How To: Excise Tax Manager User Guide

Overview

Configuring your Excise Tax Manager will be simple. Let's break it down into a couple easy steps to make the process even smoother.

Step One: Create Product Groups

Step Two: Create Product Zones

Step Three: Create Rules and Apply Rates

Additional Settings

Checkout Display Settings

Excise Tax Manager FAQs

Post-Order or Manual Order Instructions

Follow each of these 3 steps, in order, to create new destination-based excise tax rules and apply them to groups of your products to accurately collect and account excise taxes.

IMPORTANT! BEFORE GETTING STARTED

Once you have downloaded the Ebizio Checkout App and subscribed to the "Destination Based Product Fees Module," go to your BigCommerce Dashboard -> Marketing -> Gift Certificates, and check the "Enable Gift Certificates?" checkbox.

Step One: Create Product Groups

What is a 'Product Group?'

A Product Group is a collection of your BigCommerce Products that you will create in order to apply rates to more than one product at one time. You will be able to create your Product Group by selecting either individual SKUs (specific option variants), products, or categories of products, and adding them to the Group.

How should I organize my Product Groups?

There is not a simple answer to this question, because it depends on the types of taxes / fees you are accommodating for, your product catalog, your industry, etc. However, the general rule of thumb is that you want to organize Product Groups around how your taxes/fees will be charged.

For example, let's say you are selling vape products, and need to accommodate for two levels of excise tax, based on the nicotine content of your products. You will want to create 2 groups, one for each nicotine level, to separate the taxable products. Later, you will be able to write a rule and apply a specific tax rate to this group, and also adjust that rate based on destination.

How to create a Product Group

1. Navigate to the Ebizio Checkout App from your BigCommerce dashboard by going to "Apps" → "Ebizio Checkout."
2. Under "Global Configuration," choose the Product Groups tab.
3. Click the white and blue 'Add Product Group' button to add a new Product Group
   
   
   
   
4. Name the Product Group, and click the green 'submit' button.
   
   
5. Next, you will add Categories, Products, and SKUs to your Group by clicking one of the 'Add Category,' 'Add Product,' or 'Add SKU' buttons. When are finished adding to your Group, click the green 'submit' button.  
   
   
   
   
6. You can delete obsolete Product Groups by clicking the red 'Delete Product Group' button.

Now we're ready to move onto Step Two to create Zones.

Step Two: Create Zones

What is a 'Zone?'

A Zone is the geographic area that you want to use to define a destination-based rate. Different states, counties, and municipalities will charge different excise tax rates within their jurisdictions, so it will be critical to be able to map your rates to corresponding Zones. Zones will be defined with Zip Codes and Zip Code ranges. 

NOTE: For now, the Zone function of this app will only be compatible with United States Zip Codes and Canadian Postal Codes.

How to create a Zone

1. Navigate to the Ebizio Checkout App from your BigCommerce dashboard by going to "Apps" → "Ebizio Checkout."
2. Under "Global Configuration," choose the Zones tab.
3. Click the white and blue 'Add Zone' button to add a new Zone.
   
   
   
   
4. Name the Zone, and click the green 'submit' button.
   
   
   
   
5. To add zip codes, or ranges of zip codes, to your Zone, click the white and blue 'Edit' button
   
   
   
   
6. Next, add individual zip codes by entering one zip per line (hit return to go to the next line), or ranges of zips with two zip codes separated by a dash (see below). Then hit the green 'submit' button when you are finished. To edit the included zip codes, simply re-click the 'edit' button. For Canadian postal codes, simply list the first three digit FSA Codes for your zone.
   
   
7. Repeat steps 3-6 to create as many Zones as required by your relevant tax laws and/or add-on fees.

Next, we'll map your Product Groups and Zones to apply a specific excise tax Rate. 

Step Three: Create Rules and Apply Rates

How to create a Rule and add Rates

1. Navigate to the Ebizio Checkout App from your BigCommerce dashboard by going to "Apps" → "Ebizio Checkout."
2. Under "Global Configuration," choose the "Destination Based Product Fees" tab, then click the "Rules and Rate" tab at the top.
   
