Avalara - Log Files

Avalara - Log Files

Release Date: 4/28/23
Version: 8.6 & Above

Log files can be very important when investigating why taxes may not be calculated as expected. In particular, the AvalaraAPICalls.xml file is important when you speak with Avalara reps for support.  This file contains the details Elliott passed to Avalara web services.  You can find various Avalara log files in the <ElliottRoot>\Log\CompanyID folder.  See sample screen below:


In Global Setup -> Add-on-> Avalara Sales Tax Interface, you may set up "6. Logging Level" with the following options:

  • E=Errors Only – system will produce AVErrors-YYMMDDHHMMSS.log. This can be generated due to an Avalara error or a programming error.
  • B=Brief – system will produce AVErrors-YYMMDDHHMMSS.log and AVAPILog- YYMMDDHHMMSS.log, which captures a brief description of all of the API calls that are performed and whether they were successful.
  • D=Detail – system will produce AVErrors-YYMMDDHHMMSS.log, AVAPILog- YYMMDDHHMMSS.log, and AvalaraAPICalls.xml. The xml file will be valuable for Avalara to assist you when you have questions about the calculated tax.
At this moment, we are forcing this flag to be "D" so that all log files (see examples below) are applicable.

Log File Examples

AVErrors...log
This log file is created when an error has take place when interfacing with Avalara web services. The following is a sample:

----ERROR----
6/30/2022 6:48 AM Unable to authenticate connection
----ERROR----
6/30/2022 6:48 AM Unable to establish connection with AvaTax Service. Ping failed.
----ERROR----
6/30/2022 12:02 PM Retail delivery fee entered for COLORADORDF should be 0.27 . Please change the price on the line item.

AVAPILog...log
The log file is created when there's a communication between Elliott and Avalara web services. The following is a sample:

----Avalara API----
8/1/2022 10:31 AM CommitTransaction: Success Invoice: 510737
----Avalara API----
8/1/2022 10:51 AM CreateTransaction: Failed Order: 202039 Value cannot be null.
Parameter name: String
----Avalara API----
8/1/2022 10:51 AM CreateTransaction: Success Invoice: 510741
----Avalara API----
8/1/2022 10:51 AM CreateTransaction: Success Invoice: 510742
----Avalara API----
8/1/2022 10:51 AM CreateTransaction: Success Invoice: 510743
----Avalara API----
8/1/2022 10:51 AM CreateTransaction: Success Invoice: 510744
----Avalara API----
8/1/2022 10:51 AM CreateTransaction: Success Invoice: 510745
----Avalara API----
8/1/2022 11:26 AM CreateTransaction: Failed Order: 202039 Value cannot be null.
Parameter name: String

AvalaraAPICalls.xml
This xml file is useful for Avalara reps to help you when you have questions about how the tax is calculated. It takes up a significant amount of disk space. Therefore, we limit the maximum file size to 10MB. If this file should exceed 10MB, we will rename it "-YYMMddHHMMss" (i.e., Date & Time Stamp in the file name) and create a new AvalaraAPICalls.xml file. Hence, AvalaraAPICalls.XML is always the latest file. We recommend that you open the file with Internet Explorer or Notepad++ (a free utility that you can download) which provide good support for displaying xml files. The following is a sample. 

  <API>
    <Method>Ping</Method>
    <StartDate>8/17/2022 4:41:05 AM</StartDate>
    <EndDate>8/17/2022 4:41:05 AM</EndDate>
    <Request>
    </Request>
    <Response>{"version":"22.7.0","authenticated":true,"authenticationType":2,"authenticatedUserName":"anonymous@2001606391","authenticatedUserId":1442077,"authenticatedAccountId":2001606391,"authenticatedCompanyId":null,"crmid":"0013300001eOTxHAAW"}</Response>
  </API> 

AVCommitLog....log
When we delete a transaction from the AVTAXAPI database file when a tax transaction is committed, a record is written to AVCommitLog- YYMMDDHHMMSS.log regardless of the error log setting.  This will store the request that was made for the transaction. Here is an example of the data it contains:

