Sales Tax (Commerce Module)

[Mopar1973Man]

There is some of us that sell actual goods and have to pay sales taxes. It would be a nice touch to have the site create a sales tax page that shows total sales for the month, then taxable sales, and amount of collected taxes. This would make sales tax filing much easier for the people doing the accounting. It stead of hunt through all the sales of the month for sales in your state and adding them all up and so forth.

[Mopar1973Man]

Wow. I figure there would be more people wanting to get this improvement for the commerce side so accounting of taxes for your local state would be handled.

[Cyboman]

Certainly here are a lot members who are concerned.  Hopefully the commerce app gets urgently required updates soon. 

[Mopar1973Man]

Thinking about this it would have to be selectable for monthly, quarterly and yearly if possible. Like myself for Idaho State I'm in the USA I was doing quarterly and got notified that by the Tax Commission they want to change to Yearly tax collection. Still in all needs to be able to provide the total sales for that span, Total taxable sales and the amount of taxes owed to the tax agency. Being I'm doing 100% of my sales through the site it only makes sense that the site software is capable of helping with the accounting as well.

[Cyboman]

You could ask @Adriano Faria if he could add some fields here:

But such requirements should be native.

[Mopar1973Man]

10 hours ago, Cyboman said:

But such requirements should be native.

That the point right there. No matter where you go in the world you have to pay your fair amount of taxes and these functions should already exist in the Commerce module and allow a store owner to basically "Z" out the till every night or in our case pay our taxes at the scheduled time. As for exporting the data I really don't need to do that at all I just need the software to report the total sales for a period of time, total taxable sales and the total collected taxes so I could fill out the proper paperwork for the tax agency. 

Currently, I export the Paypal for the period to CSV file and then do a search for any sales in the State of Idaho. Then have to add them up. At the same time add up all the sales for that period. Right now isn't too bad been the store is mall but I'm adding more and more products and traffic is growing so this is a problem that will grow and most likely push me out of Commerce module and then have to look for a more professional solution like Magneto. I would rather support IPS and get the software built to support a growing business than just bail out.

[Mopar1973Man]

I was hoping to see more people wanting this suggestion surprising there is this little bit.

[Cyboman]

Me too, but unfortunately it seems that many professional e-commerce admins still stick to wordpress (and other evolved e-shop CMS) due to the IPS limitations in tax issues (if they are bound to stricter tax regulations). I bridge my community with IPBWI SSO to IPS and do a lot there. As a european e-commerce user, I have to apply different taxing rules to physical/digital products/services and also different checkmark fields, usage terms and refund policies. Actually, a lot just doesn't exist in IP.Commerce and IP.Downloads. Digital services (like paid memberships and paid downloads) must even be taxed in the country a customer is currently staying (IP & invoice address matching). And I have to provide detailed tax reports each month. Without professional evidence and detailed lists, it's a mess. If you don't have to pay tax, you can be very lucky, but if you do a lot, you should seriously think about what e-commerce system to use. I really hope that IPS will concentrate more on international business features in the future.

[opentype]

I used many stock shopping systems in the past, but accounting is a field of its own and rarely done in the shopping software itself. Usually you have an API to take over the data into your accounting software – or your CRM software and so on. The shopping software is just to make the sales.

In your case, it might be a simple list of values to add up, but if that is done right in a way suitable for all clients, it’s a huuuuge undertaking. Just think of a European store where the tax report must be done for each of the 28 EU countries separately with several tax rates per country and of course different tax rates per country and the distinction between B2B and B2C sales and between companies who have a VAT ID (“Reverse Charge Taxation”) and those who don’t … IPS developers get a headache just thinking about that.  It can’t even be handled properly in the Commerce shop itself. So while I am interested in better backend reporting features, it’s just not high on my wish list. 

[Rhett]

28 minutes ago, Mopar1973Man said:

I was hoping to see more people wanting this suggestion surprising there is this little bit.

I can see a need here for a few, however, most people that collect sales tax have an accounting system in place for such transactions internally, such as quickbooks and others. The online sales portion is just one aspect of a normal business, and normally not the only source of sales tax items, hence the need for a proper accounting system. An online store isn't really designed to replace an accounting system to keep track of sales tax and other items though.

