Set Up Taxes by Jurisdiction

For: Admins and accounting staff · Permission: Manage taxes (Manage customers for exemptions) · Time: ~12 minutes

Quick summary

Create a Tax Group for the jurisdiction and add its taxes.
Set each tax class to Taxed or Not taxed.
Attach the group to a service location.
Record exemptions on the customer.

How tax works

Tax Group: a named jurisdiction, such as Phoenix, AZ, that bundles every tax that applies there.
Individual taxes: the rate lines inside a group, such as a state, county or city tax. They add up to the group's combined rate.
Tax classes: the kinds of charge a group can tax: Labor, Parts, Travel time, Surcharges, Fees, Late fees and Interest. For each group you choose which classes are Taxed and which are Not taxed.
Service location: each location is attached to one or more Tax Groups. Jobs at that location use them.
Exemption certificates: a record of why a customer isn't taxed, with dates, kept on the customer.

What changed. The four Labor, Part, Surcharge and Fee columns on each tax line are gone. You now choose Taxed or Not taxed per tax class on the Tax Group. Customer exemptions now use certificates with dates. Rates can have up to 4 decimal places.

Open Taxes

Go to Settings › Pricing & Rates and open the Taxes tab. Each Tax Group is listed with the individual taxes inside it. Use the Active and Archived tabs to switch between current and retired groups.

At the top, the Tax orders by card sets how an order's service area is picked: Job location (the default) or Nearest service area. Click Save. Changes saved. confirms it. If your role can't manage taxes, the card is read-only. Changing it affects new orders and address changes. Orders already priced keep their area, and an area picked by hand on an order always stays.

The Tax orders by card.

Name the group and add its taxes

Create the group. Click + Create Tax Group and name it for the jurisdiction, for example Phoenix, AZ.
Add each tax. Click + Add Tax, then enter a Name and a Rate %. Add one line for the state, the county and any city or special-district tax. The On switch turns a line off without deleting it, and a rate must be from 0 to 100.
Check the rate. A rate can have up to 4 decimal places, such as 7.2575, as in the Riverside County group below. If you type a fifth decimal, MetaFleet rounds it when you leave the box and shows the rounded rate.

Phoenix, AZ has three tax lines that add up to 8.6%.

Choose which charges are taxed

Under Tax classes on the same page, set each kind of charge to Taxed or Not taxed for this group. A class set to Not taxed adds no tax from this group.

Nothing is taxed by default. A new group starts with every class set to Not taxed. Set Taxed on each kind of charge your state taxes. Not every state taxes labor, so check your state's rules. If nothing is set to Taxed, the group adds no tax.

Each group answers for each class on its own.

Fees: each fee uses the class picked on the fee itself, on Settings › Fees & Surcharges. Until you pick one, a fee uses Fees.
Manage classes: click this link to see every class, what uses it, and how many Tax Groups tax it. Use + New class to add your own.
Built-in classes keep their names and can't be renamed or archived.
Your own classes can be renamed and archived. Archived classes are on the Archived tab (next to Active), where you can Restore them. A class a fee uses can't be archived; the message names the fees.
A new class starts with the same answers as Fees.
No answer: if a class shows No answer on a Tax Group, a banner says so, and a fee in that class isn't taxed there until you choose Taxed or Not taxed.
Answer each tax separately: turn this on at the top of Tax classes to let the state, county and city taxes in one group answer a class differently.

Click Create Tax Group to save. Description is optional, and each group needs a name no other group uses. On an existing group, History shows who changed which rate or class, and when.

Attach a Tax Group to a service location

A Tax Group only does something once it's tied to where work happens.

Go to Settings › Service Locations and open a location.
Open the Taxes tab and click Edit next to Tax Groups.
In the Edit Tax Groups window, choose the Tax Groups that apply, then click Save Changes.

The Service Locations list shows each location's Tax group. Not set means no group is attached yet.

Several Tax Groups on one location all charge. A tax that sits in two of them is charged twice. The Taxes tab warns Overlapping taxes: … will stack (be charged more than once). Remove the duplicate group or consolidate. and shows the Combined rate across bound groups.

Two more warnings can show under Tax Groups. They never block a save. Missing tax from an area above means orders in this area are charged only this area's Tax Groups, so they won't include the groups above it. Click Add and the group's name to add it (Add 2 tax groups when several are missing). The button needs permission to manage taxes. No county set shows for a city area with no county. Click Edit location to add one. If both apply, the warning reads No county set, and missing tax from the area.

A location without a group charges no tax. If a location has no Tax Group, its estimates show "No tax group is bound to this location" and tax stays $0.00. Attach a group to fix it.

How a job gets its tax

A job's tax comes from the Tax Groups on the order's Service area, which is one of your service locations. On the New Service Order page, Service area fills in from the unit's location. How it is picked depends on the Tax orders by card:

Job location (default): an area whose drawn boundary contains the job, else the area that names the job's city, then its county, then the statewide area. An area that names another county is never picked. The nearest center only breaks ties.
Nearest service area: the closest center, ignoring county, city and boundaries.

Closed locations are never picked. An order is taxed with the Tax Groups of that one area only. A county or city area replaces the statewide area above it. It doesn't add to it, so give the narrower area the statewide groups too.

When no service area is in the job's state, a note under Service area names the state and the area it picked, for example Outside your service areas (NV). Taxed as Phoenix, AZ, the nearest area. Review the tax, and change the service area above if needed. If no area names the job's city or county, the note says No service area for that place and which area it taxed as. In Nearest service area mode it says the area is your nearest, as your tax settings say.

