Overview
TaxCloud is a highly available, secure, remotely invoked web service that gives you complete control over the presentation and reconciliation of all the steps in managing sales taxes for your customers’ purchases.
TaxCloud offers its services to AmeriCommerce online store merchants free of charge if certain conditions are met. They can offer their services for free because in these situations TaxCloud funds it operation based on commissions paid by select U.S. state governments.
For information regarding the requirements to receive TaxCloud's services for free and their fees if you do not meet these qualifications, please see TaxCloud's article covering their fees:
Are there charges for using TaxCloud?
The Setup
In order to take advantage of this AmeriCommerce online store plug-in, you must first register with TaxCloud by visiting this site - To sign up for the service go to – https://taxcloud.net/
Note: AmeriCommerce is listed as SparkPay when you are selecting your platform during registration.
When you register with TaxCloud you will have the opportunity to specify sales tax collection details.
API ID & API Key:
As part of the TaxCloud registration process you will be asked to enter the URL of your web store(s). This is done on the “Websites” page. When you enter a website, a window will open from the bottom of the page. That window will include the API ID and API Key. That information needs to be noted and entered as part of your AmeriCommerce online store/TaxCloud Settings (see below).
Performing Test Transactions:
Before your web store can go live with TaxCloud you will have to complete a test order. This will allow us to confirm that your settings are correct. When you place the test order our system will perform a lookup, authorize, and capture. The capture only takes place when an order is marked as shipped or closed. After you have done this there will be a "go live" button available for your website in TaxCloud. Once you click this button all of your transactions will be recorded as live transactions in the TaxCloud system.
There are no restrictions, so feel free to test as much as necessary.
Monthly Tax Reports and Filings:
TaxCloud makes a series of reports available to you at the close of each month. You will find these reports in the “Transactions” and the “Filings” tabs of your TaxCloud account. You can also download your monthly detailed data in CSV format (look for the CSV button in the Transactions tab).
TaxCloud can even file your state sales tax returns for you. For more information on this consult the TaxCloud site.
Taxability Information Codes:
An important step in setting up your website for accurate sales tax collection is assigning the correct Taxability Information Code (TIC) to the goods and/or services that you sell. In most states there are categories of merchandise that are exempt from taxes or are taxed at a different. rate. For example, in New Jersey, clothing is exempt from sales tax. To ensure that customers are charged the correct rates, you need to maintain up-to-date and accurate TICs. TaxCloud has several tools to make this easy. You can use one of two approaches to creating TICs: store level default setting or item/group level settings.
TaxCloud offers more informatin on TIC and their service here https://taxcloud.net/guide.pdf
How to setup on the AmeriCommerce online store side:
- Enable Tax Cloud Globally. Tools > Apps and Add-Ons > Tax Cloud
- Select store
- Enter Login Information & Key
- Click Save at top right of screen.
Manual Order Sync
Some times you may want to manually sync an order between AmeriCommerce and Tax Cloud. This is one way to ensure that Tax Cloud has an accurate version of the order. By default, orders will be synced to Tax Cloud automatically when the order is placed and paid in full and you can also choose to manually sync them as described below.
How to manually sync orders with Tax Cloud:
Step 1: Navigate to the orders list screen within the admin
Step 2: Select one or more orders you want to sync with Tax Cloud
Step 3: Choose More Actions -> Sync Selected Order With Tax Cloud
(You can also choose More Actions -> Sync Selected Order With Tax Cloud on the order edit screen to sync an individual order)
After syncing, a message will display showing any errors with syncing and how many orders successfully synced. NOTE: Not all orders are able to be synced. There must not be a balance on the order and certain order statuses are not allowed, such as Credit Declined.
How a manually synced order looks on Tax Cloud:
Tax Cloud does not natively support changing orders after they have been placed. To get around this, if the order already exists on Tax Cloud, we cancel the order on Tax Cloud's end, and then create a new one. During this process, we will increment the order number on Tax Cloud by adding '-1', '-2', '-3', etc. This could start to look messy on Tax Cloud if you manually sync an order many times, but within Tax Cloud you can filter orders by captured status to hide any canceled ones.
Manual Tax Cloud sync only (No automatic order syncing to Tax Cloud):
If you would like your orders to ONLY be manually synced with Tax Cloud you can turn on the Manual Tax Sync Only setting located within your Tax Cloud settings. (Tools -> Apps & Addons -> Tax Cloud) This will prevent orders from automatically being sent to Tax Cloud when orders are placed. There are filters on the order list screen that will allow you to select orders that have been last synced within a certain range. You could also choose to only see un-synced orders.
(Example: Select all orders last synced between Aug. 1st and Sep. 1st)
