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United States

Invoices with your state’s sales tax or, from Starter, the combined rate of your client’s exact address.

What it is

In the United States there is no tax invoice filed with an authority: Cord issues a standard invoice with a sequential number, each line item’s sales tax, and both parties’ details. What does change by place is sales tax, which is the sum of the state, county, city, and special district rates. Cord gives you two ways to charge it:

  • Catalog rate: your state’s base rate, seeded when you declare your state, plus any you add by hand.
  • Sales tax by address (from Starter): each line item takes the combined rate of the client’s address, with one row per jurisdiction, and the sale is recorded for your filing.
In the United States
Default currency USD
Tax Sales tax by state; combined by address from Starter
Tax ID EIN / Tax ID, validated (nine digits and an assigned prefix)
Document Invoice and credit note (Commercial invoice in the editor)
Authority Not applicable to the invoice; you file sales tax in each state
PDF language Your client’s or, if they have none, your account’s
Online payments Card, ACH or wire transfer with a reference, and ACH bank debit (USD) with Cord Payments

Requirements

  • Plan: any to invoice (Free: 10 invoices per month). Starter or higher for sales tax by address.
  • Your state in Settings › Tax profile: the starter catalog comes from it.
  • For sales tax by address: an active Cord Payments account, your complete address, and the states where you have a permit to collect.
  • Permissions: Settings for the tax profile and taxes; Quotes to issue; Collections to void and credit.

Set up your account

  1. In Settings › Tax profile, complete your legal name, EIN, address, city, state (a selector with the 50 states and D.C.), ZIP, and invoice prefix.
  2. Open Settings › Taxes. If your catalog is empty, click Add the base rate for your state: Cord adds Sales tax <state> <rate>% and Exempt / Resale.
  3. If you will use sales tax by address, first activate your account in Settings › Payments › Account and continue with the section below.
Settings › Tax profile, "Invoice identity" section of an account in United States: legal name, tax ID, address and invoice prefix.

Catalog sales tax

The seeded rate is the minimum statewide rate: the state rate plus the local tax the law makes mandatory across the state (that is why California is 7.25% and not 6%). It does not include county or city. A state with no statewide sales tax (Oregon, Montana, New Hampshire, Delaware, Alaska) only gets Exempt / Resale: Cord does not make up a 0% consumption tax.

Settings › Taxes of an account in United States, California: the starter catalog Cord seeds, with 2 profiles, the default one marked and the note that rates apply per line.

If you don’t use the calculation by address, adjust the rate with your accountant to your location’s and add those of other jurisdictions where you sell.

Sales tax calculated from the client’s address is new. This feature is new and may not be enabled on your account yet. If you don’t see it, contact us.

Sales tax from the client’s address

With Calculate sales tax from the client’s address on in Settings › Taxes, each line of a quote or invoice for a client in the United States takes the combined rate of their address: state, county, city, and special districts. The calculation uses your registrations, not Cord’s: you are the one registered with each state, who collects, and who files.

  1. In Settings › Taxes, section Sales tax by address, enter your business address in full (street, city, state, and ZIP).
  2. Choose what you sell: general services, general tangible goods, software as a service for business use, or general electronically supplied services. It decides whether a state taxes it.
  3. Check the states where you collect sales tax, only those that gave you a permit.
  4. Turn the switch on and click Save. If something is missing (plan, payments account, address, or at least one state), the screen says what, and the switch does not stay on.
Pacific Ridge Supply Co.'s Settings › Taxes with "Calculate sales tax from the client’s address" on: business address in Los Angeles, what it sells, the states where it collects (California and Nevada checked) and the Professional plan quota, 25 invoices a month with 7 used.

What the document prints

Totals of invoice INV-000318 from Pacific Ridge Supply Co. to a client in Los Angeles: one row per jurisdiction (California 6%, Los Angeles County 0.25%, and Los Angeles Special Districts 3.25%) adding up to $1,178.00 USD on $12,400.00 USD.
  • One row per jurisdiction on the PDF, the client’s link, the preview, and the detail: for example, California 6%, Los Angeles County 0.25%, and the special districts. The sum is exactly the tax charged.
  • The line item column shows the combined legal rate (9.5% in that example).
  • State where you don’t collect: the line carries 0% and the document says “No obligation to collect sales tax in Texas”. It is not an error.
  • Sale the state does not tax (for example, a service where services pay no sales tax): the line carries 0% and the document says “Not subject to sales tax in” that state.
  • Exempt client: the line carries 0% and the document cites their certificate.
  • The rate and breakdown are frozen on the document: if your client changes address later, what was issued is not recalculated.

When the document is not saved

The calculation fails closed: if it cannot be calculated with certainty, the quote or invoice is not saved and the editor tells you what is missing, instead of using an estimated rate. It happens when:

  • the client has no state or no five-digit ZIP (street and city improve accuracy);
  • the address cannot be located;
  • the client is marked exempt without a certificate, or with an expired certificate;
  • the document has more than 100 line items;
  • you have no active payments account, your address is incomplete, or you checked no state;
  • the calculation is not available at that moment or a usage limit was reached.

A draft without a client uses the catalog rate; to send it you need a client.

Exempt clients

On the client’s profile, section Sales tax exemption (US businesses only), mark the client as exempt (resale, nonprofit, government) and enter their certificate: number, issuing state, and expiration. Without a certificate number the exemption is not saved; with an expired certificate, the document is not saved.

