Overview
Setting Up Taxes in CounterPoint
Checklist
1. Define Tax Codes
2. Create a Default NCR Retail Online Customer
3. Configure Ecommerce Control
4. Publish Data
Manual Tax Calculations
Basic Tax Options
Tax Configurations By State
Automatic Tax Calculations
Signing Up for the AvaTax Tax Lookup Feature
Enabling Tax Rates by ZIP Code
Viewing Taxes in Store Management
Importing Orders into CounterPoint
In NCR Retail Online, you have the opportunity to apply taxes as you desire to every shipping location you serve. You can specify whether to charge tax on a state-by-state basis, and you can manually specify a single tax rate for each state. If you want NCR Retail Online to automatically calculate taxes based on the shopper's ship-to ZIP code, you can sign-up for the AvaTax
Tax Rate Lookup
feature. More information is available at
http://www.avalara.com/e-commerce/magento
.
When orders are downloaded into NCR Counterpoint, the taxes can be:
-
Imported:
Taxes are downloaded (imported) from NCR Retail Online, or
-
Calculated:
Counterpoint calculates the tax based on the customer's tax code, or a combination of the customer's tax code plus the state to which the order will be shipped.
Tax rules and regulations change frequently! Be sure to speak with your accountant or your NCR Counterpoint Retail Partner about setting up taxes in your state.
When you import orders into NCR Counterpoint for processing, the tax will either be based on the values imported from NCR Retail Online, or NCR Counterpoint will calculate the tax during the import.
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Checklist
NCR Counterpoint
:
-
Define tax codes for each state using
Setup / System / Tax Codes
.
-
Create a default NCR Retail Online customer using
Customers / Customers
.
-
Configure ecommerce controls using
Setup / Ecommerce/ Control
.
-
Publish ecommerce information using
Ecommerce / Publish
.
NCR Retail Online:
-
Set up taxes in NCR Retail Online using Sales
/ Tax / Manage Tax Zones and Rates
:
-
a) Configure manual tax calculations,
OR
-
b) Configure automatic tax calculations
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NCR Counterpoint: Setup / System / Tax Codes
If you plan to charge taxes on any online sales, you will need to set up at least 51 separate tax codes: a base tax code (e.g.,
WEB
) plus one tax code for each state (e.g., WEBAL, WEBAK, WEBAZ, … WEBTX). This is necessary even for states where you will not charge tax, and even if you are using the
Tax Rate Lookup by Avatax
. NCR Counterpoint needs a tax code that corresponds to every state that can be selected in your online store.
Enter the appropriate sales tax for each state's tax code (you will probably enter a tax rate of zero for most states and only populate the state or states where you actually charge sales tax).
NCR Counterpoint: Customers / Customers
Select
Customers / Customers
and create a default customer record (e.g.,
NRO
). The default customer record contains the default values for customers imported from NCR Retail Online (e.g., the tax code, sales rep, customer category, etc.).
NCR Counterpoint: Setup / Ecommerce / Control
Items Tab
On the
Items
tab of
Setup / Ecommerce / Control
, specify how ecommerce items are taxed for up to three tax levels:
Nearly all of our merchants use the Item 'is taxable flag' on the
Ecommerce
tab of
Inventory / Items
to determine whether or not each item is taxable.
Customers Tab
On the
Customers
tab of
Setup / Ecommerce / Control :
-
Enter the default NCR Retail Online customer (e.g., NRO) as specified in Step 2.
-
In most cases, you should
not
check the
Add ship-to to tax code
check mark field.
-
Optionally specify one or more tax codes to determine which customers will be tax exempt when you publish customer information to NCR Retail Online.
Orders Tab
On the
Orders
tab of
Setup / Ecommerce / Control
:
1. Select the base tax code (e.g., WEB) as specified in Step 1.
2. In most cases, you should check
Add ship-to to tax code
, to add the order's ship-to state (e.g., AL, AK, AZ, … TX) to the base tax code (e.g., WEB) assigned to each new order imported from NCR Retail Online.
3. Select
Imported
for the tax method to use for orders imported from NCR Retail Online.
When you import orders into Counterpoint for processing, you can use the value as it was imported into Counterpoint, or you can optionally recalculate the tax based on Counterpoint's tax rules. For the
Tax method
, select
Imported
to accept the tax that is imported with the order. If you select
Calculated
, Counterpoint will recalculate the tax during import.
WARNING
:
When customers place orders in your online store, they are provided with a total amount for the order. If you select
Calculated,
Counterpoint will recalculate the tax which may cause the total order amount to change after it's downloaded (imported). This means that you may end up charging your customers more or less than they expect to pay for their order.
