Custom tax fields
Last updated: August 25, 2023
This feature has been deprecated, and replaced with multi-tax. You can no longer enable custom tax fields. Instead, please use multi-tax, where you can set tax types on an individual price line by creating a new tax type and setting it to “on” at the price line’s sheet level. Tax types with multi-tax are easier to create, maintain, and report on. Learn more about it here.
For editing currently existing custom tax fields, continue reading below.
Custom tax fields
Note: After the release of multi-tax, the price set for a custom tax will be converted into a tax amount per effective tax type on the price line. This means that a 5% custom tax on the same line as 4 effective tax types will be applied 4 total times.
For priced custom fields, FH Admins can use the custom tax dropdown to determine how exactly the priced field should affect the subtotal and taxes.
This allows us to apply things like alcohol taxes or service fees to the tax portion of the booking only, without affecting the subtotal.
Custom tax fields can be used along with pricing calculation types to further customize the way taxes are calculated.
Enabling custom tax
From the company’s Dashboard, type
Shift+,to go to the advanced settings. Find and enable the “custom taxes” setting.You’ll also want to make sure aggregate tax is not enabled (located under Admin > Deprecated Features). Learn more about aggregate vs. in-line tax.
Once these two steps are done, the custom tax dropdown will appear when editing the price of a custom field.
Options
Standard tax
Acts like a regular custom field. Taxes are applied to the subtotal as usual.
Custom tax
Adds custom tax to taxes only, rather than the subtotal. Note: if the price sheet or customer type is untaxed, the tax will be $0.
In the above example, the Dashboard’s tax rate is 10%. If the tax rate for the item was 0%, the custom tax would still be applied to the tax line; it would just be $5 instead of $15.
Custom tax (include untaxed)
Applies custom tax to taxes only. If the price sheet is untaxed, the tax will be $0. However, if the customer type is untaxed, tax will be applied.
Custom tax (include untaxed, even on untaxed sheets)
Adds custom tax to taxes only, even when using an untaxed sheet or customer type.
Setup and Examples
Dollar Amount
For: Companies that want a custom tax as a set dollar ($) amount.
Example: A company uses a regular priced dropdown for add-ons or rentals (for example, board types) and the tax amount is different for each option. You can use logic to apply the right tax per option.
Dropdown options: Pink Board: $40 | Blue Board: $30 | Red Board: $25, and each board has a different tax amount (Pink = 10%, Blue = 20%, and Red = 50%). As a result, Pink Board tax = $4 | Blue Board tax = $6 | Red Board tax = $12.50. Use logic to apply the Pink Board’s special custom tax when the customer chooses the pink board, and so on. In this scenario you would untax all of the board options in the dropdown, make three quantity dropdowns (1 to 1) with the correct dollar amount, then select “Custom tax (include untaxed)” and set the custom field to “Compound running price” (see pricing calculation types).
How the math should work out:
- Person: $100 plus $7.71 tax (dashboard rate of 7.71)
- Pink Board: $40 plus $4 tax (custom)
- Blue Board: $30 plus $6 tax (custom)
- Red Board: $25 plus $12.50 tax (custom)
Percentage Amount
For: Companies that want a custom tax as a percentage.
Example: A company collects a special tax for certain items (e.g. a harbor tax) that is different than the Dashboard or item tax.
Boat Docking tax is 12.5%. There is a custom field on the whole booking level that asks the customer how many days they need their boat docked. In this scenario, you would untax the dropdown and change its setting to reset to $0.00, create a 1 to 1 quantity dropdown that adjusts total by 12.5%, and select “Custom tax (include untaxed)” and set the custom field to “Compound running price”. In this case, the custom tax will only affect the price of the days the boat is docked.
How the math should work out:
- Person: $100 plus $7.71 tax (dashboard rate of 7.71)
- Comfy Chair: $10 plus $.77 tax (dashboard rate of 7.71)
- Per day boat docked: $50 plus $6.25 tax (custom)
Reporting
Depending on what information you or the client wants to see, you can run the following reports:
Sales Report: Shows the combined total tax on the booking (Dashboard Tax + all custom tax rates). Example
Custom Field Answers Report (Booking-Level): Shows the tax collected for each booking-level quantity dropdown field made into a custom tax field. Example
Custom Field Answers Report (Customer-Level): Shows the tax collected for each customer-level quantity dropdown field made into a custom tax field. Example
Use the Sales report to calculate all combined tax, and the Custom Field Answers reports to break down the custom tax by field and type.
Important notes
Things you can use custom tax on:
- Customer Types
- Subtotal Pricing
- Quantity dropdowns
- Regular dropdowns
- Checkboxes
Any time you want to add a custom tax on a specific custom field, you’ll need to reset the running price using a resetter (see pricing calculation types). Alternatively, you can add on a custom tax that affects everything by adding it to the bottom of the whole booking field with no resetter. You can also add a tax at the bottom of the customer type level to tax everything on the customer card with no resetter.
If you want to add a custom tax to a specific sheet only, make sure it’s hidden on all other sheets. A good way to make sure that the custom tax only shows up where you want it is to add logic as well.
We do not collect booking fees on taxes.
If the custom tax is not working on the Dashboard, go to the advanced company settings and make sure aggregate tax is not enabled.
Custom tax fields only work for inline-taxed companies; if the company is using aggregate taxes, a custom tax field will be treated as $0.00. Learn more about aggregate vs. in-line tax.
Company users cannot see the custom tax dropdown.