Skip to main content

Vertex Advantage Tax Connector app v1

Zuora

Vertex Advantage Tax Connector app v1

This app connects to Vertex Advantage tax solution.

Prerequisites  

Install the app

Follow the instructions in Install an App to install the app. Specific to the Tax app: 

  • Run mode - Select the tax vendor you want to use.
  • Tax - Select the desired credentials to the selected tax vendor. If no desired credential can be found, click New to create the credentials for the new Tax instance.
    • Username and Password - The credentials for your tax vendor account. 
    • Security Token - Enter the Taxamo-Private-Token for your taxamo account.
      • This is found in your Taxamo environment: from the left navigation menu go to Settings > API Access > View API Tokens > Reveal Private Token. See Taxamo Docs for more information.

    • URL - The endpoint for tax calculation requests for Taxamo is https://services.taxamo.com

Access the app   

To access the app: 

  1. Go to the Billing Settings page in your Zuora tenant. Click the Setup Tax Engine and Tax Date box. Under the Tax Engines section, you will find the Configurable Tax Apps section with links to the apps you have installed. 
  2. Click the name of the app to launch it.

Configure the app

1. Configure templates

The Dynamic Request Template is the body of the request where Zuora populates invoice information that can be configured based on your needs. Templates are dynamically rendered using the Liquid Template Language and are provided in the Text/XML or Application/JSON format.

To configure a dynamic request template:

  1. Launch the created Tax instance and click the TEMPLATE CONFIGURATION tab. 
  2. Select the tax engine for which you want to configure templates from the Tax Engine dropdown list.
  3. Select the tab for the template (Standard or taxVoid) you want to configure.
    Zuora provides you with two templates called Standard template and taxVoid template, but only the Standard template is required to be completed. Tax systems have many configuration options. The template does not have to use all the options and must be configured based on the required information of the request. Templates can include more fields than the required set of fields in the request. Refer to your tax vendor’s API documentation or contact their support to learn more about how their fields are formatted. 
    In the case of a failed payment where rollback of the Subscribe call and deleting the invoice is desired, a taxVoid template is necessary to send a request to the tax vendor to also void the invoice and subsequent tax records from their system. Because all tax vendor requirements for voiding tax calls vary, contact your tax vendor to determine what needs to be sent over in the call made to their endpoints to properly void out the invoice.
  4. Add a new template or modify the default template in the text box.
    To view all available fields and corresponding values that can be used in the template:
    1. Click Show Liquid Examples.
    2. Select the desired field in the Example Field dropdown list, the corresponding value you can copy and paste in the template is displayed under Example Value. The fields in the following objects are available for selection. See Context object for rendering tax app templates for more information.
      • customer
      • seller
      • document
      • document_item
  5. When you complete the configuration, click configure_icon.png and then select Preview Template to preview the configured template. If you want to start over, you can click configure_icon.png and select Revert Template to Default.
  6. Click Save Both Template below the text box to save the template configurations.

2. Configure engine settings

After configuring the template, perform the following steps to configure engine settings:

  1. Click the ENGINE SETTINGS tab.
  2. Click the edit_icon.png for the tax engine that you want to configure. The tax engine details window is displayed.
  3. In the Headers tab, select the value forContent-Typein the Value dropdown list. You can click Add Header to add additional headers that will be added to the tax requests that are sent to your tax vendor. 
  4. Click the System Configuration tab and complete the system configuration. 
    • Select an authentication type in the Authentication Type dropdown list. Consult your tax vendor for further information regarding your specific authentication type and credentials. 
      • None - No authentication required.
      • Basic-Auth - Will require Username and Password to be entered.
      • BearedId - Will require Token to be entered.
      • OAuth 2.0 - See OAuth 2.0 Authentification for Configurable Tax Apps for more information. 
      • Taxamo-Private-Token - Required for Vertex Advantage integration.
    1. To obtain your API tokens log-in to your dashboard and reveal the masked private token.
    2. Detailed instructions on where to find and input your Taxamo-Private-Token in the Install an App section above.
  • Select an option from the taxVoid Call Handling dropdown list:
    • Pass Through - Allows the call to process without any issue, but tax will not be processed.
    • Block - Does not allow the call to process and will generate an error message.
    • Enable - Allows the call to pass and will either process tax or generate an error message.
      Note: If you select Enable from the list, contact Zuora Global Support to perform specific taxVoid configurations.
  • Optionally, you can select Skip Taxation on External Failure. When this option is selected, taxation will be skipped in the case of external failures such as network issues or error responses from the vendor side.
  1. Complete the information in the Seller Information tab. 
    1. The information that is required to be completed varies depending on the selected tax engine requirements. 
    2. The default template does not use Seller fields, if you would like to alter the default template, for any reason, to include Seller fields then this section must be completed or they will not populate.
  2. Merchant/Seller information required by Vertex Advantage to be completed when signing up and configuring your Vertex Advantage account. Login to your Vertex Advantage account and navigate to Settings > Invoicing > Setup invoicing basic customizations.
  3. Click UPDATE to save the configuration for each tab.

