Sales tax reporting for building-supply dealers.
Lunica reads the period’s invoices and lays out the return workpaper, with the exempt sales that have no certificate behind them.
Finance & reportingUpdated Oct 202620 ERPs
See it work.
Click through the steps. Fictional data; the real thing runs on your ERP.
| Jurisdiction | Gross sales | Exempt | Taxable | Tax collected |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| State · 6.25% | $2,418,700 | $1,612,400 | $806,300 | $50,393.75 |
| Mercer County · 0.75% | $1,604,200 | $1,081,600 | $522,600 | $3,919.50 |
| Linden County · 0.50% | $814,500 | $530,800 | $283,700 | $1,418.50 |
| City of Ashford · 1.00% | $412,900 | $290,100 | $122,800 | $1,228.00 |
Gross, exempt, taxable and tax collected, read from your ERP’s invoices for the period.
The problem.
The sales tax return starts with your ERP’s tax report by jurisdiction, which is right for the taxable sales and silent on the rest. The exempt sales are the problem: the contractor on a resale certificate, the church, the job in the next county at a different rate, the delivery to a jobsite that your ERP taxed at the branch. The controller exports it, sorts by customer, and checks the certificate drawer.
What nobody tracks is the gap: exempt sales to customers whose certificate expired two years ago, or was never collected because the counter said they were exempt. An audit finds those, with interest, three years later. The return gets filed on time and the risk sits in the drawer.
How it works.
- 1
The period’s invoices are read
Every invoice and credit in your ERP for the period, with the jurisdiction, the tax charged, the exemption reason, the ship-to, and the customer. Freight and delivery lines are kept apart, since states treat them differently.
- 2
Exempt sales are checked against certificates
Each exempt invoice is placed against the certificate on file for that customer, from the tax exemption workflow or your own folder: present, expired, missing, or the wrong kind for that sale.
- 3
The workpaper is laid out
Gross sales, exempt sales by reason, taxable sales, tax collected, by jurisdiction, in the order the state’s form asks. Each figure opens the invoices behind it. Differences from your ERP’s own tax report are listed, with why.
- 4
A person reviews and files
The controller reads the workpaper, chases the missing certificates or decides to accrue the tax, and files the return. The workpaper and the invoice list are kept for the period, for the auditor.
How it connects to your ERP.
Lunica reads your ERP’s invoice history, tax codes and jurisdictions, the customer file with its exempt flag and certificate fields, and ship-to addresses through its database or data warehouse, under an account that can only read. Certificates on file come from the tax exemption workflow or the folder you point it at.
Nothing is written to your ERP by Lunica and nothing is filed on its own. The return is filed by a person. A customer whose certificate is missing or expired is set to taxable, if you choose, keyed by your team on the customer file in your ERP. Any tax to accrue is an entry a person posts.
What a week looks like.
- The workpaper is ready the morning after the period ends.
- Every exempt sale has a certificate behind it, or a name on the list of who doesn’t.
- Jurisdiction is the ship-to, not the branch, where the state says so.
- The auditor gets the invoice list behind every line, from the period it was filed.
Questions
Does it file the return?
No. It lays out the workpaper and the invoice list behind it. A person files, on the state’s site or through whoever files for you.
Does it change tax on invoices in your ERP?
No. If a sale should have been taxed, the workpaper says so and the controller decides whether to accrue the tax or bill it. Changes to a customer file are keyed by your team.
How does it know the jurisdiction?
From your ERP’s tax code on the invoice first, and from the ship-to address where the sale was delivered. A delivered sale taxed at the branch rate in a destination state is flagged.
What about certificates we already have on paper?
Point it at the folder. Each certificate is read for the customer, the type, the state and the expiry, and placed against that customer’s exempt sales.
What if we file in more than one state?
Each state gets its own workpaper, in that state’s order, from the same read. Nexus itself is a question for your accountant; the workpaper shows sales by state so the question has numbers.
Is this tax advice?
No. It is your invoices, your certificates and your tax codes laid out the way the return asks. The decisions are the controller’s and the accountant’s.
Available for.
Each version is written in that system’s own terms: its screens, its files, its codes.
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