from Stripe, the detective work begins. Digits transforms this process entirely.

Statements enter the system three ways. Banks like Wells Fargo send them automatically via API. For others, accountants drag and drop PDFs directly onto the platform. Every Digits account also gets a single email address that accepts any document type, including statements, bills, or receipts, The AI routes them appropriately.

“So one email for all the transactions in a client’s company file,” David noted. “You don’t have special HR email and AP email where you send it to the wrong box and it creates a mess.”

The reconciliation interface shows the bank statement PDF alongside ledger transactions. As you hover over transactions, green boxes highlight the matching line on the statement. David’s reaction captured what every accountant will recognize: “I used to do this with a highlighter and my fingers. I had to find it on both.”

But the real magic is proactive problem detection. Digits identifies specific issues and offers one-click fixes for things like:

Uncleared transactions that should move to next month
Statement items missing from the ledger
Date discrepancies between records and statements

Each issue comes with a resolution button. The system does the detective work; accountants just confirm the fix.

“We had an accountant come in the other day. He was like, ‘I did four years of cleanup in four hours’ because he just linked the bank accounts, dragged all the statements in, and the AI did everything,” Rob says.

Beyond Bookkeeping: Reports Clients Actually Read

With traditional financial reports, only 15% of business owners even open those black-and-white PDF attachments. Digits studied this and found that when firms use visual reporting tools, over 70% of clients actually open and interact with the financials.

The reporting system works like “Google Docs for your finances,” as Rob described it. Accountants can add commentary directly on line items, tag clients with questions, and create visual dashboards that tell the story of the business.

The platform includes built-in bill pay ($0.50 for ACH, $2 for checks) and invoicing. The system automatically recognizes and routes dragged-in documents. Bills queue for payment, receipts match to transactions, and statements trigger reconciliation.

Behind the scenes, AI agents continuously research every vendor, building what Rob called “a dossier” with logos, phone numbers, and descriptions. “This is what your team does when they don’t know what a transaction is. They Google it and find the information.”

What This Means for Your Practice

The shift from rule-based to AI-native software fundamentally changes the accountant’s daily work. Instead of programming rules, you review AI suggestions. Instead of hunting for reconciliation errors, you confirm one-click fixes. Instead of sending reports that get ignored, you create interactive dashboards that clients actually use.

The compound effect is striking. Every correction teaches the system, improving accuracy for that client, your entire firm, and eventually all Digits users. Time savings stack up, allowing firms to shift toward advisory work.

Digits offers a partner program with volume discounts. The standard price is $100 per month per client for full features, with special pricing for tax write-up work. Accounting firms get their own firm account free when joining the partner program.

Rob emphasized that construction and other complex industries might see slightly lower accuracy rates than the 96% average, but the system continuously learns and improves. Features like sales tax support and project tracking are coming soon, while departments and locations tracking are already available.

For firms evaluating new software, the question has shifted from “What rules do I need to create?” to “How well does this system learn?” The four-years-in-four-hours cleanup example shows what’s possible when AI handles the tedious work.

Watch the complete Earmark Expo webinar to see the full demonstration, including reconciliation workflows, client communication tools, and the visual reporting system that gets clients actually engaging with their financials. Whether you’re ready to switch or just want to understand where accounting technology is heading, this demo shows what accounting looks like when bank rules become obsolete.

How One CPA’s Personal Software Solution Became the Answer for Firms of Every Size

Earmark Team · December 22, 2025 ·

Tim Sines, CPA, has been practicing accounting for 38 years. During that time, he tried “pretty much all” the practice management software platforms available, but nothing worked the way he wanted. So he did what any developer would do: He built his own.

What started as a personal solution evolved into Mango Practice Management, a cloud-based platform that now serves everyone from solo practitioners to firms with over 100 employees. During a recent Earmark Expo demonstration, Sines walked through the system he’s been perfecting since the DOS era, showing how it addresses the core challenge facing most accounting firms: managing multiple disconnected systems.

The Problem with Disconnected Systems

Sines didn’t set out to revolutionize practice management. He just wanted software that actually worked for his practice. After years of frustration with existing tools, he developed his own application. The system has evolved dramatically over the decades, progressing from DOS to Windows desktop to its current cloud-based form, which has been running for over eight years.

