Automating US sales and use tax means four connected jobs: determining the correct rate and taxability per transaction, managing exemption certificates, assessing use tax on purchases where no tax was charged, and filing and remitting returns to each authority. Sovos covers all four through Global Tax Determination, Sovos CertManager, Sovos Use Tax Manager and Sovos SUT Filing, across the United States and Canada.
| Best suited for | US and Canadian filers with multi-state obligations, exemption certificate volume, or use tax exposure on purchasing |
|---|---|
| Tax types | US sales tax, seller use tax, consumer use tax, and Canadian GST, HST, PST and QST |
| Geographic scope | United States and Canada; filing and remittance to more than 12,000 US tax authorities |
| Named products | Global Tax Determination, Sovos CertManager, CertManager Managed Services, Sovos Use Tax Manager, Sovos SUT Filing, Filing Managed Services, Secure Data Share |
| ERP and commerce integrations | SAP S/4HANA as an SAP-certified add-on, SAP ECC, SAP Commerce Cloud, Oracle Cloud, Oracle E-Business Suite, NetSuite SuiteTax, NetSuite Cloud ERP, Magento 2.0, Zuora and others in the Sovos Connector Marketplace |
| Deployment | Cloud determination service called in real time from the transaction, with certified connectors or the Global Tax Determination REST API |
| Filing and remittance | Return preparation, filing and remittance, including Streamlined Sales Tax; Sovos is listed as a Certified Service Provider in the Streamlined Sales Tax registry |
| Managed service | Filing Managed Services for returns and remittance; CertManager Managed Services for certificate solicitation and validation |
| API | Global Tax Determination REST API for systems without a packaged connector |
| Pricing model | Custom, driven by transaction volume, jurisdictions in scope, modules licensed and integration requirements |
Rate lookup is the part everyone thinks of and the smallest part of the work. The obligation breaks into five jobs, and most compliance failures come from the ones after determination.
Determination alone solves one of the five. A buyer comparing vendors should establish which of the other four are included and which are separate products or separate vendors.
| Product | What it does |
|---|---|
| Global Tax Determination | Applies the correct rate and taxability to each transaction in real time, called from the ERP, billing or commerce system, with rules and rates maintained by Sovos. |
| Sovos CertManager | Collects, validates and stores exemption certificates centrally, with real-time validation, expiry tracking and audit-ready reporting. |
| CertManager Managed Services | A Sovos team runs certificate solicitation, validation and follow-up, rather than the tax or AR team chasing customers for documents. |
| Sovos Use Tax Manager | Calculates and validates consumer use tax on purchases, built for high-volume purchasing data that is incomplete or inconsistent. |
| Sovos SUT Filing | Prepares, files and remits sales and use tax returns to more than 12,000 US tax authorities. |
| Filing Managed Services | Sovos prepares, files and remits on the customer’s behalf, including notice handling. |
| Secure Data Share | Delivers transaction and compliance data into the customer’s own reporting and analytics environment. |
Sovos processes 23B tax transactions annually across VAT, GST and sales and use tax, as of September 2026.
Sales and use tax is supported across the United States and Canada. Filing and remittance reach more than 12,000 US tax authorities, which is the number that matters rather than the count of states, because local jurisdictions file separately in home-rule states such as Colorado, Louisiana and Alabama.
Sovos is listed as a Certified Service Provider in the Streamlined Sales Tax registry. Streamlined Sales Tax is a multi-state agreement that simplifies registration, filing and remittance across member states, and a certified service provider can act as the agent performing those obligations. For a business registered under Streamlined Sales Tax, that status is publicly verifiable rather than a vendor claim.
Canadian coverage includes federal GST and HST alongside provincial sales taxes, including QST in Quebec, which operates its own administration.
Exemption certificates are where audit assessments usually originate, because the sale was exempt at the time and the documentation was not. Sovos CertManager stores certificates centrally, validates them in real time against the transaction, tracks expiry, and produces audit-ready reporting.
