Ask a customer for an exemption certificate

Ask one customer

1. Open Sales, then Customers, and select the customer's name.
2. Select the Documents tab.
3. Select Ask for a certificate above the list of certificates, or in the Paperwork card. Or select Ask for it on a missing state or on a certificate with no file.
4. Under States, select the states you need a certificate for. Add a state lists the others.
5. Enter a Message of up to 500 characters if you want one.
6. Select Send request.

The customer gets an email with a private link. They need no account or password. The link works for 30 days and takes one certificate. A customer with no email can't be asked: the dialog says No email on this customer. and offers Fix the email. An inactive customer can't be asked either; make them active first.

The note on a new invoice or quote offers the same: Ask for it when the customer has no certificate for the state the sale ships to, and Ask for a new one when theirs has expired.

Ask several customers

1. Open Sales, then Customers.
2. Select the customers, then select Ask for certificates. Or, in the note that says how many tax-exempt customers have an expired or missing certificate and have not been asked, select the button that asks them.
3. Clear anyone you don't want to ask, and any state you don't need. Each customer starts with the states they are missing, and those of certificates that expired, expire within 30 days or have no file yet.
4. Enter a Message if you want one, and select the send button.

The note counts active tax-exempt customers only, and one send asks 200 customers at most. These customers are not asked:

• a customer with no email
• a customer who already has a request waiting for them
• a customer whose certificate is waiting for your review
• a customer emailed in the last 10 minutes
• every customer after your business reaches 200 request emails in 24 hours
• a customer merged into another customer
• an inactive customer

The result names each customer who was not asked, and why.

What the customer does

The customer's page asks for the certificate file, a PDF, JPG or PNG up to 10 MB, then the reason for the exemption, the states it covers, the number and expiration date if the form has them, and who is sending it. They select a box to confirm the certificate is current and select the send button. The page shows your business name and nothing else about your business.

If they are not exempt in a state you asked about, they can select We are not exempt and confirm. That state stops being listed as missing, nothing more is asked about it, and tax keeps being charged there. The link keeps working for the other states you asked about, until they send a certificate or say they are not exempt in each of them. You can still ask again later.

Review and accept

What the customer sends changes no tax by itself. On the customer's Documents tab it shows as sent, with Review and accept and Send it back. When Qix is on, it reads the file and may flag a missing signature, signature date, number or state, or a name that isn't the customer's. It only flags.

1. Select Review and accept. A PDF opens beside the values.
2. Check each value against the file and correct it if needed. Select the box to email the customer for a new one 30 days before it expires, if you want. Under Replaces, choose a certificate this one replaces, or leave Nothing. Accept as a new certificate.
3. Select Accept. For a certificate that names someone else, enter Why you are accepting it and select Accept with a reason, or select Remove it.

From then on, new invoices and quotes shipped to the states it covers are not taxed. Those already saved keep their tax.

If the customer is not set to exempt from sales tax, the page says so. To accept, select Turn on Exempt from sales tax first. The customer is then exempt only in the states the certificate covers; anywhere else tax is charged. Accepting never turns it on without that box.

Send it back asks What needs fixing. The customer gets your reason and a fresh link for the states still asked, and the file they sent stays in History. If the fresh link can't be sent, nothing is sent back and the certificate keeps waiting for your review.

Follow a request

The Paperwork card shows when you asked, when the customer opened the link, the next reminder and when the link stops working.

• With Remind them every 7 days until it is done selected, up to 3 reminders go out, 7 days apart. They stop when the customer answers or you cancel.
• Send again now emails a new link, and the old one stops working. One customer is emailed at most once in 10 minutes.
• Cancel request ends the request at once.
• After 30 days the card says the link expired. Select Send a new link, or ask again as usual.
• A request ends by itself when you delete the customer, set them to not exempt, or add certificates that cover every state it asked for. Its link stops working, and the customer's activity says why. Inactive customers get no reminders.
• If the email could not be delivered, the card shows Certificate request failed. Select Fix the email, save the right address, then select Send again.

A business can send 200 request emails in 24 hours. The fresh link sent with Send it back counts toward the 200, but not toward the 10 minutes. At the limit, a certificate you send back stays waiting for your review until the next day. Reminders don't count toward the 200.

Before a certificate expires

30 days before a certificate's expiration date, QixCount emails the person who added or accepted it, or the owner, once. The email's Ask for a new one opens the customer's Documents tab with the request ready to send. A day missed is made up on the next daily run before the certificate expires, and a new expiration date gets its own reminder. A certificate that another current one covers for longer gets no reminder.

To have the customer emailed a link that same day, select the box to email them for a new one when you add the certificate, or when you accept one they sent. The Paperwork card says who gets the reminder.

This guide explains how QixCount works. It isn't tax, legal or accounting advice.

Next, record and review exemption certificates.