Mango Practice Management handles time tracking, invoicing, electronic payments, project management, engagement letters, budgeting, and reporting. “Those are really the core things you’re doing daily within your firm,” Sines explains. The problem wasn’t that these functions were too complex. It was that they existed in separate systems, creating inefficiency at every step.

During his demonstration, Sines shows how Mango handles time entry in a way that connects directly to other functions. Users start typing any part of a client name, and the system automatically brings up relevant engagements. Whether you’re doing tax planning or tax prep, the system handles billing increments and supports multiple concurrent timers. The time flows directly into invoicing without requiring users to switch systems or re-enter data.

The integration is especially valuable when corrections are needed. As Sines notes, staff “notoriously record time to the wrong engagement or wrong client.” Instead of forcing users to exit invoicing, navigate to time tracking, make corrections, and start over, Mango allows these fixes right in the invoicing interface. Users can move time between clients or engagements and see write-ups and write-downs in real time.

Streamlined Client Payments and Communication

The platform extends its integration approach to client interactions, particularly around payments. Traditional practice management often treats payment collection as an afterthought, requiring clients to navigate separate portals or remember login credentials.

Mango embeds payment functionality directly into client communications. When clients receive an invoice, they see a “click to pay” button. “The client does not have to log into a client portal to make a payment,” Sines explains. If they’ve entered payment information before, the system displays the last four digits for easy recognition.

The integration goes deeper with engagement letters. When a client agrees to recurring services and signs electronically, the system automatically sets up the entire payment infrastructure. It creates recurring invoices, establishes payment schedules, and collects payments on agreed-upon dates. Sines calls this “invoicing on autopilot,” noting that some firms have “100 or more of these set up” and “don’t even have to do the invoicing.”

Document management follows the same seamless approach. Using Outlook and Gmail plugins, accountants can send document requests through simple email links. When clients click the link, their uploads automatically route to the correct engagement folder. “You don’t have to log into the portal,” Sines explains. “In that email, there’s a link. Click it, and you’ll be redirected to a screen. You just drag and drop your documents.”

The system also handles collections automatically. It monitors payment terms and sends statement reminders without human intervention. “Mango will go do these statements automatically in the middle of the night” for any client with overdue invoices, with customizable follow-up intervals.

Project Management That Connects Everything

Many practice management tools treat project tracking as a separate feature. Mango makes it central to firm operations. The project management dashboard shows projects due this week, next week, and overdue items, connecting these deadlines to internal workflows and capacity.

A key feature is what Sines calls “complete tasks in order” functionality. This prevents team members from jumping ahead in workflows. “I can’t review the tax return until I’ve done the tax prep,” he explains. This ensures that “staff focus on what is in the batter’s box, not what’s on deck.”

The system addresses a common problem: showing people everything they need to do creates cognitive overload. Instead, Mango shows only tasks that are actually ready to be worked on, helping teams stay focused and productive.

When projects reach completion, the system automatically releases associated time for billing, connecting project milestones directly to revenue. Project notes “live with this project as it rolls forward,” ensuring that when different staff members handle recurring work next year, they have access to context from previous engagements.

The capacity planning feature shows utilization across all projects and allows managers to easily reassign tasks to different team members if somebody is out or leaves the company. Calendar integration with Microsoft Outlook and Google Calendar displays all past, present, and future appointments for any team member who had appointments with that client directly within the client view.

Pricing and Technical Details

Mango offers three pricing tiers. The basic tier includes core features, while the Plus tier adds project management and budgeting. The Pro tier, at $69 per user per month, includes all features plus document management, e-signatures, and capacity planning.

For electronic payments, ACH transactions cost 1% with a $12 cap, while credit cards run approximately 3%. The platform includes a mobile app that allows users to enter time and expenses, look up client contacts, and add notes while away from the office.

One practical feature Sines highlights: if users accidentally close their browser or log out while timers are running, their timers will still be there when they log back in. “You will not lose your timers.”

The system also supports multiple browser instances, allowing users to have “project management tab open” alongside “time tracking” and “billing worksheets” on different screens while maintaining data consistency across all views.

Integration as a Competitive Advantage

Sines’ demonstration reveals why unified platforms are essential for accounting firms. The ability to handle multiple functions in one system eliminates the data re-entry, system switching, and workflow friction that drain efficiency from traditional setups.

