Sales Tax Group Location Assignments, Deficiency Reference #, and QuickBooks Desktop Integration Improvements (Oct 11th, 2023)

Today's release sees the following addition to the ServiceTrade Web App and QuickBooks Desktop Integration.

• Location Sales Tax Group Assignment
• Display Deficiency Reference Number
• Using ServiceTrade Invoice Tax Group as QuickBooks Desktop Invoice Items

Location Sales Tax Group Assignment

When creating or editing a Location, you will now have the ability to assign a Sales Tax Group based on location assignment rather than Zip Code. The selected Sales Tax Group will be used for all Invoices and Quotes created for this location.

This is useful for Jurisdictions in states such as Washington and Louisiana whose tax rates are not always determined by Zip Code alone.

If the Location is set to Taxable, Sales Tax Groups is enabled, and you have created Sales Tax Groups, a new field will appear called Location Tax Group. Here you can select a Sales Tax Group that you added. You can only select Sales Tax Groups that exist in the same state as the Location.

The Location Tax Group is a combination of Tax Group Code and Tax Group Name (taken from the Sales Tax Groups page in ServiceTrade).

Note: The selected Sales Tax Group will override the Location's Zip Code Sales Tax Group assignment. 

Importing, Exporting, and Merging Locations

• There is a new optional field called tax_group_code when Bulk Importing Locations. Taxable must be set to "1", then you can enter the Tax Group Code in the new field.
  
• The Locations Export also has two new fields called tax_group_code and tax_group_name.
• Merging will follow the same rules as other fields when Merging Companies and Locations.

FAQs for Sales Tax Group Location Assignment

• Is the new field supported by the API?
  • Yes. https://api.servicetrade.com/api/docs
• Does creating Invoices in the Mobile App honor the new Sales Tax Group assignment?
  • No, the ServiceTrade Mobile App, Creating and Sending an Invoice feature does not honor the new designation at this time. However, if you use the Web App View Invoice creation workflow it will.

Display Deficiency Reference Number

We have made an improvement to where the Deficiency Reference Number is displayed throughout ServiceTrade.

• Below you can see on the Deficiency Page that a Deficiency # is listed on the top header:
  
  On the Deficiency List Page, you can now view and search for Deficiencies by this Deficiency #. 
  
  
  
• Anywhere a Deficiency is listed, you can now see a Deficiency Ref # for reference. Below is an example of the Deficiency menu on a Location Page:
  

Using ServiceTrade Invoice Tax Group as QuickBooks Desktop Invoice Items

A new menu option available on the Configure QuickBooks Web Connector Connection Menu called The QuickBooks invoice tax item is determined by...

This menu option will let you choose whether you want your QuickBooks Invoices to be determined by your QuickBooks sales tax rules or The ServiceTrade invoice tax group.

Option 1: Your QuickBooks Sales Tax Rules

This new menu option will default to the 'Your QuickBooks sales tax rules' option.

When this option is selected, QuickBooks Desktop will determine which sales tax item to assign to the invoice based on its own internal rules. The tax group and tax rate on the ServiceTrade invoice will be ignored.

Note: This setting is how the integration behaved before we added this new menu option, so if you don't want anything to change leave this setting as is.

Option 2: The ServiceTrade Invoice Tax Group

Prerequisites

• Must enable and use Sales Tax Groups in ServiceTrade. Click the link for more information.
• If you are in a jurisdiction that has sales tax groups that are not based on postal code, you will also need to use Location Sales Tax Group Assignment
• Sales Tax Groups in ServiceTrade must have matching Sales Tax Items in QuickBooks Desktop.

When this option is selected,

• QuickBooks Desktop will assign the sales tax item to the Quickbooks invoice if the sales tax item name exactly matches the ServiceTrade Invoice's sales tax group code
  
  • ServiceTrade Invoice and Sales Tax Group
    
    
• If your ServiceTrade sales tax group code does not match the name of any sales tax item in QuickBooks Desktop, the invoice will fail.
• If your ServiceTrade invoice does not have a sales tax group assigned, then QuickBooks Desktop will determine which sales tax item to use based on its internal rules.
  • This includes ServiceTrade invoices that had a sales tax rate manually assigned through 'Other - Choose Rate'.
    

Important Note: The ServiceTrade sales tax group code should match the Quickbooks sales tax item or sales tax group (both are considered item types in Quickbooks). Once matched, the applicable sales tax and rate is applied to the invoice. As noted above, if your ServiceTrade sales tax group code does not match the name of any sales tax item in QuickBooks Desktop, the invoice will fail. It is imperative that the taxes in both systems be kept in sync, especially if you want to generate customer invoices and payments in one system and perform tax reporting in the other.

How do I set up my Sales Tax Items in QuickBooks to match my ServiceTrade Sales Tax Groups?

To keep taxes in both systems in sync, it is recommended to import files using ServiceTrade and QuickBooks’s standard functionality.  This automation will save time and ensure accuracy.

In ServiceTrade:

1. In ServiceTrade, click your Profile Picture and select Accounting Settings.
2. Click to expand the Sales Tax Menu.
3. Click the Sales Tax Group List link.
4. On the Sales Tax Group Menu, click Import Tax Groups.
   

In QuickBooks Desktop:

1. In QuickBooks Desktop click File.
2. Then hover over Utilities.
3. Then hover over Import.
4. Then click IIF Files...
   • The Department of Revenue for various states provides tax rates and jurisdictions updates.  A file is provided in a . IIF format and can be imported in QuickBooks: Professional, Premier, or Enterprise.