Aloha Sales report question

[alohaakamai3]

In short- the sales tax does not add up.

If I look at any random sales category on the Sales Summary and multiply the sales tax percentage times the Net Sales for that category, there is usually fairly sizable discrepancy. The taxes the system is saying are owed are greater than what it looks like it should be based on the net sales are.

Not having a tax ID on an item would make the sales tax discrepancy smaller, not greater. So I have kind of ruled that out.

I suspect there is a logical explanation that I am not considering, so I am looking for the most likely causes in this case. Any suggestions are appreciated.

 

[coorsman]

Check if any discounted or promo items are calculating tax on gross amounts.

 

[alohaakamai3]

Thanks coorsman. I will check it out right now and report back. I was also mistaken, some times the sales taxes appear to be less that what it should be, but that's a little easier to make sense - an item not in the right tax category or something like that. And more importantly, owners typically have a problem with paying too much, more than they do paying too little. If the tax amount was consistently less than what it looks like it should be, I doubt I would have ever been asked about it.

 

[alohaakamai3]

Hmm.. I am not seeing a check box on the promos page where this would apply. I see guest pays tax, which is unchecked. Would that account for some of it? If there is a comp and tax is involved, does Aloha still expect that they tax will be paid by the restaurant if this is left unchecked?

 

[DTSMAN]

Do you know the difference between a comp and a void. Depending on their settings, that will make a difference along with inclusive taxes. Don't worry, I have never seen Aloha not do math properly, it is always user misunderstanding.

Bo

Remember,
If the women don't find you handsome,
they should at least find you handy.
(Red Green)

http://www.redgreen.com

 

[awbbar]

Indiviual tax on receipts normally add up to more then
if you go by gross. A penny here a penny there.Also check other suggestions.

 

[alohaakamai3]

Thanks for the replies.


I am assuming the difference between a comp and a void is that on a comp, the store is still paying sales tax?

I told the client exactly the same thing- that Aloha likely doing what it's suppose to based on the settings, and there is really nothing wrong. I am personally not worried or convinced there is anything wrong, and a few other issues this client has asked me have fallen into that category. But getting them to accept that at face value is anotheer mater, which leaves me trying to figure out how aloha is arriving at those figures so I can explain to why he doesn't have to worry.

 

[AlohaSupportTech]

Sales Tax Reporting In Aloha has always been a weak spot. Tax rules are applied at a check or transaction level. They actual tax amount is not saved in the trans.log and later in the grind files, but the tax link and/or tax rule.

When you request a Sales Summary Report with Sales Tax, the tax is not added up, but is calculated by the tax link associated witch each item in each transaction.

If discounts are applied, then that is taken into consideration.

However, since the Sales Tax Report object on the Daily Sales Summary Report does not include a "Taxable Sales" column, simply the calculated tax, you are in the dark as to the true Taxable Amount for that tax link.

It has been my experience working with customers over the years that often there are wide variances between the calculated tax and what it should be if you took taxable sales and multiplied it by the sales tax rate.

As a former reseller, I lobbied for years to Radiant ti improve the reporting on sales tax to no avail. I end up telling clients to take the sales tax total and divide the tax amount by the sales tax rate to determine a taxable income for purposes of submitting a state sales tax coupon. It is not a satisfactory solution but at least the math works on the Sales Tax Coupon.

Also, remember there is a link to report Sales Tax on the Product Mix Report. In most versions, this does not calculate accurately and should be avoided.

 

[DTSMAN]

For your peace of mind and understanding. Take a fresh day and start ringing sales one at a time and run reports after each transaction. This will help with your understanding. Ring normal sale.
Run report.
Ring and order and do a percentage or $ comp.
Run report.
Ring an item with inclusive tax.
Run report.
etc...
Then watch for changes.

Bo

Remember,
If the women don't find you handsome,
they should at least find you handy.
(Red Green)

http://www.redgreen.com

 

[alohaakamai3]

Thanks for the replies, I agree with all of your comments.

It seems as though every few years I get a client who gets really into the accounting and reporting aspect of Aloha and asks questions that I cannot immediately answer. The crappy thing is, I have likely been asked these same questions before, but they are so infrequent, I forget what the explanation was after I had taken he time to uncover it what the system was doing.

I will also agree that Aloha usually has a reason for doing what it does, and it's either a configuration setting or just something that is not immediately obvious- but it makes perfect mathematical sense when you find out the "why".

In this case, it was a simple matter of the way the information was presented that caused the confusion. There are no two numbers on the Sales Summary that you can simply multiply to get correct sales tax (at least not the way this report was setup, I am not sure if playing around would with it would have changed that).

Common sense would dictate that you multiply your net sales times your sales tax percentage of each category and arrive at the sales tax figure thats printed a few a columns down. However, this is not the case-you have to subtract the voids and comps, and something else I believe, to get that figure.

Bottom line- I not only did the math on previous reports, but I did what Bo suggested and just spot checked some of the stuff, and never found a magic bullet (I expected to find an item that had NONTAXTABLE setting but that still had a price that contributed to net sales- which would technically make the numbers not work).

So, in keeping with AlohaTechSupport's comments, it is confusing and like looking for a needle in a haystack if it is legitimately off. Obviously, the error report under VERIFY will not show a problem if an item has a price AND a tax classification of NON TAXABLE (it would only show up if it had no tax classification) and it could still potentially make the tax wrong in either case.

And I won't even get into the rounding of taxes and the odd pennies that get moved around that Awbbar was talking about- I would suspect few of us that have been working with Aloha for the last decade can explain all of that. All of this stuff Aloha has a consistent plan for, but damned if I know what it is.

The only solution is for us to start chargeing a PITA fee for customers who ask these questions.