Step 1: Create a TaxCloud account

Step 2: Configure your TaxCloud account

Now that you have created your TaxCloud account, there are a few important matters to take care of. Please log in to your TaxCloud account and complete all of the items below.

1. Add your website. While logged in, go to Settings → Stores. If your store is not listed on this page, you will need to add it by clicking “Add Store” and following the on-screen prompt.
2. Select a default TIC for your website. To ensure that your customers are taxed correctly, you will want to set a default Taxability Information Code (TIC) for your website. To do so, click the icon next to “Default TIC” under the entry for your store on the “Websites” page.
3. Add business locations. If your business has a physical presence in the United States, it is imperative that you register your business locations, including stores, warehouses, and distribution facilities, with TaxCloud. To do so, navigate to Settings → Locations and click “Add Location.”
4. Select your tax states. Navigate to Settings → Tax States. You will be presented with a map of the United States. Click the map to highlight those states where you would like to collect sales tax.

Step 3: Upload and activate Simple Sales Tax

Now that your TaxCloud account is ready to go, it’s time to install Simple Sales Tax. To get started, log in to WordPress and navigate to Plugins → Add New → Upload. Find the .ZIP archive that was sent to you via email and wait for the upload to be completed. Finally, click “Activate” to complete the installation process.

Step 4: Configure Simple Sales Tax

You’re almost there! Just a few more steps and you can kiss your sales tax worries goodbye.

1. Keep or delete existing tax rates. If there are one or more rates in your tax tables, you will be presented with a notice like the one below. Click the relevant link to keep or delete existing tax rates. In most scenarios, you should choose to delete existing rates.

2. Navigate to WooCommerce → Settings → Integrations → Simple Sales Tax.
3. Fill in the following fields that can be found in TaxCloud → Settings → Stores
   1. TaxCloud API ID: Enter the API ID for your website.
   2. TaxCloud API Key: Enter the API Key for your website.

      

       

   3. Copy-n-paste your TaxCloud API credentials from TaxCloud into the Simple Sales Tax configuration panel.
   4. Business Addresses: Enter the addresses of any business locations that you registered with TaxCloud in Step 2.3. If you have multiple business locations, you must also select a default address to be used on your site.
   5. Exemption Settings: If you have tax-exempt customers, including schools, churches, or wholesale purchasers, then you should enable exemptions on your site.

Step 5: Configure your products

If you sell products that do not fall into the category indicated by your site’s Default TIC, you will need to assign appropriate TICs to these products. For your convenience, Simple Sales Tax provides three methods by which you can do this:

1. Category-level TIC assignment: To assign a TIC to all products in a category, navigate to Products > Categories and select the category in question. Click the button next to “Taxability Information Code,” make your selection, and click “Save Changes.”
2. Bulk TIC assignment: To assign a TIC to a group of products, start by navigating to the Products screen and ticking the checkbox next to each product. Next, select “Edit” under “Bulk Actions” and click “Apply.” You will then see an option to set a TIC for the selected products.
3. Product-level TIC assignment: To assign a TIC to a single product, edit the product and scroll until you see the “Product Data” metabox (see below). Click “Select,” make your selection, and update the product to save your changes.

Step 5b: For multi-state businesses only

If you ship items from more than one business location, you also need to indicate the locations from which each item can be sent. For our purposes, we will refer to these locations as “Shipping Origins.”

By default, all products in your store will have only one shipping origin, namely your site’s default address. If you plan to ship an item from a location other than your site default or to distribute it from multiple locations, you will need to set its Shipping Origin Addresses using the interface found on the Edit Product screen:

Step 6: Testing

Now that Simple Sales Tax is installed, you should perform several test transactions to ensure that everything is working properly. To do so, add some items to your cart, and complete the checkout process. After checking out, don’t forget to return to your WooCommerce -> Orders page to mark your test order as “completed.” To do so, simply click the button depicted in this screenshot:

While testing, you may review your transactions by logging in to TaxCloud and navigating to the “Transactions” tab. It is imperative that you complete at least one test order.

Step 7: Go Live!

Now that you have tested your website and verified that Simple Sales Tax is working properly, it is time to switch your TaxCloud account from test mode to live mode. To do so, log in to TaxCloud and you should see the “Go Live Advisor” and click “Go Live” – if you don’t see a Go Live button, you should see instructions on what needs to be done in order to complete your account setup.

That’s it, you’re done!