configure taxes in hitachi solutions ecommerce

© Hitachi Solutions. 2015. All rights reserved.

Configuring Taxes withHitachi Solutions Ecommerce


Contents

1. Feature Overview

2. Set up tax providers

3. Creating tax groups in the Manager Panel

4. Creating tax categories in the Manager Panel

5. Creating tax codes in the Manager Panel

6. Create new associations

7. Attach tax code to tax category and group

8. Assign tax categories to SKUs, customers and shipping method

9. Tax calculation on Manager Panel and web store

10. Assign Avalara tax code to individual SKUs

11. Assigning freight tax code and tax-exempt customer

12. Avalara tax calculations on web store and the Manager Panel

2


Feature overview

• Simplify tax calculations - The tax engine solution provides ease of configurability and usage. Reduce the

amount of time your business needs to spend on complex tax compliance processing, while improving accuracy

and reducing costs.

• Supports multiple tax engines - The Store Manager has the option to set up either the Hitachi Tax engine or

Avalara tax engine as per his business needs. Any new tax engine can be easily added in the future due to the

flexible tax design.

• Easy setups for tax codes and categories - Various tax categories, tax groups and tax codes that determine

the actual rate of taxes that would be applied are set up by the Store Manager. These are shared across all

stores. Tax gets applied based on tax provider set up in different stores.


The Store Manager activates the tax provider via the Manager Panel and can choose between Hitachi Solutions Ecommerce tax engine or Avalara tax engine. (Hitachi Solutions Ecommerce is a Avalara certified solutions provider.) Separate tax engines for domestic and international shipping within a single web store are also supported. The choice of the tax provider is determined by the merchant’s business needs.

Set up tax providers for your web store


Hitachi Solutions Ecommerce supports both Avalara US Tax and Avalara Canada Tax. The account can be configured via the Manager Panel by providing the account details such as account number, license number, company code and item code for freight. Validation of account information provided and configuration is ensured by first creating a test connection and then moving on to the live one.

Avalara tax provider set up


Each jurisdiction that needs to be taxed can be created as a Tax Group. Tax Jurisdictions are decided by the Tax Engine based on "Ship To" address provided in the Sales Order. Every unique address that needs to be taxed is created as a tax group. These tax groups are shared across the different web stores if the merchant is managing multiple web stores via a single Manager Panel.

Creating tax groups in the Manager Panel


The Store Manager can tax a specific customer, an item or a shipping method differently. Different 'Tax Categories' are therefore created for such different business needs. Customers, SKUs and shipping methods are assigned different tax categories based on which tax is applied. As such individual customers could be made ‘taxable’ or ‘non-taxable’, individual SKUs assigned a tax category from the SKU detail page, and unique tax categories assigned to specific shipping methods as well. Similar to tax groups, tax categories are also shared across multiple stores.

Creating tax categories in the Manager Panel


Tax Codes determine the actual rate of taxes that would be applied. The unique identifier for each tax rate added is termed as a 'Tax Code'. Tax Codes common between Tax Category and Customer's Tax Group/Jurisdiction (based on Ship To Address) would apply to a specific Sales Order. Tax codes are created via the Manager Panel and require the Store Manager to provide description, currency or percentage preference, and rounding off logic.

Creating tax codes in the Manager Panel


The Store Manager attaches applicable tax codes to a particular tax category and tax group/jurisdiction. Each tax category/tax group/jurisdiction can contain one or more tax codes that determine the actual rate of taxes that would be applied. The Store Manager selects a particular tax category and clicks on ‘New’ button to attach a tax code to it.

Create new associations


Tax Codes common between Tax Category and Customer's Tax Group/Jurisdiction, based on Ship To Address, would apply to a specific Sales Order.

Attach tax code to tax category and group


11

The Store Manager can assign tax category to individual SKUs from the SKU detail page. This can be used to make specific SKUs taxable or non-taxable. Similarly, tax category can be assigned to a specific shipping method as well as an individual customer. If the customer is non-taxable then tax will not be applied even if he selects a item which is taxable or a shipping method which is taxable. The setup is shared across the stores.

Assign tax categories to SKUs, customers and shipping method


Taxes display as per configurations explained earlier whether the order is place via the Manager Panel or the web store.

Tax calculation on Manager Panel and web store


The Tax Import feature provides the capability to import taxes to Hitachi Solutions Ecommerce. A sample CSV/Excel with relevant columns and fields as required by the Manager Panel is provided to ease the process.The Manager Panel supports various formats such as CCH, Avalara, and ERP and Hitachi Solutions Ecommerce file format. The friendly error messages are thrown if the tax import fails for some reasons like incorrect data in the file.

Assign tax categories to SKUs, customers and shipping method


14

Similar to how SKUs are assigned a tax code when using the Hitachi Solutions Ecommerce tax engine, the Avalara tax code can also be assigned. All the configuration can be done on the item screen, instead of setting up the catalog on the Avalara admin console. For this the tax code needs to be entered in the Avalara tax code field as seen in the screenshot.

Assign Avalara tax code to individual SKUs


The Store Manager sets the freight tax code for Avalara, which is shared across the stores. He also sets an individual customer as taxable or non-taxable. To set customer as non-taxable set ‘isTaxable = No’. For non-taxable number you can configure a exemption number.

Assigning freight tax code and tax-exempt customer


If a particular shopper is taxable and Avalara tax code is assigned to the SKU he wishes to purchase in the Manager Panel, the same will be reflected in the sales order generated when placing the order both via the web store as well as the Manager Panel. When the sales order is placed on the web store, the taxes are fetched from Avalara as per the configurations set in the Manager Panel as explained in the previous slides.

Avalara tax calculations on web store and the Manager Panel


Thank You.

configure taxes in hitachi solutions ecommerce

Business