TaxCloud Addon

I'm about to try this module but I have some questions.

1. We are required to charge tax on shipping. Does TaxCloud handle this itself, or just use the settings on the shipping config page?

Note: This implementation currently does not support the coupon functionality within Zen Cart. You will need to make sure that the Discount Coupon module is disabled. (Modules > Order Total > Discount Coupon)

Does this mean that discount coupons will break TaxCloud, or that it will charge them tax based on the initial total instead of the final total? If it's going to overcharge them, I'd rather keep my coupons and refund them the difference.

To assign a Tax Class to a product go to Admin->Catalog->Categories/Products->Dbl click on a category->click on Edit->Assign the appropriate TIC_ID to the product from the Tax Class dropdown

Do we have to manually assign a tax rate to each category or product?? I have over 300 categories.

Thanks! I'm really looking forward to trying this out :D

Hello,

Here are some answers to your questions:

1. TaxCloud handles shipping taxes automatically.

2. What happens currently when you apply a coupon is that the order subtotal changes but the tax calculated by TaxCloud is not recalculated. So the customer's total would not add up correctly and they would be charged for an incorrect tax amount. Coupons don't cause a problem with the TaxCloud service itself. Refunding the customer the difference would work. Support for coupons should be available soon.

3. TaxCloud requires a tax rate to be set for each product (this is how Zen Cart works as well). This can be done manually through the admin interface or through a database update. How difficult this is depends on how many different types of products you have. If you only sell one category of product you can just set a default for the entire store. Please let me know if you would like some help with this.

Thanks for your interest!

Tapper:

I'm about to try this module but I have some questions.

1. We are required to charge tax on shipping. Does TaxCloud handle this itself, or just use the settings on the shipping config page?

Does this mean that discount coupons will break TaxCloud, or that it will charge them tax based on the initial total instead of the final total? If it's going to overcharge them, I'd rather keep my coupons and refund them the difference.

Do we have to manually assign a tax rate to each category or product?? I have over 300 categories.

Thanks! I'm really looking forward to trying this out :D

OK. I have it installed in zc 1.3.9h. I verified my site in TaxCloud.net and got the API keys. When I click update on the TaxCloud settings page I get this error:

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/.../admin/taxcloud.php:28) in /home/.../admin/includes/functions/general.php on line 21

We don't have a USPS_ID as far as I know. What is that? Is it required?

Hello Tapper,

Usually if you see this type of error it means that there are extra spaces in the PHP file at the beginning or end of the file. There shouldn't be any spaces before the opening "<?php" statement or after the closing "?>" at the end of the file.

Please check taxcloud.php. It could also be a problem with includes/modules/TaxCloud/taxCloudConfig.php.

USPS_ID is required if you want to do address verifications, but leaving it out wouldn't cause this problem. We do address verifications to get the 9-digit zip code. This allows us to return the most accurate tax calculation.

Please let me know if this doesn't clear up your problems.

OK, I tried it on a different website and it looks completely different. So there's something wrong with that other site.

So, we already had a tax rate and class set up. The class is plain old "Taxable Goods", and all of our products are set to that. The ID is 1. Does that all count as the TIC ID etc?

Lastly, it doesn't like something about our address. A big red box is across the top of the checkout screens that says:

Error Error encountered while verifying address 10 Stage Door Road 12590 Authorization failure. Perhaps username and/or password is incorrect.

If I just keep going, when I try to finalize the order the page goes away and I get the following:

Array ( [0] => A matching lookup could not be found for this authorization )

Our location is a bit odd: physically we're in one town, but our area is assigned to the PO in the next town. So our street address / zip probably don't match.

Thanks for the reply. I'm not sure what you mean by the "other site", so I won't go into that. :smile:

You will have to either create a new Tax Class, or edit your existing Tax Class to include the TIC ID. Editing your existing Tax Class would probably be easier.

The "Tax Class Title" needs to be set to the TIC ID. The "Description" can be set to whatever you like. A list of TIC IDs can be found at TaxCloud.net/tic.

It looks like the code is expecting a valid USPS ID. You can get your own ID for free. Let me know if you need help with that. How to do that is also detailed in the developer guide.

Let me know if this doesn't clear up your problems.

Hi

We have USPS shipping software. Would the USPS_ID be in there somewhere?

Or do I need to use this form to get one? What does it look like anyway?

https://www.usps.com/business/web-tools-apis/welcome.htm

Tapper, I believe you have already figured this out but I will reply for others that may have the same question.

The basic process is that you install the USPS Shipping Assistant software. This can be found at http://www.usps.com/shippingassistant.

After the USPS Shipping Assistant has been installed and registered, the UserID can be found in the “About” box, in parentheses to the right of the name of the registered user.

