TurboCASH Invoicing for US and Canada

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One Invoicing System

This effects all of us. If we introduce a US and Canadian system as an integral part of TurboCASH, and not as a separate system, then we all have to deal with the necessary settings that we have to introduce to accommodate their options. This gives a greater flexibility to the Invoicing. But also introduces more options in Set up.

For the Spec of the US and Canadian Invoicing I have looked at a few of the US systems including the Layout of EZYINV, a simple USA based invoicing system. This is basically a copy of QuickBooks and Simply Accounts, the Leading US and Canadian Systems.

The key decision for is to have One Single Invoicing system for both EC style (VAT per Line Item) and US and Canadian VAT on total invoice. US Tax is driven by customer and customer location as opposed to EC stock item and tax exempt Stock Items.
Want to receive payment on a given invoice. That is without making a separate receipts batch. Should be able to link the Payments information to a given invoice. Set the Alias to the Invoice number.
The US has different Paper Sizes. We must print out on (8.5 X 11 in) Reports.
Change to the Debtors Screen to accommodate Default Tax accounts for each customer
Make changes to Documents set up
Changes to the Invoicing Screen
New calculations for Tax on posting of Invoice
Introduce Serial Number Tracking.

Setup > Documents > Tax

There are three different systems which we accommodate in the new invoicing system. This will give us the majority of major accounting markets. We introduce a new Tab – Tax on the Invoice Setup Screen. This will tell us which Tax System the User is using.

EC,UK, Australia, South Africa, NZ, Singapore – Run off a VAT,Stock based tax system. Tax is calculated per line on the Invoice. Different Items can have different rates. For Example there can be Zero Rated items. Other Countries, with Sales Tax Only, could also use the US Sales Tax System, and not worry about Tax per line, but this would only work if they had no exemptions from tax (E.g. Exports or Food Items). Some of them may choose to run with this.

USA has simple Sales Tax. This however is applied by the location of the Customer. If he is outside of your state there is no tax. If he is inside your State, then there is a Tax dependent on the County that the customer is in. This Rate Varies. So we offer the User two choices.

1)To have a single Sales Tax Account he adjusts the Rate for each different County per invoice. 2)To Have a Tax account for each county. The Default Tax Account is set in the Debtors > Financial Information Tab. The Rate of this Default Tax Account is the Default Rate that is displayed on the Invoice . It can be changed on making the Invoice Obviously 2 is preferable over 1, but this may lead to a really complicated set of accounts, The rates and number of countries vary per state, sometimes all rates are the same. So Depending on which State the User is in it effects his choice of which system to use.

Canada has a Dual Tax, A State Tax and then a Federal Tax. The State Tax also depend on the location of the customer. The Federal Tax is Constant. Federal Tax is Zero for Exports??? So you also need to offer the user the ability to adjust these tax rates on the Invoice. Make it anOPtion if Federal Taxis added on top of First tax or only based on exclsive amounts.

Choice of Tax system is a Radio Button. It can only be One of them It is set up per set of Books.

First and Second Tax are greyed out if the First Option Tax per Line is chosen.

If the second Option is chosen (US) then First Sales Tax on the Right hand of the TAX Tab turns from Grey to Back and is active for change. The Tax ate is the default rate that will appear if the Tax rate has not been specified in the Debtors File.

If the third Tax Option (Canada) is chosen, then the second Tax box appears in Black.

Discount Bug

In the stock file is a Boolean field, BApplyInvoiceDiscount The Applications of this field is to exempt certain items from the Invoice Discount. For example you may be selling 10 Items, one of which is a commodity. So you can offer a 10% discount on 9 of the items, but no discount on the Commodity. Then the Commodity would be False for BApplyInvoiceDiscount. THIS HAS NOT BEEN IMPLEMENTED IN TURBOCASH.

Address Details

I have been asked by a number of consultants to introduce City, State, Zip Codes into the Address details. This is not necessary. If you look at the EZY Invoicing system, just by providing 3 lines – Non descript we offer the user the best options for free format their own address details there is no need for us to sort by City State or Zip Code. We will introduce Lables for those that want to structure their address formats Default on entry screeen will be Address1, Address2, Address3, Code . These can be changed in the Language File.

Internally these are WPostal1ID, WPostal2ID, WPostal3ID, WPostCodeID

Terms of Trade

American (and Canadian) accounting systems, keep their Open Item Information in the Invoice. So their “Open Items” are unpaid invoices. They have statement reports based in the outstanding Invoices. They have a Invoices in the “Due Date”. We work off a Statement per period. We transfer it out to the Transactions File. This is a Big change in architecture. We will not be able to accommodate this for them. We will need to document this carefully for them, or risk losing their attention.

So the put the terms and the payment details for an invoice into the Invoice. We must include the ability to accept a Payment as part of the Invoices and then post the receipt information (Similar to the Point of Sale). Database Change

to Debtors.DB WTax1ID WTax2ID These will point to the default Tax Accounts for the USA and Canada. WTax1ID is an WAccountID in Account.db it is a Tax Account. USA has one Default Account, Canada has two, State Tax and Federal Tax.

We could get away with using only one Account – Can we use WDefaultAccount change the lable to Default Tax Account? Than we can merely keep the Canadian Federal Tax as a Variable. Then the Database would not have to be changed.

