Monthly bookkeeping
The natural pair. Sales-tax returns depend on accurate transaction data — integrated bookkeeping + sales tax eliminates the reconciliation gap.
The engagementAccounting
Sales tax compliance for multi-state businesses
Multi-state sales tax, handled before it’s a problem.
Nexus analysis, state registration support, filing-ready monthly schedules, exemption certificates, and audit support — for e-commerce, SaaS, and service businesses with multi-state exposure. Post-Wayfair, it’s no longer optional. Delivered by a QuickBooks® ProAdvisor, on your QuickBooks data.
$250–$1,500+/moWhat sets the price
What you can check before you sign
- Fixed fee, written first
- Your own QuickBooks file
- No hourly billing
If your file needs our paid diagnostic first, its fee is credited in full against the cleanup. Either way, you get a fixed fee in writing before any work starts.
§ 01 · The engagement
What sales tax compliance actually is.
§ The engagement
Sales tax compliance is the recurring work of determining where you owe (economic and physical nexus), registering with each state, collecting at the right rates and filing on each state’s schedule. We keep the sales-tax records, reconciliations and schedules your tax professional needs to file; we do not file returns. $250–$1,500+/mo by state count.
They took something that felt overwhelming to me as a first-year business owner and made it simple.
What stood out the most was TechBrot Inc’s attention to detail.
Intuit QuickBooks Certification Level 2 and QuickBooks Workforce Certification,
§ 02 · Do you have exposure?
If any of these apply, you have exposure.
01
You sell on Shopify, your own site, or direct-to-consumer.
Direct online sales hit economic-nexus thresholds in 5–15 states within 1–2 years for most growing brands. Unlike marketplace sales, marketplace-facilitator laws don’t apply — you collect and remit directly.02
You sell on Amazon FBA, eBay, Walmart, or Etsy.
Marketplace-facilitator laws shift most collection to the marketplace — but FBA inventory creates physical nexus in storage states, and direct sales outside the marketplace still trigger your own compliance. A common confusion zone.03
You sell SaaS or digital products.
SaaS taxability varies wildly — some states fully tax, some fully exempt, some apply conditional rules. A multi-state SaaS company typically needs jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction taxability analysis to know where collection is required.04
You have customers in 10+ states.
Once a business has customers across more than 10 states, the probability of economic-nexus exposure approaches certainty. The question becomes which states — not whether.05
You’ve received a state sales tax notice.
State sales-tax notices are routine outreach, not adversarial — but ignoring them compounds the problem. A notice typically means the state believes you have nexus and wants registration to begin.06
You’re preparing for fundraising, sale, or audit.
Sales-tax exposure is one of the first things diligence teams examine in M&A and capital events. Unreported liability can materially affect valuation or kill deals. Quantifying exposure before diligence beats during.§ 03 · Why this changed
The Wayfair ruling rewrote sales tax for small business.
Before 2018, sales-tax obligations followed physical presence — a business owed sales tax in a state only if it had a location, employees, or inventory there. Out-of-state e-commerce sellers had no general obligation where they had no physical footprint.
In June 2018, the Supreme Court’s decision in South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc. overturned that physical-presence standard, allowing states to impose obligations based on economic nexus — sales volume or transaction count alone. Within months, most U.S. states adopted economic-nexus rules, typically pegged to thresholds like $100,000 in sales or 200 transactions in a calendar year (specifics vary and have shifted).
The practical result: most U.S. small businesses operating across state lines now have multi-state sales-tax obligations they didn’t have before 2018 — and most haven’t caught up. Quantifying exposure is the first step; compliance going forward is the second. A nexus review usually takes 1–2 weeks and produces a state-by-state map of where you stand.
The post-Wayfair nexus framework: before 2018, sales-tax obligations followed physical presence — a location, employees, or inventory in a state. South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc. (June 2018) replaced that with economic nexus: a state can require you to collect once you exceed its threshold — typically $100,000 in sales OR 200 transactions in a calendar year (specifics vary by state and have shifted). Layer on marketplace-facilitator laws (the platform collects on marketplace sales, but FBA inventory still creates physical nexus) and most multi-state small businesses now have obligations they didn’t have before 2018 — and most haven’t caught up.
§ 04 · By business type
How sales tax actually works for your business.
General guidance — specific taxability depends on each state’s rules, your revenue mix, and customer location. The nexus review produces a state-by-state map for your situation.
01
Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce
Compliance load: High. Direct sales mean you collect and remit in every nexus state — no marketplace-facilitator coverage. Economic nexus typically triggers in 5–15 states within 12–24 months.
Watch for: Sales through your own site vs. marketplace platforms run on different rules — track both streams from day one.
02
Amazon FBA, eBay, Walmart, Etsy
Compliance load: Moderate. Marketplace-facilitator laws shift collection to the platform, but you still register in physical-nexus states, report marketplace sales in some states, and handle direct-sale compliance.
Watch for: FBA inventory in a state typically creates physical nexus — independent of economic nexus — even when the marketplace collects.
