Hi there sstuder,
Welcome to the QuickBooks Community. Accurately tracking the GST on your sales and purchases plays an important part in ensuring that your books are balanced. Luckily, QuickBooks Online makes it easy to set up a variety of tax codes based on where your company and customers are located. You can also set up custom tax codes if necessary. Let me go over this with you so you're able to select the correct codes for your transactions.
To set up a new sales tax code, please follow the steps below:
- Select Taxes from the left menu.
- Select Sales Tax.
- Click Manage sales tax in the upper right.
- Choose to Add tax.
- Click to Add either a Provincial, Group or Custom rate.
- Follow the prompts to complete set-up.
This article goes over all of these steps and explains the different types of rates that you can set up. It also includes steps for setting up a custom rate within an existing agency, such as the CRA. Check it out when you have a chance: How to set up a new sales tax code.
Once you've set up the appropriate codes, you'll be able to select which one you'd like to use per transaction by using the dropdown in the Sales Tax column. If you come across a transaction where GST does not apply, you can select from Zero-rated, Tax-exempt, or Out of scope of tax, depending on the services or items. When selecting these codes, sales tax won't be calculated on the total of the invoice or expense. Check out some Common sales tax codes to learn about which ones you should select and when.
Check out the article that @LeithG shared in their response above as well - that just might hit the mark! It'll help you to map your items to specific tax categories, which allows QuickBooks to calculate the sales tax amount based on what you sell your customer.
I'm here if you have any follow-up questions! Enjoy your day.
