Are Locations right for me?

[MatchPlayInk]

Hello!

  I am not sure if creating multiple new locations weekly is the best practice in my case or not. I have a business that sells apparel at multiple different events every weekend. They are mostly in different counties so the tax is different at each one. I used to keep one location and set up  categories that was the event name for each different one. I would have the tax included in the price and then figure out the tax after the fact. This was ending up being too time consuming and could lead to errors. Then i found out about locations. I now create a new Location for each event that we are at and set up the tax so we can charge the customer the tax instead of taking it out of the sale. This is a little bit of a pain, adding in the new locations and setting up taxes for each new county we go to but at least i can run a tax report for each weekend and have accurate sales tax numbers. Square has recently decided to add another layer of security and now almost every week we have to verify our identity with a phone call before they will transfer our money into the bank. This is the same bank account that we have always been using. Is there a better way that i can be doing this? I have spoken to Square on these weekly phone calls and they really aren't much help pointing me in a correct direction. Thank you in advance for any help!

[MatchPlayInk · Accepted solution]

Thanks for the reply Randy. The reason we aren't doing it the way you described is because we could have as many as 10 different locations going in 1 weekend. We have had employees pick the wrong category in the past then charge the wrong tax and then we get a whole new headache. We then have wrong tax reports that cannot be edited.

[Candlestore · Accepted solution]

@MatchPlayInk ;

After seeing @rtfulk  reply, which was my first thought too.  Then seeing your reply to Randy about using 10 devices at 10 different sites I believe the only option you have is to use Locations.  Since your Square settings are set for a Location.  So if you are selling in more than 1 Tax area at the same time you would need locations.  I even checked to see if by using Device Codes you could assign a Tax to the Device Code.  This is not possible but you can select different Locations per device.  

Now what I would do is Create all the Different Taxes you need :

1.  Monroe County Tax  5%
2.  Bucks County Tax   5.25%
3.  Etc.

2. Create Locations Mobile 1 - # of devices that are Mobile.

     Write this # on the Device before giving it to your people going to the event.

Then Use DEVICE Codes To assign Location with Tax Rate X%

You should only have to Enter the Taxes one time but each weekend choose a Different Location for which Tax gets applied.

For Example :

You give Johnny Device 3 - Mobile 3   Which is written on the Device (Step 2 Above).

Then before telling Johnny which Event he is going to you Assign Device / Mobile 3 to Location of event.  Once this is done the Device will assign that Rate and will show in your Taxes.

The Next Weekend repeat By Assigning Device 3 to the new areas Tax if needed.  

You can check Device Codes in your Square Dashboard and assign Different Taxes based on Location to the Device.

This way you would not create New locations weekly just assign the Tax Rate per device. Then in your Tax reports it should show a list of all these different Taxes if they were used during the time period.

I do believe in you Sales Report it may show all these only as Sales Tax, but if you dig deeper in your Tax reports it shows $X for Tax 1

$T for Tax 2...... etc. So then after the weekend you log in on Monday to your Square Dashboard > Reports > Taxes and this will list how much you collected for each area.  

I have 4 Taxes showing for PA, Pa Sales Tax, Sales Tax (Renamed to PA Sales tax), Dingmans Ferry and Bath.  As you can see below.

If I only have sales in Sales that is the only tax that shows.  But you can do the report for the Year and it will keep it separated and you can even export this as a csv file.

[rtfulk]

I wouldn’t setup different locations, we travel the country working state fairs and use 1 location, what we do is setup taxes for each state and when we get to that state we just select that tax. You could do the same with 1 location, go in and set the different tax rate up for each county and when you get to that county just s log in to taxes and select that county, when the fair is over print out a report and you have your taxes for that event.

The other reason I wouldn’t setup different locations is if you do any add ons the price is for each location, if you choose to add all the locations.

[MatchPlayInk · Accepted solution]

Thanks for the reply Randy. The reason we aren't doing it the way you described is because we could have as many as 10 different locations going in 1 weekend. We have had employees pick the wrong category in the past then charge the wrong tax and then we get a whole new headache. We then have wrong tax reports that cannot be edited.

[rtfulk · Accepted solution]

I can see where that would be a problem, I just assumed you went to each location by yourself at different times.

[Candlestore · Accepted solution]

@MatchPlayInk ;

After seeing @rtfulk  reply, which was my first thought too.  Then seeing your reply to Randy about using 10 devices at 10 different sites I believe the only option you have is to use Locations.  Since your Square settings are set for a Location.  So if you are selling in more than 1 Tax area at the same time you would need locations.  I even checked to see if by using Device Codes you could assign a Tax to the Device Code.  This is not possible but you can select different Locations per device.  

Now what I would do is Create all the Different Taxes you need :

1.  Monroe County Tax  5%
2.  Bucks County Tax   5.25%
3.  Etc.

2. Create Locations Mobile 1 - # of devices that are Mobile.

     Write this # on the Device before giving it to your people going to the event.

Then Use DEVICE Codes To assign Location with Tax Rate X%

You should only have to Enter the Taxes one time but each weekend choose a Different Location for which Tax gets applied.

For Example :

You give Johnny Device 3 - Mobile 3   Which is written on the Device (Step 2 Above).

Then before telling Johnny which Event he is going to you Assign Device / Mobile 3 to Location of event.  Once this is done the Device will assign that Rate and will show in your Taxes.

The Next Weekend repeat By Assigning Device 3 to the new areas Tax if needed.  

You can check Device Codes in your Square Dashboard and assign Different Taxes based on Location to the Device.

This way you would not create New locations weekly just assign the Tax Rate per device. Then in your Tax reports it should show a list of all these different Taxes if they were used during the time period.

I do believe in you Sales Report it may show all these only as Sales Tax, but if you dig deeper in your Tax reports it shows $X for Tax 1

$T for Tax 2...... etc. So then after the weekend you log in on Monday to your Square Dashboard > Reports > Taxes and this will list how much you collected for each area.  

I have 4 Taxes showing for PA, Pa Sales Tax, Sales Tax (Renamed to PA Sales tax), Dingmans Ferry and Bath.  As you can see below.

If I only have sales in Sales that is the only tax that shows.  But you can do the report for the Year and it will keep it separated and you can even export this as a csv file.

[MatchPlayInk]

Thank you for the detailed reply! What you explained is actually very similar to the system we have been using.