OVERVIEW
How to create a new tax item
How to edit an existing tax item

SCREEN OVERVIEW
Sales tax item
Buttons

Overview

Depending on where you are in the world, your local, state, or federal taxation laws could vary widely. As a general rule, QuickBooks is set up to handle American-style taxation, and as a result Method is as well, since so much of our stock taxation functionality is rooted in our QuickBooks syncing. It's important to make the distinction, however, between what we've called tax codes and tax items.

Both tax codes and tax items typically originate in QuickBooks, which means that whatever information is stored in your QuickBooks account will be synced to Method (and that's what will appear as "stock" in your Method account).

Basically speaking, a tax code represents a group of tax items: the stock Method options for tax codes are either "Taxable" or "Non-taxable", and you can assign tax codes to customers, leads, and all customer- or lead-related transactions. It's important to note that a tax code assigned to a customer or lead will apply to all transactions associated with that customer or lead (so you don't have to reapply the code individually to each transaction). You can also assign a tax code to individual line items (usually this is used to exempt certain items from having taxes applied to them).

Method doesn't let you add or edit tax codes (that's strictly a QuickBooks function, so if you have a reason to create a new tax code, you'll have to do it through your QuickBooks account). However, you can create and edit tax items in Method. A tax item allows you to assign a particular rate (expressed as a percentage) and a destination for that extra money (a tax agency) to customers, leads, and all customer- or lead-related transactions. Again, a tax item applied to a customer or lead will apply to all transactions associated with that customer or lead. When you assign a tax item to a transaction subtotal, it will apply to all line items not marked as non-taxable.

This all sounds very complicated, but it's actually very simple: tax codes and items are used to calculate how much tax will be owed on transactions you create through Method, and the specifics are designed to give you unprecedented control over how your customers and leads are taxed, as well as what products and services are taxed.

This section will run you through how to create and edit tax items within Method. Again, if you want to learn more about tax codes, take a look at your QuickBooks account!

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How to create a new tax item

1. From Method CRM, navigate to your Hover Menu and click on QuickBooks > Lists > Items.
2. Click on New. This will generate the New item screen.
3. Click on Sales Tax. This will generate the Sales tax item screen.
4. Choose a name for your tax item and type it into the Name field.
5. If you wish, include a Description of your tax item in the requisite field.
6. Identify the percentage expressed by this tax item (e.g. 14% tax will be added to a subtotal).
7. Choose a tax agency to associate with this tax item from the drop down list. These agencies will be populated from your QuickBooks account.
8. If you would like this tax item to appear as an option in tax item drop down lists throughout Method, make sure you check "Is active".
9. Click Save to save the changes to this tax item, or Save & Close to save the changes and return to the Existing items list. Once you refresh the screen the new tax item will be visible in the list and, if you checked "is active", in drop down menus throughout Method.

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How to edit an existing tax item

1. Follow step 1 from above.
2. In the Existing items grid, navigate to your Filter by view drop down menu and choose Sales tax items. This will display all sales tax items currently in your Method CRM.
3. Choose the sales tax item you wish to edit and click on Select next to it. This will generate the Sales tax item screen with the information associated with this item already filled into the fields.
4. From here you can edit the name, description, tax rate, and agency, and you can toggle whether or not this tax item is active.
5. Click Save to save the changes, or Save & Close to return to the Existing items list. When you refresh the screen, the saved changes will be reflected in the list.

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Screen overview

The following is a breakdown of the New sales tax item screen. We'll take a closer look at each element of the screen (drop down menus, buttons, etc.) so you know exactly what each element does. We hope this will be a useful "glossary" of sorts for new users!

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Sales tax item

The New and Edit versions of the Sales tax item screen are functionally the same, though they are accessed in different ways (see the section above). Here's a breakdown of the fields associated with both screens.

• Name: This field identifies the name of the tax item, which will appear in drop down menus and in the Existing items list.
• Description: Use this field to include a description of your tax item.
• Tax rate (%): This field allows you to express the value of your tax item as a percent. Please note that fractional percents are allowed (e.g. 15.5%)
• Tax agency: This refers to the agency to which the taxes charged will be debited. The options for this field are generated from your QuickBooks account.
• Is active: Clicking on this check box will ensure your new tax item (or the edited changes in an existing tax item) appears in drop down menus throughout Method and in the Active filter view in the Existing tax items list.

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Buttons

As usual you will find common buttons at the bottom of this screen.

• Back/new: This button will take you out of the New tax item screen and back to the New Item screen without saving.
• Save: This will save your new tax item or the changes you've made to an existing item.
• Save & Close: This will do the same as the Save function but will also close the New tax item screen, returning you to the New item screen.
• Cancel: This button will close the screen without saving and return you to the Existing items list.