This improvement lets you view Avalara-calculated sales tax at the item group level on estimate printouts, giving your team and customers full transparency into how tax is applied across each section of an estimate.
What's changing?
Previously, when you built estimates using item groups, sales tax was not broken out or displayed at the item group level on the printed estimate. Your team had no way to show customers how sales tax applied to each section of the work, which made it harder to explain charges and build trust in the estimate presentation.
With this improvement, sales tax calculated by Avalara for each service, material, and equipment item is automatically summed and shown at the item group level on the estimate printout. Each item group now displays its aggregated tax value alongside the subtotal price, so customers can see exactly what they are being charged and why.
Before and After
Before (Current)
Open an estimate that uses item groups (sections) to organize services, materials, and equipment.
Review the item group totals — only the subtotal price is shown at the group level.
Print or send the estimate to your customer.
The printed estimate shows item group prices without any sales tax breakdown at the group level.
Impact: Customers see a lump total price with no visibility into the tax applied per section, requiring your team to explain tax charges manually and creating potential confusion or distrust during the estimate review.
After
Confirm your account has the Sales Tax per Item Group configuration and all required Avalara configurations enabled (contact Support or your Customer Success Manager (CSM) to enable).
Open an estimate and organize your work into item groups as normal — adding services, materials, and equipment to each group.
Avalara calculates the sales tax for each line item automatically. ServiceTitan sums the tax values across all items within each group.
Print or send the estimate. The printed estimate now displays each item group's aggregated sales tax value alongside its subtotal price.
Impact: Customers can see the tax applied to each section of the estimate, improving transparency and reducing back-and-forth during the sales conversation.
Who uses this feature
Commercial Construction
Administrators, Managers, Accountants, Bookkeepers
Region availability: All regions
How it works for your industry
Commercial Construction
A general contractor presents an estimate for a large commercial renovation broken into three item groups — demolition, structural work, and finishes. The printed estimate now shows the Avalara-calculated tax subtotal for each group, so the owner can review and approve the tax charges for each phase of the project.
A project manager reviewing a multi-phase estimate wants to verify tax compliance before submitting it for approval. With sales tax shown at the item group level, they can confirm each section's tax amount matches the applicable rate without calculating it manually.
A sales rep presenting an estimate to a commercial property owner uses the item group tax breakdown to walk the customer through the total cost of each scope of work. The transparent tax display supports a faster estimate approval and reduces negotiation time.
How to Prepare
Have an administrator reach out to Support or your Customer Success Manager (CSM) to have Sales Tax per Item Group and any prerequisite Avalara configurations enabled.
Confirm that the items in your pricebook are marked as taxable where applicable so that sales tax calculates correctly at the line item level and rolls up to the item group.
Review any existing estimate templates that use item groups to understand how the sales tax display will affect your standard printout format.
Brief your sales team and estimators on the new tax display so they can explain the item group tax breakdown to customers during estimate presentations.