Calculating Tax for a Customer Quotation Using Avalara AvaTax

If tax calculation using Avalara AvaTax is enabled in your org, you can calculate tax for a customer quotation.

Tax is calculated for each customer quotation line. You can optionally provide a specific Avalara tax code for every line to calculate tax with greater precision, depending on the product being shipped. You can do this manually, or rely on the mappings created by your administrator. If an Avalara tax code is not provided for a line, Avalara AvaTax uses the origin and destination addresses to calculate tax. For more information, see AvaTax Code to Product Group Mappings.

When calculating tax, the origin address is determined as follows:

  • If the account specified in the Customer Account field on the customer quotation contains a warehouse with an address, the address of the warehouse is used.
  • If the account specified in the Customer Account field on the customer quotation contains a warehouse without an address, the address of the ICP linked to the warehouse is used.
  • If the account specified in the Customer Account field on the customer quotation does not contain a warehouse, the org address is used.
  • If an account is not specified in the Customer Account field on the customer quotation, the org address is used.

The destination address is determined as follows:

  • If the Override Ship to Address field is populated on the customer quotation, the customer address record is used.
  • If the Customer Account field is populated on the customer quotation, the shipping address of the customer account is used.
  • If the prospect address fields are populated on the customer quotation, the address of the prospect is used.

For a full description of the values sent from a customer quotation to Avalara, see Customer Quotation to Avalara Mappings.

You can calculate tax for a customer quotation in several ways:

  • Manually, by clicking Calculate Tax on the customer quotation record page. For more information, see Calculating Tax for a Single Customer Quotation.
  • Automatically, while printing the customer quotation. For more information, contact your administrator.
  • Automatically, when a checkbox or a formula checkbox is selected on the customer quotation. The field is configured by your administrator. For more information, contact your administrator.

After tax is calculated, the relevant tax rate, value, and name fields are automatically populated on each line. This enables you to view a breakdown by jurisdiction, for up to three jurisdictions. The Tax and Tax Rate fields contain the total values for the line. The Total Tax field on the customer quotation enables you to view the total amount of tax for all lines.

The External Tax Status field is set to "Calculated". If you make changes to the customer quotation that might impact its tax value, the External Tax Status automatically changes from "Calculated" to "Not Calculated". Some changes can indirectly impact a customer quotation's tax value but do not cause the External Tax Status to change to "Not Calculated", such as editing the shipping address of the related customer account.

Calculating Tax for a Single Customer Quotation

To calculate tax for a single customer quotation using Avalara AvaTax:

  1. Open the customer quotation that you want to calculate tax for.
  2. Click Calculate Tax.
  3. Click Calculate Tax to confirm the action.