=== Setup > Documents > Display ==

Should be a column Display Option in the Invoice Setup. There are too many Options that Don't apply to every user, We need to offer the ability to Simplify the Options. Giving them the Options to choose that they see will do this.

This is how they do it in EZYINV

Options should be for Serial Number

                                   Barcode Number
                                   Qty Ordered
                                    Discount
                                    Tax 
                                     Units

Main Invoicing Screen

The above Invoice screen is from EZYInvoice.

1.We will stick with our current system of only one Reference, the INVOICE Number is our Reference. 2.We won't have Terms in our invoice. This will come from the Open Item Ageing report in TurboCASH. We can use the Comments Section if we want to put in terms details. 3.We don;t need Auto increment on Serial Number, or Pick from List we have this automaticlly 4 . Serial Number is an Optional Column in the Set up. We have a filed using WSerialNoID linked to the Message File to handle serial numbers. 5.Private Notes – look like a good idea. This is our notes that don't appear fro the customer, but give us internal notes. Can use the Integer WTerms to Link to the Message File. 6.Shipping and Freight we will handle as a Line Item in the Invoice. Potentail conflict here as the other systems may inclkude this AFTER calculating Tax. In out Vat System this is a taxable service. 7.Payment will be handled as a Financial Entry – Like a comment, but saving the details of the Amount Paid and the Account to be Debited in the Doc Line and Fields. 8.i) In the Case of VAT this is calculated as is, a sum of the Line items tax. ii)In the US case, it is the total Tax as a percentage for the total exclusive Billing amount. By Default it is the Acronym and Rate entered in the Documents >Setup>Tax Screen, it si over written the default Tax Account in the Debtors Screen if a value exists. iii)In the Third tax Option (two taxes- Canadian Case) it is the State Tax. 9.The second Tax will only appear if the third option of two taxes is chosen. (Will be omitted in display if one or two are chosen). 10)Qty Ordered is an Option in our system to display or not display the column. 11) Units is a column display Option.

Our New Invoicing Screen

1)Add F6 Payment Button

Brings up Payment Option. Which account should be credited can be any GL or Bank Account. It should also ask what Batch you want to use to post the transaction. Default if a Bank account is chosen should be the Receipts Batch of that Bank Account – this will be the usual case and should be remembered.

Account Description Amount

These will be concatenated into a comment in the Invoice

Payment : <Account Number>, <Account Name>, <Description>, <Amount>

The data is stored in DocLine.db WtypeID 93 <Financial Entry> in the Type.db table. WdescriptionID WBatchID Takes default of Receipts Batch if Payment – this will be most cases. FAmount

Other details making up the Transaction are taken from DOCHEAD (Date Debtor etc)

2)Move calculated Fields over the Left.

This is to make space for the New Tax information which will be a bit more complicated

3) NEw Totals Info

i) In case of Vat per Line this section will display as is currently does, without editing of any of these calc fields.

This need a new Line (For possible Second Tax) and two new columns for the Tax Account and Rate, which has defaults, but can be changed at invoice runtime. In the Above example the PST and GST would be replaced with Default Tax Accounts, which can be changed (Selected from a list of other Tax Accounts (or no tax). Also the Rates can be changed at Invoice Run Time

4)Introduce 4 new Language Labels. Address1, Address2, Address3, PostCode

Display these between Postal Address and Delivery Address. The users can then rename them to be City, State etc if they like.

Calculation of Transaction Entries

1)Current VAT system stays the same 2)USA/Canadian First Tax calculation. Add up all the exclusive amounts for the some of all line items.Group BY Genearl Ledger Type fro Stock each will credit to separate Sales Accoutns. Post Total Exlusive amoutn to Debtros but Add Sales Tax

DR Debtor (Exclusive of Tax)

    Cr Sales
    Cr Tax (Default Account or Account Over Ridden)

3)Second Tax – This is tricky ?? How do we add two taxes to one transaction., We have prepared the database for this but is will certainly cause bugs is we use this route. I meant we would have to rewrite the Posting procedure. I would suggest that we just add an extra Journal Entry fro the Second Tax (Federal Tax)

DR Debtor (Exclusive of First Tax ) ADD Second Tax

    Cr Sales
    Cr Tax (Default First Tax Account or Account Over Ridden)
    Cr Tax (Default Second Tax Account or Account Over Ridden)

This means that the second tax would not appear on the tax report. But would still be posted correctly.

Chart of Accounts

2)US chart of Accounts - The charts of accounts that I have seen so far “Expense” Tax What does this mean. We don't expense Tax in EXAMPLSA. What should we do here? 3)US Code Number. The Charts that I have seen uses 5 Digit Codes, buy end all codes in 00 so effectively use a 3 digit Code. They US Charts List their Balance sheet items first and Income Statement Items second. I propose that we maintain our current Income Statement Accounts 0 to 500 and B/S items as 500 to 1000.

Serial Tracking Reports

1)Movement – Movement of a given range of Serial Numbers, by Stock Item 2)InStock – By Stock Item, Items Purchased, Plus Items Credited, Less Items Invoiced Less Items GRVed. How do we deal with an item that is purchased sold, and Credited and/or not Sold again.