The platform includes a master template library that anybody using Mango can access and customize. This allows firms to adopt proven processes quickly rather than building workflows from scratch.

The notification system provides what Sines calls workflow intelligence, sending alerts when specific conditions are met, such as assigning tasks, resolving dependencies, or approaching project deadlines.

For firms evaluating practice management solutions, Sines recommends visiting the Mango website to schedule a demo or attend one of their weekly webinars. “We have two webinars every single week,” he notes, where potential users can ask questions and see the platform in action.

The Move Toward Unified Systems

Firms are moving away from juggling multiple disconnected systems toward unified platforms that treat practice management as an integrated workflow.

The demonstration shows how this integration eliminates friction between core business processes. When time tracking connects directly to invoicing, when project management triggers automated billing, and when client communications embed payment options, the entire operation becomes more efficient and responsive.

As practices grow more complex and client expectations increase, the competitive advantage belongs to firms that operate as unified organizations rather than collections of separate systems. The traditional approach of patching together different solutions for each function isn’t just inefficient; it creates operational bottlenecks that can’t keep pace with modern client demands.

Watch the full demonstration to see how Mango’s unified approach eliminates the inefficiencies that come from managing disconnected systems, and discover why accounting firms are choosing integrated platforms over fragmented tool approaches.

Avalara Tax Research: The Answer to Your Clients’ Toughest Sales Tax Questions

Earmark Team · July 30, 2025 ·

“Is this service taxable?” It’s a seemingly simple client question that can send accountants down a rabbit hole of research, often leading to uncertain Google searches and hours navigating complex state websites.

“Google’s great for some things, but when it comes to figuring out the taxability of products, it is lacking,” explains Blake Oliver in a recent Earmark Expo webinar. “As anyone who has worked with sales tax questions knows, the answers are different by state and by local jurisdiction. It’s a giant mess.”

Sales tax isn’t something most CPAs learn in school, making these questions particularly challenging. Many accountants refer clients to specialists when they can’t find reliable answers quickly enough.

In the webinar, Luke Marlatt from Avalara demonstrated how their Tax Research tool helps accountants tackle these challenges confidently. Let’s explore what makes this solution work and how it could benefit your practice.

How Avalara Gathers and Organizes Tax Information

Behind Avalara’s platform is an impressive research operation that transforms chaotic multi-jurisdictional tax laws into accessible, actionable information.

“We employ a gigantic team of researchers who spend all day, every day going to find information,” Marlatt explains. “We’re scrubbing over 27,000 web pages every single day. That’s not just some poor intern in the basement clicking on web pages; they have web crawlers and all this kind of cool technology.”

What sets Avalara apart is what happens after data collection. Real human experts verify every piece of information, translate complex tax code into plain language, and track changes down to case law and local regulations.

The team’s commitment goes beyond passive monitoring. When necessary, they actively chase down information through direct outreach to tax authorities. Marlatt shared how one colleague spent 2.5 hours on the phone with tax authorities in Jackson, Wyoming, to confirm a customer’s tax rate question.

This thorough approach has earned such credibility that Colorado, Missouri, and the Alaska Municipal League actually use Avalara’s data to power their own public-facing websites.

Key Features That Make Research Easier

The webinar demonstration highlighted several standout features designed to make sales tax research more efficient and user-friendly:

Simplified Nexus Determination

Rather than forcing users to interpret complex legal language, Avalara converts nexus requirements into straightforward yes/no questions.

“Instead of reading through the law trying to figure out what they mean—which in Washington, you’d have to read through five totally different parts of the revenue code—we just turn them into yes/no questions,” Marlatt explains.

This makes it easy to interview clients who might not understand tax terminology but can answer simple questions about their business activities.

Multi-State Comparison

With a single click of the “compare” button, users can apply a tax question across all states simultaneously, eliminating the need to research each jurisdiction individually.

“You hit the compare button and literally have your answer in every single state in the country,” Marlatt demonstrates. “Then you can hit this export button to dump it into Excel and start a workbook for a Nexus study.”

Customizable Tax Matrices

The Tax Matrix feature allows you to create customized, multi-state, multi-product matrices showing tax liability across different jurisdictions. You can save these matrices in the system and they’ll update automatically whenever relevant tax laws change.

“If you provide a tax matrix to your client, they’re going to want it updated. And traditionally that’s a difficult thing,” Marlatt explains. With Avalara, “The only thing you need to do is log in and hit the export button. And you’ve now got an updated tax matrix for your client.”

