AvaTax for Communications Sales and Use Viewer Manual (Legacy)

The Jurisdiction information section is used to specify the Ship From and Ship To points for AFC transactions. These points correspond to the jurisdictions used for subsequent tax calculations in the AFC Sales and Use Viewer.

The Ship From field is used to indicate the Taxing Jurisdiction where the shipment is initiated.

The Ship To field is used to indicate the Taxing Jurisdiction where the shipment will be delivered.

Use the appropriate Change button to select or update the Ship From and Ship To points. Selecting a Change button invokes the Location Search dialog.

Use the appropriate Clear button to clear the information currently displayed in a Jurisdiction information field.

When selecting or changing jurisdictions the information in the Location Search dialog defaults to the previously-selected location. This allows for quick changes in the event that multiple jurisdiction points are set to the same jurisdiction.

The Transaction Data section is used to specify the transaction information that will be used by AFC to determine the type of taxes to apply to the transaction.

T/S is an abbreviation for Transaction/Service Type. Use the T/S dropdown list boxes to select a transaction type and service type.

Refer to the TM_00115_AFC Transaction and Service Types for descriptions of Transaction and Service Types.

Use the pull down menu to select a specific Attribute. Refer to the TM_00506_AFC Sales and Use Mapping Guidelines for attribute definitions.

Select the appropriate Sale Type:

Wholesale: Specifies the transaction is a sale to another company, which will resell the product or service to a consumer.

Retail: Specifies the transaction is a sale to an end user.

Consumed: Specifies the transaction is for an item that is consumed directly.

Vendor Use: Specifies the transaction is for an item that is subject to vendor use tax.

The Invoice section is used to provide the date and amount of an Invoice.

The Date field is normally populated with the bill date.

The Amount field specifies the amount of the transaction to be taxed.

The Customer Information fields are used to define the status of the customer.

Select the appropriate Customer Type from the drop down list box.

Check the Incorporated check box to indicate that the customer resides inside or outside of the Local level designated as their location.

Use the additional fields to specify adjustments, create exemptions, or use Invoice Mode

Check the Adjustment check box to specify the transaction as an adjustment.

Use the Adjustment Method drop down list box to specify the method for the adjustment.

When tax exemptions have been applied to the transaction a summary of the exemptions will show up in the Exemptions field. Use the View/Edit… button to add, change, or remove exemptions.

Use the view/edit button to specify tax exemptions for a transaction. . Selecting View/Edit will display the Tax Exemptions Dialog.

Check the Invoice Mode check box to enable Invoice Mode.

When Invoice Mode is enabled, process transactions as normal. Be sure to select the Calculate button in the bottom left corner of the main AFC Viewer screen to record each transaction. After the desired transactions have been processed, select Customer Totals to see the totals for all the customer transactions. This will reset the transaction totals for the next customer. If Invoice Mode is no longer desired, uncheck the Invoice Mode check box.

AFC applies Steps, Brackets and/or Limits on a per transaction basis unless operating in Invoice Mode. Invoice Mode is used to group transactions that apply to the same customer. AFC maintains a history of the transactions and applies the Steps, Brackets and/or Limits to entire group of transactions.

For example, suppose a jurisdiction charges a 10% UUT on just the first $10 of an invoice. If two separate $6 transactions on the invoice are passed while not in Invoice Mode, two $0.60 tax charges would be erroneously totaled and a $1.20 tax would be generated. However, if these same transactions are passed while in Invoice Mode, the total tax charge would be correctly totaled and a $1.00 tax would be generated.

Refer to the AFC Manual for more information about using Invoice Mode.

This list box displays the taxes resulting from a tax calculation or the cumulative taxes resulting from the set of transactions processed in Invoice Mode. The following information is returned.

• PCode – PCode (Permanent Location Code) for the tax jurisdiction. Refer to the AFC Manual for more information about PCode and Jurisdictions.
• Level – The tax level the tax applies to
• Tax Type – The tax type description
• Tax Type ID – The numeric tax type identifier
• Rate – Tax Rate or amount applied
• Tax Amount – Calculated tax amount
• Taxable Measure – Amount of charge plus any taxed taxes
• Exempt Sale Amount – Amount of the charge exempt from taxes
• Calculation Type – The method used to calculate the tax. (i.e. Rate, Fixed, Per Minute, Per Line)
• Surcharge - Surcharge flag from tax logic
• Jurisdiction Rule – The rule used to determine this tax’s applicability to the transaction.
• Billable - Billable flag from tax logic
• Compliance - Compliance flag from tax logic
• Tax Taxes – The list of all the taxes that will include the tax amount generated for this tax into their taxable measure, before calculating the tax amount.

  Note: Due to the design of the AFC engine, only the first 10 tax on tax items are displayed in the results of this column. There may be additional tax on tax items beyond this limited number.

Tax Inclusive Calculations allow you to enter the total charge desired including the base sale amount plus the tax. The AFC Sales and Use Viewer will then calculate the appropriate taxes and determine what the appropriate base sale amount for the transaction should be.

In order to enable tax inclusive calculations, check the Tax Inclusive Calculation checkbox and then enter the desired total charge into the Total Charge textbox. The base sale amount will automatically be calculated and displayed in the Invoice Amount text box. The screenshot below shows an example of a tax inclusive calculation in which the user entered $150.00 as the total charge. The AFC Viewer determined that the appropriate base sale amount should be $138.06.

The General tab within the AFC Sales and Use Viewer Settings is used to filter Transaction/Service Types to be displayed on the Viewer.

Check the Calculate taxes automatically after updating an input field check box to have the AFC Viewer behave as if the Calculate button was pressed any time an input field is updated.

Check the Update ship to location when ship from location is changed check box to have the ship to location update at the same time as the ship from location.

Use this section to show or hide transaction/service types that may or may not be of interest.

To show or hide individual transaction/service types, select one or more items from the appropriate list box and then press the > or < buttons to them back and forth.

Use the Nexus tab to specify which states have nexus and which do not. When AFC determines there is no nexus for the taxing jurisdiction of the transaction, no taxes will be returned.

To move states back and forth between Do Not Have Nexus and Have Nexus, select one or more items from the appropriate list box and then press the > or < buttons to move them back and forth.

Refer to the AFC Manual for more information about Nexus.

Use Save To… to save the current Nexus settings to a nexus file. The file can be used to initialize AFC with the specified nexus settings.

Refer to the AFC Manual for more information about initializing AFC with a nexus file.

Use this tab to specify state-level tax exclusions. AFC has the ability to exclude states (and therefore lower level jurisdictions) from taxation. When a state has exclusions AFC will not return any taxes except the federal level.

To move states back and forth between Do Not Have Exclusions and Have Exclusions, select one or more items from the appropriate list box and then press the > or < buttons to move them back and forth.

Refer to the AFC Manual for more information about exclusions.

Use Save To… to save the current set of exclusions to an exclusions file. The file can be used to initialize AFC with the specified exclusions.

Refer to the AFC Manual for more information about initializing AFC with an exclusions file.

Use this tab to select an existing override file to use with the Viewer.

Use this tab to add or remove visible columns for Tax Results and Customer Tax Totals information to be displayed on the AFC Viewer.

Use this tab to specify tax groupings. AFC has the ability to group tax calculation results based on tax level and tax type criteria.

Refer to the AFC Manual for more information on tax grouping.

The Help Menu currently contains one menu selection, the About AFC Manager. The path to this selection is illustrated above.

The About AFC Manager option screen displays the version of the software and all of the currently installed components. It also displays the output directory of the AFC configuration file and status file(s).