ShopSite’s v10 Service Pack 1 release will include support for a new Sales Tax API. The new API is a great add-on for anybody that needs more control of over sales tax calculations and it can also be used to update an external database for sales tax reporting.
ShopSite calls the API multiple times during the cart update and checkout process. The API is called when:
- an item is added to the cart or a quantity changes,
- the shopper enters or changes the zip/postal code,
- Recalculate is clicked,
- the shopper enters the shipping address on the checkout/shipping screen and proceeds to the next screen (confirm or thank you, depending on the confirmation screen setting),
- the shopper confirms the order on the confirmation screen (if it’s enabled).
The API can also be called manually to test connectivity.
Each time the API is called it calculates sales tax (using the cart information available at the time) and returns the total tax amount with supporting information to ShopSite. (The API can also return an error status if it isn’t able to calculate the tax amount.)
When the API is called with the shipping information (api_tax_type = pre_final), it will have enough information for a comprehensive tax calculation. ShopSite includes the following information with the pre_final call:
- store and cart identifying information (storeid, storeurl, serialnum, docid, locale, parm1-10),
- complete address information (address 1, address 2, city, state/region, zip/postal code, country, shipping amount, shipping taxcode (indicates if shipping is taxable), surcharge amount, surcharge taxcode (like the shipping taxcode),
- item detail information (ID, SKU, name, quantity, line item total, tax code selected for the product, product type [tangible or download] and extra product fields 1-10.)
I’m looking forward to developing custom APIs with this new feature.
