vat help exclusive to inclusive prices

[wesleythorne]

Hi, after changing all our prices to exclude VAT so that actinic can add on the 17.5 % we have noticed a big dop in customer orders.
We need to change our prices back and not have actinic apply any VAT.

All our prices are now exclusive of VAT but I need to increase them in excel so that they appear to have VAT.

Does anyone have a formuler for adding back on 17.5% in excel.

I know the formuler for taking of 17.5% =ROUND(A2/1.175,2)

But what about adding it back on again?

Kind regards
Wesley

[jont]

simply multiply by 1.175

[wesleythorne]

hi, i thought it was that easy!
Do you have the equation to convert from pounds to pence in excel so that i can import back into actinic.
Thanks
Wesley

[wjcampbe]

Wesley? One pound = 100 pence?

[wesleythorne]

Hello, just found the answer in the knowlege base , link below if anyone else wants its

http://knowledge.actinic.com/acatalo...18.html#aKB206

[leehack]

Mutiply x 100 for pence

[Mark H]

Hi Wesley - I'm interested in why orders dropped after you let Actinic add VAT - do you mean that only the excluding VAT price was shown against products, and VAT was then added in checkout which annoyed customers?

[wesleythorne]

hi, once we changed the site to show prices inclusive of vat
eg> £1.77 incl. VAT

Actinic cannot display this price correctly in the basket
The customer will see £1.51 in the basket and then a vat summery at the bottom of the basket. When the customer orders several items customers get confused and start seeing VAT prices and a delivey charge excluding VAT.

We noticed a 50% decline in sales after we changed to the actinc VAT set up.

We have now removed VAT from actinic so that all prices display correctly.
And yes sale sare up!

There is also no way of showing the delivery charge including VAT.
This is added at the end of the order. this is not aceptable to us or the customer.
For most retail customers there are just too many price lines for them to understand.

After all if you buy something from a shop you dont expect to see VAT added at the end or a quote for £3.95 delivery and then 'sorry that does not include VAT int he delivery but it does in the product price'
if you buy from the likes of amazon or other large online stores eg Dixons, currys, argos they do not mention VAT at all.

Retail customers get confused and three lines of prices is no good.
They want to see one total.

As we can not now link to sage we are manualy entering totals so that we can apply the vat.
Sage requires VAT exclusive prices from Actinic.
We are also in the process of looking for a better solution elsewhere unless Actinic can sort out this VAT headache quickly.
Wesley


Wesley

[Mark H]

Wesley - with the exception of the Sage issue (we don't use Sage) I have to say I have a lot of sympathy with all of that. I think we might do a bit of testing on one of our sites to see if that is better for customers (and us!). Mark

PS it would also get rid of the VAT rounding problem, whereby Actinic can't produce some "rounded" prices including VAT.

[Mark H]

Wesley - couldn't you deal with the shipping VAT issue by putting the full price inc VAT in the shipping bands boxes, and changing the tax rate to, say, custom 0% in the same dialog box (View | Business Settings | Shipping & Handling, top left hand side - click on the current tax rate which probably says "VAT" to make the drop down arrow appear)?

[wesleythorne]

hi, having searched the forums I am not alone with VAT issues.
Actinic has said it will be doing lots of work on VAT for V9 but that may be 1 to 2 years ways.
I am here and now and cannot wait for Actinic to play catch up.
I had hoped actinic would alow my business to grow with it but having looked at alternative systems I think Actinic has along way to go.
I also have V8 multi site as part of my devolper cover subscription but with this VAT issue there is little point in upgrading especially if I need to relearn Actinic for v8.
Just as simple to look elesewhere for a fully database driven site that does what I need, ie VAT, auto account creation, gift vouchers, customer history etc etc...

Wes

[wesleythorne]

To be honest I dont have the time for workarounds at the present, VAT should be a fundamentle part of an e commerce product.

wes

[leehack]

To change the VAT on shipping as above would take about 5 minutes to do from the start til the finish, probably equivalent to the time to sign into the forum, read the post and post a reply. If 5 minutes is too much time, then rest assured, whatever solution you think you may have found, will also have headaches and things you do not like.

If you want the perfect application that does everything you want with no issues, then you have to build it yourself, it's the only way. Any boxed solution will never cater for every single thing you need as it has such a wide audience to cater for.

A fundamental thing when spending money on software is investigating whether it can do what you want it too and using places like this to find out the real issues.

I find it quite incredible that within 2/3/4 hours you have confirmed that sales were down one way and now they are back as they were. Its often common at this time of year that a lull in sales is seen, before the big bang. I remember reading an article last years which predicted it would go manic the 2nd week in December and it was correct.

Sit tight and accept the software's faults, they will be solved. If all else fails then you have a great community here to help you.

NOTE: I agree that the vat rounding is a disgrace that it still hangs around and hasn't been solved in V8, but we now have a confirmation that it will be in the future.

[jont]

Wesley over what period of time did you run the new VAT scheme. How does this compare to the same period 2005 / 2004 etc if you have the figures.

As Lee points out there there can be many other influences affecting sales and it can be easy to point the finger solely at the last changes to the site - we are all guilty of that at some point.

[wesleythorne]

hi, i have run the new vat for one week, had three customers complain and yes sales are down on same time last year, and year before that, we were seeing a 30% growth each year on sales over the last 3 years.

On top of this are unique visits to the site have gone up this week from approx 1200 a day to 2000. But sales have fallen.

As the VAT is the only thing we have changed and the only thing customers have called us on I dont see what else it can be.

VAT is a big headache for us and actinic.
I am sorry but after three years with steady growth we need to look for a system that will cut it.

I do like actinic but what is the point in leaning v8 when it does not do what we require regarding VAT. We might as well look at something that does what we require.

I will be happy to spend some time learning V8 if actinic could let us know when VAT will be addressed with a time scale. I am running a business with a high street shop and we have to look forward in all directions and if a product does not keep up with demand it falls by the wayside. We can not afford to wait until who knows when for this issue to be addressed.
Without an expected delivery time we can not plan.


Wesley