If it helps at all, most people in this situation do have to duplicate transactions into an official business accounting system in these cases of online sales and such.

 

[Mopar1973Man]

@Rhett That's what I'm attempting to do is simplify the whole process. How do you integrate the data from the site (Commerce module) to the Quickbooks then? Please don't tell me to manually type all this in... Right now I'm a very small store and not selling a whole lot of product so manual spreeedsheeting is easy but I'm going to start to grow. 

[Rhett]

1 minute ago, Mopar1973Man said:

@Rhett That's what I'm attempting to do is simplify the whole process. How do you integrate the data from the site (Commerce module) to the Quickbooks then? 

Manually, depending on the volume, some customers print each invoice from online sales, then process it internally. 

[Mopar1973Man]

Wouldn't it be nicer if the site provided a kind of Z out mode that dumps all the sales in a simple format that you could then manually enter. Instead of printing every single invoice and manually entering the data? There has to be something a bit easier that spending large amount of time printing invoices and hand entering the data. 

[Rhett]

1 hour ago, Mopar1973Man said:

Wouldn't it be nicer if the site provided a kind of Z out mode that dumps all the sales in a simple format that you could then manually enter. Instead of printing every single invoice and manually entering the data? There has to be something a bit easier that spending large amount of time printing invoices and hand entering the data. 

3

That would be great if quickbooks supported such a feature as importing from a csv, they don't however, and the only way to import data into quickbooks is with an IIF file (Intuit Interchange Format), or a qbXML file (quickbooks version of an XML)  you can convert a csv to IIF in excel, but not directly import from a CSV.  There are some fancy add ons to quickbooks that do this for you for a price, but it would be pretty intensive to create such an item on our end though.

[Mopar1973Man]

You missing my point. So if manual enter is the only way then... Why not produce a function that get you to this page... 

Now add a next and back button so you can just click the next button and manually enter. At least then you can just go page by page basically copying and pasting. Or dual monitor then you can have the invoice on one side and then Quickbooks on the other screen. There has to be a better way than print all of then or click in and out of each one.

[ZakRhyno]

On 12/1/2017 at 5:31 PM, Rhett said:

That would be great if quickbooks supported such a feature as importing from a csv, they don't however, and the only way to import data into quickbooks is with an IIF file (Intuit Interchange Format), or a qbXML file (quickbooks version of an XML)  you can convert a csv to IIF in excel, but not directly import from a CSV.  There are some fancy add ons to quickbooks that do this for you for a price, but it would be pretty intensive to create such an item on our end though.

Why not export something so people could work with it?

[MarianHärtel]

On 30.11.2017 at 6:14 PM, Cyboman said:

Me too, but unfortunately it seems that many professional e-commerce admins still stick to wordpress (and other evolved e-shop CMS) due to the IPS limitations in tax issues (if they are bound to stricter tax regulations). I bridge my community with IPBWI SSO to IPS and do a lot there. As a european e-commerce user, I have to apply different taxing rules to physical/digital products/services and also different checkmark fields, usage terms and refund policies. Actually, a lot just doesn't exist in IP.Commerce and IP.Downloads. Digital services (like paid memberships and paid downloads) must even be taxed in the country a customer is currently staying (IP & invoice address matching). And I have to provide detailed tax reports each month. Without professional evidence and detailed lists, it's a mess. If you don't have to pay tax, you can be very lucky, but if you do a lot, you should seriously think about what e-commerce system to use. I really hope that IPS will concentrate more on international business features in the future.

Could you tell me more how exactly you are setting this up? I like IPB as a community, but sadly Commerce is just terrible and likely coded by somebody not doing business himself (or at least 100% only looking at the USA).

[Cyboman]

7 hours ago, MarianHärtel said:

Could you tell me more how exactly you are setting this up?

