TaxCloud vs Tax Rates?

[ZoftheAshes]

Thanks for getting back to me so soon. Ok so I did like you said only I don't know my USPS ID would I call the United States Postal Service to get this ID #? Also after info was inputted I clicked SAVE and the screen goes blank. If I go back I'm back in the admin section and can see that the admin did save my changes it just doesn't redirect you back to the admin/ locations/taxes /TaxCloud....

Not sure if this is due to my previous problems or what but it seems to work otherwise.

Also this problem occurs when I click the "Download now" button to download the TICs and I can't really tell if it is actually downloading/downloaded.

These little quirks aside I decided to test and see if its working and well not entirely. On step 3 "Order Confirmation" I receive this error message:
Error encountered while verifying address 1932 Jalisco Rd. 92019 Authorization failure. Perhaps username and/or password is incorrect.
-wonder if this has anything to do with the USPS ID?

[Taxcloud]

OK, now it looks like you are just missing the USPS ID. This is why you are receiving that error.

You can get a USPS ID by installing the Shipping Assistant software, which can be found at: http://www.usps.com/shippingassistant/

Once that is installed and verified the ID can be found in the "About" box, in parentheses to the right of the name of the registered user.

Sometimes the configuration page doesn't refresh properly but it usually stores the settings.

[ZoftheAshes]

Ok cool. Just tried and the Desktop Shipping Assistant is for PCs, unfortunately I'm on a MAC. Further more I don't think we plan on using USPS to ship so why does TaxCloud require it or is there a work around? Please see my store at www.jcstar.com/catalog and try to buy something and you'll see what I'm talking about.

[Taxcloud]

The USPS ID is used for address verification. We verify the customer's shipping address to get the 9 digit zip code. This is necessary to determine the accurate tax rate.

There really isn't a way to work around the way it is designed. It would be possible to modify the code to skip this step, but you may run into more issues not not finding rates for addresses that are entered incorrectly.

[jacob.v4ll]

Hi Taxcloud,

I have installed the taxcloud v1.4 module on zencart v1.3.9h and it is calculating tax correctly and adding it during the checkout process (great mod). Server is running PHP 5.2.17 and I double checked the SoapClient is installed (and tested it's working).

The problem I'm having is when you click "confirm order" on the "main_page=checkout_confirmation" page, it loads the "main_page=checkout_process" page and it only says "Setting order totals for taxcloud" at top left. That page doesn't redirect to the confirmation page or anything. If I refresh on that page it loads the "main_page=shopping_cart" and the cart is empty.

Also, the confirmation email that gets sent for the order doesn't show any tax line items in the order sub-totals, and the actual order total doesn't include the tax amount that was calculated on the checkout pages (checkout total doesn't match email confirmation total). I have tested many times with different payment/shipping methods and the result is always the same.

If more details are needed to help troubleshoot this problem please let me know. I can even set up a test account on my test site to see exactly what's happening if needed.

[Taxcloud]

Hello Jacob,

I have some updated files I can send you which will take care of the problem. I will send you a private message. Thanks.

[zskiman]

I have installed this module on a fresh install of version 1.3.9h and it works great, actually one of the cooler and well thought out mods out there. The problem im having is trying to get this mod to work with the fast and easy ajaxcheckout module written by Numinix?

Im able to get it to load and call to the wsdl file with fec, but it looks like all the variables have changed in FEC compared to the normal zen checkout and i get nasty api errors

Error encountered looking up tax amount System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapException: Server was unable to read request. ---> System.InvalidOperationException: There is an error in XML document (2, 579). ---> System.FormatException: Input string was not in a correct format. at System.Number.StringToNumber(String str, NumberStyles options, NumberBuffer& number, NumberFormatInfo info, Boolean parseDecimal) at System.Number.ParseDouble(String value, NumberStyles options, NumberFormatInfo numfmt) at System.Double.Parse(String s, NumberStyles style, NumberFormatInfo info) at System.Xml.XmlConvert.ToDouble(String s) at Microsoft.Xml.Serialization.GeneratedAssembly.XmlSerializationReader1.Read4_Cart Item(Boolean isNullable, Boolean checkType) at Microsoft.Xml.Serialization.GeneratedAssembly.XmlSerializationReader1.Read32_Loo kup() at Microsoft.Xml.Serialization.GeneratedAssembly.ArrayOfObjectSerializer8.Deseriali ze(XmlSerializationReader reader) at System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer.Deserialize(XmlReader xmlReader, String encodingStyle, XmlDeserializationEvents events) --- End of inner exception stack trace --- at System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer.Deserialize(XmlReader xmlReader, String encodingStyle, XmlDeserializationEvents events) at System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer.Deserialize(XmlReader xmlReader, String encodingStyle) at System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapServerProtocol.ReadParameters() --- End of inner exception stack trace --- at System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapServerProtocol.ReadParameters() at System.Web.Services.Protocols.WebServiceHandler.CoreProcessRequest()

before anyone starts with the "check with Numinex" i am posting to see if anyone else may have had the same problem and overcame it?

I will post the same on numinix's forum as well

Thanks
zskiman

[Taxcloud]

It looks like the Numinex module is interfering with TaxCloud's ability to get all the parameters it needs to look up the tax rates. From the error I can tell that some data is missing from a CartItem, which is part of the lookup request.

One way to determine what may be missing it to print out the parameters being sent in the lookup request. The other thing we can do is to compare the changes makd to the order.php file for the other module with the changes for TaxCloud. I will send you a private message so you can contact me directly.

[zskiman]

I will definatly take a look at this in the am, thanks for looking at it

[KathyM]

The USPS ID is used for address verification. We verify the customer's shipping address to get the 9 digit zip code. This is necessary to determine the accurate tax rate.

This was one of the questions I had about the add on. NY sales tax goes by 9 digits to determine which county an address is in, but when I asked NY if there was something I could set up a cart to interface with a year or so ago they told me there was not. Is this linked to something that is maintained by NYS?

I have the Local Sales Tax Mod currently installed but would like to make checkout easier and assume the Taxcloud would do that by just setting the tax rate rather than having folks use the drop-down to select state & county. Is there anything I need to do before adding Taxcloud because the Local Sales Tax Mod is already there?

Thanks!