Note: This update is being enabled gradually for customers with an active Avalara integration. If your BuildOps account is not connected to Avalara for tax calculation, these changes will not affect your account
We've shipped two updates that make working with sales and use tax in BuildOps a lot less manual, especially if you're managing customers with tax-exempt status or recurring service work.
Glossary
Glossary
AP (Accounts Payable) - Business process involving paying vendors for goods or services. Use tax may be accrued when vendors do not collect sales tax.
AR (Accounts Receivable) - Business process involving invoicing customers and collecting payment, typically requiring sales tax calculation.
Avalara AvaTax - A cloud-based service that calculates sales and use taxes in real time based on jurisdictional rules.
CertCapture - Avalara's exemption certificate management product. Stores customer exemption certificates and exposes them to AvaTax for transaction-level exemption application.
Avalara Customer Code - The unique identifier representing a buyer in Avalara. Used to link transactions and exemption certificates to a BuildOps Customer record via the existing Customer-to-Avalara sync.
Exemption Certificate - Legal documentation that proves a customer is exempt from paying sales tax for specific reasons (resale, government agency, nonprofit, and so on). Maintained in Avalara CertCapture.
Exemption Reason - A predefined code on a certificate describing why the customer is exempt (for example, Federal Government, Resale, Charitable Organization).
Exemption Region - The jurisdiction (typically a US state or Canadian province) where the exemption certificate applies. Identified by a name and a region code.
Certificate Status - The lifecycle state of the certificate in Avalara. Examples include Valid, Paused, and Expired.
Work Taxability Type (WTT) - A BuildOps-configured value (managed under Tax Settings → Work Taxability Configuration) that classifies the taxability profile of work performed for a customer. It drives which Provider Tax Code is selected on document lines.
Provider Tax Code - The Avalara tax code used by Avalara to calculate tax for a given line item. Selection depends on the item and the Work Taxability Type applied to the line.
Use Tax - Tax owed on taxable purchases made without paying sales tax at the time of purchase.
What's New
This release delivers the Avalara Tax Exemptions & Work Taxability Defaults enhancements.
Customer Tax Exemption Visibility. BuildOps now retrieves customer tax exemption certificates from Avalara CertCapture and displays them in two new locations: a dedicated Tax Exemptions tab on the Customer detail page, and an exemption badge with certificate summary on AR Invoices.
Work Taxability Defaults at the Customer, Service Agreement, Job Template, and Maintenance Job levels. Users can now set AP Work Taxability Type, AR Work Taxability Type, and (where applicable) Use Taxable at multiple levels of the data hierarchy, and these values flow downstream automatically into Projects, Jobs, Invoices, Purchase Orders, Receipts, and Bills.
Together, these two capabilities give finance and operations teams clear visibility into the tax-exempt status of their customers and remove the need to reconfigure Work Taxability Type on every individual record.
This release introduces:
Retrieval of customer exemption certificates from Avalara CertCapture.
A new Tax Exemptions tab on the Customer Detail page that lists every certificate for that customer with reason, exposure zone, status (color-coded), signed date, expiration date.
An exemption badge and certificate summary on AR Invoices that gives invoicing teams immediate visibility into whether the customer holds a valid exemption certificate for the relevant jurisdiction.
New Customer-level fields AP Work Taxability Type and AR Work Taxability Type, exposed in the Customer Create and Edit forms, that flow into newly created Projects and into Jobs.
New Service Agreement, Job Template, and Maintenance Job fields for AP / AR Work Taxability Type and Use Taxable, with full downstream defaulting into Jobs, Invoices, Purchase Orders, Receipts, and Bills.
The release preserves the existing separation between AR and AP responsibilities.
AR exemption certificates continue to apply only to AR invoices, and AP taxability remains explicitly controlled by the AP Work Taxability Type and Use Taxable fields.
What You'll See
Avalara Customer Exemption Certificate Visibility
BuildOps now retrieves customer exemption certificates from Avalara CertCapture. The customer must be synced to Avalara for retrieval to function. Certificates are fetched live on each request and are not cached locally.
Tax Exemptions tab on the Customer Detail page
A new Tax Exemptions tab is now visible on the Customer Detail page. The tab is shown when:
Avalara Customer Code automatically assigned to each Customer record successfully synced to Avalara
The corresponding customer record in Avalara has an exemption certificate applied to them.
Customer record in Avalara with a valid exemption certificate
Customer exemption certificate in Avalara in Avalara
Tax Exemptions tab on the Customer screen
The tab displays the customer's exemption certificates in a table with the following columns coming from Avalara:
Column | Description |
Certificate ID | Exemption certificate ID. |
Region | The jurisdiction the certificate covers (for example, "CA" for California). |
Reason | The exemption reason from the certificate. |
Signed Date | The date the certificate was signed by the customer. |
Expiration Date | The date the certificate expires. Past expiration dates are still shown for historical context. |
Exempt % | The percentage of the transaction the certificate exempts. Typically 100, but partial percentages are supported. |
Status | The certificate lifecycle state, with a color indicator: green for Valid certificates, yellow for Paused, red for Expired. |
The tab handles three operational states gracefully: a loading spinner during fetch, an empty state when the customer has no certificates in Avalara, and an error state when Avalara is unreachable. The view is read-only. Certificate management (create, edit, revoke) remains in Avalara CertCapture.
