Taxes on your documents
How to set a default tax rate, add custom labels and a second tax line, change taxes on a single document, and where your tax registration numbers appear.
Tax settings live on Settings → Accounting. A single tax rate needs only Default VAT Percentage (%). Advanced tax mode adds custom labels and a second tax line. Only owners and admins can change these settings.
Set a default tax rate
Go to Settings → Accounting.
Enter a rate in Default VAT Percentage (%).
Click Save.
Every new invoice and offer starts from this rate. The rate can be anywhere from 0 to 100, with up to three decimals. Leave the field empty if you don’t charge tax at all.
Turn on advanced tax mode
Go to Settings → Accounting.
Tick Advanced tax mode in the Financial Defaults card.
Fill in the defaults that appear below it.
Click Save.
The info icon next to the checkbox explains it:
Shows an editable tax label and an optional second tax line on invoices and offers. Turning this off keeps them on documents that already use them.
Advanced tax defaults
Field | What it does |
|---|---|
Default Primary Tax Label | Replaces the word VAT on your invoices and offers, for example GST, Sales Tax or IVA. Leave it blank to keep VAT. |
Default Secondary Tax Label | Names the second tax line, for example QST. |
Default Secondary Tax Percentage (%) | The rate the second tax line charges. |
Each label takes up to 20 characters. A second tax needs both a label and a percentage.
These are defaults for new documents. Changing them never rewrites an invoice or offer you already made.
How the second tax is calculated
The second tax line is for places that charge two separate taxes on the same document.
Billow calculates both taxes on the same net amount. The second tax is never applied on top of the first. On $1,000 net at 5% GST and 9.975% QST:
Line | Amount |
|---|---|
Net | $1,000.00 |
GST 5% | $50.00 |
QST 9.975% | $99.75 |
Total | $1,149.75 |
If your client pays by card, each tax reaches Stripe as its own line, so their receipt breaks down the same way your invoice does.
Taxes on a single invoice or offer
The invoice form and the offer wizard start from your defaults. Changes you make there apply only to the document you’re editing.
Advanced tax mode | Tax fields on the document |
|---|---|
Off | Value Added Tax |
On | Tax Label, Tax Rate (%), Second Tax Label and Second Tax Rate (%) |
Leaving a rate empty or at 0% hides that tax line on the final document.
Locked tax fields
An invoice on a project with an offer takes its currency and taxes from the offer, and you can’t change them on the invoice. The fields show why:
Invoice | Hint on the locked fields |
|---|---|
“Locked for deposit invoices” | |
Any other invoice on a project with an offer | “Locked while an offer-backed project is attached” |
Turning advanced tax mode off
Unticking Advanced tax mode hides the extra fields for new documents. It doesn’t remove the custom label or second tax from anything already using them. Those documents keep their labels, keep calculating the same way, and still show the advanced fields when you edit them.
Hiding taxes on offers
The Hide taxes in offers checkbox sits in the same Financial Defaults card. Its info icon reads:
When enabled, offers show only the subtotal. Invoices always include taxes.
The setting has no effect on invoices.
Add your tax registration numbers
Go to Settings → General.
In the Company Settings card, enter your numbers in Tax Registration Numbers, one per line.
Click Save.
The field holds several numbers, up to 500 characters in total. They print under your address in four places:
The invoice PDF
The offer PDF
The contractor details on the public offer page
Tax rates in contracts
Contract templates can pull your tax rates in as variables, including Secondary Tax Rate for the second one. See Setting up your contract templates.
