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Trams Back Office for Canadian Agencies

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Trams Back Office for Canadian Agencies

  • Updated

Overview

This article explains special setup requirements for Canadian Trams Back Office users. These settings allow agencies to properly track GST/HST taxes and certain provincial taxes and fees.

General Ledger

The default general ledger chart of accounts needs to be updated to reflect Canadian terminology and to have accounts for tracking GST/HST and QST.

Create general ledger accounts for GST/HST, QST, and OPC

Depending on your agency’s location, you may prefer to refer to taxes as HST or GST. In our examples, we are using HST, but use the proper terminology for your agency’s province.

We recommend creating all balance sheet accounts for GST/HST and QST as liability (2XXX) accounts, using the accounts for taxes receivable as contra accounts, so they can be grouped and summarized on the agency’s financial statement.

  1. Click General Ledger > Accounts
  2. Create GST/HST Payable account:
    1. Click New
    2. Account Number: 2070 (or other unused account number)
    3. Account Name: GST/HST Payable
    4. Account Type: Detail
    5. Click Add
  3. Repeat the above steps to create GST/HST on Purchases (2071) and GST/HST Clearing (2072).
  4. Create a summary GL account so the HST accounts are subtotaled on financial statements:
    1. Click New
    2. Account Number: 2073
    3. Account Name: HST Summary
    4. Account Type: Summary
    5. From: 2070 To: 2072
  5. For agencies in Quebec, repeat the above to create a series of accounts for QST. We recommend using accounts 2075-2078.

Rename default accounts to reflect Canadian terminology

After adding the HST accounts, select the following accounts and rename to reflect the Canadian terminology. After typing the new name, click Update.

  • 2010: BSP Balances
  • 2105: Medicare
  • 2110: CPP (QPP in Quebec)
  • 2120: Employment Insurance (E.I.)
  • Inactivate 2115: State Withholding

After adding and renaming the accounts, click OK to save your changes.

Create General Ledger Account Groups for HST and QST

  1. Click Utilities > Setup > Groups.
  2. Select Group Type: G/L Account and type the Group Name: GST/HST.
  3. Click Add. 
  4. Select the three HST detail accounts created in the previous step.
  5. Click OK to save.

Repeat the above for QST if applicable.

Global Defaults

To view the Global Defaults window, click Utilities > Setup > Global Defaults.

Global Defaults: Tax-Related

  1. Select the Tax-Related Tab
  2. Tax Rates 1-4: 0% (Note: GST/HST Rates are calculated using the Provincial Tax Rates settings which will be discussed later.)
  3. Tax 4 Codes: Enter tax code “XQ”.
  4.  GST/HST Codes: Enter XG,RC (and any other GST/HST tax codes, if applicable).

Global Defaults: Interface/Mail merge

  1. Select the Interface/Mail merge tab
  2. Local Currency Code: CAD
  3. Select (check) the box Read Multiple Taxes

G/L Accounts Setup

After creating the general ledger accounts for GST/HST, QST, and OPC, update the G/L Accounts Settings to use the new accounts.

  1. Click Utilities > Setup > G/L Accounts
  2. Select Other tab
  3. Enter the G/L accounts created previously:
    • GST/HST Payable: 2070
    • QST Payable: 2075
    • GST/HST Receivable: 2071

GST/HST on Commission

Client GST/HST is passed into Trams Back Office based on the GDS or ClientBase Invoice.

Invoices generated from ClientBase contain the commission GST/HST rate based on agent input. For bookings interfaced through GDS interface, Trams uses certain logic to calculate the expected tax on commission. Because the GST/HST rate depends on the place of supply, Trams uses a two-prong approach to determine what rate to use:

  • Determine the place of supply based on the travel category.
  • Look up the provincial GST/HST rate associated with the province.

Using the travel category assigned to each Travel Type, Trams applies the provincial tax rate configured under Utilities > Setup > Province Tax Rates.

Based on the province in the Vendor profile Based on the city code in the itinerary Based on the province in the Client profile Exempt from GST/HST
  • Air
  • Cruise
  • Hotel
  • Rail
  • Tour
  • Transportation
  • Car
  • Service Fee
  • International
  • Insurance
  • Zero rated

To ensure the correct rate is applied, every client and vendor profile needs to include the correct province code or country in its address. To determine if a profile is outside of Canada, Trams first looks at the country. If the country field is blank or contains “Canada”, Trams next looks for the two-letter province code. If the country field contains anything except “Canada”, Trams treats it as an international vendor/client, and no GST/HST is applied. For Canadian provinces, the province field must use the standard abbreviation for each province:


Provincial Abbreviations
  • AB (Alberta)
  • BC (British Columbia)
  • MB (Manitoba)
  • NB (New Brunswick)
  • NL (Newfoundland and Labrador)
  • NS (Nova Scotia)
  • NT (Northwest Territories)
  • NU (Nunavut)
  • ON (Ontario)
  • PE (Prince Edward Island)
  • QC (Quebec)
  • SK (Saskathewan)
  • YK (Yukon)

Provincial tax rates are configured by clicking Utilities > Setup > Province Tax Rates. The interface processing log indicates what logic is applied to each booking.

Quebec OPC (traveler protection fund)

Setup

Charges related to the Quebec OPC program are recorded as separate bookings in Trams Back Office. To do this, agencies need to:

  1. Create general ledger accounts for Sales and Cost of Sales for OPC bookings
  2. Create a travel type for OPC bookings
  3. Create a vendor profile for OPC bookings

Add general ledger accounts for OPC sales and cost of sales

  1. Click General Ledger > Accounts
  2. Click New
    • Account Number: 4070
    • Account Name: Sales – Quebec OPC
    • Category: Unrelated Income
  3. Click Add
  4. Click New
    • Account Number: 5070
    • Account Name: Cost of Sales – Quebec OPC
    • Category: Unrelated Income
  5. Click Add
  6. Click OK

Create travel type for OPC bookings

  1. Click Utilities > Setup > Travel Types
  2. Select travel type number 14 (or first unassigned travel type)
    • Travel Type: Quebec OPC
    • Travel Category: Other
    •  Inside Rate: 0.00
    • Outside Rate: 0.00
  3. Click OK

General ledger setup

    1. Click Utilities > Setup > G/L Accounts
    2. Select the Travel Types tab.
    3. Select the Quebec OPC travel type
    4. Update the linked general ledger accounts:
      • Sales: 4070: Sales – Quebec OPC
      • Cost of Sales: 5070: Cost of Sales – Quebec OPC
      • Commission: 4070: Sales – Quebec OPC

Vendor profile for OPC bookings

    1. Click Profiles > Vendor.
    2. Profile Name: OPC Traveler Fund (or another preferred name).
      • Contact Name, Address: The remaining contact information can be left blank or enter the details for the government authority.
      • Interface ID: OPCTAX (or other preferred interface ID).
      • % Commission: 0.00

Recording OPC fees

Quebec’s OPC Travel Fund fees are tracked in Trams Back Office as separate bookings in the client’s invoice.

The submit to depends on whether the agency is collecting the fee, or the fee is collected by the vendor. In both cases, the remaining details are identical:

  • Submit To:
    • Agency collects fee: Supplier
    • Vendor collects fee: CommTrack
  • Travel Type: Quebec OPC
  • Vendor: OPC Traveler Fund
  • Commission: 0.00

 

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