Business details and tax rates

The Business & tax tab holds how your prices are taxed, the tax rates they use and who you are as a business. Open Settings, then Business & tax in the Prices & payments group. The same group holds the Price list and Seasons; the Activity log sits in the Account group.

Prices and tax

The first card, Prices and tax, tells DivePilot how to read every price you enter. You choose one of two options:

• Prices include tax: the price you enter is what the guest pays, tax already inside.
• Tax is added on top: the guest pays your price plus tax.

Each option shows a worked example in your currency at your default tax rate; if that rate is 0 %, as in a new dive centre, or you may not see the tax rates, the card describes the option in words.

Choosing the other option saves it at once, with no Save changes button. Once any price exists, a window asks first, explains that your prices keep their numbers while what the guest pays changes from now on, and shows the new option. Press Add tax on top or Include tax to confirm, or Cancel to keep the choice.

A new dive centre starts with Prices include tax, except in the United States and Canada, where prices are usually shown without tax. The top of the Price list says which way it is set, and the estimate on your booking page says "Prices include tax." under the total; when your prices are before tax and there is tax to add, it adds a Tax line and says "Item prices are before tax. The estimated total includes tax."

Tax rates

Every price uses one of the rates in the Tax rates card, default first. A line under each name says how many prices it taxes, such as "Taxes 12 prices"; the default adds how many of them have no rate of their own. Press Add rate at the top right, type a Name and a Rate from 0 to 100 with at most two decimals (a hint says "Use 0 for prices without tax."), and press Add rate again to save. Each row has Edit, Make default, Archive and, for people who may see histories, History. Changing the percentage of a saved rate in Edit shows a note with the number of prices taxed at the new rate from now on.

• A new dive centre starts with one rate called Standard at 0%, marked Default. Edit it to your real rate; until then a note above the list says so, with an Edit rate button.
• A price without a rate of its own uses the Default rate. In the price list its Tax rate column then stays empty: the top of the price list names the default rate once, and only a row taxed at another rate shows its rate. Press Make default on another rate to change it: if prices follow the current default, a window first says how many switch to the new one; if none do, it changes at once. There is always exactly one default.
• A rate cannot be deleted, because prices and the history of changes point to it. Press Archive instead: the window says how many prices use the rate (they keep it) and that you cannot pick it for new prices, and the message afterwards offers Undo. Show archived (1), under the list, shows the archived rates, marked Archived. Their line still counts the prices that use them. Their row has only Restore, for people who may archive rates, and History; Restore brings the rate back at once as a normal rate, never the default.
• The default rate cannot be archived. Make another rate the default first.

Business details

The last card, Business details, has three groups: Legal identity (the Registered for VAT / GST switch first, shown only where DivePilot issues tax invoices, and in French Polynesia, where the switch decides the franchise en base note, and in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Cyprus, where it decides whether your invoices show VAT, then Legal name, Tax ID / VAT number and, in Thailand, Branch: Head office or a five-digit branch number), Address (Address, Address line 2, Postal code, City, Country) and Receipts (Receipt footer). Country is shown for reference: it was set when your dive centre was created and cannot be changed here. Receipt footer takes one short line, such as your bank details. The Invoices and payments step of the setup guide asks for the legal name, the address and the tax details too, and saves them here, see The setup guide step by step.

Where DivePilot issues tax invoices, and in French Polynesia, where the switch decides the franchise en base note, and in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Cyprus, where it decides whether your invoices show VAT, the card also has a switch, Registered for VAT / GST, with a hint such as "Switch on if your business is registered to charge VAT or GST. DivePilot then issues tax invoices and asks for your tax ID. Switched off, it issues invoices." It is off by default. Off, DivePilot issues plain invoices and needs only your legal name and address; the tax ID and the branch are not required. On, it issues tax invoices and needs your tax ID, and in Thailand the branch. In Japan a tax invoice carries your registration number (T-number), and the invoice stays a plain invoice until you enter it. In Sri Lanka only a buyer with a TIN gets a tax invoice. Switch it on only if your business is registered, see What your documents are in your country. Which countries those are is listed on Invoicing by country. In the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Cyprus the switch is named "Registered for VAT": on, your invoices show VAT and your VAT number is required; off, they show no VAT at all, as for a UK business below the threshold, a Dutch business in the small business scheme (KOR) or a Cypriot small business.

Press Save changes. The button only becomes active once something has changed; from then on the bottom of the card says Unsaved changes, and Discard puts the saved values back.

Your guests never see this page, but the bill's PDF and every invoice, credit note and receipt carry your trade name, legal name, address, tax ID, branch and receipt footer from it, plus your phone, email, website, logo and accent colour. Where your country needs some of these on an invoice, DivePilot refuses an invoice, and a close that would issue one, until they are filled in, see What your documents are in your country. The refusal's Open Business & tax link opens this tab on the missing field. A document keeps the details it was issued with: changing them later changes only documents issued afterwards.

Who can change what

Looking and changing are separate permissions, grouped under Business & tax in the permission editor. See Permissions explained.

• The Admin preset can view and change everything on this tab.
• Manager can see everything on this tab but not change it.
• Staff and the other built-in presets do not get the tab.

The business details permissions cover the Prices and tax and Business details cards; the tax rates have their own. Someone who can see only one of the two sees just that part. Where someone may look but not change, Prices and tax shows which option is in force without offering the other, and the Business details fields are read-only, with no Save changes or Discard. To change a person's access, see Roles & presets.

Note: Once any price exists, the currency on the Dive centre tab can no longer be changed. Check it before you enter prices. See Dive centre details, timezone and currency.

Note: Once bills exist, prices and tax are locked: the Prices include tax choice can no longer change, a rate's percentage can no longer be edited once any line, open or closed, voided or not, has used that rate (the rate says "Bills use this rate. Archive it and add a new rate to change the percentage."); rates no line has used stay editable. The count of lines on open bills it shows is for information. Archive the rate and add a new one instead.