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Accounting Integration - Taxes

How to create taxes as part of the accounting integration and add them to your items / invoices

Nick Neale avatar
Written by Nick Neale
Updated over a week ago

Article Contents

Introduction

As part of the Accounting Integration package, you can create taxes, set the rate, and assign them to items on invoices. This allows you to track the amount of taxes you’ve paid on any purchases/product coming into your venue.

Depending on the supplier, the prices on their invoices may be tax inclusive or tax exclusive. By setting the tax rates and indicating how the tax is presented, you'll get the true item cost for reporting purposes.

If you’re using supported accounting software, any taxes that you’ve set up in it are imported into WISK when the integration is complete.

You can assign tax rates to invoice items manually, or have them fill automatically based on an item’s properties.

You can then export invoices with the reported taxes to supported accounting software.

Note: Tax rates and reporting requirements vary depending on your country / region. The steps outlined in this article are for the purposes of adding taxes to your account, but provide no guidance on specific tax rates for your location. Please consult with your accounting team when setting up your rates to be in accordance with your local tax laws /reporting requirements.

Adding Taxes

To add taxes on the WISK Web Portal:

  1. Hover your cursor over your username on the bottom left and click “Venue Settings”

    The "Venue Settings" button on the side menu bar is highlighted.
  2. Click “Taxes”

    An arrow points to the "Taxes" tab under Venue Settings

    Note: If you can’t see this tab, please contact WISK Support and they will enable it in your account

  3. Click “New Tax”

    An arrow points to the "New tax" button.
  4. Enter the name of the tax and click “Save”. If you're integrated QuickBooks Online, see the section below.

    The "New tax" window. A tax name of "HST ON" has been entered and the "Save" button is highlighted.

Linking with Accounting Software

If you have integrated your accounting software with WISK (currently only Quickbooks Online), you’ll see a “Tax name in accounting” field. Click the drop-down menu to select from the taxes already in your accounting software.

The "Tax name in accounting" field has been clicked and shows all the taxes from the accounting software.

When you select this, the tax name field updates automatically to your selection. Selecting the correct “Tax name in accounting” is important because it links the tax in WISK to the tax in your accounting software. If they aren’t linked, invoices won’t export to your accounting software.

The tax name from the accounting software has been selected and the Tax name has updated to reflect this.

Enter Tax Rate

After creating the tax, you need to assign the rate.

Depending on your country/region, there are many types of taxes that can be applied; local / municipal, provincial / state, and federal.

There may also be items that you purchase that are exempt from some or all taxes.

When adding a tax rate, you’ll indicate whether it’s the following:

  • Single Tax

  • Compounded Taxes

  • Tax Exempt / Zero Rated

For more information about each, see the sections below.

Note: If your accounting software is integrated, make sure that you are entering the same tax rate % as it appears there.

The "New tax" window showing the type of tax and the rate.

Single Tax

A single or simple tax applies just one tax rate to an item. Something such as a state tax or federal sales tax (GST, HST, or VAT).

  1. Enter the name of the tax, and make sure that “Single tax” is selected

    HST has been entered in the "Tax name" and "Single tax" has been selected.
  2. Enter the tax rate in the “Rate” field. The “Computed rate” updates to reflect what you entered

    A rate of 13% has been entered in the "Rate" field and the computed rate displays as 13%.
  3. The Tax has been set up and can now be assigned to items. If you need to edit a tax rate, click the “Details” column

    The new tax appears on the list of taxes.

Compounded Tax

A compounded tax, or stacked tax applies more than one tax rate to an item. In this case you’ll add each tax rate, and indicate whether they are all applied equally to the subtotal.

For example, in some provinces in Canada, there is both a Goods and Services Tax (GST) and a Provincial Sales Tax (PST) that are applied equally. In the United States, there may be a state sales tax, and a city / county tax.

When items with this tax are exported to accounting software, it shows the breakdown of how much was paid for each tax rate.

