Sage and Avalara Announce New Sales Tax Resources for Sage Accountants Network Members

FT. LAUDERDALE, FL--(Marketwire - May 8, 2012) - Sage (www.sagenorthamerica.com), a leading global supplier of business management software and services for small and midsized businesses, and Avalara (www.avalara.com), the market leader and visionary in sales tax automation for businesses of all sizes, today announced the launch of Avalara's Accountants Resource Center for Sage Accountants Network (SAN) members, with the express purpose of helping SAN members increase their service offerings to small businesses. Membership to the new resource center for SAN members is now available via online registration at: https://www.avalara.com/sageaccountantsresourcecenter.

SAN members now have instant access to hands-on tools and educational resources to help them increase their sales tax knowledge and better assist their clients. The new Accountants Resource Center for SAN members provides white papers authored by leading industry experts, webcasts conducted by seasoned sales and use tax professionals, as well as access to next-generation sales tax calculation tools and forms libraries. Sage and Avalara will continue to add content and resources as the partnering program evolves.

"Sales tax is an increasingly prominent area of concern for small business owners, and a recent Sage survey indicates that accountants need to take a more active role in helping clients navigate their business to success, well past tax season," said Jennifer Warawa, vice president, partner programs and channel sales, Sage North America. "Our new partnering efforts with Avalara will help deliver the knowledge resources and hands-on tools that our SAN members require to more effectively meet the sales tax management and compliance needs of their current and prospective clients."

Sage and Avalara's new partnering program was built on the foundation of Avalara's recently announced Accounting and Advisory Services Program (AASP), a broad outreach initiative to the accounting profession focused on helping to educate and directly assist accountants with their clients' sales and use tax automation needs.

"We're very pleased to be expanding our longstanding and successful partnership with Sage, and excited to be combining our strengths as they relate to helping accountants better serve their clients," said Pascal Van Dooren, executive vice president, sales and marketing at Avalara. "Sage continues to take a leadership role in guiding their SAN members toward a fuller range of services to provide their small business clients, and sales tax fits squarely within that group of new offerings that can add significant value to the relationship between accountants and their clients. Today's announcement is the first of many that will demonstrate the commitment of Avalara and Sage to providing tangible resources to accounting professionals that help solve clients' sales tax headaches."

"Sage and Avalara both recognize that accountants have the potential to deliver value far beyond accounting and tax services to their clients," said Randy Johnston, executive vice president at K2 Enterprises. "To that end, it's great to see this new partnering effort provide educational resources and productivity enhancing tools that will help enable accounting professionals in the Sage network to provide informed guidance in the area of sales and use tax."

SAN members can sign up for the new Accountants Resource Center today at: https://www.avalara.com/sageaccountantsresourcecenter.

About Sage
Sage is a leading global supplier of business management software and services for small and midsized businesses. The Sage Group plc, formed in 1981, was floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1989 and now employs more than 12,300 people and supports more than 6 million customers worldwide. For more information about Sage in North America, please visit the company website at: SageNorthAmerica.com. Follow on Facebook, Facebook.com/SageNorthAmerica, and Twitter, Twitter.com/SageNAmerica.

About Avalara
Avalara is the market leader and visionary in sales tax automation for businesses of all sizes. It simplifies the complexity associated with sales and use tax and -- in the process -- makes compliance achievable by all.

Avalara partners with nearly 170 of the world's leading accounting and commercial software publishers to accomplish this. Its web-based offering provides the most complete set of transactional tax compliance services available, including tax calculation, exemption certificate management and returns processing. It also offers 1099 filing and reporting.

Established in 2004, Avalara is a founding member and Certified Service Provider of the Streamlined Sales Tax initiative and one of the fastest-growing companies in America. It employs more than 275 professionals at its headquarters on Bainbridge Island, WA and offices in Seattle; Irvine, San Diego and Rocklin, CA; Falls Church, VA and Pune, India.

For more information, please visit www.avalara.com.

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