You simply add a single sign on tool like IPBWI to your installation that you can find in the IPS marketplace (not sure how the oauth in IPS 4.3 will operate exactly...). With SSO, you don't need to login twice (no extra click required), it's automatic as soon as you are transferred to your WP installation domain/path. The author has some cool addons for member groups/roles syncing and other stuff, too. As soon as SSO is implemented, I just link the IPS suite to the WordPress commerce apps. In WP you find all sorts of EU VAT / EU accounting apps, just search for "EU VAT" in one of the WP marketplaces. The most renowned WP EU VAT apps operate with WooCommerce, hence there is an immense spectrum for linking to other WP commerce apps that operate with WooCommerce too.

7 hours ago, MarianHärtel said:

I like IPB as a community, but sadly Commerce is just terrible and likely coded by somebody not doing business himself (or at least 100% only looking at the USA).

That's true.

[MarianHärtel]

13 hours ago, Cyboman said:

You simply add a single sign on tool like IPBWI to your installation that you can find in the IPS marketplace (not sure how the oauth in IPS 4.3 will operate exactly...). With SSO, you don't need to login twice (no extra click required), it's automatic as soon as you are transferred to your WP installation domain/path. The author has some cool addons for member groups/roles syncing and other stuff, too. As soon as SSO is implemented, I just link the IPS suite to the WordPress commerce apps. In WP you find all sorts of EU VAT / EU accounting apps, just search for "EU VAT" in one of the WP marketplaces. The most renowned WP EU VAT apps operate with WooCommerce, hence there is an immense spectrum for linking to other WP commerce apps that operate with WooCommerce too.

That's true.

Thx. I am working with on a marketplace with Wordpress too and based on this I likely will use it. I also mailed Matthias (from IPBWI) for a coding job, but did not get a feedback yet.

[Joel R]

8 hours ago, MarianHärtel said:

Thx. I am working with on a marketplace with Wordpress too and based on this I likely will use it. I also mailed Matthias (from IPBWI) for a coding job, but did not get a feedback yet.

Just wait until 4.3. It offers built-in integration with WordPress for logins, which means you can connect with WooCommerce.  

[MarianHärtel]

On 15.2.2018 at 8:23 PM, Joel R said:

Just wait until 4.3. It offers built-in integration with WordPress for logins, which means you can connect with WooCommerce.  

But that also means you can dump Commerce correct? I cannot sell a membership and direct to WooCommerce for the payment part, can I?

[Joel R]

4 hours ago, MarianHärtel said:

But that also means you can dump Commerce correct? I cannot sell a membership and direct to WooCommerce for the payment part, can I?

Correct.  You would link to WooCommerce for your entire store / transaction / payment process.  

[IPBWI.com Matthias Reuter]

Just found this topic and want to add my view on this topic. @MarianHärtel seems your mail got lost somehow. Just send me a quick message through our contact form and I'll reply rapidly

Concerning this topic, I've decided not to reply but make a more substantial statement in an extra topic. Feedback is highly appreciated.

[MarianHärtel]

 

12 hours ago, IPBWI.com Matthias Reuter said:

Just found this topic and want to add my view on this topic. @MarianHärtel seems your mail got lost somehow. Just send me a quick message through our contact form and I'll reply rapidly

Concerning this topic, I've decided not to reply but make a more substantial statement in an extra topic. Feedback is highly appreciated.

Hello Matthias,

I actually gave away the custom solution for a larger sum to another developer now. I am still looking for somebody for the VAT solution, but as you are not developing anymore, I guess I just keep talking with the other guys, even though I would prefer a German developer who might better know the special issues with taxation etc in Germany

[IPBWI.com Matthias Reuter]

1 minute ago, MarianHärtel said:

 

Hello Matthias,

I actually gave away the custom solution for a larger sum to another developer now. I am still looking for somebody for the VAT solution, but as you are not developing anymore, I guess I just keep talking with the other guys, even though I would prefer a German developer who might better know the special issues with taxation etc in Germany

I'm still supporting my addons here and I'll review the changes in IPS 4.3 to check whether my IPBWI addon will become obsolete or not.

I am deep into eCommerce and of course German and European Tax rules. Actually, I've already created a payment gateway plugin for 5 WordPress eCommerce plugins and a mighty order export plugin for WooCommerce. I've just mentioned in my other topic, that IPS ecosystem does not engage to create a solid business model in selling addons on marketplace here. If you've already found a good developer, that's a good news and I wish you best success in your projects