AR exemption badge and certificate summary on Invoices
On the AR Invoice view, customers will now see two new visualizations of exemption status:
Customer Exemption Status Badge in the Tax section of the side panel. The Customer Exemption Status badge tooltip reads "Tax exemption certificate that was applied to this invoice." Hovering the badge shows the exposure zone and exempt percentage, for example "PA - 100% Exempt". Clicking the badge opens the Customer Exemption Certificates panel showing all certificates for that customer.
Certificate details from the Total section. Clicking the Tax Amount value in the Total section opens a panel that now shows the standard tax detail breakdown and the customer's exemption certificates that apply.
The badge and panel are read-only. Calculation behavior is unchanged: when a valid exemption certificate exists, Avalara continues to zero or reduce tax in accordance with the certificate's exempt percentage.
Certificate application is controlled by Avalara and continues to work just as before.
Work Taxability Defaults at Customer, Service Agreement, Job Template, and Maintenance Job levels
Work Taxability types configuration
BuildOps now also supports configuring Use Taxable, AP Work Taxability Type, and AR Work Taxability Type fields at several additional levels:
Service Agreements - new fields on the Service Agreement record (Use Taxable, AP Work Taxability Type, AR Work Taxability Type) populate downstream Jobs (including Maintenance Jobs) and Invoice items on invoices created directly from the Service Agreement (including Recurring Billing).
Use Taxable - Indicates whether purchases for the related work may be subject to use tax when vendors do not charge sales tax. Available on Service Agreements, Job Templates, and (transitively, through inheritance) on Maintenance Jobs.
Default value: Off by default
Editable: At any time the parent entity is editable.
AP Work Taxability Type - Default Work Taxability Type used for AP documents (Purchase Orders, Receipts, Bills) related to the parent entity. Determines which Provider Tax Code is used for AP tax calculation.
Source of values: The custom values configured under Tax Settings → Work Taxability Configuration.
Default value: Empty.
Editable: At any time the parent entity is editable. Can be overridden on the individual document line.
AR Work Taxability Type - Default Work Taxability Type used for AR invoices related to the parent entity. Determines which Provider Tax Code is used for AR tax calculation.
Source of values: Same as above.
Default value: Empty.
Editable: At any time the parent entity is editable. Can be overridden on the individual invoice line.
Use Taxable, AP Work Taxability Type, AR Work Taxability Type configuration in a service agreement
Job Templates - new fields (Use Taxable, AP Work Taxability Type, AR Work Taxability Type) propagate to any Job created from the template. The fields are the same as described above for the service agreements.
Use Taxable, AP Work Taxability Type, AR Work Taxability Type configuration in a job template
Maintenance Jobs - Use Taxable, AP Work Taxability Type, AR Work Taxability Type are now editable on Add New and Edit Maintenance dialogs. The values flow into Invoices, Purchase Orders, Receipts, and Bills generated under the maintenance job. The fields are the same as described above for the service agreements.
Use Taxable, AP Work Taxability Type, AR Work Taxability Type configuration in a maintenance job
Customer - new fields on the Service Agreement record (AP Work Taxability Type, AR Work Taxability Type). Both fields are exposed in the Customer Create and Customer Edit forms. The fields are optional, can be left empty, and can be cleared at any time. Their values are displayed in the Customer Detail view. The fields are the same as described above for the service agreements.
AP & AR Work Taxability Type Configuration at the Customer Level
Roles & Permissions
This release does not introduce new permissions. Existing role-based access controls remain in place:
Users who can create and edit Customers can configure the new Customer-level Tax Defaults.
Users who can view Customer Detail can see the Tax Exemptions tab if this feature is turned on for your account and the customer is synced to Avalara.
Users who can view Invoices can see the AR exemption badge and certificate summary.
Users who can create and edit Service Agreements, Job Templates, or Maintenance Jobs can configure the new fields on those entities.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Why doesn't my customer's AR exemption also reduce their AP tax?
A: Because an exemption certificate only covers what you invoice them (AR); it says nothing about what you owe your own vendors (AP). Those are controlled separately via AP Work Taxability Type and Use Taxable.
Q: My customer has locations in multiple states — some exempt, some not. Will BuildOps apply this correctly?
A: Yes. Exemptions apply by region, so a PA exemption won't affect CA invoices for the same customer.
Q: How does BuildOps decide which tax code to use on a line?
A: In order: a tax code set up specifically for the Work Taxability Type you picked, then the item's own default tax code, then Avalara's standard "fully taxable" code if neither exists. If none apply, the line is left blank with a warning.