Set up and manage tax settings
Learn how to set up and edit Tax rates in Caspen, including how to configure your system-wide tax settings and apply specific tax rates to services, activities, classes and products.
Overview
Caspen allows you to define and manage tax rates that are applied to invoices, services, activities, classes, and products.
You can:
Create your own tax rates list.
Choose how tax is calculated (prices include or exclude tax).
Apply specific tax rates to items in your catalog.
System tax rates may already exist depending on your region. These system-created rates cannot be edited or deleted, but you can create additional custom tax rates as needed.
Create and manage your tax rates list
Add a tax rate
Depending on your location, Caspen automatically provides a pre-set list of tax rates (e.g., GST, VAT, etc.). If you need to add another tax rate, follow these steps:
Go to Settings → Taxes.
Click Add tax.
Enter the name, rate (e.g., 15%), and description (optional).
Click Create.
Your new tax rate will appear in the Tax Rates list and can be selected when creating or editing invoices or catalog items.
Edit a tax rate
You can edit only the tax rates that you have created in Caspen.
Go to Settings → Taxes.
Find your custom tax rate.
Click Actions → Edit.
Make your changes and click Save.
Note: System-created tax rates cannot be edited.
Archive a tax rate
Go to Settings → Taxes.
Find the tax rate you want to archive.
Click Actions → Archive.
The tax rate will move to the Archived tab and will no longer be available for selection.
To restore an archived tax rate, open the Archived tab, find the rate, and click Actions → Restore.
Set the tax usage on invoices
A system-wide setting determines how taxes are applied to all invoices in Caspen.
To set your tax calculation preference:
Go to Settings → Taxes.
Click Edit settings.
Choose one of the following options:
Prices exclude tax
If selected, tax is added on top of your prices.
Formula:
Item Tax = Price * Tax
Example:
20% tax on a $10.00 item comes to $2.00.
The total becomes $12.00.
Prices include tax
If selected, tax is already included in your prices.
Formula:
Item Tax = (Tax * Price) / (1 + Tax)
Example:
20% tax on a $10.00 item comes to $1.67.
The total remains $10.00 (including tax).
Once you’ve chosen your preferred setting, click Save.
Tip: This setting applies to all invoices you create for clients. If you change it later, future invoices will use the new method automatically.
Apply tax rates to catalog items
You can assign specific tax rates to individual services, activities, classes, or products in your catalog.
Steps:
Go to Catalog → select Services, Activities, Classes, or Products.
Add a new item, or find an existing one and click Actions → Edit.
In the Tax rate dropdown, select the tax rate that applies to this item.
Click Save.
Hint: Repeat this for every item your business offers in your catalog to ensure accurate tax calculations across all invoices.
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