Features
WeSuite’s New Location Tax Module Makes Canadian Calculations No Longer Taxing!

WiPST. QST. GST. HST. ITC. Ugh!

Darwin Lin, Assistant Controller at leading national security integrator, Paladin Technologies, knew there must be a way to automate the complex, variable tax calculations that are a part of every job his company quotes. He reached out to WeSuite, manufacturer of the WeEstimate sales management software used by Paladin, to see what could be done. Mr. Lin, along with Tracy Larson, WeSuite’s President and Founder, talk about how they worked together to develop WeSuite’s new Location Tax Module.

How did this collaboration come about?
Ms. Larson: Darwin reached out to us and said, “Hey, we’re in Canada and we need to estimate and quote taxes in a different way. We’re challenged because we have multiple tax rates and tax types during a sale, and if we don’t get it right, we can lose a lot of money.”

Mr. Lin: That’s right. It was critical that our sales team have software at their disposal that could automatically identify the applicable tax rates based on the location of the work quoted. We needed to ensure compliance with tax regulations by jurisdiction to limit risk and avoid margin erosion that could occur due to omissions or errors from manual input.

Could you describe the development process?
Ms. Larson: It was a very dynamic, collaborative effort. We started with a series of scope and discovery meetings between WeSuite’s senior developers and Darwin. He was a great contact for us because he really understood the tax needs and the software, including how it would interact with Paladin’s accounting platform.
During discovery, we defined and prototyped as much as we could, but until we actually move into development, it’s nearly impossible to understand the full scope. It’s complicated for both parties. Adding a “simple feature” can affect many other aspects of software functionality in unforeseen ways. A single calculation may be applied in many places.
We’d get to a development review point with Darwin, and he’d recognize details not thought of prior. The process is collaborative. Darwin would test with us in a sandbox. Then, we’d refine the items to better address needs.
We also discussed what information should be included in customer-facing proposals and contract documents to bring features from estimating to presentation.

Are you satisfied with the finished product?
Mr. Lin: We’re really pleased with its many features, particularly its ability to automatically calculate consumption taxes at the individual item level or through application to an entire quote. Under Canadian Consumption Tax Legislation, the requirement to charge tax may vary based on the products sold, or the application of such products on a job site. WeSuite was able to provide us with the flexibility to manually override the application of tax at the itemized level to ensure compliance in all scenarios. The new module also provides automatic, real-time updates to the entire quote when tax rates are adjusted or individual prices are changed.

Now that it’s released, how easy is it for other Canadian integrators to use?
Ms. Larson: It’s super easy! Thanks to Darwin and the Paladin Technologies team, the heavy lifting is done. The only thing we need to customize is how each customer wants their documents to look; sales information to be seen and handling of their unique corporate branding. We’ve built enough flexibility into the software to tackle the various tax scenarios our Canadian customers may throw at it. All of us at WeSuite are very proud to add this best-in-class functionality to support our neighbors to the north.

WeSuite is the leading sales management software solution that’s purpose built for security product and service providers. Learn more at wesuite.com.