I finally did some work on setting up Enviro Levies as per the instructions here: Surcharge Levy Technical Tip

The instructions are great and it works perfectly. Much cleaner and better than using Item Codes and Alerts! The only problem is, using this method, how can we report the breakdown? The provincial Enviro authorities require that we remit our Enviro fees by entering the details (i.e. QTY 20 sold 19" to 29" TVs @ $10.07 each = $201.40; QTY 10 sold Desktop Computers @ $13.44 each = $134.40; etc.

We currently accomplish this using a Gridview Report showing the QTY Invoiced and Credited on each of the Enviro Item codes.

Any ideas?

Further to my previous post (for some reason I'm unable to edit it).

In Nov 09 I posted that:

19" - 29" TV's have a recycle fee of $10.07 in Ontario. In Alberta, the same 19" - 29" TV has a recycle fee of $25.

Andrew suggested:
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$10.07 = 40.28% of $25.00

Make the Alberta jurisdiction remit 100% of User Cost #2 and Ontario remit 40.28% of User Cost #2."
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I thought this would work, however in implementing it I now realize it won't work because each item has a different percentage variance. For example:

30" - 45" TV's have a recycle fee of $10.07 in Ontario. In Alberta, the same 30" - 45" TV has a recycle fee of $30.

Unless you can correct me otherwise, it appears that Adagio's solution will only accomodate enviro levies for up to one province.

Can you provide us with more Cost fields? User defined Cost fields that we can name Enviro ON, Enviro BC, Enviro AB, etc.??

Please help.. I need a solution.

Hi, Susan,

I can put in a suggestion to R&D for you that we add additional fields for a future release. However, in the interim you will need to use multiple tax groups.

Hi Softrak Support,

I have no problem using multiple tax groups, but how will that help? There is still only 1 available cost field. Therefore, I can only set up Enviro Levies for 1 province no matter how many Tax Groups I set up.

Please explain how I can set up more than one province using multiple tax groups.

Hi Susan,

Because you are dealing with so many tax authorities the best way to setup your tax groups would be by having a tax group for each province.

In each tax group you would have the jurisdictions that apply to that province.
GST
PST
HST
Enviro Levy

Your customer/Item status would be something like:
GST Only
PST Only
GST/PST Only
HST
Non Taxable

On any item that has an enviro levy I would set the cost 2 to $100.00 (depending on the largest/smallest enviro fee)

When entering the rate for the tax group/province you would enter a rate that would give you the $ payable for that item.
Ont: 10.47%
Alberta: 30.00%

Hi Chris,

Thanks for your reply. I have it set up just as you are describing, but unfortunately the only way that could actually work would be if the percentage stayed consisted from one item to the next, but it doesn't.

For example:

*Desktop Computers in Ontario are $13.44 and in Alberta $10.00.

*30-45" TVs in Ontario are $10.07 and in Alberta $30.00.

If you set all the computer items to a cost of $100, then Ontario would be 13.44% and Alberta would be 10%.

So, what happens when you sell a 30-45" TV in Ontario and Alberta? If you had the cost on the TVs at $100, then Ontario would be 10.07% and Alberta 30.00%.

How can the Tax Group Ontario be at both 13.44% for computer items and 10.07% for TV's? And the Tax Group for Alberta would have to be at 10% for computer items and 30% for TVs?

Hi Susan,
How many different types/rates of enviro fees do you have to deal with?

So far, it's required for shipments to Ontario, Alberta, BC, Saskatchwan & Nova Scotia.

You can see that other companies are already doing it like Sears and Tiger Direct.

April 1, 2010 Ontario is changing their fees and adding a multitude of new products including DVD Players, MP3 Players, Cameras, Digital Photo Frames, Car Audio and Video and the list keeps going. We are an electronics distributor so we have in stock all of the above under many different brands, models, etc. Hundreds of items in our inventory are affected by this and we can't manage all this with item codes and alerts!

Softrak is providing a really good solution, but it only accomodates 1 province. Can your programmers add more User Definable cost fields to IC? My opinion is there should be at least 13. One for every province and territory in Canada. Some of the provinces will remain at 100% of $0.00 cost but sure enough levies will be introduced in the coming months to more provinces. I need at least 4 more User Definable Cost fields just to set the levies up for what is already required.

Please help!

It looks like this tax needs a different strategy entirely. How come an Ontario company is collecting taxes for BC? Don't you have to have a place of business in the province?

Hi Andrew,

It's not a tax, it's a levy. We do not have physical locations outside of Ontario, however, we're required to collect and remit for any province in Canada that we ship eligible products to.

