How sales tax routing works

TruSync and QuickBooks split responsibility for sales tax: TruSync controls the amount, and QuickBooks’ own tax rate configuration controls the destination.

TruSync owns the amount

For stores where you collect your own sales tax, TruSync uses your store’s own tax calculation for each order and tells QuickBooks not to recalculate it. Your store’s tax engine (whatever calculates tax at checkout) is treated as the source of truth for how much tax was collected.

QuickBooks tax rates own the destination

Where that tax amount lands in your books is controlled by which QuickBooks tax rate you’ve mapped a jurisdiction to. Each QuickBooks tax rate belongs to a tax agency, and the agency owns the liability account it posts to — TruSync doesn’t set a liability account directly, it routes through the tax rate you’ve mapped.

This is why mapping jurisdictions to tax rates (in Settings → Tax) matters: it’s not just a formality, it’s what determines which agency and account the money is tracked against.

Tax is sent against the mapped rate

When an order’s tax jurisdictions are mapped in Settings → Tax, TruSync sends QuickBooks the tax broken out by jurisdiction, each part tied to the QuickBooks tax rate you mapped. The total tax on the document is still the amount your store calculated.

This matters most for QuickBooks files that use global tax, such as Australian or UK files. In those files QuickBooks only records tax that is tied to a tax rate, so the mapping is what makes the tax appear on the document at all.

If no mapped tax rate applies to an order, TruSync sends just the total tax amount, without a breakdown by rate.

Don’t turn on QuickBooks’ automated sales tax calculation

QuickBooks has its own automated tax calculation feature. Turning it on for a TruSync-connected store would duplicate what your store’s own tax engine already did, and can produce incorrect returns. TruSync explicitly tells QuickBooks not to recalculate tax on the orders it posts — automated calculation isn’t needed and shouldn’t be enabled.

Non-US QuickBooks files use your own sales tax code

If your QuickBooks company’s home currency isn’t USD (for example an Australian file on GST), TruSync looks up the QuickBooks tax code that carries the tax rate you mapped in Settings → Tax and puts that code on the taxed lines. This applies to the documents TruSync creates and updates, including refunds and credit memos.

Without it, QuickBooks rejects a document from these files with “Make sure all your transactions have a GST rate before you save.” If TruSync can’t read your tax codes, it falls back to its generic tax marker, which is what US files use.

Marketplace stores skip this entirely

Amazon and eBay orders post with zero tax, since the marketplace already collected and remitted it as a facilitator — there’s nothing for TruSync or QuickBooks to route. Refunds and cancellations on those orders also carry zero tax.

FAQ

Why does TruSync ask me to map tax jurisdictions to QuickBooks tax rates? That mapping is what tells QuickBooks which tax agency the collected tax belongs to.

My QuickBooks has two rates with the same name and percentage. Which one do I pick? Neither, as it turns out — Settings → Tax only offers the sales ones. QuickBooks keeps separate rates for tax you collect and tax you pay, and in some countries they are named almost identically: an Australian file lists both GST (sales) and GST (purchases) at 10%, and a UK file has four rates reading 20% of which one posts on a sale. Picking a purchases rate would file the tax you collected as tax you paid, against the wrong agency. TruSync leaves the purchase-side rates out of the list so the choice can’t be made by accident.

My QuickBooks file uses global tax (for example GST in Australia). Does the tax I collected show up? Yes, when the order’s jurisdiction is mapped to a QuickBooks sales tax rate in Settings → Tax. TruSync sends the tax against that rate, which is what QuickBooks needs to record it on a global-tax file. An unmapped jurisdiction becomes an order exception until you map it.

Should I create a dedicated Sales Tax Payable account for TruSync? No — the tax agency tied to your QuickBooks tax rate already owns the liability account; there’s no separate account to configure in TruSync.

Does this apply to marketplace stores like Amazon? No — marketplace orders post at zero tax, since Amazon and eBay handle collection and remittance themselves.