Process large billing documents 

Zuora's Vertex Advantage Tax Connector app can support a maximum of 15,000 taxable line items in a single invoice, credit memo, or debit memo. To process a large billing document in a single tax calculation request: 

  1. Go to ENGINE SETTINGS > Click edit_icon.png > System Configuration tab.
  2. In the NETREAD TIMEOUT(SECONDS) field, increase the timeout seconds up to 600. (Default is 60.)
  3. Click UPDATE to save the change.

On the tax vendor side, Vertex Advantage tax solution can support 256 taxable line items out of the box and this limit can be raised to a maximum of 3,000 taxable line items in a single tax call. If you have confirmed with the tax vendor that a higher number of items can be processed in a timely manner (within 120 seconds), submit a request at Zuora Global Support and ask to test a higher limit. 

Tips: We suggest that you post invoices and calculate tax via bill runs, as the asynchronous operations are not limited by the designated network timeout in Zuora Billing. If you use Zuora UI or synchronous API calls, it is better to check the result back in about 5 to 10 minutes, depending on the size of the invoice.

Configure rate plans

After the tax app is installed and configured, take the following tasks before using the configured tax instance:

1. Set up Connect Tax Engine

To set up a Connect Tax Engine, complete the following steps.

  1. In your Zuora tenant, click your username at the top right and navigate to Settings > Billing.
  2. Click Setup Tax Engine and Tax Date.
  3. Select Connect Tax Engine from the list, and click setup new tax engine. Note that you can create at most 10 Connect Tax Engines.
  4. In the Basic Information area on the Setup Tax Engine page, specify the basic information for the new tax engine:
  • Name: Name the Connect Tax Engine you would like to use in Zuora. For example, Avalara Brazil, India Local Tax, Avalara Telco, etc.
  • Connect Token: Enter the unique 32-character API Token of the Tax app. To obtain your API Token, complete the following steps:
  1. From the left-hand navigation menu under Marketplace, click the name of the tax app.
  2. Select the instance you would like to launch.
  3. Navigate to the APP INFORMATION tab, the API token is listed near the top of the tab. 
  1. In the Custom Fields sent to Open Tax Connector area, select all the custom fields that you want to use in the tax request for tax calculation. Failure to select them will result in that blank values are used in the corresponding Liquid objects. See Manage custom fields for more information.
    The maximum number of custom fields you can select varies depending on your Zuora edition or Zuora modules. For more information, see Zuora Editions and Zuora Modules.
    You need to create the following custom fields specific to Vertex Advantage. 
    Open a new tab in your browser. In your Zuora tenant, navigate to Settings> Billing> Manage Custom Fields.
    1. Click on Account Fields.
    2. Click Add New Field.
    3. Add the following custom fields:
  Custom field 1 Custom field 2 Custom field 3 Custom field 4 Custom field 5
Data type Text Text Text Text Text
Field label Taxamo buyer ip Taxamo billing country code Taxamo buyer name Taxamo buyer email Taxamo buyer tax number
API name Taxamo_buyer_ip Taxamo_billing_country_code Taxamo_buyer_name Taxamo_buyer_email Taxamo_buyer_tax_number
Length 20 10 100 100 30

These required fields are subject to change based on your organization’s need and implementation. 

