Default Tax in Purchases Settings
The system allows you to configure the default tax applied to line items when creating purchase invoices and related transactions, so that tax fields are automatically populated when a product is selected without needing manual entry each time. You can still override the tax manually on any individual line at any time.
Steps to Configure the Default Tax
- From the main menu, click “Purchases”, then “Purchases Settings.”
- Click “Invoicing Settings“.
- Locate the “Default Tax” section.
- Select the appropriate option for each tax field:
If your account has one tax field per line: A single row labeled “Default Tax” appears with three options.
If your account has two tax fields per line (Tax 1 & Tax 2): Two independent rows appear — “Default Tax 1” and “Default Tax 2” — each configured independently.
Available options for each row:
- Match Product Tax (Default): Each line will use the tax assigned to the selected product. If the product has no tax, the line will have no tax.
- No Tax: No tax will be applied to any line by default, regardless of the product’s tax settings.
- Specific Tax: The selected tax will be applied to all lines by default, regardless of the product’s tax settings. When this option is selected, a searchable dropdown appears to choose the desired tax from the account’s active taxes list.
- Click “Save” to apply the setting.
Viewing and modifying this section requires the “Edit General Settings” permission.
Scope and Impact
The default tax applies to the following transactions when created from scratch:
Purchase Invoices and Purchase Refunds.
The default tax does NOT apply to:
- Cloned records — carry the tax from the source record.
- Converted records (e.g., Purchase Order → Purchase Invoice) — carry the tax from the source document.
- Existing saved records — no retroactive effect.
Notes
- If “Specific Tax” is selected without choosing a tax from the dropdown, the following message appears: “Please select a tax to apply.”
- If a previously saved specific tax is deleted from the account, the setting automatically reverts to “Match Product Tax” and a warning appears in the settings section: “The previously selected default tax no longer exists. The setting has been reset to Match Product Tax.”