In this post, we are going to explore how SlabWare synchronizes its Invoices with Quickbooks and possible situations that might scare our users along the way.
We are writing this post to instruct how the system works, how the synchronization is made, and explore differences in the way the two systems deal with data, and where exactly in the middle one meets the other.
We strongly recommend you read this article and understand how the discount and tax calculation is made and applied by both systems to prevent user failures on both of the system’s usage.
So let’s get to it!
First scenario: when the Invoice has only one Area on Quickbooks and SlabWare
When the Invoice has only 01 area, SlabWare and Quickbooks will handle the data in the same way, and synchronize everything in the same way.
It means that each value of each item will be synchronized, then the discount will be applied, and then the tax will be applied to the total value of all items. So:
SYNC ITEMS AND VALUES – DISCOUNT + TAXES = FINAL VALUE
In this case, Quickbooks synchronization is the same as SlabWare’s synchronization. Check out the final result on QBO shown in the picture below:
Second scenario: when the Invoice has more than one Area and each Area has its own discount
Below, is an example of an Invoice that contains two areas, shown on SlabWare:
To make it clear: QBO doesn’t split the items in the Invoice inside “Areas”, so it calculates the total value (items value – discount + taxes) in a different way compared to SlabWare.
To solve this situation, follow the steps below:
First, let’s have an analysis of the areas shown in the pictures above:
Area 01:
Installation: $200,00 + 6% tax
Discount: $100,00
Total Value on Area 01: $106,00
Area 02:
Fabrication: $200,00 + 6% tax
Mill Down: $100 free of tax
Discount: $100,00
Total value on Area 02: 208,00
Invoice’s Total Value:
Subtotal: $500,00
Discount: 200,00
Sales Tax: 6% = $14,00
=
Total: $314,00
Now let’s see how it was imported on QBO, on the image below. To understand how the discount is applied for each Item when the Invoice has two or more areas, check the formula after the image below.
Focus on the items Fabrication and Mill Down: their values are different from SlabWare for one reason – SlabWare applies the respective discount on each area, which means it can apply correctly different discount rates per area. QBO doesn’t have that functionality, and as a consequence, it would apply a wrong discount rate and present a result that would be totally different from those presented by SlabWare.
To solve this problem, SlabWare does not export the discount into QBO. Instead, it applies the area discount on its respective items, when exporting each one of those items into QBO.
To arrive at the values of $133.33 for Fabrication and $66.67 for Mill Down, the formula below has been applied when exporting the values into QBO:
Formula:
(discount / TotalAreaValue) * AmountOfEachItem = ItemFInalValue
Applying this formula to the example above on the Fabrication and Mill Down values, we have:
Area 02:
Fabrication: $200,00 + 6% tax
Mill Down: $100 free of tax
Discount: $100,00
Total value on Area 02: 208,00
(100 / 300) * 2 = ItemFinalValue = 0.6666
Then, each item value is multiplied by 0.6666:
Fabrication, which cost $200.00 will now cost $200.00 * 0.6666 = 133.32
Mill Down, which cost $100.00 will now cost $100.00 * 0.6666 = 66.66
Below, we explain the reason why the values are not exact.
This calculation ensures that the QBO value gets very close to the SlabWare value when applying the discount – to only then, apply the Tax value on the obtained total. Check the Image below:
Note that there is a difference of $0.01 between them. That happens because QBO uses 4 decimal places, and SlabWare – as we do when talking about coinage – uses only 2, so we round it to the closest value with 2 decimal places.
Now let’s check SW’s and QBO’s math on See Math item (on both SW’s Tax and on QBO):]
There you see why that difference appears. To solve it, simply add or subtract $0.01 on an item that is not going to have a tax rate imposed on it.
if you need any further information, you can find it on our blog and YouTube channel. You can also contact us or Schedule a Training if you are already a client, or Schedule a Demo if you aren’t a client yet. We wish you good sales and put ourselves at your disposal to help!
