Using a Third-Party Tax Calculator

Using SuiteScript, you can send order information to a third-party remote server, and then override the tax settings on the sales order based on calculations returned by a third-party.

Setup

The only setup required for this sample script is to replace the sample URL in the script with the actual URL provided by your third-party tax calculator.

Create the Code

          //BEGIN CUSTOM FUNCTIONS FOR THIRD-PARTY TAX

function customOnChange(type, name, linenum)
{ 

        

          // With third-party tax calculations, it is important to capture and override any tax setting.
// The if statement below ensures that tax settings are overridden,but use this technique with
// care, as the setTaxAmount() function also sets the tax. It is critical not to trigger a
// changeField event in this function, so note that the nlapiSetFieldValue is called with the
// appropriate flags.    
if (name == 'promocode' || name == 'taxrate')
   {
      //alert('Onchange called for '+name);
      setTaxAmount();
   }
}
 
function customRecalc(type, action)
{ 

        

          // In SuiteScript for the web store, action can only be 'commit' or 'remove.'    
if (type == 'item')
   {
      setTaxAmount();
   }
} 
// END CUSTOM FUNCTIONS FOR THIRD-PARTY TAX 

        

          // BEGIN THIRD PARTY TAX  

function setTaxAmount()
{ 

        

          // Construct an array of values needed by the third-party tax provider to calculate tax. 

   var postArgs = new Array();
   postArgs['zipCode'] = nlapiGetField('shipzip');
   postArgs['saleTotal'] = nlapiGetField('subtotal'); 

        

          //Replace the URL below with your third-party tax provider.    

var response = nlapiRequestURL("http://www.thirdpartytaxcalculator.com", postArgs, null, null);
   var body = response.getBody(); 

        

          // Parse tax amount from the body. Your approach depends on the format of your third-party tax provider.
// The current script only sets the tax rate of the sales order and does not change the taxable
// status of either the customer or any of the items in the order. But, even though the taxable
// flags are not overridden by this sample script, you can override these settings if necessary.
 
   var taxRate = body; 

        

          // Note here not to use a field-changed event. Firing a field-changed
//event may cause an infinite loop since a change to tax-rate will alter itself.    

nlapiSetFieldValue('taxrate', taxRate, false /*fire field change*/, true /*synchronous*/);
}
// END THIRD-PARTY TAX 

        

Deploy Your Script to the Shopping Cart

NetSuite recommends that you test your script thoroughly before running it in the shopping cart. You must follow a series of steps to load the script into your NetSuite account, and then run the script for testing purposes.

For details, see Deploying and Running Scriptable Cart.

General Notices