Appliance repair
Does Jobber allow me to apply 5% GST to labour charges and 12% GST + PST to parts? Since we are in British Columbia, Canada, we have two different tax rates that need to be applied separately.
Forum Discussion
3 Replies
You bet! Split taxes can be a headache, but setting this up in Jobber is actually super quick once you create a couple of custom tax groups.
Here is the easiest way to do it:
Step 1: Set up your base rates
Head over to Settings > Tax settings and create two individual rates:
- GST: 5%
- PST: 7%
Step 2: Build your two Tax Groups
Now combine them so Jobber knows how to apply them:
- Labour ("GST Only"): Add just the GST (5%) rate.
- Parts ("GST + PST"): Select both GST (5%) and PST (7%). Jobber will automatically combine them to hit that 12%.
Step 3: Put it to work
When you're writing up quotes or invoices, just pick GST Only for your labour line items and GST + PST for parts.
Time-saving tip: Assign these tax groups directly to your items in your Products & Services list. That way, Jobber automatically tags the right tax every time you add labour or parts to a job!
Your customers get a crystal-clear breakdown on their invoices, and Jobber’s Taxation Report keeps track of both taxes separately so filing at tax time is painless.
Nice response travisshepherd
I think the issue is the quotes and invoices are all written as one. So rather than line by line items the entire invoice is a combination of parts and labor.
There are a lot of companies we advise that don't break their invoicing out. Take example 1 I made for a landscaping company:Here you cannot apply PST and GST appropriately, but this is the invoicing/quote style of choice for many companies. When advising companies, we try to get them to do their invoicing as you described so it looks like example 2:
The total is the same $2000. Doing the line by line has a lot of benefits (as you likely know) but that takes an entire mindset shift as well as extra time to produce these types of invoices. Once the shift is made then the GST and PST can be applied correctly. This is at least our experience with trying to separate the PST and GST. Most companies have decided to pay the PST from their supplier and then marked up the parts on their invoicing.
Nano-Repair Do your invoices look like example 1 or example 2?
travisshepherd with example 1 are you able to breakout the GST & PST like you stated? Or is the issue what I'm running into which is everything is lumped together and not broken out?
Hello Nano-Repair
We actually just ran into this with one of our Jobber clients in BC. In their case, the PST they pay on parts/materials is built into the cost of the end product, so they don't charge the customer PST again and end up effectively collecting the tax twice.
I think a similar approach to the PST could apply to you, assuming you're paying PST upfront on the parts/materials like our current client. If you haven't already, I'd definitely talk to your CPA about how the PST should be handled in your specific situation.
That said, yes, Jobber does allow you to set up both GST and PST and apply them when needed. The limitation is that it has to be done on a line-by-line basis. So, you could have labour with only GST applied and parts with both GST and PST applied. If your invoices use all-encompassing line items that combine labour and parts, you won't be able to separate the taxes appropriately.
Let me know if you have anymore questions.
Matt
Kalea Consulting
