Sales tax on a Verifone store
Sales tax is collected from customers and owed to the state, so it is never your income. Tax is calculated at the register, so the first question is how your Commander site sets up each category. This page explains how tax should reach QuickBooks at a Verifone store and how to check it against the filing.
Works with your POS, back-office & accounting stack
Tax collected is a liability. It is recorded by category in a sales tax payable account, and paying the state clears it. If tax is posted as sales, revenue looks higher than it is and the payable is wrong.
By the FuelCFO team. Where this page describes a vendor's product, the details come from the vendor's own public descriptions and can change, so confirm them with the vendor. Figures in diagrams are illustrative.
Verifone describes the Commander Site Controller as combining site, payment and forecourt control, with registers that include Topaz and Ruby2 and a cloud Back Office. Where tax appears on your reports (the Commander site controller, the register or the Back Office) depends on your setup, so confirm it with Verifone or your reseller. We are not affiliated with Verifone and this is not tax advice: rates and rules differ by state and by item, so confirm yours with your tax advisor or the state.
Tax is set up by category on the register or site controller. When a department is added or renamed, check that its tax setting came with it.
Fuel, tobacco, prepared food, ordinary store items and exempt items can each be taxed differently, or not at all. Each needs its own place so the totals can be tied to the filing.
Tax collected goes to a sales tax payable account, by category where the filing needs it. Sales are posted without the tax, and the tax sits in the liability until it is paid.
Each period, tax collected in the books should equal what the return reports. A difference points to a category set up wrongly, a day missed or a price change.
Items sold hot or prepared are often taxed differently from the same item sold cold. Check that your categories separate them, because a wrong category is wrong on every sale.
For what to pull, go to the tax records. For common mistakes, see where it goes wrong. For how we run a month, see Verifone accounting, and for every guide see the Verifone hub.
Every taxable and exempt category gets its own place.
Never as sales.
Collected tax is compared with the return.
A category taxed wrongly is listed for you to fix.
Tax collected by category from Verifone.
We agree which report is official.
The same report every month.
Taxable and exempt items are reviewed.
A department added or renamed is checked.
Wrong set-ups are listed.
Collected tax to the payable account.
Sales are posted without it.
The account map is written down.
Books compared with the return.
Differences are traced to a category or a day.
You get a short note.
Closed books and the tax position.
The payable shows what is owed.
Nothing is left open.
Report names vary by setup and plan. Ask Verifone or your reseller what yours are called.
Revenue looks higher and the payable is too low.
Every sale in it is taxed wrongly.
Tax is missed until the filing.
The filing follows one and the books follow another.
The payable never clears.
Tax is wrong from the change date.
The return and the books disagree.
You want each one set up right.
You want a clear map and checks.
Not sure which report to use? Send what you have.
A 30-minute call and about 48 hours of review, free, of how tax collected in Verifone compares with your returns.
We write down where each item goes in QuickBooks and why, so it stays the same every month.
The first month is tied to the statements and the bank before we carry on.
Fuel tax and sales tax kept apart and tied to their filings.
5 services →Store, food and exempt categories mapped to the right tax treatment.
9 services →Tax held as a liability and tied to each return.
4 services →The same tax map at every Verifone store, per state.
3 services →FAQ
More guides on the same system, or send us a day or a month for a free review.
Monthly bookkeeping for stores that run Commander: reconciliation, month-end close and Verifone totals posted into QuickBooks Online.
Read more →What the Verifone end of day report shows, what to check on it each day, and how it ties to your bank and QuickBooks Online.
Read more →Recording tax by category as a liability and checking it against the filing.
Read more →Send us a day or a month and we'll show you where the three systems disagree.
Get started →See all Verifone guides →| Every gas station software guide →
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