To set up a compounded tax:

  1. Enter a name for the tax that represents each component and select “Compounded taxes”

    The compound tax has been given a name of GST + PST and an arrow points to the "Compound taxes" button.
  2. Click the “+” button that appears under the “Compounded taxes” modal

    An arrow points to the + button beside Compounded taxes.

  3. Enter the name of one of the taxes and enter the rate. The priority is set to 1 by default. Click the checkmark to add the tax. For more about priority, see “Setting the Priority

    GST is the tax name and a rate of 5% has been set. An arrow points to the checkmark to add the tax.
  4. The tax rate gets added to the compounded tax, and the “computed rate” updates. Add additional taxes as required

    The tax has been added and the computed rate updates. An arrow points to the + button beside compounded taxes.
  5. Once all of the taxes are added, you’ll see the total computed rate

    All taxes have been added to the Compounded tax and the rate is 12%.
  6. The Tax has been set up and can now be assigned to items. If you need to edit a tax rate, click the “Details” column.

Setting the Priority

Depending on your region, multiple taxes may:

  1. Apply equally to the subtotal, or

  2. One tax rate is designated the primary rate, and the other tax is applied to the subtotal + the primary tax

If they all apply equally, set each tax as the same priority.

The "Priority" box beside each tax is highlighted for emphasis.

In the example above, the GST and PST are applied to the subtotal equally. If the cost of goods purchased is $100 before tax, $5 will be paid from GST, and $7 will be paid from PST for a total of $112 including taxes.

If one tax is considered the primary tax, set its priority to 1, and set the other tax to 2.

Note: The number of selectable Priorities increases depending on how many taxes you have added.

The "Priority" drop-down has been clicked.

In the example above, the GST has a priority of 1, and the PST has a priority of 2. If the cost of goods purchased is $100 before tax, the GST of $5 is applied first.

The 7% tax rate of the PST is then applied to the original subtotal + the primary tax ($105). The amount of PST paid is then $7.35 ($105*0.07). The total including taxes is $112.35.

Note: The "computed rate" updates to reflect this, showing the rate as 12.35% instead of 12%.

Tax Exempt / Zero Rated

You may purchase items from your suppliers that are tax exempt or zero rated. Make sure to create a tax rate to account for either of these that you can assign to your items (if this needs to be tracked).

While it may vary by country, zero rated items are taxed at a rate of 0%, and allows the producer to claim input credits.

Tax exempt items have no taxes applied, and producers cannot claim input credits.

To set this up, give the tax an appropriate name, and leave the “Rate” field blank.

The tax name has been entered but the rate field is blank, displaying the computed rate as 0%.

The Tax has been set up with a rate of 0% and can now be assigned to items. If you need to edit a tax rate, click the “Details” column.

The tax exempt rate has been added.

Assigning Tax Rates

When adding invoices, you can assign taxes to invoice items manually, or you can assign them to higher level categories to have them populate automatically.

You can assign taxes at the following levels:

Note: When auto-populating the taxes for an item on an invoice, it checks in this priority order: Item > Distributor > Category > Family.

For example, if you assign a tax rate to an Item Family, but have also assigned a tax rate to an individual item, it auto-populates the individual item’s tax rate because it's a higher priority. You can change the tax rate manually if needed.

How you set this up will depend on your preferences and how taxes are applied in your region.

When you assign a tax rate at any of the levels above, it only applies to new invoices moving forward.

Individual Item

To assign a tax rate at the individual item level:

  1. On the “Items” page of the WISK Web Portal, place your cursor over the item and click the pencil icon

    The cursor has been placed over the item and an arrow points to the pencil icon button that appears.
  2. Scroll down to the “Tax rate” field and click the drop-down menu

    The "Tax rate" field is highlighted for emphasis.
  3. Select the tax rate you want to assign to this item

    An arrow points to the tax rate to select from the drop-down menu.
  4. The tax rate is now assigned to the item. When you add this item to an invoice, it will populate with the selected tax rate by default

    The tax rate has been applied to the item.

