Chat Transcript - April 2008
Product: Microsoft Dynamics Retail Management System (RMS)
Topic: Taxes and tax reporting
Date: Thursday, April 03, 2008
Editor’s note: In this chat, we were joined by some customers who are using Microsoft Dynamics – Point of Sale. Our Experts had time available, so they assisted those customers, too.
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You can find helpful articles and announcements about upcoming chats and product releases on the Using Microsoft Dynamics RMS Web site.
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Questions about taxes in Microsoft Dynamics RMS
Q: For V1.3X - when doing trade shows (offline mode), I need to be able to change default taxes on all items. Tax setup by item. I currently have to go item by item using F2 to change tax rate - making it a time-consuming check-out process. Any better suggestion?
A: Would it work to make the changes with the Inventory Wizard in Store Operations Manager, via Task 170: Assign Item Sales Tax, and then run a Z report to synchronize your offline database, take your trade show machine offline, and then change taxes back via Task 170: Assign Item Sales Tax so that the taxes are correct at your store?
Q: The store is still operational while I am at the trade show - this would affect my store items?
A: As I stated, after you take your trade show machine offline (with the changed taxes), you would then need to change the taxes back on the live database by again using Task 170: Assign Item Sales Tax so that the taxes are correct at the store.
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Q: Regarding the tax toggle button, it seems to take a reason code once, then you can toggle on and off willy nilly. Is this right?
A: Once you have specified a reason code for the change, you are then able to change it again without being prompted for a reason code.
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Q: I noticed there is no standard stock Microsoft report that lists a Customer’s tax ID number. This might be something to consider adding as a field as you move forward b/c traditionally you have to report the customer’s tax ID with tax-free sales.
A: Thanks for the suggestion. If you would like to add your name to the suggestion, click on the Product Suggestions link on CustomerSource or PartnerSource (login required).
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Q: We report taxes to the city and state (Denver, Colorado) on a form that wants our sales broken out differently that shown in the sales tax analysis report. We need to report the amount of sales for items sold using the out-of-state rate, the out-of-city rate. The report just seems to bin everything into "taxable sales". Are there any other tax reports hiding out there (I've looked at CustomerSource) that might help me, or do I cast my lot with Crystal Reports and try to figure it out?
A: I'm assuming that your item taxes are made up of various sales taxes; and that some of the item taxes can have the same sales tax as other items taxes. If this is the case, would it work to create 2 (or more) sales taxes as needed; and then assign them to the applicable item tax?
For example:
City tax (out of state)
City tax (out of city)
City tax (in city)
Then you could assign the “City tax (out of state)” sales tax to the “Out of state” item tax; “City tax (out of city)” sales tax to the “Out of city” item tax, etc. Then you could add up the sales taxes for out of state, the sales taxes for out of city, etc., to get the figures you need.
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Q: I have taxes set up as 3 different taxable rates, each with a tier of authorities under them. Some cross over, others are 100% different. Sales Tax 001 (MN State) is comprised of tax authorities 001, 002, and 003. Sales Tax 002 (MN State Lake Isles) is comprised of tax authorities 001, 002, and 004. Sales Tax 003 (ND State) is comprised of tax authorities 005 and 006.
So each Sales Tax is bundled with the proper tax authorities (Item Taxes) - each lane is Z’ed out – POS and Manager restarted on all machines, etc. Our configuration requires a Reason Code on tax changes. The sales tax will traditionally be Sales Tax 001 (MN State as an example), so all items have this tax rate as applied for the store in ref.
Line item is entered in RMS POS v1.3.0203 for taxable customer. Tax calculated on code 001 (as assigned to the line item). Click Shift+F12: Taxes - note all tax authorities are checked - uncheck all tax authorities excluding those for sales tax 003, no change.
Mouse over tax button (not using mouse, but keyboard arrows) - Click Ctrl+F5: Toggle Tax - Only removes tax as assigned.