03
B2B SaaS, B2C software, digital products
Compliance load: Highly variable. Taxability differs more by state for SaaS than any other category. Jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction analysis required — some states fully tax, some exempt, some condition on B2B/B2C or hosted/downloaded.
Watch for: SaaS taxability rules change more often than physical goods — annual review is part of standard SaaS compliance.
04
Professional services, agencies, consulting
Compliance load: Lower, rising. Many states tax specific services (digital services, data processing, advertising) even when general services are exempt. Taxability is state- and category-specific.
Watch for: States are progressively expanding service taxation — what’s exempt today may be taxable in 2–3 years.
05
Wholesale, distribution, manufacturing
Compliance load: Moderate. Most B2B sales are exempt with proper exemption-certificate management — but the certificate work itself is operational overhead. Storage and inventory locations create physical nexus.
Watch for: Exemption-certificate management is the largest operational risk in B2B — missing or expired certificates create taxable transactions retroactively in audit.
06
Multi-stream & complex businesses
Compliance load: High. Businesses combining product sales, service revenue, SaaS, and marketplace sales need each stream analyzed separately — different taxability rules in each state.
Watch for: Mixed businesses are where most sales-tax exposure hides. Stream-by-stream analysis is essential.
§ 05 · The monthly cycle
What every month actually looks like.
- Days 1–7
Data capture & reconciliation
Prior-month sales pulled from QuickBooks, Shopify, Amazon, and other platforms. Sales by state and jurisdiction reconciled. Marketplace-facilitator transactions separated from direct sales. Tax-collected vs. tax-due variances identified.
- Days 7–15
Return schedules
Return schedules prepared for each state with filings due that month. Local jurisdiction breakdowns calculated. Exemption certificates verified for any non-taxed transactions. Threshold tracking updated.
- Days 15–25
Filing-ready handoff
Schedules and reconciliations handed to your tax professional ahead of each state’s required schedule; they file and remit. Filing confirmations stored with the books. State-specific issues (rate updates, schema changes) handled.
- Days 25–31
Notices & nexus monitoring
State notices reviewed and responded to within service windows. Economic-nexus thresholds monitored across all states. New nexus warnings flagged. Monthly compliance summary delivered.
§ 06 · The deliverables
What you actually get every month.
Included in every engagement
- Filing-ready schedules on each state’s schedule, for your tax professional
- Remittance amounts reconciled to the books
- Economic nexus threshold monitoring
- Marketplace facilitator reconciliation
- QuickBooks bookkeeping integration
- E-commerce platform integration (Shopify, Amazon, etc.)
- State notice response within service windows
- Exemption certificate basic management
- Rate update monitoring
- Monthly compliance summary
- Your client advisor is your point of contact, and a Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor reviews every close before it reaches you
- Annual nexus review
Layered on as scope requires
- Initial multi-state nexus analysis
- State and local registration in new jurisdictions
- SaaS jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction taxability analysis
- Voluntary Disclosure Agreement (VDA) coordination
- Back-tax exposure quantification
- Sales tax audit support & documentation
- Exemption certificate program design
- Amazon FBA physical nexus management
- Avalara, TaxJar, or similar platform configuration
- M&A due diligence sales tax review
- Industry-specific compliance (alcohol, tobacco, etc.)
- International VAT coordination via referral
§ 07 · Why bookkeeping integration matters
Sales tax compliance only works on accurate transaction data.
Sales-tax filings are only as accurate as the transaction data underneath them. When compliance runs separately from bookkeeping, the same problem recurs: sales-by-state in QuickBooks doesn’t match sales-by-state in the filing system. Reconciliation gaps multiply each month, filings end up wrong, notices arrive, and audits find variances.
When TechBrot delivers both monthly bookkeeping and sales tax compliance, the integration is built in: transaction-level data flows from QuickBooks into the return schedules your tax professional files from, those schedules reconcile to the books monthly, and year-end packages are organized for your CPA, with exceptions identified before handoff. We keep the sales-tax records, reconciliations and schedules your tax professional needs to file; we do not file returns. The combined cost is materially lower — not because either is cheaper in isolation, but because the reconciliation cost disappears.
§ 08 · Pricing
Fixed monthly fee, scaling by state count.
One-time work (a nexus review at $500 for up to 3 states, plus $100 for each further state, never more than $3,000; state registration, SaaS taxability, and VDA coordination per exposure, each as one fixed fee scoped in writing) is quoted separately; filing software passes through at vendor pricing.
Simple
Fixed fee, scoped in writingFor: 1–3 state compliance, single revenue stream, no marketplace complexity, simple products or services.- Filing-ready schedules in 1–3 states
- Remittance amounts reconciled
- Nexus monitoring
- QuickBooks integration
- State notice response
- Annual nexus review
Most common
Standard
Fixed fee, scoped in writingFor: 4–15 state compliance, multi-channel e-commerce, marketplace + direct sales, service businesses with multi-state exposure, growing SaaS.- Everything in Simple
- Multi-channel reconciliation
- Marketplace facilitator handling
- Shopify / Amazon / platform integration
- Exemption certificate basic management
- Avalara or TaxJar configuration
- Quarterly nexus expansion review
Complex
Fixed fee, scoped in writingFor: 15+ state compliance, complex multi-stream businesses, SaaS with full taxability mapping, B2B with significant certificate work, regulated products.- Everything in Standard
- 15+ state coverage
- Multi-stream revenue handling
- SaaS jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction taxability
- Exemption certificate program management
- Amazon FBA physical nexus management
- Industry-specific compliance
- Monthly nexus expansion review
§ 09 · Who performs the work
Coordinated with tax counsel when required.
