Admin Dashboard
Sales taxes
Please read!
This guide provides step-by-step instructions on creating and managing sales taxes when generating invoices.
Please familiarize yourself with the information in this section before enabling sales taxes.
Understanding How Sales Taxes Work
There are some particularities worth knowing before enabling sales taxes for your account. Please familiarize yourself with how it works, and if you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact us.
By default, sales taxes are disabled. Every business is different, and if you do not need to charge sales taxes, there is no need to set up anything.
Important!
- Once a sales tax is enabled and applied to an invoice, there is no option to disable and remove the sales tax for that particular invoice.
- Only enable a "Effective from (date)" for future invoices. The "Effective from" date will be compared to the invoice due date, and if sales taxes are enabled, the system will add sales taxes to those invoices.
- In the event of sales tax updates, you will need to add a new sales tax with the "Effective from" date set in the future. On the day the new sales tax takes effect, you will need to disable the existing sales taxes.
- Only users with the roles owner and administrator can manage sales taxes from the admin dashboard.
How to Add a Sales Tax
1. Log in as an owner or administrator and go to the "Admin Dashboard." Click on the sales tax option, and then click the Add Sales Tax button. 
2. Depending on your location (country/province/state), you might have more than one sales tax. In this example, we will simulate a business located in Canada, Ontario. At the time this was written, the sales tax in effect is called HST, which combines a 5% federal sales tax and an 8% provincial sales tax, totaling 13%.
Let's add the data:
Tax name: Enter the sales tax abbreviation; in our case, the sales tax will be HST. This will be displayed on the invoice.
Tax description: This is an internal note for your reference and is not displayed anywhere on the invoice.
Rate: Enter the sales tax rate that will be applied to the invoice. In this example, the value is 13%; enter only the number 13, without any symbol. If you have a different rate, say 8.2%, enter only 8.2.
Effective from: This is important; choose a date from which you want the taxes to be applied to every invoice. This date will be compared against the invoice due date of existing invoices.
Scenarios:
Invoice due date Effective from Expected behaviour 2024-03-12 2024-03-15 Sale tax is not applied to invoices until 2024-03-15 2024-03-24 2024-03-24 Sale tax is applied to invoices starting from 2024-03-24 Is sales tax active?: If you want to enable the tax right away, select Yes; otherwise, select No. You can adjust this setting later.
Click Add
List of Sales Taxes
You will notice that the screenshot above displays the sales tax that was just entered, and you will see that the # of invoices is 0. As you generate invoices, this number will reflect the number of invoices that use this sales tax.
Important!
When the # of invoices is greater than 0, there is no option to delete the sales tax information due to data integrity; however, you can disable or update any information.
Updating Sales Taxes Due to Changes in Law
In the event of a sales tax update, DO NOT update the existing sales tax in use. Instead, you will need to disable it and then enter a new sales tax. Please refer to the instructions below.
Sales Tax in Action
In the screenshot above, the sales tax has been applied to the invoice because the "Effective from" date was set to 2024-03-23, and the date on which this tutorial was written was 2024-03-23.
Because this invoice is still in draft mode, and there is no due date, if you update the sales taxes, the new value will be reflected here. Otherwise, the newly updated value won't take effect. Please avoid updating existing sales taxes.
What to Do When There Is a Sales Tax Update for Your Country, Province, or State
Important
In the event of a sales tax update, the information will be broadcast by your government well in advance. It is your responsibility to be aware of such updates to comply with your local laws and apply the changes when required.
Steps to Update a Sales Tax
In a fictitious update from the Government of Ontario, it was announced that the current HST will be updated to 14% effective from January 1, 2025, and today's date is May 1, 2024.
If your business is located in Canada, Ontario, and you have sales taxes enabled, these are the steps:
Keep the current sales tax as it is (do not update the existing sales tax).
Add the new sales tax with the following information:
- Tax name: HST
- Tax description: HST in effect from January 1, 2025
- Rate: 14
- Effective from: 2025-01-01
- Is sales tax active?: No
When it is January 1, 2025, disable the existing sales taxes and enable the new sales tax. This has to be done manually, the system will not update automatically. That's it, you are all set.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.