Sales Tax...Please help a girl out!

[animazing]

Hi,

I am really new to Filemaker Pro 9 and have been in charge of finishing the layouts for invoicing/inventory/client database since the person hired did not finish their job!

I am stumped on Sales Tax.. Could someone help me step by step help me on how to do this script?

The business is a gallery, so whenever we ship out-of-state we do not charge Sales Tax. Other wise we have New York State Tax which is .08375 and sometimes people come in from Westchester which is .0675. So somehow the field needs to be optional but still be part of a calculation.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

:

Thanks in advance,

Cheryl[color:green]

[Fitch]

Sales Tax could be a calculated number field like this:

Case( 

   County = "Westchester" ; .0675 ; 

   State = "NY" ; .08375 

    ) 

Edited November 2, 2008 by Guest
Use the calc as auto-entry, not a calculated number field! And welcome to the forums!

[comment]

I'll have to disagree with you on this one, Tom. Tax rates change from time to time and they should never be hard-coded into a calculation formula.

Since here the tax rate depends on the county, there should be a table of counties and their respective tax rates, and the applicable rate should be looked up from this table via a relationship matching on county.

[Fitch]

I disagree with me too: tax rates are best implemented with a lookup table, you're right.

I thought about recommending that. However, I try to look at the whole picture: a FileMaker beginner, a solution used only internally, that needs fixing ASAP, a very simple tax calc, and really, taxes don't change all that often.

So to Cheryl: if the calculation I posted works for you, it's OK to use it. Just be aware that when tax rates change, you'll have to dig back into your field definitions and modify the calc; whereas if you set things up the "right" way, you or another user will be able to simply edit the records in the tax lookup table.

Also, if you use the calc above, be sure to make Sales Tax a number field that uses the calc for auto-entry. That way, when you do modify the tax rate, it won't change on your old invoices, which is what would happen if you just used a calculated field.

Hope that makes sense.

[animazing]

Whew, I am going to work on it now...I will let you know what happens!...Thanks for the advice!