Access Live Avalara AvaTax Data in Excel (Desktop) through Connect Spreadsheets

Microsoft Excel is a widely used spreadsheet software application, primarily used for tasks related to data management, analysis, and visualization. When combined with Connect Spreadsheets by CData, you gain immediate access to Avalara AvaTax data directly within Excel, facilitating data analysis, collaboration, calculations, and more. This article shows how to connect to Avalara AvaTax in Connect Spreadsheets and access and update live Avalara AvaTax data in Excel spreadsheets.

Connect Spreadsheets is the easiest way to get all your live data into Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets - no more downloading, wrangling, and uploading files again. Just connect to your data, select the dataset you'd like to see, and import it into your spreadsheet.

Configure Avalara AvaTax Connectivity for Excel

Connectivity to Avalara AvaTax from Excel is made possible through Connect Spreadsheets. To work with Avalara AvaTax data from Excel, we start by creating and configuring a Avalara AvaTax connection.

1. Log into Connect Spreadsheets, click Connections and click Add Connection 👁 Adding a Connection
   
2. Select "Avalara AvaTax" from the Add Connection panel 👁 Selecting a data source
   
3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Avalara AvaTax.

   The primary method for performing basic authentication is to provide your login credentials, as follows:

   • User: Set this to your username.
   • Password: Set this to your password.

   Optionally, if you are making use of a sandbox environment, set the following:

   • UseSandbox: Set this to true if you are authenticating with a sandbox account.

   Authenticating Using Account Number and License Key

   Alternatively, you can authenticate using your account number and license key. Connect to data using the following:

   • AccountId: Set this to your Account Id. The Account Id is listed in the upper right hand corner of the admin console.
   • LicenseKey: Set this to your Avalara Avatax license key. You can generate a license key by logging into Avalara Avatax as an account administrator and navigating to Settings -> Reset License Key.
   👁 Configuring a connection (Salesforce is shown)
   
4. Click Create & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Avalara AvaTax Connection page and update the User-based permissions. 👁 Updating permissions
   

With the connection configured, you are ready to connect to Avalara AvaTax data from Excel.

Access Live Avalara AvaTax Data in Excel

The steps below outline connecting to Connect Spreadsheets from Excel to access live Avalara AvaTax data.

1. Open Excel, create a new sheet (or open an existing one).
2. Click Insert and click Get Add-ins. (if you have already installed the Add-In, jump to step 4).
3. Search for Connect Spreadsheets and install the Add-in. 👁 Install the Add-In
   
4. Click Data and open the CData Connect Spreadsheets Add-In.
5. In the Add-In panel, click "Log in" to authenticate with your Connect Spreadsheets account 👁 Authorizing the Add-In
   
6. In the Connect Spreadsheets panel in Excel, click Import 👁 Connect Spreadsheets panel in Excel
   
7. Choose a Connection (e.g. AvalaraAvatax1), Table (e.g. Transactions), and Columns to import 👁 Connect Spreadsheets panel in Excel
   
8. Optionally add Filters, Sorting, and a Limit 👁 Choosing a Connection, Table, and Columns
   
9. Click Execute to import the data and opt to overwrite the existing sheet or create a new one. 👁 Executing the Query
   

Update Avalara AvaTax Data from Excel

In addition to viewing Avalara AvaTax data in Excel, Connect Spreadsheets also lets you update and delete Avalara AvaTax data. Begin by importing data (as described above).

1. Update any cell or cells with changes you want to push to Avalara AvaTax (your changes will be in red)
2. In the Connect Spreadsheets Add-In panel, select Update
3. Optionally highlight the cell(s) you wish to update and select an update option ("Update All" or "Update Selected") 👁 Executing the update (Salesforce is shown).
   
4. Click Execute to push the updates to Avalara AvaTax

A notification will appear when the update is complete

Live Access to Avalara AvaTax Data from Spreadsheet Apps

New, you have a direct, cloud-to-cloud connection to live Avalara AvaTax data from your Excel workbook. You can add more data to your workbook for calculations, aggregations, collaboration, and more.

Try Connect Spreadsheets and get real-time data access to hundreds of SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from Microsoft Excel.