This creates an opportunity for subscription-based services, as Leary pointed out during the webinar: “And you build a quarterly tax research update into your fees.”

Precise Rate Lookups

The platform includes rooftop-level tax rate lookups, allowing users to find exact rates for specific addresses. The system shows the breakdown of rates by jurisdiction, essential for places like California where returns require this detail.

An interactive map displays the exact boundaries of taxing jurisdictions, making it easier to visualize where different rates apply.

Change Tracking and Updates

Users can toggle on a “highlight changes” feature that visually marks modified content with color indicators. This helps accountants quickly identify what’s changed since their last review.

The customizable email update system notifies you about tax changes daily, weekly, or monthly, filtered by content areas and specific states. These updates provide both an overview and detailed information about specific changes.

Marlatt shared how this helps catch significant changes: “The state of Kentucky defines SaaS as a service—they changed their law at the beginning of 2023. Because of that service law change, SaaS is now taxable in Kentucky as well.”

Expert Research Assistance

When questions arise that users can’t resolve through self-service research, the “Contact a Tax Expert” function connects them with Avalara’s team of expert researchers (mostly attorneys).

“Ninety four percent of the time, we beat our 24-hour mark and 71% of the time we actually beat the hour mark,” Marlatt notes regarding their response times. Last year, the team answered approximately 8,900 questions.

Avalara Tax Research also saves previous Q&A exchanges in a searchable repository, allowing users to benefit from questions other customers have asked.

Accessible for Firms of All Sizes

While these capabilities might seem designed for large firms, Avalara Tax Research serves accounting practices of all sizes.

“We have all the big four and most of the really big firms across the country using our tax research. We have mom and pop shops,” explains Marlatt. “Most of the demos I do are for single person operations with two or three people in a firm.”

For firms concerned about audit protection, Avalara offers an audit information guarantee. While they don’t provide direct tax advice or audit defense (leaving that advisory role to accounting partners), they stand behind their information’s accuracy.

“We will back up our information under audit directly with that auditor,” Marlatt explains. “We will go and defend that information with the auditor. We say, ‘Here’s all our research. Here’s how we got from A to B.'”

The platform also includes training resources to help firms maximize their return on investment. “There’s a team of trainers that make sure you get the most out of this tool,” Marlatt notes.

Adding a Valuable Service to Your Practice

Avalara Tax Research helps transform a persistent challenge into a strategic advantage. By providing authoritative answers to sales tax questions, firms can build service offerings around tax compliance while delivering more value to clients.

When clients receive clear, authoritative answers instead of tentative responses or referrals to specialists, it strengthens their trust in your firm. When you can proactively alert them to regulatory changes before they become compliance issues, you position yourself as a true advisor.

For practitioners who want to see these capabilities in action, watch the on-demand webinar. Tax complexity continues to increase, and having reliable resources to navigate this landscape is essential for serving clients effectively.

How Growing Businesses Can Automate and Protect Payments

Earmark Team · July 29, 2025 ·

For finance teams, finding the right bill pay solution can feel like Goldilocks searching for the perfect porridge—many options are either too basic for complex operations or too sophisticated and expensive for mid-market needs.

At a recent Earmark Expo webinar, hosts Blake Oliver and David Leary invited Omri Mor from Routable to demonstrate how their platform fills this critical gap in the accounts payable market.

“Either the bill pay app is too big for your client, or it’s too small for your client. Sometimes it’s just never the right size,” explained David when introducing the session. “That’s the struggle we have as accountants—getting the right bill pay app for clients.”

When It’s Time to Graduate from Basic Bill Pay

Routable positions itself as the logical next step for businesses that have outgrown basic bill pay solutions but aren’t ready for complex enterprise systems. According to Omri, the platform serves businesses processing anywhere from 100 to over 100,000 payments per month.

“We typically recommend considering a graduation from Bill.com at about 100 to 250 bill payments per month,” explained. He outlined seven indications that it’s time to upgrade:

Transaction volume exceeding 100 monthly payments
Need for better ERP synchronization (Routable boasts a 99.8% sync success rate)
Multi-entity support requirements (from 2 to 85+ entities)
Complex approval rules based on different business dimensions
Delegation requirements across growing finance teams
Subsidiary management complexity
Improved data integrity needs

Perhaps most importantly, Routable doesn’t require businesses to replace their existing accounting systems. As David highlighted during the demo, “If you’re on QuickBooks or Xero, that’s your GL, and you grow to a point, you can just add on Routable. You don’t have to go get a whole new ERP and replace your whole system.”

