Understanding Tax Reports and Drilling Into Transaction Details

Overview

TaxCloud offers reporting and transaction tools to help merchants track their sales and tax data. Two key reports are the Consolidated Transaction Detail Report (Tax Report) and the Detail Transaction Report. In addition to understanding what these reports show, you can also drill down from a high-level tax report to the individual transactions that make up those totals.

This article explains:

• The differences between the Consolidated Transaction Detail Report (Tax Report) and the Detail Transaction Report
• How returns from previous periods are handled in each report
• How to view the specific transactions behind the tax totals shown in a <DATE_TIME> tax report

Consolidated Transaction Detail Report (Tax Report)

The Consolidated Transaction Detail Report, also known as the Tax Report, is designed to give you a high-level summary of the tax totals for a given filing period. Here’s how it works:

• Purpose: This report consolidates transaction data to provide an overview of the total taxes you owe for the period.
• Returns Handling: When a return from a previous period is processed, the negative transaction amount is reflected as a credit in the current period. This ensures that any tax adjustment related to the return is applied in the correct filing period, helping you avoid discrepancies when calculating tax due.
• Simplified View: The report rolls up data to give you the total tax amounts, which you would expect to see on a return. It provides a clean, consolidated view of your tax liabilities, making it easier for you to prepare and file tax returns.

Key Features of the Consolidated Transaction Detail Report

• High-level summary of transaction and tax totals.
• Credits for returns from previous periods are applied to the current filing period.
• Ideal for filing your taxes, as it presents the tax totals that align with your returns.

Detail Transaction Report

The Detail Transaction Report provides a more granular breakdown of your transactions, showing each transaction in detail, including original sales and any associated returns. Here’s how this report is structured:

• Purpose: This report gives you a complete view of all individual transactions during a filing period, including both the original transaction and any returns.
• Returns Handling: For returns related to transactions from a previous period, both the original transaction and the return are listed in this report. As a result, these transactions zero out, meaning the original sale and the return cancel each other out in terms of totals.
• Detailed View: This report does not consolidate or adjust returns in the same way as the Consolidated Transaction Detail Report. Instead, it aims to provide a comprehensive record of all transactions, making it useful for internal reviews, audits, or when you need to analyze the specific details of sales and returns.

Key Features of the Detail Transaction Report

• A full breakdown of all transactions, including sales and returns.
• Both original transactions and returns from previous periods are included, effectively zeroing out.
• Useful for reviewing transaction details, internal audits, or research purposes.

How to View Transaction Details from a Tax Report

You can drill down from a high-level <DATE_TIME> Tax Report to see the specific transactions that make up the total tax collected for a given state. This is especially useful for auditing and verification.

Steps

1. From the Tax Reporting page, select the <DATE_TIME> period you want to view.
2. Choose one of the reporting tabs: TaxCloud Member, TaxCloud Direct, or Merchant Responsibility.
3. In the list of states, locate the state for which you want to view detailed transactions.
4. On the far right side of that state's row, click the link icon.
5. You will be automatically redirected to the Transactions page.
6. The transaction list will be filtered to show all individual transactions for that specific state and month, including details like Order ID, Date, Destination, Sales Amount, and Tax Amount.

Why This Is Useful

This drill-down feature allows for easy auditing and verification of your tax reports. With one click, you can seamlessly navigate from a summary tax report to the underlying transaction data for any state, giving you full visibility into how your sales tax totals were calculated.

Which Report Should You Use?

• If you’re looking to file your taxes and need a report that reflects the total tax due, the Consolidated Transaction Detail Report (Tax Report) is your go-to.
  • It simplifies the view by consolidating the data and showing the totals you expect to file.
• If you need to dig into the details of each transaction, especially when auditing or investigating specific sales or returns, the Detail Transaction Report is more suited to your needs.
  • This report will give you a thorough view of all transactions, including how returns and original sales interact.