Here is where I seem to be stuck or lost in translation. I would like to be able to shift taxes to what is appropriate for the customer. I understand I can set up based on Customer info (e.g., City, State, Zip, etc.). However, there are times this is not applicable and this simply will not work.
I need to either be able to 1) actually have the taxes reapply and calculate after selecting the tax authorities (item tax) under the Sales Tax button, or, better yet, 2) be able to switch between actual Sales Taxes.
A: If I understand your issue, you need to be able to switch the taxes from the transaction screen. You stated you attempted using Shift+F12 to change the tax authorities. I assume you’re trying to change it for an ND customer that is purchasing an item. If you highlight the “Tax” column on the line item and then hit F2, you have the ability to switch the item tax for the item to MN State, MN Isle, or ND. Is this what you are looking for?
When using Shift+12, you are only allowed to switch the sales tax codes used by the default item tax for each item in the transaction. So, for instance, when using MN State Item Tax, you will only be able to remove or add Sales Taxes 001, 002, 003.
Editor’s note: Remember that each of your sales taxes can be included in more than one item tax. You should be able to set up a variety of item taxes to help you address special cases.
Questions about other Microsoft Dynamics RMS topics
Q: Can I get a document that describes the data tables (field names and contents) in the database?
A: To obtain the database schemas for Microsoft Dynamics Retail Management System and for Microsoft Dynamics - Point of Sale, visit Knowledge Base article 938434 (login required).
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Q: What is stopping me from upgrading to V2.X from 1.3x is the inability to run in demo/no dongle mode for a while, such as in the case of "equipment failure." My understanding is that in v2.x you can't do this? Will this change in V3?
A: Can you please explain what type of equipment failure you are referring to? In 2.0, there are product keys, so there shouldn't be any case where the dongle goes bad.
Q: If I have a computer problem (any type of hardware failure) - with V1.3 I just replace my computer, plug in the dongle, and away I go. With V2, I have to call in to Microsoft to get another key (can't afford to be down even for 5 minutes).
A: In 2.0, if you change computers, you would want to use the same product key for activation (from the machine that is being replaced) on the new machine; you do not have to call and get a new product key. When you activate using this key you might need to utilize the telephone activation.
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Q: When I enter opening or closing amounts, there needs to be an option to print these transactions. Is there? Also when you re-enter opening amounts and click on Cancel it just pops the drawer anyway. Why?
A: There is not a way to print out what is entered for opening or closing amounts; and the best thing may be to have cashiers run an X report after they have entered them. As far as the drawer opening when clicking on Cancel, I am not sure if this is a bug or by design. I would encourage you to report this by contacting Technical Support to open a non-chargeable support request. Visit https://mbs.microsoft.com/support/newstart.aspx (login required) or call 1-888-477-7877.
Q: In this scenario, the cashier is essentially performing a No Sale without any record of it whatsoever. This is a huge security problem. Please advise.
A: Cashier security can be set to not allow access to entering opening or closing amounts.
Questions about taxes and other topics in Microsoft Dynamics – Point of Sale
Q: This question is for Microsoft Dynamics – Point of Sale. Is there a way to, or can you guys add a feature to calculate the prices before tax automatically? All of our prices displayed are shown including tax, so that feature would be great.
A: Hello - If I understand you correctly, you are referring to tax-inclusive. Currently, Point of Sale does not support tax-inclusive as it is primarily a US-English application. Can you please describe to me your area and scenario where you would need tax-inclusive?
Q: I run a Tea House in Canada, so all of our in-house sales include GST, like a Latte or Food, so the price is $3.25, but it's actually $3.09523, so having the POS calculate the pre-tax price would be good
A: This is great feedback. We will consider this for the next release.
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Q: I see you can have 3 decimal points which I use, but that gets rounded up in the "extended price" so tax is only applied to the two decimal points which introduces large rounding errors. Is there a way to apply tax to the full 3 decimal points?
