Set Up Sales Tax

Charge the Right Tax, Automatically

Sales tax is not one number. It changes by city, county, and sometimes by what you're selling. KeyBolt lets you save the rates you actually deal with, give each one a name, and have the right one picked for you based on the job's address.

Sales tax setup is on both plans. Only an owner or manager can open it, so techs never see a form they can't save.

Adding a Rate

1. Go to Settings and open the Tax Rates tab.
2. Tap Add rate.
3. Fill it in:
   • Name, what you'll recognize it by. Usually the city or county, like "St. Paul".
   • Rate (%), the total percentage, up to four decimal places (7.375 is fine).
   • Set as default, the fallback when a job's address doesn't match anything else. You get one default.
   • Cities, ZIP codes, and Counties, where this rate applies. Type one and press Enter to make a chip. This is how KeyBolt matches an address to a rate.
   • Jurisdiction breakdown (optional), the pieces that add up to the total, like "MN State 6.875" plus "Hennepin 0.15". Fill this in if you file per jurisdiction, because it feeds the tax export.
4. Tap Add Rate.

If your breakdown doesn't add up to the total, KeyBolt warns you but still lets you save. That's a nudge to double-check the pieces, not a wall.

How a Rate Gets Picked

On an invoice or estimate, KeyBolt looks at the job address and picks the most specific match it can find: ZIP first, then city, then county, then your default. The dropdown also has Custom % for a one-off and No tax (0%) for an exempt job. When KeyBolt picks for you, a small Suggested chip appears, and you can always override it.

Taxing Some Lines and Not Others

Plenty of states tax the deadbolt but not the labor to install it. Every line on an invoice or estimate has:

• A Taxable checkbox. Untick it and that line is excluded from the tax math.
• A line type: service or material. This is what splits your tax export into services and materials, so set it honestly.

Editing a Rate Later

Rates change. When they do, edit the rate and carry on. Invoices you've already sent do not change. Each one keeps the name, percentage, and breakdown it had the day it went out. That's what makes your old invoices still tie out to what you filed.

You can't delete a rate, only archive it, for the same reason: something in your history is pointing at it. Archived rates collapse into an "Archived rates" section with a Restore button.

Minnesota: Look Up a Rate by Address

If you work in Minnesota, you don't have to know your local rate. KeyBolt carries Minnesota's official tax-area map and can read the rate straight off an address.

From Settings: in the Minnesota rate lookup card, type an address and tap Look up. You'll see the tax area, the rate, the county, and the breakdown, plus a button to save it as a tax rate.

From an invoice or estimate: when you're billing a Minnesota address and the rate on the job doesn't look right, a Minnesota tax map chip appears with a button like Use 8.125% and save it as "Rochester". One tap applies it to this bill and saves it to your rates for next time. Techs can use this too.

• You need a street address. A city and ZIP alone isn't enough to pin down an area.
• The saved name is the tax area, not the city. Brooklyn Park and Hopkins both save as "Hennepin". That's correct, not a bug.
• If the address sits within about 500 feet of a boundary, you'll get an amber warning. Boundaries are where rates get argued about, so check that one by hand.
• This is Minnesota only. Everywhere else, nothing appears and you set rates by hand.

Related

• Export your sales tax numbers for filing
• Find the right report