If you change Service area yourself, your pick stays. It isn't picked again when the address changes.

Retire a Tax Group

Open the group and click Archive, then confirm. An archived group isn't matched to jobs until you click Activate. Find archived groups on the Archived tab.

Exemptions

Exemptions live on the customer. Go to Company Details › Companies, open the company and click the Taxes tab.

Tax exemption: switch this on when the customer is fully tax-exempt. Their invoices carry no tax, including taxes you add to a Tax Group later. A Reason is required to turn it on, chosen from QuickBooks' list. It applies to invoices sent from now on; invoices already sent keep their tax.
Exemption certificates: click + Add certificate to record the paperwork. Without a certificate the exemption keeps applying and is marked No certificate.
Per-jurisdiction exemption: to exempt a customer in one area only, click + Add New Tax Exemption, pick the Tax Group and the taxes to exempt, then click Make Taxes Exempt. The table below lists each exempt Tax Group. These exemptions don't apply while the customer is fully exempt. They're kept, and apply again if you turn full exemption off.

In the Add certificate window, fill in:

Certificate number and Type: choose the kind of certificate, such as Resale.
Issued by: the state.
Covers: Whole customer or Chosen Tax Groups. Chosen Tax Groups needs a per-group exemption first: without one, the window says This customer has no per-group exemptions yet. Add one below the certificates first.
Valid from and Expires on. Turn on No expiry date on the certificate if it has none.
Document: a PDF, JPG or PNG up to 10 MB.

Each certificate shows its status: Active, Expires in a number of days (from 30 days before it ends), Expired with its last day, or Replaced with the day the renewal took over. A renewal's Valid from defaults to the day after the old certificate expires. If you record a renewal early and it starts the day after the old certificate ends, the old one stays Active until the renewal starts. The renewal waits under it, marked Valid from and its start date. A renewal that starts later leaves a gap, so the old certificate keeps its expiry warning and the banner names the days that will be taxed.

To renew, open the certificate's row and choose to renew it. The same window opens with the details and dates filled in, and the button reads Save version 2.

Dates matter. Each invoice is checked against these dates on its own date, where the work was done.

If you use QuickBooks

MetaFleet works out the tax from your Tax Groups and sends it to QuickBooks with each invoice, unless you choose Use QuickBooks' Sales Tax for that invoice. That includes a QuickBooks company that uses Automated Sales Tax. Each Tax Group becomes a QuickBooks Tax Code. Estimates carry MetaFleet's tax too.

Tax Agency: with QuickBooks connected, each tax on the Tax Group page has a Tax Agency column. Pick one under Choose a Tax Agency, then click Save changes. A group shows Needs a Tax Agency until you do, and an invoice that needs that tax waits until you choose one.
QuickBooks line: the Tax Group page shows the group's Tax Code and how it stands: In QuickBooks, Not in QuickBooks yet, Needs a Tax Agency or Couldn't sync. Click Sales tax rates › to see every group.
Syncing: creating, archiving or activating a Tax Group updates its Tax Code in QuickBooks. If you change a rate, MetaFleet makes a new Tax Code for it.

Once the agency is saved, the group shows In QuickBooks and its Tax Code.

For the full setup, see How Sales Tax and Exemptions Work with QuickBooks.

Tax on reports

Pull the Sales Tax Export from Reports. It is grouped by state, with a subtotal per state and a grand total, so you can file per jurisdiction. For each column and section, see File Sales Tax With the Sales Tax Export.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Likely cause	Fix
An estimate says no tax group is bound to the location	That location has no Tax Group attached	Open the service location, then Taxes › Edit, and choose a group.
I can't find the Labor, Part, Surcharge and Fee columns	Tax classes replaced them	Set each class to Taxed or Not taxed on the Tax Group.
Labor, parts or a fee isn't taxed	Its class is set to Not taxed in the location's Tax Group, or the fee uses a different class	Check the Tax classes on the group, and the class picked on the fee.
The wrong rate applied to a job	The location's Tax Group is wrong, or the rate inside it is off	Check the location's Tax Groups, then the taxes in each group.
A tax is charged twice	The same tax is in two Tax Groups on the location, so they stack	Open the location's Taxes tab, read the Overlapping taxes warning, then remove the duplicate group or consolidate.
A Tax Group no longer applies	It was archived	Open it and click Activate.
A customer was taxed who shouldn't be	No exemption on file, or the certificate has expired or doesn't cover that Tax Group	Check the customer's Taxes tab: the exemption switch or the per-group table first, then add or renew a certificate.
The Tax Group page says Read-only — you don't have permission to manage taxes.	Your role lacks the Manage taxes permission	Ask an admin to change your role or make the edit.

FAQs

What happened to tax categories?
They're gone. Use Tax Groups made of individual taxes, attached to service locations.

How does a job know which tax to use?
From the order's service location, whose Tax Groups set the rate. See How a job gets its tax above.

How do I tax a multi-rate area?
Add each rate as an individual tax inside one Tax Group, such as state, county and city. The group combines them: Phoenix, AZ adds a 5.6% state tax, a 0.7% county tax and a 2.3% city tax for a combined 8.6%.

How do I choose what gets taxed?
Set each tax class to Taxed or Not taxed on the Tax Group.

How do I handle a tax-exempt customer?
Open the company's Taxes tab, turn on the exemption, or use + Add New Tax Exemption for one Tax Group, then add a certificate with its dates.

Where do I get numbers for filing?
The Sales Tax Export under Reports, organized by state.