What is Automated Sales Tax?
Automated Sales Tax (AST) is a feature in Housecall Pro that helps automatically calculate the correct sales tax for your jobs and invoices.
Instead of manually selecting tax rates, AST determines the correct amount based on your customer's service address.
This feature is being rolled out in phases and may not be available in your account just yet.
Getting Started
How Do I Set Up Automated Sales Tax?
Go to Price Book > Tax Rates. If AST is available for your account, you'll see an option to get started.
During setup, select the states where you collect sales tax:
If you only work in your home state, tap Finish to complete setup.
If you work across multiple states, add each state where you have sales tax obligations, then tap Finish.
Once setup is complete, AST will be toggled on, and your registered states will be listed. You can add or remove states or turn AST off at any time from this screen.
📌 Note: If your home state doesn't have a statewide sales tax (Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire, or Oregon), it won't appear as an option. If your business is based in one of those states and you do business elsewhere, you'll see an empty list. Just add the states where you collect sales tax and continue.
What do I need before I can set up AST?
You need to have payments connected to your Housecall Pro account. AST is currently available to payments-onboarded Pros.
How AST works
How is my tax rate calculated?
AST determines the right tax rate based on:
Your customer's service address
Whether the line item is marked as taxable or non-taxable
Item price and quantity
Any discounts applied (tax is calculated after discounts)
What if my customer is outside a state I'm registered in?
No tax will be calculated. AST only applies to customers in jurisdictions where you're registered to collect sales tax.
Can I override the automated tax?
Yes. You can:
Toggle a specific job or line item as non-taxable
Select a rate from your existing Price Book tax rates
Turn AST off entirely from Price Book > Tax Rates
Does AST work on Estimates?
Not yet. Estimates still use your Price Book tax rates. Once an estimate is converted to a job, AST will apply automatically.
Quickbooks Users
Does AST work with QuickBooks?
Yes, for most QuickBooks-connected Pros. AST is compatible with your QuickBooks integration as long as QuickBooks Automated Sales Tax (QBO AST) is enabled in your QuickBooks account. If you're not sure whether QBO AST is on, check your QuickBooks Sales Tax settings. A small group of QuickBooks-connected Pros who have QuickBooks sales tax enabled but QBO AST turned off are not yet supported — we're working on a solution and expect to have it available in late April. If that's your setup, you'll see a message in HCP explaining what to do when the time comes.
What configuration do I need in QuickBooks?
QuickBooks Automated Sales Tax must be enabled in your QBO account before you can activate HCP AST. You'll need to complete QBO's AST setup flow directly in QuickBooks — this can't be done from HCP. Once QBO AST is set up, you're good to go. HCP will send your tax totals to QuickBooks, and QuickBooks will handle its own jurisdiction-level breakdown from there.
What happens if I turn off QuickBooks AST after I've already set up HCP AST?
Turning off QBO AST while HCP AST is active will break the sync between HCP and QuickBooks. You may run into:
Sync errors — jobs fail to push to QuickBooks ("MissingTaxRate" errors)
Duplicate tax rates — AST tax rates may be created multiple times in your QuickBooks account
Invoice mismatches — the tax total in HCP won't match what's in QuickBooks
Overpayments — payments collected through HCP may show as overpayments in QuickBooks
If this happens, re-enable QuickBooks Automated Sales Tax in your QBO account. Once QuickBooks is back in a compatible state, HCP will detect it and resume AST automatically; you won't need to go through onboarding again. If you're still running into issues after re-enabling QBO AST, reach out to Support, and we'll help sort it out.
Tax Reporting
How do I get my sales tax report?
Go to Price Book > Tax Rates and click Export tax report. Select a date range, and we'll email you a CSV with:
A tax summary by jurisdiction
Line-level tax details for each transaction
This report is designed to help with manual filing or review.
How is the reporting period calculated?
Reports are based on accrual accounting, using the invoice creation date. For progress invoices, the report date is tied to when the first invoice was created for that job.
FAQs
I work in multiple states — how does AST handle that?
Once you've added the states where you collect sales tax during setup, AST automatically applies the right rate for each customer based on their service address. You can add or remove states at any time from Price Book > Tax Rates.
My home state doesn't have a sales tax. What happens?
If your business address is in a state that doesn't collect sales tax (Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire, or Oregon), that state won't appear as an option during setup. If you only do business in that state, AST won't apply to your jobs. If you operate in other states, too, just add those states, and you're good to go.
Can I mark certain items as non-taxable?
Yes. You can mark individual line items as non-taxable at the job level, and AST will skip those items. Some items may also be automatically excluded if they're considered non-taxable in your customer's jurisdiction.
Can I still use my Price Book tax rates?
Yes. AST doesn't replace your Price Book rates — it runs alongside them. You can switch to a Price Book rate on any job, or turn AST off entirely if you prefer.
What tax categories are used for my services and materials?
Currently, AST uses default tax codes for all line items. More specific tax code mapping per service or material is on the roadmap.
Need help or have questions?
We're here for you! Chat with Support using the Blue Chat Bubble in your Housecall Pro account, or give us a call at (858) 842-5746.