Handle tax-exempt customers

Some of your customers do not pay sales tax: nonprofits, resellers, government buyers. The Tax-Exempt tab is where you set the policy and keep the paperwork, so an exempt sale is always backed by a certificate you can produce in an audit.

Before you start

• You need the permission to view tax-exempt compliance (the Admin / Owner role has it).
• Certificates are added on the customer’s own record, not on this tab; this tab is the policy and the roster.

Set the policy

1. Open Admin, then Tax-Exempt.
2. Under Tax-exempt policy, decide whether to Require a valid certificate for tax-exempt sales (block when missing), or to only warn. Requiring a certificate is the stricter, audit-safe choice.

Add a certificate to a customer

1. Open the customer’s record.
2. In the tax-exempt section, add the certificate: its number, type (Resale, Nonprofit, Government, or Other), issuing state, and validity dates.

It then appears on this tab under Certificates on file, with a Status of Valid, Expiring soon, Expired, or Revoked derived from its dates.

Close the audit gap

The Exempt sales missing a certificate panel lists tax-exempt orders, events, and standing orders with no certificate linked, the gap to close. Work it to zero, and every exempt sale is covered. When it reads that every tax-exempt sale has a certificate linked, you are clean.

Good to know

• The Linked sales count on each certificate shows how many sales it backs, so you can see which certificates are actually in use.
• A certificate that reads Expiring soon is your cue to ask the customer for a renewal before it lapses.