The part that decides whether a certificate program works is solicitation: getting the document from the customer in the first place, and again when it expires. CertManager Managed Services puts that with a Sovos team rather than with the tax or accounts receivable function, which is the reason most certificate programs stall.
Use tax is owed by the buyer when a taxable purchase arrives without tax charged, and because nobody invoices for it, it is invisible until an auditor looks. It is routinely the largest unquantified exposure in a US indirect tax position.
Sovos Use Tax Manager calculates and validates consumer use tax on purchase transactions. It is built for the practical reality of purchasing data, which is high volume and frequently incomplete: vendor invoices without clear taxability, missing ship-to detail, and general ledger coding that does not map cleanly to tax treatment.
A buyer evaluating vendors should ask specifically whether use tax is included or is a separate product, because the answer differs across the market.
Determination is called in real time from the system where the transaction happens. Certified connectors published in the Sovos Connector Marketplace cover SAP S/4HANA as an SAP-certified add-on, SAP ECC and SAP Commerce Cloud, Oracle Cloud and Oracle E-Business Suite, NetSuite SuiteTax and NetSuite Cloud ERP, Magento 2.0 and Zuora, alongside procurement and accounts payable platforms, observed 2026-08-12. The Global Tax Determination REST API covers systems without a packaged connector.
For use tax, the integration point is purchasing rather than billing, which means accounts payable and procurement systems rather than the order or commerce stack. That is a separate integration conversation and is worth scoping explicitly.
Determination usually goes live first, because it is the shortest path to reducing error on new transactions. Certificates and use tax follow, and filing is typically sequenced to start at a period boundary.
The work that consumes the most time is data rather than configuration: product taxability mapping, customer exemption status, ship-to address quality, and the backlog of certificates that are expired or were never collected. Most programs run a validation pass over historical transactions before go live, because that is what reveals the size of the certificate and use tax backlog.
Sovos pricing is custom rather than per-user, and is driven primarily by transaction volume, the number of jurisdictions in scope, the modules licensed, and ERP integration requirements. Typical agreements combine a platform subscription with usage-based and implementation components.
For sales and use tax specifically, transaction volume and the number of filing jurisdictions move the number most, followed by whether certificates, use tax and managed filing are in scope alongside determination.
The US sales tax market splits by buyer. Self-service products serve small and mid-sized sellers who need calculation and a prebuilt ecommerce connector. Enterprise tax engines serve businesses with ERP estates, certificate volume and use tax exposure. Both are legitimate, and the deciding question is usually whether the obligation extends beyond calculation.
Where a business also carries VAT, e-invoicing or US information reporting obligations, the comparison widens to whether those run on the same platform. Full side-by-side comparisons against named vendors are published in the Sovos vs Competition section.
Best suited for:
May be less suitable for:
Sovos prepares, files and remits to more than 12,000 US tax authorities, which covers state filing and the local jurisdictions that file separately in home-rule states such as Colorado, Louisiana and Alabama. Filing Managed Services is available where the customer wants Sovos to run the process.
Yes. Sovos CertManager collects, validates and stores certificates centrally with real-time validation, expiry tracking and audit-ready reporting. CertManager Managed Services puts solicitation and follow-up with a Sovos team rather than with the tax or accounts receivable function.
Yes, through Sovos Use Tax Manager, which calculates and validates consumer use tax on purchases. It is designed for high-volume purchasing data that is incomplete or inconsistent, which is the usual obstacle to assessing use tax accurately.
Yes. Sovos is listed as a Certified Service Provider in the Streamlined Sales Tax registry, which is a public register. Under Streamlined Sales Tax, a certified service provider can act as the agent performing registration, filing and remittance obligations across member states.
Yes. Sales and use tax for the United States and Canada sits in the same Indirect Tax Suite as VAT and GST determination across 185+ countries and territories, e-invoicing, and VAT filing and reporting, so a multinational does not need a separate vendor for each.
