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.ncrretailonline.com/avatax
.
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.
Table of Contents
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.
|
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
|
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 tax rate(s) for each state's authorities (state, county, city if applicable).
Setting Up Customer Tax Classes
Customer Tax Classes need to be set up to allow you to manage taxes for customer groups. Retail customers, for example will need to pay tax if purchasing on the web in an area where you are legally able to collect sales tax. Wholesale merchants may be tax exempt. By default, NRO has a single customer tax class already defined called Retail Customers and by default all NRO customer categories are uploaded to that Retail Customers tax class. For example, if you need to create an additional customer tax class for tax exempt customers, follow the steps below to add the exempt tax class.
-
Select
Sales
(horizontal top menu) /
Tax
/
Customer Tax Classes
.
-
Click
Add New
.
-
Type a
Class Name,
such as Wholesale Customer or Tax Exempt Customer.
-
Save
your changes.
-
Repeat
these step for any additional customer tax classes you will need for your store.
After the additional tax class has been defined, the customer groups that should be in this tax class need to be configured.
-
Select
Customers
(horizontal top menu)
/ Customer Groups.
-
Click on the Group name of the customer category (these publish automatically from Counterpoint to NRO) that should be taxed differently than Retail Customers.
-
In the Tax Class drop menu, select the appropriate tax class.
-
Save your changes.
-
Repeat these steps, if needed.
Setting Up Product Tax Classes
Taxable items publish over to NRO and are auto-assigned to a product tax class of Taxable Goods. If the item's taxable flag is unchecked, the IA will not assign the items to any product tax class. If you use Avatax in your store, you will need a custom file to let your non-taxable items automatically assign to a tax class of EXEMPT. There is no charge for this file. Please contact RHA Support to request the file. If you need additional product tax classes to move over from Counterpoint to NRO, please contact Support and we'll provide your options.
Managing Tax Settings for the Store
Some tax settings need to be set up for the store and how they apply to your orders and customers.
-
Select
System
(horizontal top menu) /
Configuration
.
-
Go to the
Sales
section, and then click on the
Tax tab.
-
Expand the
Tax Classes
panel. The
Tax Class for Shipping
setting
determines if you charge tax on shipping. Leave this setting set to the default of, "Shipping (not used by AvaTax)."
-
Expand the
Calculation Settings
panel. This panel determines how you apply tax to products.
Tax Calculation Based On -
Location the tax should be based on.
Catalog Prices
- If pirces in your store should reflect the tax on that product or not.
Shipping Prices
- Whether shipping charges will be shown with taxes included. (
If applicable)
Apply Customer Tax
- When customer taxes should be applied to an order.
Apply Discount On Prices
- If taxes should be applied to discounts.
Apply Tax On
- If taxes are applied to discounted prices or the original price.
-
Expand
Default Tax Destination Calculation
.
Select the
Default Country
for your store.
Default State
can be set to display a default tax calculation in the shopping cart. Whatever the customer enters into the cart summary or checkout will override this default. We recommend leaving this as *.
Default Postal Code
can be set to display a default tax calculation in the shopping cart. Whatever the customer enters into cart summary or checkout will override this default. We recommend leaving this as *.
-
Expand the
Shopping Cart Display Settings.
Display Prices -
whether or not to display prices including tax in the cart.
Display Subtotal
- Determines if the subtotal will show pricing with or without tax.
Include Tax In Grand Total
- Whether or not to display tax on the grand total.
Display Full Tax Summary
- Determines if you want a full detail of taxes and how they apply to the order.
Display Zero Tax Subtotal
- whether or not you want to show a zero tax for orders with no tax applied.
-
Expand the
Orders, Invoices, Creditmemos Display Settings.
The same options are available in this section as are in the
Shopping Cart Display Settings,
but they apply to Orders, Invoices, and Credit Memos.
Fixed product taxes will not apply to all merchants. These are fixed tax rates that apply to only certain items.
8. Open the
Fixed Product Taxes
panel
Enable FPT -
Choose whether or not you want FTP to be on.
Display Prices In Product Lists -
Whether or not to display FPT prices in product lists.
Display Prices On Product View Page -
Choose whether product view pages will reflect the FPT prices.
Display Prices In Sales Modules -
Will sales modules include FPT prices?
Display Prices In Emails -
Will FPT prices display in emails sent from store?
Apply Discounts To FPT -
Are FPT's discountable?
Apply Tax To FPT -
Are FPT taxable?
Include FPT In Subtotal
- Should the FPT be included in subtotals?
Once you everything configured,
Save
your changes.
NCR Retail Online: Sales / Tax / Manage Tax Zones and Rates
Setting Up Tax Zones and Rates
Note: It is only necessary to set up tax rates and zones for the states/zip codes for which you need to collect sales tax.
Tax rates are what determine the percentage amount of the cart total that should be taxed for the states or provinces that should calculate sales tax.
-
Select Sales(horizontal top menu) /Tax/Manage Tax Zones and Rates.
-
Click Add New Tax Rate.
-
Tax Identifier will be a short description of the state or area you are setting the tax rate for.Examples: Alabama or WEB-AL..
-
Select the Countrythe tax rate is listed in.
-
Zip/Post is Range has a Yes or No option. If you select 'No' then you will be prompted to add the zip or postal code in theZip/Post Codebox. If you select 'Yes', you will be prompted to include a Range From and Range To zip/Post is Range. This can be helpful to merchants in States where the state has multiple tax rates. IF 'Yes' is selected, you will need to include all rates for all zip code ranges.
-
Add your Rate Percentage. This is the tax rate for the area specified.
-
Save your changes.
-
To assist with the creation of tax rates, see
Uploading Your Own Tax Rates
Setting Up Tax Rules
Tax rules are what apply the tax zones and rates to your customer groups. Here is where you can optionally configure whether tax should calculate for the shipping charge, as well.
-
Select Sales (horizontal top menu) / Tax / Manage Tax Rules.
-
Click Add New Tax Rule.
-
In the Name field, provide a meaningful name that will allow you to easily identify it's purpose.
-
For the Customer Tax Class, most merchants select the Retail Customer customer tax class.
-
For the Product Tax Class, choose the product tax class applicable to the rule. All taxable items upload to NRO and are assigned a tax class of Taxable Goods. If you have commodities that tax differently, you'll need a custom item mapping file to make the additional product tax classes move over to NRO. Contact RHA Support for more details.
-
In the Tax Rate field, choose the state(s) to which the rule applies. (Multiple states can be chosen by using the keyboard shortcut of Ctrl + click.)
-
Assign a Priority to your tax rule, if you have multiple tax rules (authorities) that need to tax in a specific order (state, local, etc)
-
Sort Order is for the back end only and determines in what order rules are listed. This lets you group your rules together for easy searching.
-
Save your changes.
-
Repeat steps 1- 10 of this section for each state or province or territory for which you orders should calculate sales tax.
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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