Source truth: - Source Documents - Posting and Reversal - Close - ADR 0020: Initial Release Scope and Financial Workflow Taxonomy - ADR 0021: Sales and Receivables Summary Facts and Posting Templates - ADR 0029: Cross-Workflow Accounting Event Identity - ADR 0033: Company Accounting Time and Period Cutoffs - ADR 0034: Sales Tax Accounting and Remittance Boundary - Sales Tax Accounting and Remittance Contract
Sales Tax and Remittance
BooksPlus helps control the accounting, reconciliation, documentation, and remittance record for sales tax determined by an operational sales system, marketplace, reviewed user source, or connected tax provider.
BooksPlus does not determine whether a sale is taxable or calculate the tax. It also does not transmit a return or initiate a tax payment. Those activities remain with the seller, marketplace, operational system, or external tax provider that has the applicable responsibility.
Availability
Sales-tax accounting and remittance control is accepted BooksPlus 1.0 scope. Capability-profile validation, explicit seller/facilitator ownership, filing- summary eligibility, Sales preparation, and durable return-control staging, reconciliation, approval, amendment linkage, and external-filing evidence are implemented behind services. Protected remittance approval, external-payment evidence, exact central posting, and the Finance-owned non-posting bank match are also implemented behind services. Close evaluation now consumes those owners through five versioned checks and preserves exact support references, but neither the sales-tax controls nor their Close handoff has a supported desktop entry. Users cannot yet perform the steps described on this page.
Responsibility at a glance
| Responsibility | Initial-release owner |
|---|---|
| Determine taxability, jurisdiction, rate, exemptions, and tax amount | Operational system, marketplace, reviewed user source, or connected tax provider |
| Preserve and validate the supplied determination | BooksPlus |
| Record seller-owned tax in Sales Tax Payable | BooksPlus through Sales and Receivables Summary |
| Reconcile eligible filing summaries to posted accounting | BooksPlus |
| Review and approve the return-support and remittance record | Authorized BooksPlus user |
| Transmit the return | Seller or external filing provider outside BooksPlus |
| Initiate the tax payment | Seller or external payment system outside BooksPlus |
| Record the remittance accounting and supporting evidence | BooksPlus |
| Match the completed payment to the bank statement | Banking and Finance Summary |
The system that supplied the calculation is not necessarily the party legally responsible for the tax. BooksPlus keeps the calculation source, liability owner, and compliance agent separate so an external filer does not automatically replace the seller as liability owner.
Seller-owned and marketplace tax
Seller-owned tax
When the seller owns the liability, the accepted Sales and Receivables result records:
- the gross customer amount;
- net sales revenue;
- seller-owned tax credited to Sales Tax Payable; and
- the source totals and evidence needed to explain the posting.
When the approved remittance is later recorded, BooksPlus debits Sales Tax Payable and credits the reviewed bank or cash account. The entry follows the normal posting, period, evidence, permission, and audit controls.
Marketplace-facilitator tax
Tax collected and remitted by a marketplace facilitator does not create a seller Sales Tax Payable balance when current reviewed evidence establishes the facilitator's responsibility for the applicable sales.
BooksPlus may retain the facilitator amount as non-ledger support needed to explain gross sales, marketplace exclusions, or settlement totals. It must not record the same tax as both a seller liability and facilitator-remitted tax.
Facilitator treatment is not inferred from a marketplace name or transaction description. Keep the applicable marketplace certification or agreement, jurisdiction, registration, and effective dates with the review evidence. The exact facilitator-remitted preparation remains held unless its capability profile, ownership evidence, and source-control equations satisfy the canonical contract.
What the source data can support
BooksPlus distinguishes two source-data capabilities.
| Capability | What the source provides | What BooksPlus can support |
|---|---|---|
| Accounting summary | Stable source identity, covered dates, currency, gross sales, net sales, tax, responsibility, changes, and control totals | Seller-liability posting and source-to-ledger reconciliation |
| Filing summary | Accounting-summary data plus agency, registration, jurisdiction, filing period, taxable and exempt sales, marketplace amounts, rates or rate components, adjustments, and reporting basis | Jurisdictional workpapers, return-to-liability reconciliation, and remittance control |
An accounting summary is not enough for BooksPlus jurisdictional return support. The return must be prepared upstream or manually from other reliable records. BooksPlus must not present a source as filing-ready beyond the detail and evidence it actually supplies.
Transaction-level detail may be retained as supporting evidence, but the initial release does not create an operational sales-tax subledger.
The remittance workflow
For a source that supplies an eligible filing summary, the intended workflow is:
- Import and review the sales and tax summary.
- Confirm the calculation source, liability owner, compliance agent, jurisdiction, registration, and filing period.
- Post accepted seller-owned tax through Sales and Receivables Summary.
- Reconcile the filing summary to the included posted sales facts and Sales Tax Payable activity.
- Review the workpaper, marketplace or statutory-collector exclusions, and adjustments.
- Record protected approval for external filing.
- File the return outside BooksPlus and record its confirmation evidence.
- Prepare and approve the exact positive remittance, when one is required.
- Complete the payment outside BooksPlus and record its confirmation evidence and effective date.
- Record the remittance entry through central Accounting.
- Match the posted remittance to the later bank-statement result without creating another accounting entry.
BooksPlus return workpapers and remittance records are control evidence. They are not journal entries or formal financial statements. Return-support amounts come from posted ledger activity and the exact linked accepted tax facts, not from unposted batches, quotes, or draft operational invoices.
Supporting documentation
Retain or reference the evidence needed to explain the result, including as applicable:
- operational-system or marketplace tax summary;
- source batch and covered transaction dates;
- tax agency, registration, jurisdiction, and filing period;
- marketplace-facilitator certification or agreement;
- exemption, resale, and adjustment support maintained by the responsible operational system;
- reconciliation workpaper;
- reviewed return copy and filing confirmation;
- remittance approval and payment confirmation;
- posted journal-entry reference; and
- bank-statement match.
Source evidence remains preserved when a later document, return, or determination replaces it. Do not overwrite the original support.
Corrections and period close
A late correction, refund, replacement, or amended return stays linked to the original sale, tax result, return-support record, posted entry, and evidence. Posted accounting is corrected through the BooksPlus Corrections workflow, not by editing the original entry.
The implemented Period Close service identifies unresolved seller-owned tax reconciliation, unsupported filing eligibility, missing required return evidence, incomplete remittance evidence, and applicable missing bank matches through five defined checks. This review is not yet exposed in the desktop. Close does not calculate tax, prepare an automatic tax accrual, file a return, or create the remittance entry.
Outside the initial-release boundary
BooksPlus 1.0 does not provide:
- sales orders, customer invoices, checkout, or payment processing;
- nexus, registration, sourcing, boundary, rate, taxability, holiday, or exemption determination;
- automatic recalculation of imported tax;
- direct return filing or filing-service transmission;
- tax-payment initiation;
- an external tax-provider transaction API;
- an operational sales-tax subledger; or
- purchase-side consumer use tax, VAT/GST, excise, payroll, income, franchise, or property-tax workflows.
Use an appropriate operational system, marketplace, tax provider, or professional adviser for tax determinations and filing obligations. BooksPlus preserves the accounting and evidence for the responsibility that has been reviewed; it does not establish that legal responsibility by itself.