Running PowerShift with the Sales Tax Interface On

When the interface is active, PowerShift does not require:

• Tax authorities to be set up in Tax Authorities Maintenance (TAM)

• Tax codes to be set up in Tax Codes Maintenance (TCM)

• Valid tax codes for customers and orders (leave blank in Customer Maintenance and Sales Order Maintenance)

See also Set Sales Tax Interface Options.

This topic has these following sub-topics:
Order Processing
Accounts Receivable
Tax Processing Results
Tax Processing Errors

Order Processing

When an order is entered, and you exit the order (OK to update), a call is made to Avalara to obtain the tax amount. The tax amount is stored in the order header as a single amount, billable to the customer. If the order has no tax assessed (due to items’ non-taxable status or customer’s exempt status), the tax amount is zero. This is an estimated tax amount at this point, and will print on an order acknowledgment to the customer.  All information regarding the order is updated to the Avalara system and may be reported there.

If there is a tax error (address is invalid, customer is invalid, etc.) an email is sent to the administrator indicating the order and and a description of the problem. It is then up to someone to correct the issue on the order and update it again (which will again make a call to Avalara).

When an order shipment is confirmed, a call is made to get the tax again, since it is now based on what you are actually shipping and the actual date it is being shipped.

Non-Stock Items
When entering a line item that does not have a corresponding item master record in PowerShift, you may need to change the taxability on the line. The line item will default to a taxable status. If you need to change its classification, click on the Taxability button in Order Entry at the line item level. Only the first taxability flag (Y/N) is required for Avalara.

Accounts Receivable

A final call is made during Sales Order Invoicing (RR); the tax is now “committed” in Avalara.  If the tax call is not successful, the sales order invoice will not be created.  If the Avalara link is down (i.e., we are not getting a response), the register will not proceed to final / update mode until the problem is resolved.  If the problem is with individual order(s) (incorrect addresses for instance), those orders will be removed from the batch, allowing orders without errors to be invoiced.

Note: Standard PowerShift tax reports are not available; all tax reports are obtained from Avalara.

Tax Processing Results

Sales Tax Report (AVTAX) lists tax information obtained from the sales tax interface based on specified sort and selection criteria.

Tax Audit Inquiry (TAXAQ) displays tax information for a specific order.

You can jump to TAXAQ from Sales Order Maintenance (OE) and Sales Order Inquiry (OQ) to see tax results for the current order.

Transactions that were not successful are listed with an error status; clicking Detail displays additional information about the failed transaction.

Tax Processing Errors

Once integration and configuration issues have been addressed, you may receive one of the following errors during processing:

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