Tax Link User's Guide

Your solution to the Washington State Destination Sales Tax.

Thank you for licensing your copy of Tax Link. It is a self contained program designed to quickly and easily determine the tax area and calculate the tax rates based upon the destination address within Washington State. It requires no internet access or other program to operate. After installation, it will run in the background on your Windows operating system computer, local area network, or will be fully integrated with your Profit Premier Point of Sale Program.

How It Works

When you access Tax Link, it will guide you in entering the information about the destination address. It will find the exact match and give you the full address, tax area, and tax rate. Then, after entering the transaction amount, the program will calculate and store the transaction information for assisting in reporting your end of period sales tax report. You may either print the addendum for manual filing, or create a document to upload if you are reporting via E-File.

Learning the Program

This User's Guide will guide you through all areas of the Tax Link Program. We have also included Video Tutorials if you would rather watch than read. The Tutorials are located in the Tax Link folder on your local hard drive in a folder named Tutorials:

The User's Guide and Tutorials are very thorough. It is likely you will not have any difficulty installing and using the software. However, if you need extra help, there are technical support persons available to assist you. Contact our technical support department Monday through Friday between 8 AM and 5 PM by calling (253) 383-9181. Have your credit card ready. Charges for these services are $25.00 per incident and $2.00 per minute after 10 minutes.

Note that the legend on the button, and the "status" lines, will vary depending on whether you are doing a first-time activation of the program, or are activing a new quarter's data file.

Click on the "Activate Program" (or "Activate Next Quarter") button. After a few moments, your web browser will load the activation page from the Tax Link web site:

Enter your contact and credit-card information, and then click on the "Activate" button at the bottom. After your payment is verified, a screen will be displayed showing your activation codes and customer number. You need to enter these codes on the Activate screen in Tax Link, then press the "Apply Activation Codes" button to complete the process.

If You Do Not Have An Internet Connection

You can activate Tax Link without a live internet connection on the computer where you are installing Tax Link, though the process is not as convenient for you. Call Edge Technologies at 800-275-2015 Ext 60 during our normal business hours (8am - 5pm Pacific Time.) Depending on call volumes it may be necessary for you to leave a message and wait for a callback. Once you are on the phone with our support technician, go to the Activation screen in Tax Link (Utilities / Activate), but check the "Offline" checkbox before pressing "Activate Program":

This will give you a series of security codes:

You will need to read us this sequence of numbers. We will take them, along with your contact and credit-card information, and complete the activation for you.

Downloading New Quarterly Address Files

The Washington State Dept of Revenue issues new address, tax-area, and tax-rate information once each quarter. Near the beginning of the last month of the quarter, Tax Link will remind you that it's time to download the coming quarter's data file. To download this file, clock on Utilities, then Update. A screen similar to the following will be displayed:

A single copy Tax Link can only be installed and activated on ONE computer. However it can be used by additional computers over a network. If you are not comfortable with network setup issues, please contact your network professional should you need help in this area.

You now need to visit each computer (other than the "server") and set it up so that it can access the shared folder, and so that it has a shorcut that runs Tax Link.

Locate on your computer's desktop/start menu, the icon named "My Computer". Right click on this icon, navigate to Map Network Drive.

After clicking on Map Network Drive... the following dialog box will appear.

You can choose any unused drive letter in the Drive field. We recommend using "T:" if that's available, simply because it's easy to associate with "Tax Link". Much more important, however, is to use the same drive letter on each computer if you possibly can. Tax Link will work fine if you do not, but this kind of consistency can save you time and money in the unlikely event you need support.

You need to enter the computer and shared folder name into the Folder field. If you're not sure the exact name of the "server" computer, then click on Browse and find it from the list of computers in your workgroup.

1. Open Tax Link by double clicking on the Tax Link icon, on your desktop or Programs menu.
2. Click on the Invoice button and the "Lookup Address/Save Invoice Data" box will open.
   