A: We do not currently support 3 decimal points for price in Microsoft Dynamics - Point of Sale 2.0. We do support 3 decimal cost though.
Q: Point of Sale 2.0 has 3 decimal points and they are shown in the sales screen, but are rounded up right away in the extended. Is there a way to have the 3 decimal points carry all the way to the tax so tax is applied to 3 decimal points? Can this be added?
A: I am sorry. I forgot about the 3 decimal option on the Item > Options tab. Regarding the tax calculations, we do not have a way to use 3 decimal taxes. The tax is calculated, rounded to two decimal places and then added to the 3 decimal price. Taxes are not reported to tax agencies in 3 decimal places, so that is why we round the tax prior to adding it to the item.
Q: If the tax got calculated with the 3 decimal points and then rounded to 2, that would be great! But the price gets rounded in the Extended Column, which is too early and introduces rounding errors early.
Example: Price: $3.25 -> pretax $3.095 -> extended $3.10 -> tax 5% = $3.255 which rounds to $3.26
Ideal: Price: $3.25 -> pretax $3.095 -> extended $3.095 -> tax 5% = $3.249 which rounds to $3.25
A: OK, I can reproduce your issue and can understand where you are coming from on this. What we need to do is go through the formal process of submitting this as a bug to our Development Team. To do this, I would request that you call Microsoft Dynamics Retail Technical Support at 1-888-477-7877 and report the bug as you have explained it here. You can tell the engineer that you reported this via the live chat and they can take the information and I will make sure that it gets submitted to our Development team. FYI, you will not be charged for this.
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Q: I purchased a POS from someone on eBay. I have tried to get into the POS with the ID & password they gave me, but I am still unable to get in. What can I do?
A: Did you purchase Microsoft Dynamics - Point of Sale? Or is it another type of POS system?
Q: Sorry, Point of Sale.
A: OK, thank you for clarifying! The user name and password is specific for the "company" that has been created with Point of Sale. When you install Point of Sale, it will prompt you to create a company the first time you run it. Do you remember if you created your own company? Or are you having a problem entering the Product Key?
Q: I purchased the software from someone else. They gave me the ID & password, but I am having no luck. I was wondering if there is any way to bypass.
A: We would not have any way to bypass this security feature. If you bought Point of Sale from someone else and are using their company database, you would need to contact the person you purchased the software from in order to obtain their company user name and password.
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Q: Can you export the till setup, keyboard layout, etc., to place on a new till?
A: I am assuming by new till you are referring to adding another register. If so you should be able to use SQL to copy over the necessary information to another register.
Q: I was referring to adding another till to the store and wanting the layouts to be the same, etc. This till would be connecting to a store server
A: Since you are using Point of Sale instead of Microsoft Dynamics RMS, all of the setup is done in the database and not therefore machine specific. The settings are set by the cashier, so depending on which cashier logs in, you could see a different layout and settings. You can click "Duplicate" to copy the properties of a current cashier to a new one, so the settings will be the same for that cashier no matter which POS computer that he/she logs into.
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Q: Is there any easier way to get documentation, updates and information on Point of Sale 2.0 that does not involve partners, etc. This whole "partners" thing is very frustrating for someone who wants to do it themselves!
A: What kind of information are you looking for? There is some information available on the main Point of Sale site, www.microsoft.com/pos, and additional information on CustomerSource and in the Knowledge Base is available to customers on service plans. Let us know what you need and we can try to be more specific.
Q: I guess getting access to the Knowledge Base is what I am more talking about, the hard part is not knowing what's there, browsing documents is a good way of discovering new things.
A: There is some information in the public Knowledge Base. For information about starting on a service plan -- there are some good, inexpensive options available for Point of Sale -- visit this page. The service plan gives you access to CustomerSource, service packs and hotfixes, and more.
Editor’s note: In addition, comprehensive Help files are provided with Point of Sale.
