In some locations, alcohol is taxed by the amount of alcohol by volume such as Chicago/Cook County. In order to assign the tax by item for alcoholic purchases in these cases please follow the steps below.
Creating the ABV Tax
If you have Books, select accounting from the menu on your left and then choose Credits, Charges & Taxes.
If you do not have Books, the option will be listed under your invoices section in Bevager.
Choose "+ Add Credit, Charge or Tax" to create a new tax. Select Bevager for your plaform and select Tax for the type. Name the tax (ex. Chicago Tax, Cook County Tax). Lastly, make sure to check the box near the bottom that states "Accounting Object will appear on Invoice Subtotal". This enables the distribute tab which will be needed later. It should look like the example below.
Once finished, click on the distribute tab near the top of the pop up to show your distribution options. Distribute by ABV is the last option. Once selected, you'll have the option to add categories from Bevager to apply the tax to.
In this example below, any item in the category beer would be assigned $0.35 tax per gallon purchased. Any item in the category spirits will be charged tax based off the alcohol volume percentage of the item.
Assigning ABV to Items
In order to properly assign the ABV tax on items in your invoices, we need to know the ABV of your items before this can be applied. To do this, you will need to update the items. This can be done quickly by using the Item Manager - Details page found under Items & Vendors>Manage Items>Item Manager>Item Manager - Item Details.
From the Item Manager Details page you can mass assign ABV by selecting the checkbox for the items you want to update on the left, clicking Mass Update and choosing ABV % from the update dropdown list that appears. Select the ABV percentage for the chosen items and click the mass update button in the pop up box.
Additionally you can assign ABV per item by clicking in the ABV field in the item you want to update or by selecting the item in your items list (Items & Vendors>Items) and updating the ABV from the details tab for the individual item you want to update.
(Note: in order for your items to calculate ABV the count unit will need to be in volume or there will need to be a volume conversion)
Using ABV on Invoices
Once the ABV has been assigned to your items, you can now create invoices that will calculate ABV on related purchases.
Once the invoice has been created, enter your invoice line items as normal.
Once the line items are added, we will need to add the ABV tax amount under Actions>Update Invoice total.
Enter in the tax amount in the appropriate field and select "Update Details"
Once the tax is added you will see the amount distributed in the subtotal section of the invoice.
Additionally, you can check each line item to see the distribution amount assigned by selecting the item name and clicking on the "Distribution and Taxes" tab in the pop up pane.
Things to keep in mind
- If you are using electronic invoicing, the tax field should be listed as a line item to be mapped initially. Make sure to assign the ABV line to the tax you have created so the line will automatically appear in the subtotal after the mapping phase has been completed on your invoice.
- If you want the tax to be mapped to a separate GL account than the alcoholic item, make sure to create a GL Account mapping for the tax. This article covers the process of creating a GL account mapping.