The recorded sale

Each issued invoice and each paid quote in a state where you collect is recorded once for your sales tax filing. A quote and the invoice that comes from it are the same sale: they are recorded only once. Voiding an invoice reverses its whole sale, unless that sale is already paid on its quote.

Quota and overage

Plan Invoices with automatic sales tax per month Each additional one
Free Not included Not available
Starter 10 0.75 USD · 15.00 MXN · 0.70 EUR
Pro 25 0.75 USD · 15.00 MXN · 0.70 EUR
Scale 60 0.75 USD · 15.00 MXN · 0.70 EUR
Developer 150 0.75 USD · 15.00 MXN · custom in EUR
  • Each sale recorded in a state where you collect counts once. Previews do not count, a sale to a state where you don’t collect does not either, and voiding an invoice does not give the unit back.
  • The price of an additional one is charged in your Cord subscription’s currency.
  • Today that overage is not billed yet: when you reach the included amount, Cord asks you to upgrade your plan or enter the rate by hand. A sale that arrives without quota is not lost: it waits and is recorded automatically when your quota renews or you upgrade, and Settings › Plans & subscription says how many are waiting.
  • Cord covers the cost of the calculation; your plan only counts recorded sales.

Details in Your Cord subscription.

Client and product data

  • Client: country United States, state and five-digit ZIP (required for the calculation by address), street and city recommended, optional EIN, and, if applicable, their exemption with a certificate.
  • Product: it carries no sales tax classification of its own: classification is one per business (what you chose in What you sell).

Void or correct

An invoice is voided from its detail if it has no payments applied; with payments, it is corrected with a full or partial credit note. Voiding an invoice with sales tax by address reverses its recorded sale.

Get paid online

  • Card with Cord Payments on the quote link and the invoice link.
  • Bank transfer with a reference in USD, which you turn on with Automatic ACH and wire in Settings › Payments › Payment methods: your client transfers by ACH or domestic wire (never international) to an account and routing number of their own, with a reference per payment, and Cord reconciles it on its own. It’s offered on the invoice link and the quote’s payment page if the document has a linked client. This feature is new: see Bank transfer with a reference.
  • ACH bank debit in USD: you turn it on in Settings › Payments › Payment methods. It takes up to four business days to confirm and only supports full refunds. This feature is new.
  • Outside MXN, Cord charges no platform fee. See Fees.
  • Your payouts arrive at your account with a routing number (ABA), validated with its check digit, and an account number. See Payouts.

In Settings › Payments › Payment methods, the transfer (Automatic ACH and wire) and the bank debit (ACH bank debit) are two separate switches: you can offer one without the other. Here the transfer is active and the debit is off.

Materiales del Valle USA's (Laredo, Texas) Settings › Payments › Payment methods with an active payments account. Under Online payments, each method with its fee: Credit and debit card: Active; Automatic ACH and wire: Active; ACH bank debit: Off; automatic payments allowed; and the transfer to your account with the bank, Routing number (ABA) · Account number and beneficiary. At the top, "Your client will see: Credit and debit card, Automatic ACH and wire and Transfer to your account."

On the link of an invoice in USD, your client chooses Bank transfer and sees a routing number (ABA) and account number of their own, with no SWIFT:

Link for Materiales del Valle USA's invoice INV-000214 with Bank transfer chosen in the selector and, below, the Bank transfer instructions: the reference ZQ4M8T2WXK highlighted with its Copy button and the note to put it in the transfer's reference field, the Amount $11,641.81 USD, Account holder Materiales del Valle USA LLC, Routing number (ABA) 110000000, Account number 000123456789, the note about transferring less or more, and the Print or save PDF button.

On the quote’s payment page, the deposit, the balance, or each installment has its own reference, and your client can send the instructions to their email with Email these to me:

Payment page for Materiales del Valle USA's (United States) quote COT-0214: a $3,750.00 USD deposit on a $12,500.00 USD total, with Bank transfer chosen in the selector and the bank transfer instructions: the reference B2TK8WQ5MZ highlighted with Copy and the note to put it in the transfer's reference field, the Amount $3,750.00 USD, Account holder Materiales del Valle USA LLC, Routing number (ABA) 110000000, Account number 000123456789, each with Copy, and the Print or save PDF and Email these to me buttons.

What Cord does not cover yet

  • Filing reports for sales tax: Cord records each sale, but does not show you the report by state yet.
  • Partial credit note on an invoice with sales tax by address: it copies the breakdown to print it, but does not partially reverse the recorded sale.
  • Classification by product: today it is one per business.
  • The API and the MCP server do not expose the client’s exemption or the breakdown by jurisdiction (the documents they create do calculate by address).

Common problems

My catalog is empty. Add your state in Settings › Tax profile and go back to Settings › Taxes to add the base rate.

I can’t turn on the calculation by address. The screen says what is missing: Starter plan or higher, an active payments account, a complete address, or at least one state.

My quote is not saved and says the ZIP is missing. The client needs a state and a five-digit ZIP on their profile.

A line came out at 0%. The client is in a state where you did not check that you collect, or is exempt. The document says so in its notes.

I reached my plan’s quota. Upgrade your plan, or turn the automatic calculation off and enter the rate by hand until next month.