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Re: Taxability on past invoices

On Fri, 14 Jan 2011, Chris Travers wrote:


On Fri, Jan 14, 2011 at 1:18 AM, Luke <..hidden..> wrote:

I suppose that this is an old problem, but...

In 1.2, if an invoice is posted for a non-taxable customer, and that
customer later becomes taxable, the invoice in reports will show up with
the original amount and no tax, but upon editing or trying to print the
invoice, taxes will suddenly appear.

I suppose the proper action is to end the customer which was non-taxable,
and replace it with an identical customer which is taxable, but that isn't
always going to be the way it's done.

My questions:

1.  Is there any intent to fix this bug?


Here's my current thinking:

1) Non-taxable customers SHOULD have the option of taxable invoices.
This is important where one normally buys wholesale but a given
invoice is not wholesale.
I would suggest a toggle. If the customer is taxable, the option should be for a non-taxable invoice. If they are non-taxable, the option should be for a taxable invoice. I have run into both exceptions.
In my current situation, however, I was dealing with a non profit. We had them as non-taxable, and generated invoices. Later we found out that while they were federally non-taxable, they were taxable at the state sales tax level (they shouldn't be, but their idiots. Paying idiots.).
So we have old invoices going back through 2009 that are non-taxable, and then in mid Q1 2010 their flag got changed to taxable, and we had to bill them for past uncollected sales tax. 

 > 2) Viewing an existing invoice should show data as of the time it was

posted.  Changes in what is taxable should not affect the tax on the
display of the invoice.
Yes, invoices (and everything else, actually) should be a snapshot in time. If a customer's address changes 5 years into a relationship, old invoices, orders, quotes, etc. should have the old address, the old taxes, the old prices (at least that works), and so on. 

We've already talked about date sensitive charts of accounts.


3)  Viewing an existing invoice should also give an option to see the
invoice as a GL transaction.


I love that!


2.  Are there effects beyond the edit invoice screen, to making a
non-taxable customer taxable?  Such as amounts being altered in any
accounts?


Not unless you repost something which is inadvisable otherwise.


Okay, that's what I thought.


3.  Is it in any way possible to solve this situation retroactively?


Possible?  yes.  Feasible?  Probably not.  At any rate such a change
would not be bundled in a stable branch.


Sorry, I was talking about on a local, situational basis.


I am thinking of creating a new customer with start and end dates around
the non-taxable period.  Alter the database to make that the customer on
the non-taxable invoices.  Push the startdate on the taxable customer to
after the non-taxable period.
Then presumably printed invoices will be identical to the system's
viewable/printable invoices.

If that will work, what will I have to alter to make it effective?
Again, talking about what to do for this specific customer, and these specific invoices. As a long term solution, your above suggestions are on the right path in my opinion. Actually, the below one isn't bad, either. 


Or is there an easier way?


What about flagging an invoice as taxable or not?  Or retrieving tax
values actually saved?
The first is easier, but manual. It would require some SQL updating of *all* past invoices, to have a collect setting for the flag. 
It could also be inaccurate if somebody screws up.
The latter seems like a good fix though. Obviously the data is (not) there, since the reports have it right. It's just editing (which is really viewing--another probably shouldn't be state of affairs) and printing.
I haven't looked at this, but I'm guessing that the invoice at some point, acts on the customer's taxable flags, to include calculations for certain accounts. For edited invoices, instead of acting on real data initially, if the retrieved invoice had no tax data saved for a given account, the new code would fake an off for the customer's taxable flag for that account. Is that your thought, approximately?
If so, in 1.2, where (or close to where) does the invoice (1) determine that it's being edited and not created; and (2) determine whether to include the taxes for this customer? 

Luke