There are different methods that tax authorities require reporting for sales tax. The most common reporting methods are: Cash basis and Accrual basis. Without getting into the details — which your tax specialists can provide (this is not legal or tax advice) — ‘cash’ basis means taxes are due when cash is received (i.e. payments are made). On the other hand, ‘accrual’ basis means when the sale is made (i.e. contract is signed or the event occurs).
Note: This documentation is not meant to replace the advice of your tax and legal professional. Consult with your tax and legal professional to ensure these reports are appropriate in your jurisdiction.
Cash Basis (Payments)
Reporting for cash basis jurisdictions should use ‘payments’ as the subject model:
You can select the columns that are useful for your report. Relations are JSON columns representing information related to your payments. Aggregates are operations (sum, max, min, etc) you can perform on a column:
Finally, you should set some conditions. The condition value field allows use of general use merge fields. In this case, the jurisdiction requires quarterly reporting:
This will result in a list of payments for the given tax reporting period (in this case: quarterly). The aggregate will sum up all taxes collected.
You can configure the custom report can be run automatically on the last day of a quarter (in the automations suite) or you can run it manually by clicking Save & Generate Report.
Accrual Basis (Contracts)
Reporting for accrual basis jurisdictions should use ‘contracts’ or ‘events’ as the subject model:
You can select the columns that are useful for your report. Relations are JSON columns representing information related to your payments. Aggregates are operations (sum, max, min, etc) you can perform on a column:
Finally, you should set some conditions. The condition value field allows use of general use merge fields. In this case, the jurisdiction requires quarterly reporting. You also want to make sure you only return contracts or events that have been signed:
This will result in a list of contracts for the given tax reporting period (in this case: quarterly). The aggregate will sum up all taxes accrued on contracts from that time period.
You can configure the custom report can be run automatically on the last day of a quarter (in the automations suite) or you can run it manually by clicking Save & Generate Report.