Disclaimer: You should get tax advice from your accountant or tax adviser. These instructions are for the technical configuration of A2X.

If you have used the A2X Accounts and Tax mapping assisted setup feature, then your base mappings will have been done for you. You don’t actually need to visit the accounts and tax mapping page, you can start sending entries to your accounting software. Click here to view Send your first A2X Invoice or Journal [support article].

Some users wish to further customize their mapping and get more granular with their data. To do this you can visit the Accounts and Tax Mapping page and modify the mappings that A2X has done.

This article covers a range of topics applicable to different regions and sales channels. You may choose to skip past some of the sections if they are not applicable to your sales channel, region, or mappings.

The purpose of the onboarding questionnaire is to fully automate the accounts and tax mapping process. From there, you can view the mappings that A2X has created and customize them to your needs.

Visit the Accounts and Tax mapping page by clicking on the tab in the main navigation.

On the mapping page, you will notice there are filters to organize the data. Because A2X offers a lot of granularity, it’s likely you will see many lines of transaction mappings. This can seem like a lot of information, but the great news is that you can use the filters to view just the data you need to.

You can filter by categories and transactions. For how to use this page, including how to apply bulk actions, click here to view the A2X Mapping Page Tips and Tricks [support article].

The first time you visit the Accounts and Tax Mapping page, you will see an onboarding questionnaire that asks you a series of questions. A2X will then automatically suggest the required Chart of Accounts and apply the tax rate to all of your transaction lines.

By now, you should have already completed the questionnaire. If you haven’t then click here to view An Overview of the A2X Accounts and Taxes Mapping Assisted Setup [support article].

If you would like to redo the onboarding questionnaire, this can be done by clicking 'Update Questionnaire' in the top corner of the screen.

Please do keep in mind that by doing this, you will reset all of your current mappings.

If you need to reset your mappings you can clear all of the mapped lines by following these steps:

Then scroll to the bottom of the page and make sure you have all entries displaying on the page:

Then at the top of the page, select the top check box to select all transactions:

Under the bulk actions, you need to select 'Remove account':

Then do the same under tax rates and select 'Remove tax rate':

Then click 'save mappings'.

On the mappings page, you will see the:

Transaction - A2X groups all of your transactions into categories, such as sales, commissions and selling fees, adjustments, fulfillment and warehousing, and so on. Think of this as the transaction group.

Click here for

Transaction Details - This is the explanation of the specific transaction provided by the sales channel, for example, here you might see what type of fee it was, whether the line included tax, etc.

Country - This is where the order was shipped to.

Marketplace - This is what marketplace the transaction occurred on.

If you see NA for either country or marketplace, it means there was no data available from the sales channel for this specific transaction line.

Alternatively, you might see unknown’. Click here to view Unknown Country transactions in A2X, what does it mean and how do I map these transactions? [support article].

Account - This is which Chart of Account or General Ledger this transaction will be posted to in your account software.

Tax Rate - This is what tax rate your accounting software will apply to this transaction. This is most applicable for sellers outside of North America.

The assisted setup will have mapped all of these lines for you so that all transactions have an account and a rate applied.

There may be lines that say EU and Non-EU countries, these lines are for users who want to customize mapping for EU and Non-EU sales or tax rates. This is particularly important for users who need to generate financial reports that include this level of country information

If you don’t sell in these countries, then you do not need to worry about these lines. This is here for the future if you begin to ship orders outside of your country. The income will still be grouped as sales, but the tax rate will be set to zero-rated as a default for you. If you need to make any changes to the default, these mappings can always be updated. If a customer from one of these countries does make a purchase from you, the data will be mapped to the account and tax rate as set out by this transaction mapping.

Mirror mappings are quite a complex concept, where A2X maps your sales and tax lines to the same sales account and applies a tax rate to both. This method will send your sales and tax as a tax inclusive transaction to the accounting system, which allows the accounting system to properly allocate the taxes to the correct tax buckets for reporting purposes. This mirror mappings method depends on your region and sales channel.

If mirror mapping is needed in your account, the assisted setup will automatically map this for you and you don’t need to worry about it.

The reason the mappings are broken down like this is that the data A2X receives from some sales channels is already broken down. For example, on a transaction, A2X might receive the sales as one line and the tax as a separate line, because that is how it is stored in the sales channel. However, if your accounting software is going to apply a tax rate, this needs to be applied to the total value, not just to the value that has already been taxed.

As mentioned, the assisted setup will map these lines for you and if you have any questions, please reach out to the customer success team.

Click here to view Mapping in A2X to include or exclude transactions from your tax module [support article].

If you’re looking closely at your Amazon, Walmart, eBay, or Etsy mappings then you might notice the transaction type ‘marketplace facilitator tax’ or ‘marketplace facilitator VAT’. This is where the marketplace collects and can sometimes even remit tax on the seller's behalf. It is part of new legislation in some countries and states.

If you have used the assisted setup A2X will track the marketplace facilitator tax for you. This means both the collection of tax and also the tax remittance will be tracked in your financials. A2X does this by using an Amazon Sales Tax account for the allocation of tax amounts and then this account will also be offset by what Amazon has remitted/paid on your behalf.

Click here to view What is Marketplace Facilitator Tax and how do I account for it? [support article]

The automapping rule sets the general rule of how you would like a transaction to be managed, for example, all sales going to a sales account.

