Pins & Aces is a digitally-native golf brand making waves in the industry for their stand-out, quality, equipment. Founded in 2018 and based in Arvada, Colorado, they've built a rapidly growing brand selling everything from hats to headcovers to golf bags, earning respect from tour players and amateurs alike. 

When the pandemic transformed golf from a pastime into a pandemic escape, sales surged. New states triggered nexus. And founder Nick Mertz realized they needed a sales tax solution immediately. What followed were two years on an overly complex platform where it was nearly impossible to see where they had nexus, Shopify data was pulled inaccurately, issues piled up with no real support, and more than $10,000 in penalties snowballed as a result. Then they found Kintsugi.

When Your ‘Solution’ Makes Tax Compliance Harder

When Pins & Aces signed on with their first sales tax compliance platform, they were disappointed to find that it made simple tasks nearly impossible. "Seeing where we were approaching nexus or had crossed the threshold was difficult,” said founder Nick Mertz. “There was no visibility. If I wanted to see how much sales tax we paid in Massachusetts, for example, it was really difficult to find that.” 

The biggest issues came in the form of misfilings and inaccuracies from failed integrations. The previous tax platform Pins & Aces used couldn't accurately pull transaction data from Shopify, creating massive discrepancies that triggered big headaches. "We’d get these huge discrepancies saying we owed $100,000 in sales tax, when really we owed $20,000,” said Nick. “And when we’d reach out to our provider, the support was non-existent.” 

The consequences were real. Pins & Aces accrued over $10,000 in penalties from misfiling and missing deadlines. One particularly frustrating issue: during onboarding with this previous provider, they registered in March, but then didn't start filing until June. Then down the road, the states recognized that March registration date, and Pins & Aces was hit with penalties for three months of missing filings—filings they didn't know they needed to submit and the tax provider didn’t catch either.

"We accrued all this interest and penalties because we missed these three months from when we registered to when we started actually filing. And I had no clue." That’s what the tax solution was there for, to manage this complexity and ensure Nick and team were taking the necessary actions to stay compliant. 

After two years of issues like this, Nick knew they had to make a change. 

Finding the Right Sales Tax Partner

When evaluating new sales tax platforms, Pins & Aces had three clear criteria shaped by their past experience:

Usability: They needed a dashboard that made it easy to navigate, sort by reports or states, and actually see what they owed, and what was on the horizon. And a platform with a better Shopify integration to correctly pull in transaction data. 

Support: They needed real people who were responsive, anticipatory of customer needs, and easy to connect with.

Cost: They wanted cost-savings and a transparent pricing model that wouldn’t penalize them for scaling and expanding regions.

Kintsugi delivered on all three. "Kintsugi is very proactive. If there's a password that we need for a state that's not integrated fully, or credentials need to change, Kintsugi is always available to help. They're very proactive. The support's been great."

Day One Compliance

One of the biggest concerns about switching providers was data migration. With Kintsugi, the Shopify integration took ten minutes to set up, including transferring in all historical data. More importantly, unlike their previous provider, there was no gap in coverage.

"With Kintsugi, on day one they took over and ensured our registrations and filing was set up accurately and that our transaction data was syncing correctly."

Today, Nick spends about two minutes per week in Kintsugi, with a monthly 15-minute review. And that’s exactly what we want to see–customers spending less time in the platform because they can trust that it's handled. 

“Kintsugi automatically pulls our data from Shopify, identifies new products, and then prompts me to classify them—are these physical products? Digital products? Then, it handles the rest.”

Kintsugi pulls in all the Shopify orders to calculate sales tax and begin monitoring for nexus exposure, then handles filings automatically. 

The Results: Time, Money, and Peace of Mind

The financial impact is clear: over $10,000 in penalties eliminated, plus the ongoing cost savings of a more affordable platform. But the biggest win might be intangible.

"I would say probably the ease of use," Nick said when asked what surprised him most after switching to Kintsugi. "For me, taxes are the most complex thing. Kintsugi makes it straightforward, and there are no issues. We’ve finally stopped getting letters telling us we owe taxes.”

Ease of use, plus:

✔️ Responsive sales team

✔️ Easy onboarding and migration of data

✔️ Seamless Shopify integration

✔️ Proactive support team

✔️ And finally peace of mind when it comes to complicated sales tax

What Good Sales Tax Software Should Do

When asked if there's anything he wishes Kintsugi could do that it doesn't, Nick's answer perfectly captures what businesses actually need from sales tax automation:

"It doesn't need to have a million bells and whistles. It needs to record sales tax, reconcile it and pay it. That's basically it. It's not glamorous. It just needs to do its job accurately and reliably, and it does exactly that."

For a golf brand focused on making the game more fun and accessible, having sales tax compliance work accurately, proactively, and without constant firefighting, means that Nick and his team can focus on what they do best: providing the best in golf gear.