The latest update gave us an ability to do an "automatic" trip charge on dispatches. But rather than take the data from from the customer record where it has resided for a decade or so (albiet in a basically dead end field), we have to pick a single billing code, and that billing code has to have a type of "other".
Show of hands! How many service companies charge a single fee for their entire service area?
On a separate, but related, issue, we recently changed from a standard trip charge (by zipcode) to a Base Charge for the first 1/2 hour. And yes, that charge includes what used to be a trip charge, but since it's redefined as the first 1/2 of Labor, there is less complaining, and we don't have to muck with taxing trip charges under some conditions. However, since the new setup for automatic trip charges requires a type of other, we couldn't use it even if we had a single charge for what is essentially most of S. Ca.
For anyone that cares, or is curious, in CA the tax code says that if there are any parts involved in a service call, a percentage of the trip charge is taxable. As far as I can tell, most service companies just tax the entire charge if there are parts. The State doesn't care, they get more tax money, and for decades the customers didn't care, or perhaps know. But we finally got a call from a tax attorney that was complaining because we charged him $4 (ish) in tax for the trip charge, instead of $0.40 (ish).
I guess the moral of that story is: CA is a pain, and don't do work for attorneys, because..... ditto.
We charge $85 diagnostic for non-service agreement customers, $70 if they are ESA customer. we have a DIAG code we type in that automatically says $85. If they are ESA, we manually change it.
We're also wrestling with taxes. As of APRIL 2016, service agreements were taxed in NC. As of January of this year, everything but installed new equipment is. Fun times, when we have five or six counties.
Comments
Silly question time.
The latest update gave us an ability to do an "automatic" trip charge on dispatches. But rather than take the data from from the customer record where it has resided for a decade or so (albiet in a basically dead end field), we have to pick a single billing code, and that billing code has to have a type of "other".
Show of hands! How many service companies charge a single fee for their entire service area?
On a separate, but related, issue, we recently changed from a standard trip charge (by zipcode) to a Base Charge for the first 1/2 hour. And yes, that charge includes what used to be a trip charge, but since it's redefined as the first 1/2 of Labor, there is less complaining, and we don't have to muck with taxing trip charges under some conditions. However, since the new setup for automatic trip charges requires a type of other, we couldn't use it even if we had a single charge for what is essentially most of S. Ca.
For anyone that cares, or is curious, in CA the tax code says that if there are any parts involved in a service call, a percentage of the trip charge is taxable. As far as I can tell, most service companies just tax the entire charge if there are parts. The State doesn't care, they get more tax money, and for decades the customers didn't care, or perhaps know. But we finally got a call from a tax attorney that was complaining because we charged him $4 (ish) in tax for the trip charge, instead of $0.40 (ish).
I guess the moral of that story is: CA is a pain, and don't do work for attorneys, because..... ditto.
We charge $85 diagnostic for non-service agreement customers, $70 if they are ESA customer. we have a DIAG code we type in that automatically says $85. If they are ESA, we manually change it.
We're also wrestling with taxes. As of APRIL 2016, service agreements were taxed in NC. As of January of this year, everything but installed new equipment is. Fun times, when we have five or six counties.
Please sign in to leave a comment.