Changing Tax Settings

To manage your Tax Settings, click on Settings and then Taxes under Business Configuration in your ThinkReservations account. From there, you can add and edit taxes in your account. You can even recalculate taxes on existing bills and reservations to reflect changes.
Please take care when working with taxes.

The top half of the page shows your existing taxes, including the name, the account, and the amount configured.
 

 

To create a NEW tax: 

 

1.  Click the black New button at the top right. 
2. Enter the NAME of the tax. Keep in mind the name is exposed to your guests and customers. 
3. If you have created a LIABILITY ACCOUNT (under Chart of Accounts) previously, you can select the account from the drop-down. 
4. Choose a START DATE that the tax should start to take effect. This date can be in the past or the future. 
5. Select the type of tax.
   • Percent is a standard percentage tax.
   • Fixed is a flat fee added once per night, per room. 
6. Enter the amount of the tax. Note you don't need to enter a dollar or percent sign. 
7. Click the orange Add button to add the new tax. 
8. Verify your new tax and click the Save button. Please continue below. 
9. Important: Add the new tax to any rooms, additional guest fees, pet fees, and items that this new tax should be associated with.
   
   ► Important: Update Room and Item Taxes
   Connected to an OTA like Booking.com or Expedia? Make sure to update the taxes with them separately as well. Reach out to Booking.com or Expedia support for help on how to do this. 
10. If you need to retroactively recalculate existing bills and reservations because the tax was added after rooms and items that are eligible for this new tax, use the Recalculate Taxes feature. (See further below.)

 

To Edit an Existing Tax:

1. Click on the tax name you'd like to edit.
2. You'll now be presented with the settings for this tax. See the image below:

Edit Options:

• You can edit the name of the tax by simply changing the content in the NAME field.
• You can edit the LIABILITY ACCOUNT by selecting from the drop-down. This drop-down is populated by the accounts you have configured in your Chart of Accounts.
• You can edit the amount of the tax:
  1. Select the START DATE the new tax amount should take effect (this can be in the past or the future). 
  2. Select the type of tax, such as Percent, and enter the new amount of the tax. 
  3. Click the orange Add button. 
  4. Verify your tax changes, and click the Save button. 
  5. If you need to retroactively recalculate existing bills and reservations because the tax change was done after rooms and items were sold that are eligible for the NEW tax, use the Recalculate Taxes feature. (See below.)

 

Recalculating Taxes

This step is optional. In your Tax settings page, there is a way to have the ThinkReservations system automatically recalculate existing reservations in bulk for you. This is only required if you have existing reservations and bills that need to be updated with the new tax but were created before the tax changes above we made.

Before you continue - make sure that your tax is properly associated with your rooms and items! 

1. In the Recalculate Taxes section, select the START DATE that you want the taxes on existing bills and reservations to be recalculated. This is based on the billing date of the room or item.
   If your bill contains rooms or items that have a billing date of both before and after this date, the system will only recalculate the rooms or items that have a billing date of the Start Date or after. 
2. If you wish to have the system skip bills that have a $0.00 remaining balance and not update the taxes on those bills/reservations, check the box Ignore bills with no remaining balance. If you don't check this box, it will update all reservations and bills line items after the selected START DATE. 
3. Choose the tax(es) that you wish to be recalculated. 
4. Check the box stating you understand performing this action will update the taxes for existing bills and reservations. 
5. Click the Recalculate Taxes button.

Once you click the Recalculate Taxes button, the table at the bottom will show the recalculation and the status as ACTIVE. This means that the system is updating the bills.

This process will take about a minute or two. When complete, the status will show as COMPLETED the next time you come back to the taxes page (or refresh the taxes page).

If you have any questions, please reach out to support!