  1. Click save to save the configurations.
  2. In the Company Information area, add at least one Company Code to activate a tax code.

After completing the previous steps, you can click back to Tax Engine list to view the Connect Tax Engine you just created. If you want to modify it, click Edit. If you want to remove it, click Delete.

If you want to remove an existing Connect Tax Engine referred to by a tax code, you must first remove the tax code before removing the Connect Tax Engine. 

Edit existing Connect Tax Engine

To modify a previously created tax engine, follow these steps:

  1. In your Zuora tenant, navigate to Settings > Billing by clicking your username at the top right.
  2. Click Setup Tax Engine and Tax Date.
  3. From the Tax Engines list, click Edit next to the tax engine you want to modify.
  4. The tax engine details will open with the new UI containing the Engine Name, Vendor, Environment, and Authentication details that you created.
  5. Click Save after updating the settings to ensure the changes are saved.

2. Set up taxation codes

To set up a tax code that uses the Connect Tax Engine:

  1. Click your username at the top right and navigate to Settings > Billing.
  2. Click Setup Taxation Codes.
  3. Click add new tax code.
  4. In the Basic Information area, complete the tax code details:
  • Tax Code Name: Enter the name of the tax code to be selected in the product catalog when discerning which Connect Tax Engine the charges will use to calculate tax.
  • Use Multiple Connect Tax Engines: Select this checkbox if you want to use multiple Connect Tax Engines.
    Selected Not selected
    Tax Engines: Fill in the Mapping Formula tab with mapping rules which define how to select different Connect Tax Engines to handle tax calculation for various customer accounts. Refer to the Example tab to copy and customize pre-defined mapping formulas. See Tax Engine Mapping Formula for more information. Tax Engine: Select the name that you have specified for the Connect Tax Engine.
    External Company Code: Select the company code created when setting up the Connect Tax Engine.
  • Active: This is No by default. You will activate it later.
  • Description (Optional): Describe the tax code and the tax app that will be used for future reference.
  1. Click save.
  2. Click Activate to ensure the tax code is present in the product catalog.

3. Activate tax code in product rate plans

To activate the tax code in your product rate plans:

  1. From the left-hand navigation of the Zuora UI, click Product Catalog.
  2. Click the name of the product where you want to change its rate plan.
  3. Select an existing rate plan or create a new rate plan to use the tax code. See the following articles for more information:
  1. Hover over the title and click Edit to edit the rate plan. 
  2. Complete the details in the Taxation section of the selected rate plan:
  • Taxable: Select this check box to enable the rate plan to be taxable.
  • Tax Mode: Select the desired tax mode:
    • Tax Exclusive: Tax is excluded from the charges.
    • Tax Inclusive: Tax is included in the charges.
  • Tax Code - Select the desired tax code in the dropdown list.
  1. Click save.

Test the app

After the Vertex Advantage Tax Connector app is configured, perform the following steps to test the app:

  1. Access the app through Setup Tax Engine and Tax Date under Billing settings
  2. Create a test Customer Account. Fill in the required evidence custom fields:
  3. Create a test product in your product catalog. See Create a Product in Product Catalog for more information on creating a product. 
  4. Create a subscription on an account with only the test product. See Create Subscriptions for more information.
  5. Define billing rules. Navigate to Settings > Billing > Define Billing Rules > edit in your Zuora tenant. 
  6. Create a bill run for the test account and generate an invoice. See Creating Bill Runs for more information.
  7. Post the invoice. If the tax value is displayed on your invoice, your template was configured correctly and can be used for future bill runs. If you don't see any tax displayed on the invoice, troubleshoot and test your configurations using CURL requests. For more information see, System Health for tax log monitoring.

Notes

  • Each transaction can have a maximum of 256 (single invoice items) lines, if it exceeds that limit the transaction will fail. Contact Vertex customer support if you need to increase this max limit on a case-by-case basis.