Actinic to Sage Tax Codes

[Smart]

Hi there,

We are currently using Actinic V8 with Sage V9. Actinic is setup with advanced tax with three zones, UK, EU and rest of world. UK is charged VAT as is EU with exempt option, ROW is no tax. All pretty standard stuff I presume.

We would like these to import into sage with UK as T1, EU (exempt) as T4 and ROW as T0. UK customers orders are ok at T1, but all other countries come into Sage as T9 on each line, as well as on the carriage line. I've set up the Actinic to Sage link as per the handbook, T9 isn't even used here, so I don't know where it's coming from.

A second but related point is that when the customer record is set up in Sage, it does not set the default tax code, or check the 'overide product tax code' in invoicing based on the country of the particular customer. Is it possible to make this happen automatically?

I have attached a screen shot of the tax setup in Actinic and Link. I did find a similar post to this one at http://community.actinic.com/showthread.php?t=32480 but there was no conclusion to the problem, it seemed to get diverted somewhere else but there was no link.

I hope someone can help.

Thanks
Martin

[TraceyG]

Hi,

Do you use VAT Cash Accounting in Sage? I don't think we support this method but I will check for you if you are using it. Can you also let me know what version of Sage (Help | About), Actinic (Help | About...) and Link (c:\program files\Actinic Link\Sage Line 50\version.ini) you are using please.

[Smart]

Hi Tracey, thanks for your reply.

We don't use cash accounting in Sage, but I'm not sure this is relevant to my problem. In Sage there are different tax codes. In our setup T0 is set to 0% and is used for sales to countries where VAT is not applicable (like USA). T1 is used for sales in the UK at 17.5% and T4 is set to 0% is used for sales to European countries where the customer has a valid VAT number and is therefore exempt from VAT. This structure is the same in standard or cash accounting.

In Actinic the corresponding bands are set up under Settings_Business Settings_Tax. The EU zone is set to VAT with the possibility for exemption, UK is set to VAT and ROW (rest of world) is set to no tax (see previous attachment). We need these settings to map into Sage as T4, T1 and T0 respectively. This is what I tried to set up in the Actinic link (see other previous attachment) but it doesn't seem to be working. ROW orders are coming across with tax code T9 (in both the order and carriage lines).

In sage under each customer account there is a default tax code field. Ideally we would like to get the relevant tax code transferred with the order, and also with the customer record (although the former is more important).

FYI we are running Actinic 8.5.2.0.0.0 and Sage 9.10.0043.

I don't think I'm the first person to experience this problem, although I could not find the resolution to it on the thread http://community.actinic.com/showthread.php?t=32480

I look forward to your reply.

Best regards
Martin

[Smart]

Sorry I forgot to mention the Actinic to Sage link version is 2.4.0.0.2

[TraceyG]

One other question - are you transferring the orders as Sales Orders or Invoices (or you use both)?

[Smart]

We are transferring the orders as Sales Orders.

I'm a bit confused, yesterday I posted a detailed reply to your questions, but it is not shown on the forum, yet the follow up reply I made is shown. Did you receive a copy of the fisrt response?

[TraceyG]

Did you receive a copy of the fisrt response?

Yes, I can see your response and I'm testing out the configuration to see if I can recreate the problem.

[TraceyG]

Hi,

I've just tried it out and I get the following results:

UK with T1 for tax and shipping
EU (non-exempt) with T1 for tax and shipping
EU (Exempt) with T4 for tax and T1 for shipping
US transfers with T9 for tax and Shipping

Is that what you get? I have asked our development team to comment on why this is happening and will get back to you as soon as I get a response.

[Smart]

Yes, this is the same as we get. Obviously what we want is to get T4 in both product and carriage lines for EU VAT exempt customers, and T0 in both lines for zero rated customers (such as USA).

[TraceyG]

Hi,

Have found a setting in Sage that seems to override the zero-rated setting. If you take a look at 'Settings | Company Preferences | VAT tab | Non-vatable Tax Code', it is probably set to T9. If you change it to T0 then the ROW orders should work ok.

The difference in the Shipping and Tax for the EU exempt orders is because your shipping is probably set to use Pro-Rata tax in Actinic and is therefore setting T1 as that is what is set in Link. I'm checking with development if there is a way around that.

[Smart]

The default tax code in Sage is set to T9, but changing this has other negative consequences in Sage. For example all payments applied on account are posted to the audit trail with a tax code of T9. If we change this to T0, it may make the import from Actinic work, but it will cause problems when running VAT reports in Sage, as payments on account will be posted with the same tax code as sales to zero rated customers.