----Avalara Successful Commit----
8/1/2022 10:31 AM
Method: CreateTransaction
Model: {"code":"510737","lines":[{"number":"1","quantity":2.000,"amount":10.00,"addresses":null,"taxCode":"P0000000","customerUsageType":null,"entityUseCode":null,"itemCode":"00004","exemptionCode":null,"discounted":null,"taxIncluded":null,"revenueAccount":null,"ref1":null,"ref2":null,"description":"Raw Material of Toner - Resin ","businessIdentificationNo":null,"taxOverride":null,"parameters":null,"userDefinedFields":null,"hsCode":null,"merchantSellerId":null,"merchantSellerIdentifier":null,"marketplaceLiabilityType":null,"originationDocumentId":null,"originationSite":null,"category":null,"summary":null}],"type":1,"companyCode":"DEFAULT","date":"\/Date(1659374000085)\/","salespersonCode":null,"customerCode":"001435","customerUsageType":null,"entityUseCode":"TAXABLE","discount":null,"purchaseOrderNo":"","exemptionNo":null,"addresses":{"singleLocation":null,"shipFrom":{"locationCode":null,"line1":"4030 Valley Blvd Ste 101","line2":"","line3":null,"city":"Walnut","region":"CA","country":"US","postalCode":"91789-0931","latitude":null,"longitude":null},"shipTo":{"locationCode":null,"line1":"601 E Midlothian Blvd","line2":"","line3":null,"city":"Youngstown","region":"OH","country":"US","postalCode":"44502","latitude":null,"longitude":null},"pointOfOrderOrigin":null,"pointOfOrderAcceptance":null,"goodsPlaceOrServiceRendered":null,"import":null,"billTo":null},"parameters":null,"userDefinedFields":null,"referenceCode":null,"reportingLocationCode":null,"commit":false,"batchCode":null,"taxOverride":null,"currencyCode":"USD","serviceMode":null,"exchangeRate":null,"exchangeRateEffectiveDate":null,"exchangeRateCurrencyCode":null,"posLaneCode":null,"businessIdentificationNo":null,"isSellerImporterOfRecord":null,"description":null,"email":null,"debugLevel":null,"customerSupplierName":null,"dataSourceId":null,"deliveryTerms":null}
----Avalara Successful Commit----
8/1/2022 12:32 PM
Method: CreateTransaction
Model: {"code":"510746","lines":[{"number":"1","quantity":1.000,"amount":2.75,"addresses":null,"taxCode":"P0000000","customerUsageType":null,"entityUseCode":null,"itemCode":"00004","exemptionCode":null,"discounted":null,"taxIncluded":null,"revenueAccount":null,"ref1":null,"ref2":null,"description":"Raw Material of Toner - Resin ","businessIdentificationNo":null,"taxOverride":null,"parameters":null,"userDefinedFields":null,"hsCode":null,"merchantSellerId":null,"merchantSellerIdentifier":null,"marketplaceLiabilityType":null,"originationDocumentId":null,"originationSite":null,"category":null,"summary":null}],"type":1,"companyCode":"DEFAULT","date":"\/Date(1659377599657)\/","salespersonCode":null,"customerCode":"000300","customerUsageType":null,"entityUseCode":"TAXABLE","discount":null,"purchaseOrderNo":"","exemptionNo":null,"addresses":{"singleLocation":null,"shipFrom":{"locationCode":null,"line1":"4030 Valley Blvd Ste 101","line2":"","line3":null,"city":"Walnut","region":"CA","country":"US","postalCode":"91789-0931","latitude":null,"longitude":null},"shipTo":{"locationCode":null,"line1":"9872 Round Circle Drive","line2":"Bldg. 18, Back Door","line3":null,"city":"Knoxville","region":"TN","country":"US","postalCode":"59006","latitude":null,"longitude":null},"pointOfOrderOrigin":null,"pointOfOrderAcceptance":null,"goodsPlaceOrServiceRendered":null,"import":null,"billTo":null},"parameters":null,"userDefinedFields":null,"referenceCode":null,"reportingLocationCode":null,"commit":false,"batchCode":null,"taxOverride":null,"currencyCode":"USD","serviceMode":null,"exchangeRate":null,"exchangeRateEffectiveDate":null,"exchangeRateCurrencyCode":null,"posLaneCode":null,"businessIdentificationNo":null,"isSellerImporterOfRecord":null,"description":null,"email":null,"debugLevel":null,"customerSupplierName":null,"dataSourceId":null,"deliveryTerms":null}

CLS



    • Related Articles

    • Avalara Setup Procedures - Elliott Configuration

      Release Date: 4/28/23 Version: 8.6 and above Revised: 9/11/23 Elliott Configuration After installing Elliott V8.6 for the first time, you will need to make some configuration changes. Bring up <ElliottRoot>\Bin86\EL860CF.exe utility or alternatively ...
    • Avalara: Documentation Roadmap

      Release Date: 4/28/23 Updated: 9/7/23 Version: 8.6 and Above Introduction Elliott Business Software previously supports Vertex for national sales tax collection. Starting Elliott V8.6, we are favoring Avalara over Vertex. Existing Vertex users should ...
    • Change - LOG Files in EDI Export Processes Are Now Redirected to LOG Folder

      Release Date: 05/05/2021 Version: 8.5 & Up Currently, Elliott EDI Export Processing may utilize LOG files to store error information. For example, the CPSHPEDI.LOG file is used by "Shipped Data Export" (ASN/856 Export). This file currently resides in ...
    • A Case to Diagnose Elliott SOAP Web Services Errors with Log Files

      'Release Date: 08/15/2024 Modified Date: 08/23/2024 Version: 8.5 & Up When a web developer calls Elliott SOAP web services, he/she should place a try catch block so if there is an error with the web services call, the error can be caught at the ...
    • Avalara - Print Invoices

      Release Date: 4/28/23 Updated: 2/12/24 Version: 8.6 and Above When the Avalara Integration is enabled, the following changes will take effect when printing invoices. Picking Tickets must be printed under version 8.6. If the user attempts to run the ...