As one of the leading accounting firms for startups in the US, Burkland Associates frequently advises its tech clients on how to approach and manage sales tax. And with 20 years of experience, Burkland’s Indirect Tax Director Heather Ake has worked with hundreds of companies to get compliant.

For her SaaS and digital goods clients, Ake finds Anrok to be one of the best sales tax automation platforms—both for the client, and for her and her team on the advisory side. 

SaaS sales tax complexity made compliance a manual process

Burkland has over 800 startup clients, and is experiencing rapid growth across all divisions—especially its SaaS division. Over 60% of Burkland’s client base is software companies, where growth is quick and the tax needs are specialized. 

“Our startup clients often go from slow revenue growth to quickly taking off within a matter of months, so we have to stay ahead of the curve for them,” Ake says. 

With constant changes in digital product taxability (including many home-rule jurisdictions), plus the complexities of recurring revenue, remote hiring, and global distribution from day one, Ake’s team would spend a lot of time manually managing sales tax for these SaaS clients.

“Without sales tax software, it’s definitely a manual process. We would have a person designated for this work three weeks out of four,” says Ake. “It's costly not just for us but for our clients, too.” 

Burkland’s tax team and their clients needed a SaaS-specialized platform for managing sales tax compliance. A fractional CFO at the firm was familiar with Anrok and suggested that Ake check it out. 

A top recommendation for SaaS clients

Having used several different sales tax platforms with her clients over the years, Ake has seen firsthand some of the gaps in legacy options, especially for her SaaS clients.

For one thing, the investment necessary to integrate and implement some of the tools was just too much for lean teams at fast-growing companies. She found a stark difference with Anrok that really stands out to her. 

“The ease of integration and straightforwardness makes a big difference,” says Ake. “With Anrok there’s not a lot of upfront work, which is something we typically see with other solutions. It’s just simpler.”

Plus, Ake and her team find Anrok’s accuracy for software and digital products means they can trust the monitoring and calculation being done for their SaaS clients. And with filing and registration built-in, she and her team can free up even more of their time for strategic work.

“With Anrok, you receive both physical and economic nexus tracking. That’s huge. In addition, they register and set up the returns as part of their fee - no additional cost. It’s more hands-free than hands-on, compared to what we typically have to do with other platforms.”

Finally, Ake notes that when she or her clients need support with the platform, the Anrok team is quick to respond and help out—something they haven’t always experienced with other partners. 

At the end of the day, Ake says, “for our SaaS clients, Anrok is at the top of the list of our recommendations.”