A tax product records a tax charge on an order, so your Finance & Billing books show tax revenue in the right place. Each tax product belongs to one business unit. This article explains how to create, edit, remove, and choose the default tax product for your account. For the goods you tax at different percentages, see Tax Classes; for where and how much you charge, see Tax Zones and Rates.
Prerequisites
- You need administrator access to Orders & Inventory's tax setup.
- At least one business unit must exist in your account before you create a tax product.
Where to Find It
Go to Orders & Inventory › Setup › Taxes › Products to see every tax product in your account. Select Create Tax Product, or select a row's edit or clone icon, to open the product form.
The Settings
| Setting | Options | Default | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Business Unit | Any business unit in your account | Your current working business unit | Controls which business unit records the tax revenue. After you save the product, you cannot change its business unit, even with a bulk or mass update. Create a new tax product in the target business unit instead |
| Name | Any text | Empty | The name staff see for this product |
| ID | Suggested from the name, prefixed with the business unit | Generated from the name | The permanent identifier. Rhythm always saves it as [business unit]-[the rest], and you can edit it only when you create or clone the product |
| Status | Active / Inactive | Active | Shows whether the product is active or inactive. Making a product inactive does not, by itself, stop it from being used or make it available for deletion |
Tip
When you choose a business unit on this form, Rhythm also makes it your working business unit in the Console for other forms that use the same selector.
You do not set ledger accounts for a tax product on this form. To choose where the money posts, open Financial Setup from the product's row on the list. This option is available only to staff who have financial-setup access to Finance & Billing accounting.
The product's business unit and its Financial Setup accounts are separate settings. If you point the product's accounts to accounts associated with a different business unit, the product does not move, and its batches continue to be grouped with the original business unit's batches.
In Financial Setup, only the Revenue G/L account is required. Every other G/L account field is optional, and you can clear an optional account and save. When you reopen Financial Setup, that optional account should still be cleared. If a required account is missing, a batch that includes this product's charges can fail to post, so assign the account before you rely on the batch.
Choosing the Default Tax Product
The Manage Tax Products page shows a banner with your account's default tax product and a (change) link. Rhythm records every tax charge against this product unless a zone or rate overrides it. For those settings, see Tax Zones and Rates.
- On Manage Tax Products, select (change), or select Click here to configure one if no default is set.
- Choose a product from Product. Every tax product in your account appears, whether it is active or inactive.
- Save.
Result
The banner updates to show the new default. This save does not show a confirmation toast. If the change does not appear right away, wait for the page to reload instead of saving again.
Dependencies and Precedence
- You cannot delete a tax product while your tax setup still names it — either as the account's default, or as the tax product for a zone or rate. Remove those references first, or choose a different default.
- You cannot delete a business unit while any tax product still belongs to it. Remove or reassign its tax products first.
- Deactivating a product does not free it for deletion. Inactive status does not affect this operation. Deletion is still blocked while your tax setup names the product, whether it is active or inactive.
- A tax product's identifier always starts with its business unit. You cannot change the business unit after saving, and the identifier prefix comes from that business unit, so you cannot move a tax product to a different business unit later, even with a bulk or mass update. Create a new one in that business unit instead. This rule applies to all products in your account, not just tax products: once a product belongs to a business unit, it stays there because it may already have generated debit and credit activity.
Change Impact and How to Revert
Renaming a tax product or editing its notes does not disturb the tax setup that uses it. You cannot undo a deletion from this screen; only Rhythm can restore a deleted record from its audit history.
Warning
After you delete an identifier, Rhythm holds it for about an hour before you can reuse it. Creating a new product with the same identifier clears the hold right away.
Permissions
Creating, editing, cloning, deactivating, and deleting tax products all require administrator access to Orders & Inventory's tax setup. Changing your account's default tax product requires the same access. Opening a product's Financial Setup also requires Finance & Billing accounting access to that product. See Orders & Inventory Staff Access Policies.
Validation and Errors
| Message contains | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Form Errors: a value for Business Unit, Name, or ID | A required field is empty | Fill in the field |
| Unable to save Tax Product | The identifier is already in use, does not start with the chosen business unit, or another server-side rule refused it | Correct the field named in the message and save again |
| You haven't entered a valid value for Default Tax Product | You tried to save the default dialog without choosing a product | Choose a product |
| Unable to save configuration | Setting the default failed on the server | Try again. If the dialog stops responding, close it with × and reopen it |