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Using Numeral’s Tax Engine with QuickBooks

This article will guide you through connecting QuickBooks Online to Numeral and ensuring accurate sales tax is applied to your invoices.

Sadie Rudiger avatar
Written by Sadie Rudiger
Updated this week

Getting started

  1. Connect your QuickBooks Online (QBO) account to your Numeral dashboard > In your Numeral dashboard, click “Connections” on the left-hand menu, then select “QuickBooks.”

  2. Follow the prompts and select the QBO account you would like to connect to Numeral

  3. Once connected, you should see a green dot next to the status, "Syncing."

⚠️ Important Note on Sync Status
The status will always display “Syncing” since Numeral continuously pulls sales data from your QuickBooks Online (QBO) account to monitor nexus and prepare your tax returns.

If you see a red dot (instead of green) or experience issues connecting your QBO account to Numeral, please contact your Onboarding Manager or contact support using the message widget in your dashboard.


Timeline considerations

If you’re already using QuickBooks to apply tax rates to invoices, coordinate with your Onboarding Manager to confirm your go-live date with Numeral.

For example, if Numeral will begin managing your sales tax registrations in August, you should meet with your Onboarding Manager on August 1 to turn off QuickBooks tax calculations and activate Numeral’s tax engine.

⚠️ Note:

  • Numeral’s tax engine will not collect tax before your confirmed start date.

  • Numeral only collects tax in states where your company is registered.

You can confirm your start date(s) and view your registered states by navigating to the Jurisdictions tab in your Numeral account.



Confirming your configurations

On your go-live call, your Onboarding Manager will confirm that QuickBooks Online (QBO) tax calculations are disabled. You can also verify this on your own:

🔧 How to Turn Off QBO’s Tax Calculations:

  1. Log in to your QBO account.

  2. From the left-hand menu, select “My Apps.”

  3. Navigate to “Sales Tax” > “Sales Tax Settings.”

  4. At the top, click the box labeled “Turn off sales tax.”

  5. Select “Turn off” to confirm.

✅ A confirmation banner will appear that says: “Sales tax is turned off.”

To confirm that Numeral’s tax engine is enabled, reach out to your Onboarding Manager or contact support using the message widget in your dashboard.


Product Categorization

Correct product categorization is essential for accurate tax calculation. It's important to note that the way your products are categorized in QuickBooks does not carry over to Numeral, so categories must be set up directly within your Numeral account.

During onboarding, your Onboarding Manager will help you set up your initial product categories in Numeral and show you how to manage them going forward. Numeral’s tax engine uses these categories to determine the correct taxability for each product.

💡 Before You Start: Have a copy of Numeral’s Product Category List available for reference. This will help you quickly locate the correct category when editing or creating products.

Edit an Existing Product

  1. Go to Developers → Products.

  2. Click the Edit icon next to the product you want to update.

  3. Search for and select the correct Product Category.

  4. Save your changes.

Add a New Product

  1. Navigate to Developers → Products → Create Product.

  2. Enter the Product ID (this should match the Product ID in your sales platform).

  3. Add the Product Name.

  4. Select or type the appropriate Product Category.

  5. Click Create Product to save.

⚠️ If You Don’t See the Developers Tab: If you onboarded with Numeral before product categorization was available, the Developers tab may not appear in your dashboard. If so, please contact our team using the messaging widget in your dashboard, and we’ll enable this feature for your account.


Creating an Invoice in QuickBooks

Customers

  • If a customer is not located in a state where you have an active sales tax registration in Numeral, no sales tax will be applied.

  • To ensure Numeral can apply the correct tax rate, you must enter either a shipping address or a billing address for the customer.

🔧 How to Configure Customer Exemptions

If a customer should be exempt from sales tax, you can mark them as exempt directly in QBO:

  1. From the left-hand menu, click “My Apps.”

  2. Go to “Customer Hub” > “Customers.”

  3. Select the desired customer and click “Edit.”

  4. Scroll to the “Additional Info” section.

  5. Under “Taxes,” check “This customer is tax exempt.”


Once this is set, Numeral will not apply sales tax to invoices for that customer—even in states where you have an active registration.

Items

  • Numeral applies sales tax based on an item’s product category and the customer’s jurisdiction.

  • Be sure to confirm your product categories with your Onboarding Manager, as categories in QuickBooks do not carry over to Numeral.


Adding Tax

To preview the tax Numeral will apply:

  1. Add your customer and items to the invoice.

  2. Select “Save and Close.”

  3. Open the saved invoice from your invoice list.

If tax applies, you’ll see “Sales Tax” listed as a line item under the Product/Service column. This amount will be added to the invoice subtotal.


Troubleshooting

If you need to troubleshoot an invoice with Numeral, please share the Invoice ID with our team via the message widget in your dashboard.

You can find the Invoice ID in the URL of the invoice page. For example:


In this case, the Invoice ID is txnId=15.

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