Once you’ve completed the assisted setup, all of the necessary automapping rules will be set.

You also have control to drill down further and set more specific rules if you would like to split out different lines within a transaction type.

For example, if you would like different sales from different locations to go to different accounts, you can create separate rules for different transaction details.

When reviewing the accounts and tax mapping page, some of the automapping rules may have been left blank, it is fine to leave them this way. Blank automapping rules are to catch if something new happens in your data.

As a default, in Amazon, there are 23 automapping rules and in Shopify, there are 14 automapping rules. You can also enable region-based rules for additional granularity and flexibility, this will increase the number of rules you can set.

Click here to view Automapping Rules: how to create and set your rules in A2X [support article].

When reviewing the accounts and tax mapping page, you might notice that some automapping rules don’t have a tax rate mapped. These lines will be highlighted and it is fine to leave them this way. Blank automapping rules will allow you to catch if there are new transaction types in your data that do not fall into the main categories we currently have. Ecommerce is changing all of the time and this is an intentional feature to catch a change that we haven’t recognized before it is sent to your accounting system

Essentially A2X has mapped all of your historical transaction types from the data in your sales channel, you will see separate automapping rules for all of these identified transaction types. It will just be the general overarching category rule that has been left blank. This way any new transaction type that doesn’t fit any of the pre-identified rules, will then fall into the general automapping rule.

Think of it as instructions; apply all of these pre-mapped rules to my transactions, but if something new comes up in my transactions that A2X hasn’t seen before, revert to the general rule and apply those mappings by default.

If the assisted setup tool was to auto-fill the tax rate for this line, then it would end up mapping a tax rate for these new transactions, which could be the wrong tax rate, and you the user may not have the opportunity to detect the change or make corrections as needed.

Do keep in mind that making changes to your mappings can affect the accuracy of your accounting entries and your financial statements. Additionally, if you make changes in the settings, this can reset the mapping, meaning you would need to go through the questionnaire again. With that in mind, you do have the option to update your mappings.

Once you have been through the assisted setup questionnaire once, you shouldn’t need to go through it again. If you want to reset your mappings you can click on the ‘update questionnaire’ button at the top of the page. In doing this, you will need to complete the entire questionnaire again and your most recent responses will be used to remap your accounts and taxes. Any customization you might have applied to your mappings will be reset.

If you have already mapped another A2X account and you would like to copy those mapping across to this account, then you can do so by selecting ‘Manage rules’ then ‘copy mapping tool’.

You will then get to choose which account you would like to copy mapping across from. Do keep in mind, this change can’t be reversed.

It is important to remember to save your mappings. If you don’t and you exit off the page, then your mapping changes will be lost. There is a ‘Save mappings’ button at both the top and bottom of the page. We suggest saving between every few changes.

If you update the accounts in your accounting software and you would like these to pull through into A2X, you can refresh the cache. This is done in settings, then connections.

If you do want to update some of your mappings, here are some mappings you can consider. They are all applicable to Shopify but you can view additional options in the Automapping Rules: how to create and set your rules in A2X [support article].

By default, A2X will create a clearing account that all of your payment gateways will be posted to. For easier reconciliation, you could consider setting up different clearing for each of your different payment gateways. These clearing accounts would need to be created in Xero. Then refresh your cache in A2X settings > connections. If you do choose to set up separate accounts, it would be a good idea to remove the pre-mapped account in the automapping rule.

This means that when you get a new gateway, you can log in and update the mapping as new gateways are detected, rather than having A2X auto-fill all gateways with the generic Shopify clearing account. From there you will be able to map each gateway to its own clearing account in the Accounts and Tax Mapping Page.

Click here to view How does A2X work with payment gateways and payment processors? [support article].

Reviewing ‘Other’ transactions

A2X will create a transaction type called ‘Other’ which is for miscellaneous income and expenses. This is also a place for transactions A2X may not have encountered before. By default, A2X will map these transactions to a Shopify Fees account. That might not be applicable to all of the transaction types that get grouped into this category. For example, currency conversion rounding and FX currency gains or losses. If you are customizing your data, it could be worth reviewing what transactions have been grouped into ‘Other’ to see whether there is a more appropriate account for them to be mapped to.

If you do choose to update some of your ‘Other’ transactions, it would be a good idea to remove the pre-mapped account in the automapping rule. This means that when you get a new ‘Other’ transaction, you can log in and update the mapping as it is detected, rather than having A2X auto-fill all other transactions with the generic Shopify fees account.

Sales source/marketplace

The assisted mapping tool will send all of your sales transaction lines to a Shopify Sales account within your Xero. This includes orders made on the online store, manual orders, and POS orders. You may be interested in seeing the breakdown of these sales locations in your financial statements. To do this, create the additional sales accounts in Xero. Then refresh your cache in A2X settings > connections. From there you will be able to map each sales transaction to different sales accounts in the Accounts and Tax Mapping Page.

If you do choose to update some of your sales mappings, it would be a good idea to remove the pre-mapped account in the automapping rule. This means that when you get a new ‘sales transaction, you can log in and update the mapping as it is detected, rather than having A2X auto-fill all other transactions with the generic sales account.

For more custom mappings, Click here to view Automapping Rules: how to create and set your rules in A2X [support article].

Do you need help with your A2X setup?

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