UpChannels
Sales Tax
Every plan

Your sales tax,
by jurisdiction.

UpChannels shows the sales tax your store collected by location and by state, county, city and district, on sales made or on money received, with the sales behind every figure. It does not file the return or pay the state: you do that, then mark the period filed and record the payment here.

Tax by jurisdiction, at the rate each sale paidExempt customers, with their certificates on fileFiling periods, Mark filed and the payment in your books
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From the sale to the filing

What a sales tax return asks for, and the sales behind it

Finance → Sales tax, on every plan.

Sales made or money received

Two bases,
one report.

Most states ask for the tax on the sales you made in the period; some let you report on the money you received. The page reads the same sales both ways, on two tabs, and starts by answering the question every owner asks: which number do I file?

Opens on the basis your store files on, set in Filing settings
Opens on the current filing period: quarter, month or year to date
Says how your store files and which period is due next
Your accountant or your state’s tax office has the last word — the page says so
Locations and jurisdictions

Every location,
gross to taxable.

A card per location splits gross sales into non-taxable, exempt by reason and taxable sales, with the tax collected. The jurisdiction table gives one row per tax rule as the sales paid it — state, county, city, district or special — with its rate, taxable sales and tax, and a Total line that counts the store’s taxable sales once.

Each sale keeps the rules and rates it paid, so last quarter reads as you filed it
Click a jurisdiction to list the sales in it
State, county and city pickers narrow the table to the jurisdictions you pick
Name each rule’s jurisdiction once, in Settings → Tax Profiles
See Multiple Location Management
Exempt customers

Exempt customers,
sold without tax.

Record a customer’s exemption on their record: the reason, the certificate’s number, expiry date and issuing state, and a photo or PDF of it. While the certificate has not expired, Create Order and the Register sell every line to them without tax, and the report counts those lines as exempt by the reason.

Resale, Government, Nonprofit, Out of state or Other
Once the certificate expires, tax is charged and the card says so
Marking a customer exempt later does not change sales already made
Each save is listed on the customer’s History tab
See Customer Management
Before you file

The sales to look at
before you file.

Exceptions lists what to check before the figure goes out: an exempt customer who was charged tax, a line sold without tax with nothing to say why, and a sale whose tax split is out of date, which the owner or a manager fixes with Recalculate tax split.

Click an exception to open the sale
Read from the sales made in the range, whichever tab is open
A delivery fee, an untaxed service and an exempt product count as non-taxable, not as exceptions
With nothing to look at, the section says so
Filing periods

Mark it filed,
with what you paid.

The panel lists about a year of periods with their due day and a badge: In progress, Open, Past due or Filed. Mark filed keeps the period’s figures with the filing and, with I paid the tax ticked, records the payment: Sales Tax Payable and Cash go down by the amount on the day you paid.

Filing settings: monthly, quarterly or yearly, the due day and the figure you file
A day is filed once; the refusal names the filing that covers it
Reopen puts a period back to open and reverses its payment
Export as CSV, Excel or PDF on every plan; email it on a schedule on Pro and Premium
See Reports

What Sales tax does not do

UpChannels is the record of what your store collected and filed, not a filing service.

  • It does not file your return or pay the state. You file and pay through your state’s own system; Mark filed is your own record of it, and nothing is sent to any tax authority.
  • It does not look up tax rates by address or keep them current. The rates are the ones in your own tax profiles, which you set and change.
  • It does not check exemption certificates with the state. It keeps the certificate and its expiry date, and charges tax once it has expired.
  • Each tax rule needs its jurisdiction level and name set, or it reads as State.
  • Sales made before your store switched to counting revenue as the money received, and imported sales, show at a single rate, not split by jurisdiction.
  • A range is a year at most, and the sales and exceptions lists show the first 10,000.
Common questions

Sales tax questions, answered

Does UpChannels file or pay my sales tax?
No. UpChannels shows what your store collected and splits it the way a return asks for it, but it does not file the return, pay the state or send anything to a tax authority. You file and pay as you do now. Then Mark filed records the filing with its confirmation number, and I paid the tax records the payment in your books.
Which figure do I put on my return?
Most states ask for the tax on the sales you made in the period: the Total line of Tax by jurisdiction on the Sales made tab. If your state lets you file on cash received, use the Money received tab. Report each jurisdiction’s tax as the table splits it, and the exempt sales by reason from the location cards. Your accountant or your state’s tax office has the last word.
Where do the tax rates come from?
From your own tax profiles in Settings → Tax Profiles. You type each rule’s rate and give it its jurisdiction level and name — "California", "Santa Clara County", "VTA" — and the report splits each sale by those rules. UpChannels does not look rates up by address or update them for you, so when a rate changes, change the rule.
I changed a tax rate. Does last quarter change?
No. Each sale keeps the rules and rates it paid, so last quarter reads as you filed it. Only a rule’s jurisdiction name or level, when you set or change it, follows the sales already split under that rule.
How do tax-exempt customers work?
Open the customer and fill in the Tax exemption card: the reason (Resale, Government, Nonprofit, Out of state or Other), the certificate’s number, expiry date and issuing state, and a photo or PDF of it. While the certificate has not expired, Create Order and the Register sell every line to them without tax, and the report counts those lines as exempt by the reason. An expired certificate charges tax. UpChannels keeps the certificate; it does not check it with the state.
What happens in my books when I record a payment?
One entry on the day you paid: Sales Tax Payable down and Cash down by the amount, so your books show what you still owe. Reopen puts the period back to open and reverses the payment with the opposite entry, dated the day you reopen.
Is Sales tax on every plan?
Yes. The report, both bases, the location cards, the jurisdiction table, the exceptions, exempt customers, the filing periods and export as CSV, Excel or PDF are on every plan. Schedule… and Email this report…, which email it to your accountant, are scheduled reports, on Pro and Premium and during the free trial.

Sales Tax is one part of UpChannels

UpChannels Sales Tax shows small retailers and service businesses the sales tax they collected, on every plan: by location and by state, county, city and district, on sales made or on money received, with gross, non-taxable, exempt-by-reason and taxable sales, the sales behind every figure, exempt customers with their certificates on file, the exceptions to check before filing, and monthly, quarterly or yearly filing periods marked filed with the payment recorded in the books. It exports as CSV, Excel or PDF, and emails on a schedule on Pro and Premium. UpChannels does not file returns, remit tax or look up rates: the store files and pays, and records it here.

UpChannels is an all-in-one platform for small retailers and service businesses — sales, inventory, customers, scheduling, delivery, payments and finance in one system — and a real team that builds your website, runs your ads, and automates the busywork. The parts below share one set of records, so there is no integration to wire up between them; the pricing page shows which plan includes each one.

See plans and pricingEverything the software doesSetups by business type

Works with

The product moves faster than this page. UpChannels ships updates most weeks, so a description here can lag what is already in the software. Where the two disagree, the running product is the current version — tell us if you find one and we will correct the page.

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One system for the counter, the schedule, the truck and the books — and a team that will build the website, run the ads and take the busywork off you if you would rather not do it yourself. Start with the trial, or have us walk you through it first.

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