About the Tax Interface

If you require external taxing software to handle the computing of sales tax, you can use the Tax Interface.

These products are supported in an on-premises environment:

These products are supported in a cloud environment:

  • Vertex Indirect Tax O Series
  • (on-premises only) Vertex Sales Tax Q Series
  • (on-premises only) Taxware Sales/Use Tax System
  • (on-premises only) Taxware Enterprise
  • Avalara AvaTax

In SyteLine, the tax interface is a separately licensed and installed product. To access the tax interface forms, you must be a licensed TaxInterface user.

The Tax Interface is configured for the appropriate product with the Tax Interface Parameters form. After the interface is configured, taxes are automatically calculated on orders where the tax code is set to EXTRNL.

(The EXTRNL tax code is added automatically to the Tax Codes form at a site when you enable the TaxInterface module on the Optional Modules form.)

After the orders are invoiced, and before posting is performed, you must run the Tax Interface Post Register utility to post the taxes to the external tax software.

If taxes are not being calculated correctly, you can select the Debug Infor option on the applicable tax system tab of the Tax Interface Parameters form. This creates entries in the Application Debug Log table, and you can view these entries on the Application Debug Log Listing form.
Caution: 
Because this feature can cause performance issues in your live system, it should not be used unless you are trying to troubleshoot an issue while working with support.

If you are using AvaTax, use the Tax Interface Invoice Tax Credit form to give tax-exempt customers credit for taxes after an invoice has been created with taxes calculated.

External tax systems do not work with the Include Tax In Price field on the Customers form, and therefore the Include Tax In Price setting does not affect the tax basis.

What Information does the Interface Send to the Taxing Software?

Any order, RMA, invoice, credit memo or other information where the first tax code is set to EXTRNL is sent to the interface. (For compatibility with older versions of this interface, a tax code of VERTEX also causes taxes to be processed by the interface.) On the Tax Interface Parameters form, click Set All Customer Tax Code 1 to External to perform a system wide change that substitutes the selected tax interface in place of everything currently set to Tax Code 1.

The Tax System Interface can send this information, based on your selections on the Tax Interface Parameters form:

  • Customer information: The interface sends this information from the Customer Ship To record: Customer Number, City, State, Zip, County
  • Warehouse Information: If the warehouse can be determined, the City, State, Zip, and County of the warehouse is sent, as well as the Warehouse Code. This allows for more accurate taxation.  If the warehouse is not available, the address information from the General Parameters form is sent.

    You can also use the Warehouses tab on the Tax Interface Parameters form to specify the county where a warehouse is located.

  • Item Information: Either Item or Product Code is sent based on the setting of the Send for Product field in the Tax Interface Parameters form.
  • Freight and Miscellaneous Charges for Items: Freight is passed into your external tax system with the Freight flag set and the Item Number set to FREIGHT. Miscellaneous charges are sent with the Item Number set to MISC CHARGE
  • Miscellaneous and Labor Charges for Service: Miscellaneous and Labor Service transactions use the Exclude Field Service Misc and Exclude Field Service Labor options on the Tax Interface Parameters form.

    (cloud only) If an option is selected (set to Exclude), then for all tax providers, the system sends SVC-MSC-EXEMPT or SVC-LBR-EXEMPT.

    (on-premises only) If an option is selected (set to Exclude), then for all tax providers except the Taxware Sales/Use Tax System, the system sends SVC-MSC-EXEMPT or SVC-LBR-EXEMPT.

    (on-premises only) For the Taxware Sales/Use Tax System, the system sends 89999 for both Labor and Miscellaneous Charges. If the options are not selected, indicating that the charges should be included, then the system sends the Misc/Work codes from the transactions.

  • Tax Basis: The Tax Basis amount is sent for each line on an order or invoice. This amount might be adjusted by the restock fee on RMAs, if Include Restock Fee is selected for the EXTRNL tax code.