Counterpoint: Ecommerce / Publish
Once you have set up tax calculations in NCR Counterpoint, publish the information and allow the Integration Agent approximately 30 minutes to import the file.
NCR Retail Online allows you to specify whether to charge tax on a state-by-state basis, and to manually specify a single tax rate for each state.
NCR Retail Online: Sales / Tax / Manage Tax Zones and Rates
In order to charge sales tax in your online store, you must set up tax calculations. If tax calculations are not set up in NCR Retail Online, taxes will not be added to any orders.
NCR Retail Online: Sales / Tax / Manage Tax Zones and Rates
Most merchants charge sales tax for orders shipped to the state where they are located, and often for other states.
For each state, specify whether or not to charge sales tax for orders shipped to that state by placing the sales tax rate for that state in the
Rate Percent
field, or put a zero in this field if you will not charge tax for that state.
Creating tax rates for your States/Provinces in NCR Retail Online:
-
Select
Add New Tax Rate
.
-
The
Tax Identifier
can be whatever you specify to identify the state and tax rate.
-
Select the
Country
this state or tax rate is in.
-
Select the
State or Provinc
e.
-
If the tax rate is the same for the entire State or Province, select
NO
for the
Zip/Post is Rang
e. If your State or Province has multiple tax rates within it, you will choose
YES
here, and then add the
Zip/Post Range to and from.
-
Add the
Rate Percent
for that zip/post for the State/Province and/or the Zip/Post Code range. You will then add additional entries for the remaining zip/post code ranges that have separate tax rates within your State/Province.If there are none, move on to the next State/Province.
WARNING
:
Be sure to set up all 50 states here, even if you cannot charge tax for some states. For
States you cannot charge sales tax in
, place a
zero
in the
Rate Percent field
.
Uploading tax rates for your States/Provinces in NCR Retail Online:
-
Go to Sales / Tax / Import/Export Tax Rates.
-
Choose to Export Tax Rates. This way you have a copy of the spreadsheet.
-
Alternately, you can export the attached preset template. The template is in Excel format. The file should be saved as a comma separated file (.csv).
The standard NCR Retail Online service allows you to specify whether to charge tax on a state-by-state basis, and to manually specify a single tax rate for each state. For more information on manually calculating sales tax, refer to "Manual Tax Calculations.”
The
Tax Rate Lookup by AvaTax
provides tax rate lookups based on the shipping zip code of the order, so taxes can be calculated accurately. With this feature, you won't have to maintain state tax rates manually! Simply indicate the states for which you charge sales tax, and let Avatax do the rest of the work for you.
With the
Tax Rate Lookup by AvaTax
feature, NCR Retail Online looks up the exact tax rate for the shopper's shipping ZIP code. You don't have to worry about whether or not you should be collecting (for example) 9.25% for a shopper in Memphis, TN, or 9.75% for a shopper in Nashville, TN.
Tax rate lookups are only available for US ZIP codes. If you activate this feature, taxes will not be calculated for shoppers located outside the United States or for shoppers that enter in an invalid zip code.
Web:
http://www.avatax.com
To sign up for the Tax Rate Lookup by AvaTax feature, go to
http://www.avatax.com
and sign-up for this feature. You will be given an Account Number, License Key, and a Company Code. Please contact support with this information to help configure your AvaTax module in NCR Retail Online.
NOTE:
The monthly fees associated with AvaTax are collected by Avalara, Inc. and are not included with your monthly billing of NCR Retail Online.
NCR Retail Online: System / Configuration / Sales / Tax / AvaTax
After you sign up for the Tax Rate Lookup by AvaTax feature, go to
System
/ Configuration / Sales / Tax / AvaTax
and change the
Action field
to
Enable.
Fill in the information you received from AvaTax and
Save Config
.
NCR Retail Online: Catalog / Manage Products / Product Detail
When you have drilled down to a specific item, you can view that item's taxable status on the
Prices
tab. This field is uploaded from Counterpoint.
When you download NCR Retail Online orders into NCR Counterpoint, the sales tax will either be based on the values downloaded from NCR Retail Online, or else NCR Counterpoint will calculate the sales tax during the import.
If you selected
Calculated
for the tax method on the
Orders
tab of
Setup / Ecommerce / Control
, NCR Counterpoint will calculate the sales tax during the import based on each customer's tax code.
NOTE:
Regardless of the tax method you select, back orders, price adjustments, etc. may cause NCR Counterpoint to recalculate the sales tax.
Because sales tax is based on the tax rates defined in NCR Retail Online and not the store's tax code or the customer's tax code, taxes will display as tax overrides when you process orders.
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