2020 has reached the mid-year mark and Avalara is delivering a live presentation on this year’s sales tax changes. The report takes stock of what’s taken place in the world of sales tax since the year began. This includes emerging trends, unforeseen changes, and the curveball this year threw the world with the COVID-19 pandemic. Join us for a live webinar presented on July 15 at 1 pm by the sales tax experts at Avalara on their 2020 Sales Tax Changes Midyear Update.

COVID-19

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic hamstrung brick-and-mortar commerce with a tremendous shift to digital operations and eCommerce.

All the while, businesses scrambled to deliver on fulfillment obligations to customers, remain solvent, and even retool to meet the demand for specific products.

Governments addressed the issue in several ways, with delayed VAT filings or temporarily cutting the VAT rate for industries bearing the largest impacts. For example, the United States pushed back state and federal income tax deadlines. This provides more time for individuals and businesses to file and pay.

2 Years Beyond South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc.

If you recall the 2018 United States Supreme Court decision in South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc., the ruling enabled states to tax businesses that have economic activity but no physical presence in the state. Otherwise known as economic nexus. It was a big deal. It still is. At the time, only a handful of states moved on to the new ruling and began charging states without physical presence sales tax.

Fast-forward to the June 2020 sales tax situation and the vast majority of states have signed on to adopt these economic nexus laws. COVID-19 has only heightened awareness among states that remain on the fence and it won’t be long before these convoluted rules apply to all 50 states.

States Need More Money

As the last six months have proven, the states are on their own in several social and economic areas. As the pandemic continues to send shockwaves through economies of every scale, states are sure they’ll need to supplement their coffers one way or another to remain effective in serving their residents. 2020 sales tax rules for individual states are likely to change to address the need for making up lost revenue.

Digital And Streaming Services Can Expect To Pay More

If you haven’t heard of Zoom or GoTo Meeting, chances are you’ve been living under a rock for the past six months. States are anticipated to raise taxes on these heavily utilized platforms. As a result, digital meeting and entertainment services are likely to see sales tax legislation expanded at their expense.

More Collection Requirements For Marketplace Facilitators

Marketplace facilitators like Etsy, Amazon, eBay, and others, are expected to collect and remit sales tax at an increasing rate. This shouldn’t come as a surprise. Most states already have such laws governing marketplace facilitator sales tax collections on the books. Just four states remain in this situation in the entirety of the US. One is already closely eyeing the implementation of such legislation.

The Dynamic Nature of 2020 Sales Tax

Nothing is guaranteed but death and taxes. Unfortunately, sales tax rules seldom retain the same state for very long. The last six months have seen reductions or eliminations of sales tax rules for feminine hygiene products. There’s even been discussion within some regions on the elimination of sales tax for firearms. Now, groceries are a focal point for communities hardest hit by job loss and economic downturn.

You can read more in Avlara’s comprehensive report, here: 2020 sales tax changes midyear update.

About Encompass Solutions

Encompass Solutions is a business and software consulting firm that specializes in ERP systems, EDI, and Managed Services support for Manufacturers and Distributors. Serving small and medium-sized businesses since 2001, Encompass modernizes operations and automates processes. Whether undertaking full-scale implementation, integration, and renovation of existing systems, Encompass provides a specialized approach to every client’s needs. By identifying customer requirements and addressing them with the right solutions, we ensure our clients are equipped to match the pace of the Industry.


AIA and the Association for Advancing Automation are hosting a week-long virtual conference, AIA Vision Week 2020, covering the latest in machine vision and imaging innovations.
Broken into 5 tracks, each day of AIA Vision Week will bring you a new set of sessions geared to help you with your current vision challenges and questions. As part of AIA Vision Week, you will have the opportunity to connect with more than 100 leading vision and imaging companies. Learn about their technology innovations and how they can help your company successfully deploy its vision to increase your quality, efficiency, and global competitiveness.

About AIA Vision Week

AIA brings you a full week of educational conference sessions, enlightening keynote speakers, and connections to the industry’s top suppliers showcasing the latest vision and imaging technologies – all from your convenient computer, tablet, or mobile phone screen.

Participation is FREE and anyone working with vision and imaging technologies – or those who would like to – are encouraged to register.

You’ll get access to educational sessions that are taught by leading vision experts where you’ll learn how vision can help you increase profitability, improve throughput, reduce defects, comply with regulations, solve your automation problems, and more!

Whether you are seeking entry-level training for a basic understanding of machine vision, imaging, and sensors, or are looking for more advanced solutions, AIA Vision Week has something for you.

Each day of the week, starting Monday, May 18, we’ll have multiple conference sessions, followed by a break, then we’ll resume with more topics. The conference will be presented live based on Eastern Daylight Time (GMT-4), starting about 10:00 am EDT and ending at about 3:00 pm EDT each day. See the agenda for details.

