Adding Taxes to Your Proposal
UPDATE 1/12/15You can now add taxes (or discounts) very easily to the proposal without using the below process. You can still use the process outlined below if you prefer, but this video will show you an easier way to do it.
Including Discounts and Taxes on your proposals
In many states, remodelers and contractors are required to include sales taxes on top of the project costs. We've had a lot of questions about how to add this in, and our recent update to the boilerplate section provides a great outlet for including sales taxes on your proposals.
Here's how it works, in your boilerplate section you can include the total project cost and print it in the boilerplate by selecting [projcost] from the dropdown menu above the boilerplate section. When you type that in the boilerplate section, Clear Estimates knows to put the actual project cost there when you generate a report.
For example, if your boilerplate section says "Customer agrees to pay the entire project cost of $[projcost]" on the proposal for one customer it will print off as "Customer agrees to pay the entire project cost of $[projcost]" and for a different customer "Customer agrees to pay the entire project cost of $[projcost]", depending on how much the project costs. This means you don't have to change your boilerplate for each customer.
We can use this to calculate taxes and come up with a total cost including taxes. Here are the steps:
- Create a new boilerplate heading in the "Outro" section called "Taxes" or whatever you would like to call it.
- Type in a short statement explaining what this section is about, such as "As are required by the State of [Your State], sales taxes are to be applied on top of the project cost."
- Show the total project cost, the sales tax rate, the total sales tax, and final "Grand Total" using the [projcost] we talked about above, An example is written up below.
- You can multiply the project cost within the square brackets "[]".
- For example for a 6% tax rate you can enter [projcost*.06] to calculate the amount of taxes to be applied.
- To get the total cost including taxes, just type [projcost*1.06]
- Move this heading to the top of the "Outro" list so that it appears right below your list of line items and the project cost.
- Thats it! Now you have an easy way to show how much taxes are due to your customers.
Here is an example of what you might type up.
Taxes
As required by the State of [enter state], sales taxes are to applied in addition to the project cost.
Project Cost: $[projcost]
Sales Tax Rate: 6%
Taxes to be applied: $[projcost*.06]
Total Project Cost: $[projcost*1.06]
