Obtaining a line-item (product) total after discounts

[retched]

(Yes this could go to the TaxCloud thread but I figured this could be asked separately.)

Currently I'm working with a sales tax add-on that processes the items that I send to their server and then in return they send the total amount of sales tax back to me (my server).

What I noticed is that the orders are being sent with the total $products['final_total'] as the line-item total. A problem that I'm having is that the orders aren't being processed with any discounts applied to them. I would like to know if there is any way to go through an order and apply a discount as needed or where can I find the logic that does this currently within Zen-Cart?

[retched]

Okay here's a better question, is there a better way to retrieve the $od_amount['total'] or rather the total amount of the discount from the active order? I know on the coupon module, the value is stored in the $od_amount['total'] variable. But I would like to know if there is a way to refer to this value (sans of assigning it to a variable in $_SESSION.

[mc12345678]

What about the part that sends the value to the taxer, using the difference between the two values provided that the final value is >= 0? Is that how it works/a possibility?

Stated because it sounds like you have found the two parts needed, the final price (before discounts) and the function/variable that contains the discount. Now would just need to send the desired taxable amount to be processed. Unless there is some other method of determination being searched?

[mc12345678]

Alternatively, could modify the total price variable prior to going out and restore it upon return depending on what is trying to be attempted. I somewhat think it comes down to the desired math and how the data is used downstream of being collected/modified.

Another thing to consider that is often seen related to "coupons" is that the purchaser may still be responsible for the taxes before the discount is applied. Not sure if that aspect is locality dependent or. Just a way to cover ones bases. :)

[retched]

Alternatively, could modify the total price variable prior to going out and restore it upon return depending on what is trying to be attempted. I somewhat think it comes down to the desired math and how the data is used downstream of being collected/modified.

Another thing to consider that is often seen related to "coupons" is that the purchaser may still be responsible for the taxes before the discount is applied. Not sure if that aspect is locality dependent or. Just a way to cover ones bases. :)

That's essentially what I'm trying to do. The way the TaxCloud module works is that it takes the items from the cart to be processed (on a line by line basis) and processes it against their server. The server then returns a line by line tax total for each and the module on ZenCart tallies these and reports it back as a single line. I know where in the module the TaxCloud module where the module actually builds the XML to send via SOAP processing and I know the exact line of code where I can modify the total of the item.

So essentially what I have to do (or what I would like to do) is take the total amount of the discount, unless its a shipping-based discount, and divide the discount up into each of the line-item totals of the order as its being processed. This way the line-item gets processed with the discount applied against it. (As Sales Tax (at least in the US) has to be applied to the discount taxed line-item.)

So the walk through would be:

- See if the $_SESSION['cc_id'] is not empty.
- If it is empty, do nothing else. (There is no discount to apply.)
- If it is not, then compute the discount or retrieve the amount of the discount from the order totals module and retrieve the ot_coupon's "value" property. Find the total number of items (or rather line-items) that exists in the order. Divide the discount into this amount and then apply it to the price being sent to the TaxCloud server being processed.

The only problem is, I don't know how to reproduce to call the functions that process coupons without applying the discount to all items, even those which I may not be applying the discount to.

Secondly, with regards to being due on tax for coupons, in my jurisdiction, the coupons are processed before determining the final total to be taxed.

[wilt]

Hi.

Just wondering if you are over thinking things here.
Given I have no real knowledge of how Tax Cloud works.

However I would have expected Tax Cloud (while it may calculate final prices etc.) to return an effective tax rate for a given product
surely this is all you need then just let Zen Cart do the rest.

[retched]

Hi.

Just wondering if you are over thinking things here.
Given I have no real knowledge of how Tax Cloud works.

However I would have expected Tax Cloud (while it may calculate final prices etc.) to return an effective tax rate for a given product
surely this is all you need then just let Zen Cart do the rest.

That's the thing though, I would thought that TaxCloud would return proper tax rates and such, which it does. However using any coupons, particularly in my jurisdiction, causes me to collect too much sales tax at the time. I'm fine with return pennies and such but besides the fact that PayPal will outright lynch me and the additional fact that it would create reporting problems with TaxCloud, it's something I'd rather work outright.

[DrByte]

If I understand you correctly, I believe you said you're wanting to recalculate each line by pre-applying coupons before taxes.

1. I'm mindful that some jurisdictions require merchants to assess tax on the sale price *before* applying discounts, so that the feds get as much tax money as possible. I just mention this not as a contradiction, but to encourage you to double-check your facts to be sure you're heading in the right direction.

2. Are all your coupons "restricted to a specific product"? Or are all your coupons "applied to the entire shopping cart"? I ask because both cases require careful coding consideration. This is a pretty important component of what you're proposing.

3. And of course you did mention casual awareness of the penny-rounding problems that will be created by applying discounts at a line-item level, thus requiring a complete recalculation of all totals and subtotals ... but your coding changes will need to take that into account too, else you won't be able to submit your order for payment if subtotals don't add up correctly.

[retched]

If I understand you correctly, I believe you said you're wanting to recalculate each line by pre-applying coupons before taxes.

1. I'm mindful that some jurisdictions require merchants to assess tax on the sale price *before* applying discounts, so that the feds get as much tax money as possible. I just mention this not as a contradiction, but to encourage you to double-check your facts to be sure you're heading in the right direction.

Well I completely understand that in some jurisdictions it must be noted that tax must be computed before AND after discounts are applied. However, I'm more or less trying to conform to the Developer Guidelines of the mod. According to the developer guide, since TaxCloud doesn't natively support discounts/promotions/etc., discounts have to be calculated on a pre-tax basis. I can't change the way their server computes it.

The way the calculation is done with the mod from Zencart:

- Customer builds an order.
- Customer approaches and lands on the checkout_payment page where an initial sales tax is to be computed.
- TaxCloud will take the order of the customer, send it to the TaxCloud server, compute the tax on their server based on the information of the order and the settings of the account (where the customer is being billed, order is shipped to, and whether I elected to collect tax in that jurisdiction), send back to ZenCart the total amount of tax computer.
- Customer then proceeds to enter a coupon code and/or select a payment method.
- Customer confirms the order. TaxCloud will lock in that order and capture it for reporting purposes.

2. Are all your coupons "restricted to a specific product"? Or are all your coupons "applied to the entire shopping cart"? I ask because both cases require careful coding consideration. This is a pretty important component of what you're proposing.

In my case, since I'm trying to modify their code to be a one-size fits all for everyone, the coupons type doesn't matter. If a coupon is made to affect a certain line or the entire order, I still have to take the entirety of the discount and divide it into the order OR find a way to make the discount calculation apply only to the line-item. The question I wrote regarding line-items makes it so that if a coupon is to affect ONE item, I have to calculate it for that ONE item. (It gets more complicated when I add in the fact that I have mods like table discounts to work this out with.)

3. And of course you did mention casual awareness of the penny-rounding problems that will be created by applying discounts at a line-item level, thus requiring a complete recalculation of all totals and subtotals ... but your coding changes will need to take that into account too, else you won't be able to submit your order for payment if subtotals don't add up correctly.

I was under the assumption that the native discount coupon in ZenCart does that. In short, I should only be affecting just the calculation of the TaxCloud's order_total entry and nothing else.

[retched]

By the way, I've done the research on my jurisdiction (New York) and it is indeed true that sales tax must be calculated on the total AFTER the discount is removed.