Integrated Tax Providers

Will · Post by **Will** » Tue Nov 06, 2007 3:18 pm

I was going through the file system and found: "/admin/Taxes/Providers/CCH/enroll.aspx". Does this mean you plan on providing sales tax integration w/CCH and Cybersource? That would be fantastic. We are looking at having to upload 2200+ zip codes for New York state each month -- and it still won't be accurate enough for our reporting... If you aren't planning on offering automatic integration, can you tell me if there is a way I can set it up with one of these providers ourselves if we work with a programmer? Thanks.

Post by **Shopping Cart Admin** » Tue Nov 06, 2007 5:04 pm

Hello Will,

Yes it will be available. It's not terribly popular so we removed it as a 'requirement' to release 7.0. It's a drop in dll and will be easy enough to add. ETA Unknown.

Will · Post by **Will** » Tue Nov 06, 2007 6:48 pm

Thanks. I realize not everybody has to deal with the New York State tax abyss, but that integration would be huge.

I was meeting with our bookkeeper this morning. We have to update over 2200 different sales tax/zip codes combinations each month.

We've got the codes in excel format right now. Looks like the most promising method will be to upload them as xml with the data tool.

How difficult is it to convert excel to the proper XML for AC7? Do you know if this is possible in excel, should we look for a programmer?

Thanks.

Post by **Shopping Cart Admin** » Tue Nov 06, 2007 6:53 pm

Hello Will,

It would be quicker and easier to write the integration yourself. It wasn't difficult and it's well documented.

Will · Post by **Will** » Wed Nov 07, 2007 9:00 am

Hi Mike,
Would this integration require buying the source code?

I'm a UI guy -- not an experienced ASP.net programmer. Are you saying it's so easy I could do it?

If we do need a programmer, can you (or anyone else out there) recommend a contractor?

Thanks.

Post by **Logan Rhodehamel** » Mon Nov 12, 2007 10:41 am

Will wrote:I was going through the file system and found: "/admin/Taxes/Providers/CCH/enroll.aspx".

The integration for CCH was functional at one point in AC7. When we made an architecture change to the core, the CCH code was not updated and so it will not work as is. Cybersource was never implemented in AC7. Both were tabled because demand in AC55 was so low - I think I could count on my fingers the number of merchants who used these in production.

Regarding the tax code update - it would be a very simple programming task to create a custom ASP script. This script would read the Excel data and update the tax codes. It would not require source code.

Excel contains a way to map and save your data to XML. I am not sure whether that could be used in conjunction with the client tool - I still need to get up to speed on the status of that utility.

Will · Post by **Will** » Mon Nov 12, 2007 12:21 pm

I'm surprised not many people wanted this integration. Anybody selling within NY and CA would almost have to have this. Go figure.

We're going to buy time with an interim solution right now -- charging a single median sales tax rate and then figuring out the reporting outside of AC7. That's only going to be viable for a couple months, though.

Do you plan on offering the integration? If yes, do you have a timeframe?

Thanks.

Post by **Logan Rhodehamel** » Mon Nov 12, 2007 12:33 pm

As far as I'm aware, we do plan on completing those tax provider integrations. I cannot give you a timeframe today. Perhaps I can be more specific at the end of the week.

Will · Post by **Will** » Mon Nov 12, 2007 12:39 pm

We can live with our interim solution for a couple months. If it's going to be longer, we'll probably need to hire a programmer to write the ASP.net script to pull in the excel doc or see if we can use excel to massage the data into XML for uploading through your data tool.

Thanks.

jrobgood · Post by **jrobgood** » Tue Nov 27, 2007 2:38 pm

Hi:

We also need to integrate with a Tax API. We are using Avatax from Avalara. So I am raising my hand as a developer who needs source to work from for this too.

Thanks!
-Rob.

Will · Post by **Will** » Fri Feb 08, 2008 9:01 am

We're to the point with sales tax that we want to try and integrate with a Tax Provider.

From what I understand, we would need source code to do this, correct? If so, is it available yet?

Thanks.

Post by **Logan Rhodehamel** » Fri Feb 08, 2008 9:38 am

No it doesn't require source code. AFAIK, the Avalara integration was completed already.

What it requires is that you construct a class that implements our tax provider interface. I will see whether I can get a sample thrown together today.

jrobgood · Post by **jrobgood** » Fri Feb 08, 2008 10:14 am

We are going to release our source code to the community for what we've done to integrate with Avalara. Is there a contributions repository or should we just host and post a link?

Will · Post by **Will** » Fri Feb 08, 2008 10:28 am

Logan and jrobgood -- that would be fantastic if you could post your solutions.

Will · Post by **Will** » Fri Feb 08, 2008 10:54 am

jrobgood -- which Avalara service(s) are you using?

Will · Post by **Will** » Fri Feb 08, 2008 12:11 pm

Sorry for all the posts -- I keep thinking of questions...

Logan, when you say "implements our tax provider interface" does that mean we can integrate with any tax provider or just Avalara?

Post by **Logan Rhodehamel** » Fri Feb 08, 2008 12:25 pm

Will wrote:Logan, when you say "implements our tax provider interface" does that mean we can integrate with any tax provider or just Avalara?

I can't say "any" for certain... How about, yes you should be able to integrate almost any provider.

Basically what happens is you create a .NET assembly that implements our ITaxProvider interface. It has methods like Calculate, Commit, and Cancel. If you add a tax provider to your store, our code knows to call the methods defined by our interface when it is needed.

So it's not just Avalara. We use the same framework to integrate CyberSource and CertiTAX. (However those integrations will not be published until our 7.1 release as we need more time to properly test them.)

Will · Post by **Will** » Fri Feb 08, 2008 12:40 pm

However those integrations will not be published until our 7.1 release as we need more time to properly test them.)

Does this mean if we need it before you release 7.1 we can have a programmer write and implement the .NET assembly without needing the source code?

Just want to make sure I understand the situation properly before I talk to people.

Thanks.

Post by **Logan Rhodehamel** » Fri Feb 08, 2008 12:59 pm

I think you would find this thread of interest:

viewtopic.php?t=5935&highlight=avalara

Source code was not required to complete this integration.

Will · Post by **Will** » Fri Feb 08, 2008 2:46 pm

Super. Thanks!

jrobgood · Post by **jrobgood** » Wed Feb 20, 2008 1:50 pm

Will wrote:jrobgood -- which Avalara service(s) are you using?

We are using the AvaTax and their reporting and filing solution.

jrobgood · Post by **jrobgood** » Sun Mar 16, 2008 11:58 pm

Logan Rhodehamel wrote:I think you would find this thread of interest:

viewtopic.php?t=5935&highlight=avalara

Source code was not required to complete this integration.

FYI I have posted our Avalara provider integration to the thread Logan quoted above. Good luck!

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