Should actinic not use the values that are set in the Actinic to Sage link, rather than this default Sage code?

In relation to the shipping being set to use pro-rata, I assumed that meant that if there were different lines on the order of different tax codes it would work out the carriage on a pro-rata basis. If there is only one sales line, and it is exempt from VAT, surely pro-rata carriage is also exempt?

Thank you for your help with this, I hope we can resolve it. Most of our orders come from overseas, so it is quite an important issue for us. We chose Actinic because of its compatability with Sage which we use for all of our standard order processing.

[TraceyG]

To get the ROW orders to transfer correctly without changing your default Sage setting do the following:

In Actinic Business:
- go to 'Settings | Business Settings | Tax'
- in the 'Taxes' table at the top add a new row (click the '+')
- give it a name (ie ROW) and set the 'Tax Rounding' to 'Round Line Scientific'
- the 'Tax Rate' for this tax should be 0.00
- add a new 'Tax Zone' for 'Rest of World' and add in all the countries that you want included (for example, USA, etc)
- with the new zone highlighted, set the 'Tax 1' for this zone to 'ROW'
- on the 'Shipping & Handling' tab you should see a new row added to the tax grid for 'ROW', set the 'Tax Rate' to 'zero-rated'.
- click 'OK'

In Actinic Link:
- edit your profile and click on the 'Tax' tab
- add the following new rows:

Actinic Tax 1 Name.........Tax 1 Rate..........Sage Tax Code
ROW.............................0%....................T0
ROW.............................zero-rated..........T0

The Rest of World orders should then be transferred with the correct Sage Tax Codes.

If there is only one sales line, and it is exempt from VAT, surely pro-rata carriage is also exempt?

I'm afraid not, if there is no tax on the sales line (either because it is exempt or zero-rated) then pro-rata means that it will not add tax to the shipping but it is still pro-rata and that is set to T1. I'm afraid that you can't map shipping pro-rata tax to Sage tax code T1 and T4 depending on the order lines tax code.

[Smart]

Hi Tracey

Thanks for your reply, I have now set this up as you recommended and the Rest of world orders now come through as T0 0% on both order lines and carriage lines, which solves that problem. Thank you for your efforts on this.

As you said in your last post, the European VAT exempt customers (which accounts for most European businesses) still come through with T4 on the order lines and T1 on the carriage line (although T1 is set at 0% because it is calculated pro-rata). Although the tax amount is calculated correctly, this is a problem still, as all sales to EC countries need to have the T4 tax code to seperate them from other transactions. This is necessary to enable Sage to properly calculate our VAT return. We also have to submit a report to HM Customs and Excise every month for all of our sales to EC countries (as do all companies exporting to Europe), and we use the T4 tax code to identify these transaction in our reporting. Is there any other way round this? We get a lot of orders from the EU and it will cause problems if the person processing the order forgets to manually change the tax code in the carriage line.

The other part of my original question related to the default tax codes set up in Sage in the customer record when a new customer is transferred. Is it possible for Actinic to set this tax code correctly based on the customers country and VAT exempt status? At the moment all new customers come over with a T1 default tax code regardless of their country.

[TraceyG]

Is there any other way round this? We get a lot of orders from the EU and it will cause problems if the person processing the order forgets to manually change the tax code in the carriage line.

I will check for you but I'm not hopeful.

The other part of my original question related to the default tax codes set up in Sage in the customer record when a new customer is transferred. Is it possible for Actinic to set this tax code correctly based on the customers country and VAT exempt status? At the moment all new customers come over with a T1 default tax code regardless of their country.

I'm afraid not. When a new account is created in Sage it takes it's defaults from the 'Settings | Customer Defaults' options. As far as I can see you cannot set which tax code you would like for each country, only which options you want to have set when you create a new account. Link also only gives the option to set the global options as per the Sage defaults or you can override it to set a particular default but not depending on which country the customer is from. I think this would be more likely to be a wish-list item for Sage rather than us.

[Smart]

Hi tracey,

I hope there is some way round the VAT exempt tax code in the carriage line, I appreciate you looking into this further for us.

Regarding the tax code in the customer record, when we enter a new customer manually in Sage, this does default to T1, but obviously when we are creating it manually we change it to the required code. The country defaults to UK, we also change this. When Actinic generates a new customer, I assume that it is producing a csv file with the new customer record, and then this is imported into the Sage customer database table. As Actinic is generating the customer record, it should also generate the customer tax code, in the same way it calculates the tax code for the order lines. It can then insert the correct tax code into relevant customer record field. Is this possible?

thanks
Martin