How QuickBooks Eases Tracking
As a business owner, managing sales tax reporting can be quite a daunting task. This tax, however, is extremely important given a company’s clients need to understand the final price of the item and businesses must anticipate how much tax they are responsible for giving back to the government.
The domino effect of improper sales tax calculations can affect a business’s long-term financial goals, a result easily avoided with the right tools that streamline the calculation process and ensure compliance across all avenues. The renowned accounting software that gets the job done: QuickBooks.
QuickBooks offers several features that make tracking sales tax for products and services a breeze, with several listed below:
- Automatic Sales Tax Calculation
This first step is already a winner. When you add sales tax to an invoice in QuickBooks, the calculations are automatically taken care of. Indeed, QuickBooks calculates the sales tax rate based on the date, location, type of product or service and customer that you have. This is essentially crucial given each state has local sales tax rules and regulations your business needs to follow.
- Product Categorization
QuickBooks can take your logged product and understand all the state rules that apply. The software allows you to log all your products and services so that once you finish, the correct sales tax rate is applied to each product category and transaction.
- Sales Tax Liability Report
All business owners know what it’s like when there’s five meetings going on at once and suddenly the information you thought you saved is gone. QuickBooks is your easy solve for that, always allowing you to view your sales tax information at any time.
In QuickBooks, this is known as the Sales Tax Liability Report (STLR), a document that breaks down the sales tax you’ve collected and owe to the tax agencies. It gives you the total taxable sales, total nontaxable sales, tax rate, tax collected, and sales tax payable.
- Customizable Tax Rates
All businesses have their own specific needs, products and services. QuickBooks’ software is customizable and can fit around YOUR company infrastructure. Always be assured that you can edit, deactivate, or add new tax rates as required.
- Sales Tax Exemptions
You read that right! If your company is exempt from sales tax, QuickBooks can help you get refunded the sales tax Intuit has charged your business on any services or products. All you need to do is contact the team at QuickBooks and send them a copy of your tax-exempt certification. This then allows you to update your account as Sales Tax Exempt.
- Live Assisted Bookkeeping
If you were never a fan of automated software that has little to no human interaction, this live bookkeeping feature, QuickBooks Live, definitely takes care of that. Completely optional, you can select your QuickBooks Online plan, add “Live Assisted Bookkeeping” and immediately have access to expert guidance from accountants and bookkeepers that answer your questions, provide expert tax help or, when choosing “Live Full-Service Bookkeeping”, you can have a bookkeeper do your books for you.
- Receipt Capture
All business owners know the importance of receipt-keeping: this documentation can be crucial to year-end reports, financial goal tracking, and budgeting for the year. QuickBooks keeps track of all your receipts when you attach them to transactions, allowing for easy reference during tax reporting.
- Mileage Tracking
If traveling is a big part of your business, QuickBooks keeps track of business-related travel and allows for potential deductions.
- All Channels in One Place
Whether you’re selling online or in-person, QuickBooks is able to integrate all your sales from different platforms into one space. This type of streamlining and keeping information all together is priceless when it comes to organization— your CFO will thank you.
Ultimately, with all this said, QuickBooks serves as an online software that simplifies sales tax reporting, automates calculations, provides detailed reports and even offers expert live assistance should you need. Managing sales tax can be a time-consuming and complex process for any business. With accurate and timely reporting, you can avoid costly penalties and maintain compliance with tax regulations.
If you have any further questions about sales tax reporting and accounting services that can help, be sure to reach out to Jeanine Hemingway, CPA. Our team of experts is a call away!