"The only way we could sell to the small business is through technology," Kushniruk says. Kushniruk agrees that a good way to describe the size of target businesses is those that are good potential users of Intuit's QuickBooks Self-employed.

However, those smaller businesses have the same problems of bigger enterprises. They must collect and remit sales taxes, but often lack resources to handle those responsibilities or may not even recognize their legal obligations.

Kushniruk says small business face increasing scrutiny from governments and need assistance in dealing with those issues.

Avalara has also created an online small business community center, which was described as a one-stop location for looking up tax rates, learning more about where sales tax must be collected and remitted. They will also be able to download white papers, register for free webinars, browse a directory of accounting firms, 'test drive' Avalara's solutions TrustFile and AvaTax.

At the same time, Avalara says Fishbowl has created a connector between its inventory program and AvaTax. Fishbowl markets manufacturing and warehouse management application that work with QuickBooks Online and Xero.