   NOTE: Excise Taxes, in a more general sense, are really fees that are levied based on the destination of a given product. That's why you will see the "Excise Tax Manager" often referred to as "Destination Based Product Fees" - there are many applications for this functionality.
   
   
3. Click the white and blue 'Add Rule' button to add a new Rule.
   
   
   
   
4. Next, we will fill in the form for the new Rule. First, enter a name for your Rule. This will display on your checkout as the additional fee/tax when the product is added to the cart. 
   
   
   
   
5. Next choose the Product Group to which you want to apply this Rule.
   
   
   
   
6. Then choose the Fee Frequency. The most common choice will be 'Per SKU,' meaning that if you sell 5 of any given product in an order, that the tax will be levied against each individual SKU included in the Order. Per Product will apply the rate once per base Product included in the Order, and Per Order will apply only once to the Order if it includes and Products from the assigned Product Group.
   
   
   
   
7. Lastly, enter a Description, and then click the green 'submit' button.
   
   
   
   
8. Next, we will add a Rate to the Rule that we have just created. Click the white and blue 'Add Rate' button to add a Rate.
   
   
   
   
9.  Once the modal popup opens, first choose whether your rate should be a fixed amount (flat rate or dollar amount) or percentage. For excise taxes, this will be determined by the laws applicable to your products.
   
   
   
   
10. Next, enter the Rate Value and choose the Zone to which this should apply. In this example, we've added a 6.25% to a Pennsylvania Excise Tax Zone. Then click the green 'submit' button.
    
    
    
    
11. Once you have submitted the Rate, you will see that it is now listed under our "Sample Excise Tax" Rates. You can add as many Rates as you would like, each to a different Zone. That way you can create a Rule with a Product Group and Fee Frequency, then assign different taxes based on each geographic zone (destination) that charges a unique excise tax or fee.
    
    
    
    
12. Repeat steps 3-11 to add any number of Rules and Rates.
13. You can remove individual Rate + Zone combinations from any Rule, and can delete entire Rules as necessary.

And that's it! You are now off to the races to configure your Product Groups, Zones, and Rules and Rates to charge excise taxes or destination based product fees.

Checkout Display Settings

In these settings, you will be able to define how the additional fees / excise taxes display to your customers at checkout.

1. Navigate to the Ebizio Checkout App from your BigCommerce dashboard by going to "Apps" → "Ebizio Checkout."
2. Under "Global Configuration," choose the "Destination Based Product Fees" tab, then click the "Checkout Display" tab at the top.
3. Often, merchants will want the customer to see the individual excise taxes or fees that are included in their Order, so that the customer gets a clear breakdown of the purchase. But other times, a merchant may just want to add up all the fees into a single line-item. By default, fees and excise taxes will be displayed as line-items, just check the 'Combine Fees' box to display them as combined.
   
   
4. The 'Combined Fee Format' field will be the text that is displayed on the checkout when you choose to combine the fees when displayed to your customers. This field will only display if you have checked the 'Combine Fees' box.
5. If you want your taxes / fees to display individually (recommended), then the 'Individual Fee Format' will define how those fees are displayed to the customer. We have included two variable fields for Rule Name and SKU, so that customers will know exactly which products in their cart they are being charged for.
   
   

Post-Order or Manual Order Instructions

The Excise Tax Manager App has been developed specifically for front-end Orders placed through the native BigCommerce checkout. The app does NOT calculate additional fees or taxes when an order is added or edited manually from the BigCommerce Admin Panel, or through any other Third Party Service.

Manual BigCommerce Order Creation

Some BigCommerce merchants create Orders manually. In order to calculate and add the proper taxes to the Order, please follow these steps:

1. Coming Soon

Editing Existing Orders (Post-Order Changes)

Some BigCommerce merchants will often edit existing Orders placed through their website. Common reasons for editing an existing Order would be a customer requesting a partial refund, product substitutions, out of stock inventory included in an Order, etc. 

When editing an existing Order with Excise Taxes applied, please follow these steps:

1. Coming Soon

Please see our FAQ Section for additional information and answers to your questions. Or use the in-app support feature to submit a ticket or search for documented answers.