Be sure to spend time in the Vision Products Showcase, where you can see the latest in vision and imaging technologies and connect with more than 100 leading companies. You can learn about their technology innovations and how they can help your company successfully deploy its vision to increase your quality, efficiency, and global competitiveness.

AIA Vision Week Study Tracks

At this time, The AIA vision Week agenda is available in full. There are 5 unique learning tracks that attendees can leverage to learn more about each technology’s unique applications. Keynote speakers are delivering informative talks and breakout sessions deliver detailed looks into more specific areas of machine vision technology. come with questions and be prepared to learn about the latest in technological innovation relating to Machine Vision, AI, applications, and robotics. Here are the available learning tracks:

About The AIA – The World’s Largest Machine Vision Trade Association

Founded in 1984, the AIA was organized specifically to advance the global understanding and implementation of vision and imaging technologies to help our members grow. We are committed to providing support and leadership on common industry issues.

Today, AIA is the world’s largest global vision and imaging trade group serving over 375 member companies from 32 countries. Our members include manufacturers of vision components and systems, system integrators, distributors, OEMs, end-users, consulting firms, academic institutions, and research groups directly involved with vision and imaging.

Key AIA activities include standards development for the industry; market research and analysis (including a quarterly Vision Market Report for members); trade show sponsorship – The Vision Show and Automate; educational workshops, conferences, and networking opportunities throughout the world; Online and in-person certification training; and Vision Online, the world’s leading resource for vision and imaging information.

We invite you to see AIA’s Vision of the Future video here.

About Encompass Solutions

Encompass Solutions is a business and software consulting firm that specializes in ERP systems, EDI, and Managed Services support for Manufacturers and Distributors. Serving small and medium-sized businesses since 2001, Encompass modernizes operations and automates processes for hundreds of customers across the globe. Whether undertaking full-scale implementation, integration, and renovation of existing systems, Encompass provides a specialized approach to every client’s needs. By identifying customer requirements and addressing them with the right solutions, we ensure our clients are equipped to match the pace of the Industry.


Encompass Solutions March 2020 News And Updates

With Winter wrapping up and Spring on the horizon, there are some budding developments in the world of manufacturing, Epicor, and Encompass. Here are a few updates, events, and resources to consider this March.

Epicor Insights 2020

Insights 2020 is Epicor Software Corporation’s annual user conference. This event is looked forward to every year by employees, partners, and customers from around the world. If you want to have a look at the current Insights 2020 agenda, you can review all the details, here.

Don’t forget, that we’ll be holding our own annual customer appreciation event at Insights with drinks and food for all our partners and colleagues in attendance.

an image of the Epicor Insights Executive view exhibit floor

New Kinetic Experiences Available for Epicor ERP Cloud Customers

As we continue making progress through the Epicor Kinetic journey, more Kinetic reports and processes are now available to our Cloud ERP customers to test and provide important feedback that will help to shape Kinetic innovations.

an iamge of the epicor erp kinetic design framework as revealed during epicor ignite 2020

Epicor Patch Management Service

Encompass Managed Services enable businesses to supplement their internal functional resources with Encompass experts. Our new patch management service extends your Epicor system functionality with an iterative process. We ensure your system is always up to date and functioning at peak performance with the Encompass Patch Management Service.

epicor patch management services

What You Need To Know About Cloud Computing

From storage to software, if you’re getting/using it over the Internet, it’s cloud computing. “Cloud” is the delivery of on-demand computing resources over the Internet. You can leverage the cloud in many ways, including the deployment of your Epicor ERP system. Learn more about the benefits and challenges associated with Cloud computing.

an image of a server room used by epicor prophet 21 cloud erp for distributors on microsoft azure

Product Knowledge At The Core Of Your Company Culture

To demonstrate that you can solve a customer’s pain points, you must know technology solutions at a detailed level—you need deep product knowledge. You must also understand the specific needs of your customers so you can communicate which solutions and capabilities are most relevant to them. When you have more comprehensive knowledge on both fronts, you can communicate how your solution is differentiated, relevant, and superior on a functional level.

Epicor production management as part of the complete epicor erp overview

Encompass Solutions & SPCA Of The Triad Donation Drive

As part of our quarterly community service initiative for Q1 2020, Encompass Solutions will be working with SPCA of the Triad to conduct a donation drive. We are gathering and requesting Food, Materials, and monetary donations to assist our local SPCA. While all of our employees are encouraged to participate, we extend our invitation to participate beyond the walls of our offices. If you’d like to help improve the lives of shelter animals and their caregivers, please join us in donating.

