Tax Relief
We all have to do it. Now, POS systems are making paying Uncle Sam easier.

Taxes are easier for Bill Keen of Briggs Nursery in North Attleboro, MA, thanks to his Radiant Systems CounterPoint system, which he says serves as a “conduit” for helping his company with the preparations. While the independent garden center “leaves the actual filing to the professionals who know the latest tax laws and changes,” Briggs’ POS program is used to gather the data necessary to present to its certified public accountant.

Keen uses a main distribution report from the system to gather sales figures for an accurate financial statement. Although the software doesn’t have its own accounting package, information from the POS system can be reported to various accounting programs, including Business Works Gold (Sage), MAS 90 and MAS 200 line (Sage), QuickBooks (Intuit), Microsoft Small Business Financials, ACCPAC (Sage), Microsoft Dynamics and Peachtree (Sage).

This interface can also be achieved with a custom function to create export data for other non-built-in packages. The special feature will configure data in the necessary format to be accepted by virtually any accounting program.

After customer sales information is set up to integrate with the accounting program, selecting a date range or accounting codes can generate numerous reports. This data is then sent over to the accounting software.

A mirror chart of accounts is set up in the CounterPoint system to match those used for accounting purposes. These account numbers are selected in the inventory setup menu and automatically pass through to the general ledger when a sale takes place.

On the purchasing side, when a purchase order is created and received, a voucher is accepted and posted to pass through to the accounts payable part of the accounting program.

Sales Tax Reports

The Radiant CounterPoint system has also proved efficient in helping Briggs file sales tax reports.

When entering an inventory item or customer account, tax rates can be set at the store level or established for different customer levels. Examples include tax-exempt sales and various tax rates for different states, counties and/or local rates.

While this option may not appear to be important for some retailers, this feature is essential to businesses like those located in New York with complicated taxing authorities.

During a sales transaction, the hierarchy of taxation is first determined by customer level. If there is no tax code for the customer, the taxation is determined at the item level. If there is no tax code associated with the item, the tax defaults to the established store rate.

Although many POS systems don’t get deep into different tax systems, Dennis Lavallee of Retail Control Systems, an authorized reseller of the Radiant CounterPoint system, says “keeping accurate sales tax information is an integral part of business.” He also finds the ability to support all three levels of taxation an important tool.

Tax reports can also be printed with filters for specific dates or date ranges, as well as by tax code or store location. They can be printed with full date and detail or by ticket, as well as in summary format.

Another IGC retailer, Chuck Everhart of Towne & Country Home & Garden Center in Limerick, PA says, “I couldn’t do my taxes without my Activant Eagle POS system.”

Everhart says the accounting program is a bit “archaic,” but better than interfacing with a “package program.” He explains that although the accounting package is “cumbersome and not as intuitive as it could be,” it works with few extra steps. Everhart finds, with minimal prep work, he is able to provide all of the information necessary to present his accountant with a correct financial statement.

Towne & Country also relies on its Activant Eagle software to report sales tax information to prepare its returns. The software supports a number of different sales tax rates, and can handle both taxable and non-taxable items. It also tracks tax by area for those parts of the country that require such reports.

Activant Eagle user K&W Greenery in Janesville, WI, utilizes this feature. Owner Bill Williams explains that, along with Wisconsin sales tax, the system keeps track of various local county taxes.

Located along the Illinois state line, K&W has considered doing business in the neighboring state, too, because of the POS capability to track sales tax in this area. Williams says the system is versatile and keeps good records for sales category information.

Unlike Towne & Country, Williams chose not to use the Activant Eagle accounting program because of the cumbersome nature. Instead, K&W takes sales information from the POS system and imports it into QuickBooks.

Instant Actions

Other unique tax features provided by POS systems include automatic adding or changing of miscellaneous additional taxes.

Civano Nursery in Tucson, AZ, is required by law to charge a construction tax on plant installs. With its SBI Nursery Software, the clerk simply marks the items sold as an install during the sale, and the tax is automatically applied and tracked for filing purposes.

Another distinctive attribute can be observed when a tax rate is changed based on the circumstances of the sale. The applicable tax rate may change if an item is being delivered to the customer’s address or if it is being picked up at the store. SBI Nursery Software can automatically determine this circumstance based on the clerk indicating it as a delivery or will call/pick up item.

For garden centers in Canada, SBI Nursery Software also provides Canadian tax setup. The local tax PST and the government tax GST are both handled for Humber Nurseries in Ontario. The system keeps track of non-taxable sales, which are taxed by the GST, not the PST.