3. The cursor will be flashing in the "Zip Code" box.
4. If you know the zip+4 code, enter that here. Using the zip+4 code will usually alleviate the need for typing in the address. Tax Link will determine the correct tax area from the zip+4 code and will automatically move down to the "Taxable Subtotal" field.
5. If you do NOT have the zip+4 code, after you have entered the 5-digit zip code, press Enter. The cursor will move to the "House Number" field.
6. It is also possible, though not ideal, to search without a zip code. (The problem is that, without a zip, there may be a large number of possibly matching addresses, leading to more chance of accidentally selecting the wrong one.) If you really do need to search without the zip code, leave it blank and press enter. Tax Link will respond with a popup warning you about the missing zip, and allowing you to select whether or not to continue your search without it.
7. Enter the number of the house or business here and press Enter. The cursor will move to the "Street Name Field"
8. Enter the street name here. Omit any leading directions such as E, N, S, and W. If the street is a number, just enter the number and press Enter. The cursor will now move to the "Taxable Subtotal" field.
9. In the "Taxable Subtotal" field, enter the amount of the invoice before taxes and press Enter. Depending upon the parameters in the Tax Link Setup the cursor will move to the "Nontaxable Subtotal" field, or to the "Invoice Number" field, or directly to the "Save Button."
10. If the cursor moves to the "Nontaxable Subtotal" field and there are items on your invoice that are not taxed, enter that amount here and press Enter.
11. If the cursor moves to the "Invoice Number" field, enter and Invoice Number here and press Enter.
12. If the cursor moves to the "Save Button" and you are happy with your entries, press Enter. The information will be saved and you will have a new screen to enter more information.
13. Please note that just because the cursor skips a field, you may still click into the field with the mouse, and make your entries. You may want to go into the Tax Link setup and re-adjust your parameters. You may also place a note on each entry if you wish. Click into the note field, make your note and press enter. Your notes will be displayed when you run your reports.
14. If you make a mistake and want to start over, press the "Clear" button, at the bottom, to clear the incorrect information and start again.
15. Pressing the "Exit" button will take you out of the invoicing screen.

1. Open Tax Link by double clicking on the Tax Link Icon.
2. Click on the Review Button to view all Invoice entries for the current month. When the Review screen opens the cursor will be at the top of the list of invoices that have been created this month.
   
   At the top of the Review screen are blank search fields. If you need to find information in ANY of the fields listed, simply type the criteria in its corresponding field to find the information. Example: Typing "Tacoma" in the search field that corresponds to the City and pressing the "Find" button will find the first instance of Tacoma. Pressing the "Find Next" button will find the next instance and so on. For the note field you have the added functionality of searching the "Beginning" of the note field OR "Anywhere in Note".
3. Only certain fields on the Review form may be edited. These fields are limited to the Invoice Date, Invoice Number, Note, and the Taxable Subtotal Fields. (If you need to change any other field, you will need to delete the invoice and re-enter it.) To edit the information in any of the editable fields, click on the incorrect entry and make the change. When you make a change in the Taxable Subtotal field you will be asked "OK to change the Taxable Subtotal from $xx.xx to $xx.xx?" Answering Yes will change the Taxable Subtotal.
4. To delete an entry, click on the incorrect entry and press the "Delete" button on the bottom left side of the screen. A small information box will open with all the information about the invoice you are about to delete. You will also be asked if you are sure you want to delete this invoice. A Yes answer will permanently delete the selected invoice.
5. When you have completed reviewing your entries and have completed any editing, press the "Exit" button to leave this screen.

1. Open Tax Link by double clicking on the Tax Link Icon.
2. Click on the "Report" button to begin creating your tax reports.
   
3. The Sales Tax Report box will open and last month's dates will be displayed. You may run this report for any time period by changing the dates. You may also run the report with Subtotals only or with Invoice details. Check the box that applies.
4. To change the dates, mouse click into the date boxes and change them to the dates you want.
5. To export the report to Excel, check the "Export To Excel" box. The Browse button will be activated and the "Export Filename" field will be available.
6. Type in the name you want associated with this file. Example: may08
7. Pressing the "Export To Excel" button will export the file. The file will be created as may08.xls and it will be located in the Tax Link Folder on your local hard drive. You may export this file to any folder by typing in the exact address of that folder or pressing the "Browse" button to browse for the folder.
8. If the "Print Preview" button is checked, pressing the "Print" button will bring up the Windows Printer box. Your default printer will be displayed. If you want to choose another printer press the down arrow to show all printers attached to the computer or on the network.
9. If you want to print the report after the preview, press the printer button at the top of the screen. If you do not want to print, press the button with the door and the arrow. This will close the report.
   
10. If you are satisfied with the report it can be printed and attached to your sales tax forms and sent to the state. You do not have to fill out the state sales tax form if this report is attached and you are filing a paper return.

E-Filing The Sales Tax Addendum

If you file your Sales Tax forms electronically with E-File, Tax Link create the CSV (Comma Separated Value) file required to upload to the State website.

1. To export the report to a CSV file, check the "Create CSV File" box. The Browse button will be activated and the "CSV Filename" field will be available. Use these to specify the name and location of the CSV file you're going to export.
2. Pressing the "Export CSV File" button will then export the file. You may export this file to any folder by typing in the exact address of that folder or pressing the "Browse" button to browse for the folder.
3. You will then upload the CSV file to the State Website as part of preparing your eFile return.