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Here's what it says in Alberta:

RE: Alberta’s Electronics Recycling Program – Electronics Supplier Registration

As per the legislation, “suppliers” (meaning manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers or retailers) that sell or supply designated electronics either ‘in or into’ the province of Alberta are required to register with the Alberta Recycling Management Authority (Alberta Recycling) – specifically the Electronics Recycling Alberta (ERA) Division.

This is at the top section of the Electronics Registation Package.

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On another note, the jurisdiction should be set up as on Invoice as "Total" rather than "Line Item" in my opinion. It shows up at the bottom of the invoice as: Subtotal, Enviro, GST, HST, Total. Enviro Levies are also applicable to GST or HST (whichever the province is using).

Some people want to show the fee under the item it refers to. Then it has to be specified as a "line" charge.

Having the option to do it either way is good.

Your note at the bottom of: Surcharge Levy Technical Tip says "only one line for each automatic charge will be print on the invoice. If a detail line is required to print or each of the items with surcharges, use items instead".

There's no point having one line that is a combined total print as an item line. Since we're only able to get a combined total using the tax method, it makes sense to put it in the tax section.

OrderEntry V8.1C added the ability to place the tax unde the item to which it belongs - specifically to print out Enviro fees.

I noticed when I set up the Enviro Jurisdiction that I had the choice of selecting "Total" or "Line Item" in OE 8.1C. That is a nice option so that each company can choose to display the levy the way they want to. We prefer using "Total" to draw less attention to it.

With that said, we would take any solution that Softrak decides on so long as we can accomodate multiple provinces and an ever growing list of designated items. We also need some way to get detailed monthly reports since each province requires that as well. I put together a Gridview using "*SR Trans w AR, OE Head, IC" that I think might do the trick. So the biggest problem is the inability to accomodate multiple provinces.

How long are we realistically looking at for a Softrak to have a solution to this? Are you considering more cost fields in IC or do you have another approach in mind?

Hi Susan,

You have created a dilemma.

Addressing this change for you is more than a week's worth of unscheduled R&D, QA and documentation time, and you are our only client in need of this change. However, we are currently working on some changes to Inventory at the moment, so the timing is right.

Send me a personal e-mail if you'd be willing for us to undertake this on a custom basis, if that's the only way we see of meeting your needs.

I also have the same problem with multiple provinces. Each province charges a different rate for different containers. Also, BC charges HST on all fees while the other western provinces do not charge GST or HST.

Adagio Order Entry 8.1D and Adagio Inventory 8.1C support up to 15 different (environmental) levy charges per item. These are defined in the IC company profile, and the amounts added to each item as required. They are applied in Order Entry via the tax table setup.

These versions (or later, for future upgrades) are required. With older versons, you can use the User Defined Costs to accomplish this, but there are only 2 fields here.

As for BC charging HST on all fees, you just make the environmental levy taxable in the tax table setup.

If you need assistance is setting up your tax tables, you may want to contact your Adagio consultant.

I've looked at the Tax Levies that Softrak added to IC Company Profile and how they can be accessed in OE Tax Groups. I fail to see how this set up can handle enviro levies. Unless there were 15 available cost fields in each IC item, I cannot see any way that this set up can possible work.

billythekidfan: Our system is currently set up this way to handle Recycle Fees:

In Inventory we set up Categories (i.e. RCO for Ontario, RCA for Alberta, etc). In each category we set up item codes for each product group (i.e. RC AB-Desktop @ $10, RC AB-Laptop @ $5, etc.). On each item in inventory that is applicable to a recyle fee we add an alert that says, "add recycle fee". When processing orders, the person enterring the order is required to select the appropriate fee for the appropriate province. I also created a gridviews for each province where I can select a time period (i.e. Jan 1 to Jan 31) and it will list all the activity on the category for the particular province you want to report. This will give you the details you need when remitting the fees.

There are up to 15 new cost fields available for each IC item, depending on how many you define in the Inventory Company Profile. Enough for one per province.
Then define the Base in the OE Tax Table as the specific new cost field.
You probably will want to create a different OE tax table for each province.

A demonstration of setting up the items for this type of environmental levy is shown in the webinar for the Adagio Inventory 8.1C upgrade, starting around the 17:30 mark of the video.

My apologies. I see the cost fields are available under Edit Item on the Pricing tab. This is great! Question - does the webinar show a method of producing monthly reporting for the Recycle authorities? Once I have this last part of the equation solved, I will be able to implement Enviro Levies to be charged using Tax Groups which I think will be a far superior system of handling the enviro fees to using alerts and item codes.

I would like the option to have either as a line item or a total as my client requires each enviro fee and deposit be attached to each product on the order entry line.

I believe that it can be set up either way in the tax table.