TaxCloud Setup Guide: Six Steps to Your First Filing

This guide takes you from a new TaxCloud account to your first filing in six steps. Do them in order. Each step links to a detailed article if you want more help.

Need a hand at any point? Email onboarding@taxcloud.com and a person on our onboarding team will reply.

Before you start

Have these nearby:

• Your EIN and legal business name
• Every address where you have an office, warehouse, store or employee
• Your sales tax license number for each state where you're already registered
• A bank account or card for your payment method
• Admin access to your store or accounting system

If we're registering you in new states, or filing in states where you already have a license, your onboarding team will send you a secure way to share license details and state logins. Please don't send passwords by email.

Step 1: Add your account details

Tell us who your business is. We use these details to register and file for you, so they need to match your state records.

1. Log in at app.taxcloud.com.
2. Click your business name in the upper left, then Account Details.
3. Enter your corporation type, legal name, DBA, EIN and state of incorporation, then save.
4. Add your NAICS code (the six-digit code that describes what your business does) and save again.
5. Go to Settings > Contacts and add anyone on your team who needs access.
6. Go to Settings > Payment Method and add a bank account, a card, or both.

:::info Save the page before you add your NAICS code. If you add the code first, it may not stick. :::

Your legal name and EIN should match your contract and your IRS paperwork, letter for letter.

More help: Verify Your TaxCloud Account is Complete for Calculations

Step 2: Add your locations

Add every place your business physically operates. A physical presence in a state means you owe sales tax there, so these addresses decide which states turn on automatically.

1. Go to Settings > Locations.
2. Add your main business address first. Set its type to Primary and Mailing.
3. Add every other office, store or warehouse you run as Standard.
4. Add the home address of any employee who works remotely in another state as Sales Agent.
5. Confirm the address TaxCloud suggests for each one, then save.

State mail only goes to your Primary and Mailing address. Standard and Sales Agent locations tell us where you have a presence, and nothing is mailed to them.

More help: How to Set Up and Manage Locations

Step 3: Turn on your states

Turn on the states where you're registered to collect sales tax. States from your locations are already listed. This step adds the rest and gives us your license details.

1. Go to Thresholds.
2. For each state where you hold a sales tax license, add your license number and your filing frequency (how often the state told you to file: monthly, quarterly or annually).
3. Set the date tax collection should start in that state.
4. Check the list against your contract. Every state we file for should show Collecting and have a license number.

A few things to get right:

• Only turn on a state where you're registered. Collecting tax without a license creates a problem with that state.
• If we're registering you in a state, leave it off. We turn it on and add the license number when your registration comes back.
• If you sell on Shopify, the states turned on in Shopify and in TaxCloud need to match.

More help: Enabling Filing in TaxCloud (via Thresholds Page) and Keeping your TaxCloud and Shopify collection states in sync

Step 4: Connect your integration

Connect the system where your orders live, then tell TaxCloud what you sell. This is the step that starts your sales data flowing.

1. Go to Integrations and add your platform.
2. Follow the guide for your platform in the table below.
3. Set your product tax categories. A tax category (we call it a TIC) tells TaxCloud how each product is taxed. A t-shirt, a textbook and software are all taxed differently.
4. When you're ready, take the integration from Test to Live. This can't be undone, so finish steps 1 to 3 first.
5. After your next real order, check that it shows on your Transactions page.

Platform	Setup guide
Shopify	Connecting TaxCloud to Shopify
WooCommerce	Connecting TaxCloud to WooCommerce
BigCommerce	Connecting TaxCloud to BigCommerce
Stripe	Connecting TaxCloud to Stripe
QuickBooks Online	Connecting TaxCloud to QuickBooks Online
QuickBooks Desktop	Assign product tax codes (TICs) in QuickBooks Desktop
Chargebee	Connecting TaxCloud to Chargebee

Using NetSuite, Odoo or your own API integration? Email us and we'll set up a call to connect it with you.

A few things to get right:

• Don't skip product tax categories. Without one, a product is taxed at the general rate, which can mean charging your customers too much or too little.
• An integration left in Test sends nothing to your reports. If orders are missing later, check this first.
• If you sell in more than one place (a store plus a marketplace, or a store plus invoices), connect each one, or tell us which sales you'll upload by file.

More help: How to Add and Manage Integrations in TaxCloud, How to Take Your Integration Live and Managing Product TIC Mapping with Product Catalog

Step 5: Add your exemptions

If some of your customers don't pay sales tax (resellers, nonprofits, government buyers), add their exemption certificates so TaxCloud stops charging them. If none of your customers are exempt, skip to step 6.

1. Go to Exemption Certificates and add a certificate for each exempt customer.
2. Use the same customer ID your store or accounting system uses for that buyer. That match is how TaxCloud knows to apply the exemption.
3. Mark the same customers exempt in your store if your platform asks for it.

A few things to get right:

• A certificate covers a buyer, not a product. Products that are never taxed are handled by the tax category in step 4.
• Add the certificate before the customer's next order.
• You're responsible for keeping valid certificates on file. Check the expiry date when you add each one.

Have a long list of certificates? Email us and we'll help you load them in one file.

More help: How to Add an Exemption Certificate to TaxCloud

Step 6: Check your data

Once orders are flowing, check that TaxCloud and your store agree. Do this once now and it becomes a quick habit before each filing.

1. Open Transactions and confirm new orders are arriving.
2. Pick one recent order and open the same order in your store. The tax amount should match.
3. Go to Tax Reporting, choose one state and open its Transaction Report for the period.
4. Pull the same state and the same dates from your store's sales tax report.
5. Compare three numbers: order count, total sales and tax collected.

If they don't match, the reason is usually one of these:

What you see	Usual reason	What to do
Your store shows more orders or tax than TaxCloud	Your store counts an order when it's placed. TaxCloud counts it when it's captured, which on some Shopify connections means when it ships	Compare shipped orders only, or wait until month-end orders ship
No transactions in TaxCloud	The integration is still in Test	Take it Live (step 4)
A state is missing from Tax Reporting	The state isn't turned on, or has no license number	Go back to step 3
Tax on an order looks wrong	The product has no tax category	Go back to step 4
A whole sales channel is missing	Those sales don't come through a connected integration	Connect it, or upload the transactions by CSV
A refund shows in one system and not the other	Refunds post in the month they're processed	Check the following month
An order you don't recognize	A test order went through after you went Live	Send us the order ID

Still off? Email onboarding@taxcloud.com with the state, the period and both totals.

More help: Understanding Tax Reports and Drilling Into Transaction Details

What happens every month

Once you're set up, the rhythm is the same every month.

When	What happens	What we need from you
The 3rd	Your sales tax report for last month is ready	Run the step 6 check and upload any sales we're missing
By end of day on the 10th	Your review window closes	Tell us if anything looks wrong
After the 10th	We file your returns and pay the states	Keep funds available in your payment method

If we don't hear from you by end of day on the 10th, we file using the data in your account.