Distributor

To assign a tax rate to a distributor:

  1. From the "Distributors" page on the WISK Web Portal, place your cursor over a Distributor and click the "Details" column

    An arrow points to the "Details" column.
  2. Click the "Tax Rate" drop-down menu and select the rate you want to apply

    An arrow points to the "Tax rate" dropdown menu.
  3. The Tax Rate is now assigned to the Distributor. When you add an item assigned to this distributor it automatically applies this tax (unless a different tax has been set at the individual item level)

    The tax rate has been assigned to the distributor

    Note: The item has to be assigned to this distributor for the tax rate to populate. It won't automatically assign the tax rate if you create an invoice for this distributor.

Item Category

To assign a tax rate to an Item Category:

  1. From the Families & Categories page on the WISK Web Portal, place your cursor over an Item Category and click the "Details" column

    An arrow points to the "Details" column.
  2. Click the “Tax Rate” drop-down menu and select the rate you want to apply

    An arrow points to the "Tax rate" dropdown menu.
  3. The Tax Rate is now assigned to the Item Category. When you add an item of this category to an invoice, it automatically applies this tax (unless a different tax has been set at the individual item or distributor level)

    The tax rate has been assigned to the category.

Item Family

To assign a tax rate to an Item Family:

  1. From the Families & Categories page on the WISK Web Portal, place your cursor over an Item Family and click “Edit Family”

    The "Edit Family" button is highlighted for emphasis.
  2. Click the “Tax Rate” drop-down menu and select the rate you want to apply

    An arrow points to the Tax rate drop-down menu.
  3. The Tax Rate is now assigned to the Item Family. When you add an item of this family to an invoice, it automatically applies this tax (unless a different tax has been set at the category, distributor or individual item level)

    The selected tax rate has been applied to the family.

Taxes on an Invoice

After adding the taxes and assigning them, your setup is rewarded when adding invoices to your venue.

When adding an invoice, the tax rate field for each invoice item populates automatically if you’ve assigned them earlier.

For unassigned items, you can assign the tax rate as you add items to the invoice or modify existing ones.

Tax Scheme

When adding an invoice, either regular or draft - you’ll need to select the tax setting. This determines how item costs are calculated in your venue. You can select the following options

The option you choose depends on the format that your supplier uses on their invoices.

No Tax

There are no taxes, or taxes aren’t being tracked on this invoice.

Taxes Included

Also called taxes in or tax inclusive, the cost of each item on the invoice includes the assigned tax.

In the example below, we received 10 units of an item at $25/unit. This $25/unit is tax inclusive. Based on the rate of the assigned tax, it calculates the subtotal without tax ($221.24), and the total with tax ($250.00).

The "Tax scheme" is set to taxes included and the item cost updates to remove the tax.

The subtotal is used to calculate the cost per unit without tax ($22.12) which is used in various calculations (inventory value, recipe costing, etc).

The cost per unit reflects the cost on the invoice, minus the applied tax rate.

Taxes Excluded

Also called taxes out or tax exclusive, the cost of each item on the invoice doesn’t include the assigned tax.

In the example below, we received 10 units of an item at $25/unit. This $25/unit is tax exclusive. The assigned tax rate is applied to the subtotal ($250.00) to calculate the total ($282.50).

The taxes are excluded from the unit cost of this item, so the unit cost matches what was input.

The cost per unit without taxes ($25.00) is used to calculate inventory value, recipe costing etc.

The unit cost is $25.

Items

Items with Assigned Tax Rates

When you add an item to an invoice, if you assigned a tax rate at any level, it populates with that rate automatically. You can click the drop-down to change the tax rate if needed.

The "Tax rate" drop-down menu is highlighted.

Selecting a Tax Rate (Unassigned Items)

If you haven’t assigned a tax to an item beforehand, you can select the tax rate by clicking the “Tax rate” drop-down menu:

The "Tax rate' drop-down menu is highlighted.

Changing an Item’s Tax Rate

If an item has already been added to the invoice, you can click the “Tax rate” field to change the tax on the item.

Additional Charges

When adding any additional Charges to the invoice, you can also select a tax rate:

The tax rate field appears when adding a charge.

The charges display underneath the line items on the invoice with the selected tax:

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