2021-2Q: [ACC] Compliance Solutions
SIMPLer is able to use 3rd party tax calculators to generate taxes. Support for Compliance Solutions API has just been added.
Tax calculations are quite simple in many countries however in the United States tax & fee calculations can be quite challenging. While broadband services are not usually taxed other products sold, such as installation; equipment; and voice in particular, can be quite challenging to tax. Tax rates & fees are not only constantly changing, but also are different for each product type. These can also vary based on customer location. Therefore making sure that everything is taxed properly can be very time consuming. In cases where there are a lot of taxes to consider & calculate, which is especially true for voice billing, Azotel would advise using a 3rd party tax calculator.
Below are the details that are required to setup a Compliance Solutions tax calculator:
A. Add the tax calculator
The tax calculator can be added by going to 'Settings->Tax Calculators'
Click 'Add Blank Row' and select the 'Compliance Solutions' from the dropdown list
Once the following fields are complete click 'Update Tax Calculator'
URI - (required) the URI API calls should be sent to. Default value of https://tcw.csilongwood.com/api will be correct unless CSI instructs otherwise
ValidationKey - (required) Unique key assigned to operator account by CSI
DecimalPlaces - (required) defines how many decimal places should be used when summarizing the tax rates
LineInSimpleAPIQuery - (optional) this attribute defines how many single requests can be sent through the API in a single call. This attribute helps with performance fine tuning of the API communication. For operators that have 1000's of voice customers a call for taxes for recurring billing could contain millions of lines. This would not go through one API call . The default value is set to 1000 and it will automatically split the request into several 1k line API calls. Changing this attribute can help fine tune the speed of taxes generation as this is dependent on how big / small API calls are able to be processed.
Provider - (optional) Provider-type code. 0 = ILEC 1 = IXC 2 = CLEC 3 = VOIP 4 = ISP 5 = Wireless 99 = Retail Sales. If omitted this will fall back to what is configured under CSI default provider or 99 (retail sales) if a default is not configured.
Providerkey - (optional) used to invoke a franchise agreement rate. These must be set up by CSI. Contact their support for details.
SafeharborOverridePct - (optional) this defaults to the base revenue percentages, or to your default overrides. Please contact CSI for setting up defaults. A delimited list of tax-types and their associated revenue override. E.g.: “35=0.40,60=0.40”, equates to tax-type 35 (fed usf) is calculated on 40% of revenue, same with taxtype 60 (fed trs).
TaxAggregationCode - (optional) this is a description to aggregate the taxes on an invoice. By default all taxes will be listed on invoices one-by-one but using this attribute the calculated taxes can be aggregated and for example be displayed on one line
TaxNominal - (optional) the nominal that should be assigned to calculated taxes
PostCodeCustomFieldName - (optional) by default SIMPLer will take the post code from the customer's installation address, or from their billing address if that is undefined. This field can be used to override this and use an additionally defined custom field to get the customer's post code
ProviderCustomFieldName - (optional) a custom field can be used to override the provider type at the customer subscription level. The custom field should use values similar as previously describer 'Provider' attribute i.e. . 0 = ILEC 1 = IXC 2 = CLEC 3 = VOIP 4 = ISP 5 = Wireless 99 = Retail Sales
RecordTypeCustomFieldName - (required) this attribute defines which custom field will be used to define a Record Type of a particular product. There is a full mapping guide available here: Compliance Solutions Product Mapping Guide that describes the available Record Types. Each product that SIMPLer calculates the taxes for needs to have this field defined as it ultimately defines what taxes a particular subscription is eligible for. Example entry would be: V001-1 or C001-2
LineCountCustomFieldName - (required) this attribute defines which custom field will be used to define a 'Voice Lines' count of a particular product, i.e. this custom field should tell how many voice lines will be sold with a particular product. This information is crucial for calculating 'per line' taxes such as 911 charges. By default SIMPLer will assume there is 1 line sold per product.
B. Add Custom Fields
The following product custom fields should (required) / can (optional) be added to implement the Compliance Solutions tax calculator
Record Type (required) - this field defines the type of product from a taxing perspective. Please contact Compliance Solutions if any guidance on what is the best Record Type setting for your particular product is required. It could be one of the following:
S - Service
P - Private Line
C - Call
Product Code (required) - this defines the category a particular product belongs to. There is a full mapping guide available here: Compliance Solutions Product Mapping Guide that describes the available Record Types. Each product that SIMPLer calculates the taxes for needs to have this field defined as it ultimately describes what taxes a particular subscription is eligible for. Example entry would be: V001-1 or C001-2
Line Count (optional) - defines how many phone lines are handled with a product
Provider (optional) - this allows overriding 'provider' at the product level
Safe Harbor Override Pct (optional) - this allows overriding 'safe harbour' split at the product level. By default it is set to what is currently recommended by US authorities in a particular state / county / city
C. Product setup with tax calculator
Setting up a product for tax calculator is quite simple and requires following steps:
Change the TAX Mode to: Compliance Solutions
Set the Record Type according to the product sold either to: Service, Private Line or Call
Set the Product Code according to what category it belongs to based on: Compliance Solutions Product Mapping Guide
D. Customer Details page
Once everything is set the calculated taxes will automatically appear in the Subscription Details section of the customer details page. No additional setup is required at the customer level. Tax breakdown can be verified when hovering over the 'ComplianceSolutions' tag for each subscription as shown in the screenshot below.
Published Date: 23-April-2021
Engineer: MG
Contact Azotel Support:
Need more help? Save time by creating a maintenance ticket to Azotel through your instance or email support@azotel.com.