Powerful Features That Grow With Your Business

The demonstration showcased several standout features that address common pain points for growing businesses:

Seamless Vendor Management

Routable offers a branded vendor portal that doesn’t confuse vendors with third-party interfaces. “We don’t want to hijack your vendor. We don’t want to market to your vendor. We don’t want to confuse your vendor,” Omri emphasized.

The custom-branded portal allows vendors to self-onboard by providing contact information, completing tax forms electronically, and securely connecting bank accounts. The platform also includes built-in 1099 management, eliminating the need for separate tax filing software.

Deep ERP Integration

One of Routable’s most impressive capabilities is its real-time integration with accounting systems such as Oracle NetSuite and Sage Intacct. The platform automatically pulls all fields from your ERP—including custom fields—without additional setup.

“Let’s say you remove class, we’ll remove class. Let’s say you add a new field called ‘David’s favorite ice cream.’ we load ‘David’s favorite ice cream,'” Omri explained. This adaptability ensures the system always reflects your current accounting structure.

Flexible Approval Workflows

The platform allows highly customized, multi-level approval rules based on any field in your ERP system. You can nest rules within other rules for maximum flexibility, and approvers can respond directly via email without logging in.

“Choose your own adventure. It’s one of the most important things we’ve found in accounting and finance,” Omri noted.

Advanced Purchase Order Matching

For inventory-backed businesses, Routable offers sophisticated two-way and three-way matching capabilities. The system supports up to three million SKUs and can process thousands of invoices with detailed line items within seconds.

“This process would take 25 to 30 minutes for a human to do. We’re doing this within split seconds, and we’re coding it for you,” Omri highlighted.

Fighting Fraud with AI

Perhaps the most forward-thinking aspect of Routable’s platform is its upcoming AI-powered fraud detection system. This feature addresses a critical problem: mid-market companies lose an average of $280,000 annually to invoice fraud.

“Not only is faking invoices and receipts here, but faking phone calls is here,” Omri explained. “I can build an agent that sounds exactly like a human today and confirm [incorrect banking details]. So our old methods are not enough… we want to fight AI with AI.”

The system automatically flags suspicious elements in invoices, paired with confidence scoring, including:

Modified text in vendor names, dates, and amounts
Address changes from previous invoices
Duplicate invoice numbers
New or changed bank account details
Mismatches between stated banks and routing numbers

Omri shared a real-world example where Routable helped prevent a sophisticated $1 million fraud attempt: “Our customer said, ‘Hey, we think this is fake.’ We said, ‘You’re confirmed. Here’s the 17 things that were doctored on this invoice.'”

Simplified Pricing for Growing Teams

Unlike many software solutions that use per-seat pricing models, Routable offers unlimited users with pricing based on payment volume. The platform starts at $599 per month and scales based on throughput rather than user count.

“Typically, you give two to five people access to your bank, and you give maybe five or seven people access to your ERP, but your operations team might need access to ‘did this get paid?'” Omri explained. “There’s essentially an onion: finance, then fin-ops, then ops, then maybe customer success.”

This approach allows businesses to distribute access across departments without additional costs, fostering collaboration between finance and operational teams.

A Strategic Investment in Financial Operations

For finance leaders and accounting professionals, Routable is more than just a bill pay solution; it’s a strategic investment that transforms accounts payable from a transaction-processing burden into a business advantage.

Blake summarized, “The way you’ve built the sync to the ERP system or QuickBooks is so rock solid. Being able to pull everything in… it’s a dream as an accountant.”

When considering the return on investment, Omri offered a compelling perspective: “I’ve never met a CFO or director of accounting, or a head of a CPA firm who has enough budget. What if you could say, ‘Hey, if we catch fraud, we get that budget back?’”

Whether you’re managing finance for a growing business or advising clients navigating these challenges, exploring modern accounts payable solutions like Routable could transform what has traditionally been a back-office function into a strategic enabler for business growth.

To learn more about how Routable can help your business or clients transform their accounts payable processes, watch the full Earmark Expo webinar.