I have everything all setup. The site is running FEC COWA (NUMINIX), and 1.3.9.

FEC simply combines the checkout modules into a one page format. I can checkout with both FEC enabled and not.

FEC enabled no tax shows at all... Now since the TaxCloud hasn't a proper order total module in the admin I am unsure of how it calls and from where to add it.

With regular Zen Cart checkout I get tax no problem and upon confirming order I get...

Array ( [0] => A matching lookup could not be found for this authorization )

Any ideas? For Washington this is really necessary.

~Melanie

Hello Melanie,

We have had merchants report that COWA does not work with TaxCloud since it replaces some of the checkout code that TaxCloud relies on.

Currently in your cart it isn't making the call to compute the taxes, but it is making the call to commit the order. This is why you are getting the error message you are seeing.

It may be possible to get the two modules working together but it will take some coding changes. I can try to see if there is a simple fix for this. I will give it a try and let you know.

Taxcloud:

Hello Melanie,

We have had merchants report that COWA does not work with TaxCloud since it replaces some of the checkout code that TaxCloud relies on.

Currently in your cart it isn't making the call to compute the taxes, but it is making the call to commit the order. This is why you are getting the error message you are seeing.

It may be possible to get the two modules working together but it will take some coding changes. I can try to see if there is a simple fix for this. I will give it a try and let you know.

Thank you much

Hi, I was able to get this combination working by merging /includes/classes/order.php. Both of the add-ons modify this file.

Please send me a private message if you would like a copy of this file.

I installed this (1.5) tonight per the instructions, but when I log back into the admin secant there isn't a tax cloud section under the locations / taxes tab. I reuploaded all ( and yes I uploaded the admin folder contents to the renamed admin folder). Does anyone have any tips?

this should be easy :(

It worked fine for me.

Does anything show up under the Modules/orders total screen? You should see "Discount Coupon" and "Exemption Certificates" listed with aqn entry in the next colomn startting with ot_TaxCloud

You may want to check to ensure that the files truly were loaded. If somehow a file was not properly loaded the first time, and the the file was in read-only mode, it may not have been re-written the second time.

If that doesn't work, I would back up your site, VERY CAREFULLY remove the files that were installed and do a fresh install.

Any other ideas out there?

SPembleton:

It worked fine for me.

Does anything show up under the Modules/orders total screen? You should see "Discount Coupon" and "Exemption Certificates" listed with aqn entry in the next colomn startting with ot_TaxCloud

You may want to check to ensure that the files truly were loaded. If somehow a file was not properly loaded the first time, and the the file was in read-only mode, it may not have been re-written the second time.

If that doesn't work, I would back up your site, VERY CAREFULLY remove the files that were installed and do a fresh install.

Any other ideas out there?

One other idea. (This one had me baffeled for a while) If you are on a linux server, directory names are case-sensitive. Make sure you didn't use the wrong name for your renamed admin folder by using the wrong case.

I am just testing out Tax Cloud. Using a test site for ZC 1.5, I tried the tax exemption option. After adding the info I selected "save" exemption and went to a white screen that just said "valid", and then stopped. When I hit the back button to my cart and refreshed, the tax was still there.

SPembleton:

I am just testing out Tax Cloud. Using a test site for ZC 1.5, I tried the tax exemption option. After adding the info I selected "save" exemption and went to a white screen that just said "valid", and then stopped. When I hit the back button to my cart and refreshed, the tax was still there.

I think I figured it out - It doesn't work when the site is down for maintenance. Is that the answer? It is working now.

Using ZenCart 1.5 (installed via FTP and zc_install) with only the USPS shipping option added and installed. I'm trying to use TaxCloud but having a problem where the tax amount is not being added to the total sent for payment (using Authorize.net AIM for payment). For example, an order with subtotal of $10 shows the correct tax amount of $0.72 and correct order total of $10.72 on the checkout payment information screen but the "x_amount" value being sent to the payment server is 10.00.

Any ideas what could be causing this? Thanks!

Hello, we have a fix for this specific issue. If you contact me directly I can email you the file. Thanks.

Pete_srcs:

Using ZenCart 1.5 (installed via FTP and zc_install) with only the USPS shipping option added and installed. I'm trying to use TaxCloud but having a problem where the tax amount is not being added to the total sent for payment (using Authorize.net AIM for payment). For example, an order with subtotal of $10 shows the correct tax amount of $0.72 and correct order total of $10.72 on the checkout payment information screen but the "x_amount" value being sent to the payment server is 10.00.

Any ideas what could be causing this? Thanks!

Great, thanks! I've sent you a PM with my e-mail.