How Are Sales Taxes Applied to Products?
Supporting Temporary Credit Card Numbers
Testing Credit Card Payment Processors
Troubleshooting Credit Card Payment Processors

How Are Sales Taxes Applied to Products?

When viewing products in the catalog, taxes are applied as follows (only applies if the Include Tax in Prices check box is selected):

1. If the customer has logged in to the store (and therefore, their billing address is known), the system checks to see if there is a tax region that matches the customer's billing address and also has the product's tax category assigned to it. If so, that tax rate is applied to the product.
2. If the store is using the Tax Region Select template, and the customer has selected a tax region, the system checks to see if there is a matching tax region that also has the product's tax category assigned to it. If so, that tax rate is applied to the product.
3. If the customer's billing address is unknown, or no tax region has been selected, the system checks to see if there is a default tax region that also has the product's tax category assigned to it. If so, that tax rate is applied to the product.
4. If the product does not have a tax category, or if there is not a tax region that also has the product's tax category assigned to it, the rate for the default tax region is applied to the product.

After the customer has entered or confirmed their billing address during the checkout process, however, taxes are applied to each product as follows:

1. If there is a tax region that matches the customer's billing address and also has the product's tax category assigned to it, that tax rate is applied to the product.
2. If the product does not have a tax category, or if there is not a tax region that matches both the customer's billing address and the product's tax category, the rate for the tax region matching the customer's billing address is applied to the product.
3. If no tax region matches the customer's billing address, and there is a default tax region that also has the product's tax category assigned to it, that tax rate is applied to the product.
4. If none of the above applies, then the default tax region is used if Use rate from default tax region is selected. If that option is not selected, no tax is applied to the product.

Examples

The following are examples of tax region tables, and how taxes would be applied using those tables.

Sample tax region table:

Examples of how these rates would be applied on checkout (assuming no tax region has been selected):

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Supporting Temporary Credit Card Numbers

This information is detailed in the Store Administration help topic "Supporting Temporary Credit Card Numbers".

In an effort to provide a more secure shopping environment for their credit card holders, several companies (such as American Express and Discover) are offering a payment method that operates as a "one-time use" credit card number. Stores that allow credit card payments should support the use of these one-time use credit card numbers.

However, if a customer who has shopped at the store previously with one of these credit card numbers tries to check out without changing their billing information, the credit card will not be processed properly. If a customer is using this payment method, they will need to update their billing information with every purchase.

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Testing Credit Card Payment Processors

This information is detailed in the Store Administration help topic "Testing Credit Card Payment Processors".

We recommend that merchants test each type of credit card that merchants plan on accepting, using the test information that the payment processor has provided.

To test the credit card processor:

1. Browse to Store | Billing, and select the appropriate payment processor from the Processor list.
2. Click Configure and enter the processor specific information.
3. When merchants are done configuring the processor, return to the Billing Preferences page, select the Enable Credit Card Test Mode check box, and click Submit.
4. Obtain test credit card numbers from the processor for each credit card.
5. Place an order with the test card number(s).
6. Process the order using the Order Manager.
7. Issue a credit against that order using the Order Manager. To do so:
   1. Search for the completed order.
   2. Click the date to display the invoice.
   3. Select Issue A Credit.
8. Once merchants have verified that the transactions are processing correctly, turn off the test mode (Store Manager | Billing Preferences). Merchants can start accepting credit cards by selecting that option at the payment processor's web site.

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Troubleshooting Credit Card Payment Processors

If merchants receive the following error:

Error message: "MerchantAuth: Order ID '##' has been completed already".

...then check for the following:

• Merchants manually created an order with the credit card processor, and then ProStores generated an order using that same order number automatically for a customer purchase. If this occurs, delete the customer order and place another one.
• Merchants have begun testing the processor before it has been configured in Store Manager | Billing Preferences.

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