ENCOMPASS Q1 FOOD DRIVE SPCA FLYER

Cycle Counts That Count Workshops

Cycle Counts That Count will help you implement better cycle counting on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis starting in April and let you potentially conduct your last ever year-end full physical inventory that same year. The final full physical will validate your efforts at daily counting and provide management with the data they need to determine when to switch to a cycle-only inventory process.

cycle counts the full physical inventory continual process improvement workshop

About Encompass Solutions

Encompass Solutions is a business and software consulting firm that specializes in ERP systems, EDI, and Managed Services support for Manufacturers and Distributors. Serving small and medium-sized businesses since 2001, Encompass modernizes operations and automates processes for hundreds of customers across the globe. Whether undertaking full-scale implementation, integration, and renovation of existing systems, Encompass provides a specialized approach to every client’s needs. By identifying customer requirements and addressing them with the right solutions, we ensure our clients are equipped to match the pace of the Industry.


Epicor invites you to a series of Epicor ERP webinars, deep-diving into the typical needs of a financial team and how these can be fulfilled by the Epicor ERP software and its add-on products. We picked a week in our calendar and scheduled several live sessions on Epicor financials as below. All webinars will be recorded and made available.

Epicor ERP Webinars

Every business needs to perform financial accounting and reporting periodically in one or another way. Epicor ERP has a vast range of financial core capabilities, modules and add-on products available to our customers helping streamline their financial processes by doing more with fewer resources in a shorter time. It is all about making their life as a financial professional easier and helping them to do their day-to-day job more efficiently.

Epicor ERP Financials Core Overview

Review of the Epicor ERP Financials Core capabilities, what’s new in the Epicor ERP 10.2.500 version and what is expected in Epicor ERP 10.2.600. Highlights of the optional Epicor ERP financial modules and a quick overview of the add-on products delivered by our ISV partners.

Date/Time: Monday, March 30, 2020 at 10:00 am CT

Registration Link

Epicor Data Analytics (EDA)

The new Financial Management package in EDA is the latest addition to our BI and Analytics product portfolio. Learn how to make intuitive, easy-to-use, dynamic, device-agnostic financial reports and dashboards with EDA in the cloud.

Date/Time: Tuesday, March 31, 2020 at 10:00 am CT

Registration Link

Epicor Electronic Reports

The delivery of electronic reports and e-invoicing solutions has never been easier than with Epicor Electronic Reports. You can extract any data from your Epicor ERP system in a structured format and use it for integration with any third-party systems, for audit processes, e-invoicing, legally required electronic reports and more.

Date/Time: Tuesday, March 31, 2020 at 11:30 am CT

Registration Link

Epicor XL Connect

The best Excel-based reporting product offers direct connection to the Epicor ERP database. You can create arbitrary reports with the REST API utilizing your own BAQ in Epicor ERP. Send reports and the underlying data to business analysts with the PackNGo or schedule repeated report delivery with the Broadcast functionality.

Date/Time: Wednesday, April 1, 2020 at 10:00 am CT

Registration Link

Epicor Financial Planner (EFP)

EFP is a great financial budget planning product integrated with Epicor ERP. This cloud-based product features an Excel add-in and a web-based interface, allowing a real-time collaboration with all stakeholders in a workflow-based budget approval process, as well as the comparison of budgeted figures and actuals.

Date/Time: Thursday, April 2, 2020 at 10:00 am CT

Registration Link

Epicor Cash Collect

If you need to tackle with late payments and outstanding customer invoices, Epicor Cash Collect is an excellent product to establish an efficient credit and collection process at your organization. Automate customer communication processes, transcribe and search calls, attach invoices to e-mails. Key customers can manage their invoices with the Customer Portal functionality.

Date/Time: Friday, April 3, 2020 at 10:00 am CT

Registration Link

Epicor Tax Connect

Sales and use tax determination at the best quality. Thanks to our partner, by connecting to an industry-leading, always up-to-date service through Epicor Tax Connect, you can save a lot of time on looking up the appropriate tax rates and preparing tax returns for all the states you do business in.

Date/Time: Friday, April 3, 2020 at 11:30 am CT

Registration Link

Epicor ERP Credit Card Processing

Description: Many elements of the entire credit card payment process are covered now by Epicor, helping you to save costs on processing credit card transactions securely, absolutely complying the industry standards. Review and manage transactions in real-time, make the payment experience to your customers flawless and easy by allowing them to pay with their credit cards.

Date/Time: Friday, April 3, 2020 at 1:00 pm CT

Registration Link

About Encompass Solutions

Encompass Solutions is a business and software consulting firm that specializes in ERP systems, EDI, and Managed Services support for Manufacturers and Distributors. Serving small and medium-sized businesses since 2001, Encompass modernizes operations and automates processes for hundreds of customers across the globe. Whether undertaking full-scale implementation, integration, and renovation of existing systems, Encompass provides a specialized approach to every client’s needs. By identifying customer requirements and addressing them with the right solutions, we ensure our clients are equipped to match the pace of Industry.