Every TechBrot sales tax compliance engagement is prepared by a senior bookkeeper who works in your software, or by a signed specialist practice when your books need one, in your own QuickBooks file, and reviewed by a Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor before delivery. For engagements involving Voluntary Disclosure Agreements, audits with significant exposure, or tax-position disputes, we coordinate with state-specific sales-tax counsel or CPAs. TechBrot’s role is operational compliance and documentation; legal representation and tax-position defense run through licensed professionals. The split is clean and stated up front.
The standard, every fileCertifications. Intuit QuickBooks Certification Level 2 and QuickBooks Workforce Certification, held by TechBrot’s senior reviewer
Coverage. All 50 U.S. states + local jurisdictions
Scope split. Operational compliance via TechBrot · legal & tax-position via licensed counsel
Software. QuickBooks-native + Avalara / TaxJar where applicable
§ 10 · Who works on your books
Your TechBrot team.
Every engagement runs on three roles: a client advisor who scopes it and stays your point of contact, a senior bookkeeper who prepares your setup and monthly close in your software, and a Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor who reviews every close before it reaches you. A U.S.-based bookkeeper is available on request; we can share their public directory profile with you.
Specialists when your books need them.
Senior bookkeepers who specialize in rental portfolios and Xero, and specialist partner practices for trust accounting for law firms and CFO advisory. We bring the right one onto your engagement when your business calls for it, under the same standards and review.
§ 11 · Alongside sales tax
What sales tax commonly runs alongside.
Payroll management
Multi-state payroll pairs naturally with multi-state sales tax — the same nexus analysis informs both. A common bundle for e-commerce and SaaS.
The engagementQuickBooks setup
Sales-tax configuration is part of every setup — multi-state nexus and rate management are designed during setup, not bolted on later.
The engagementFractional CFO
For growth-stage businesses, sales-tax exposure is a CFO-level concern — affecting M&A diligence, margin reporting, and capital-event readiness.
The engagementSales tax compliance guide
Nexus, registration, collection, and filing — the whole cycle, and where QuickBooks tracking goes wrong.
Read moreSales tax nexus checker
Every state’s economic-nexus threshold against your own sales, so you know where you owe before a notice tells you.
The engagementCannabis operators
280E, cash handling and inventory in a business banks will not always touch.
The engagementRetail
Register to deposit, shrinkage, and inventory that has to agree with the books.
The engagementAmazon sellers
Settlement reports as the source document, not the bank deposit.
The engagementShopify sellers
Payouts net of fees, refunds and marketplace tax — recorded so the margin is real.
The engagement§ 13 · Available in these states
Sales-tax records by state.
The same engagement, written for the state’s own rules — sales-tax, payroll and registration wrinkles included. Delivered remotely in your own QuickBooks file; every state is served from the state directory.
By industry: SaaS · Agency · Retail · not sure where your file stands? Start with the free QuickBooks file review · moving off Desktop? QuickBooks Desktop to Online migration.
§ 14 · Questions
What people ask before scoping compliance.
How much does sales tax compliance cost?
Fixed monthly fees within $250–$1,500+/month, scaling with state count: Simple (1–3 states) toward the lower end, Standard (4–15 states) in the middle, Complex (15+ states) toward the upper end. The initial nexus review is a one-time engagement: $500 for up to 3 states, plus $100 for each further state, never more than $3,000; state registration is one fixed fee, scoped in writing. For a fixed quote, book a free call or dial (877) 751-5575.
What is economic nexus and when do I have it?
Economic nexus is the legal threshold that triggers a sales-tax obligation in a state based on economic activity rather than physical presence. Most U.S. states require collection once a business exceeds $100,000 in sales or 200 transactions in the state during a given period (thresholds vary by state and have shifted over time). Once established, the business must register, collect, file, and remit going forward.
Do SaaS and software companies need to collect sales tax?
Often, yes — but it varies dramatically by state. Some states fully tax SaaS, some fully exempt it, and some apply conditional rules based on B2B vs B2C or hosted vs downloaded. A multi-state SaaS company typically needs a jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction taxability analysis to know exactly where collection is required.
What about marketplace facilitator laws and Amazon FBA?
Marketplace-facilitator laws shift collection on marketplace sales to the platform (Amazon, eBay, Walmart, Etsy). But FBA inventory stored in a state typically creates physical nexus there independent of economic nexus, and any direct sales outside the marketplace still trigger your own compliance. Both streams must be tracked separately.
What does sales tax compliance management include?
We keep the sales-tax records, reconciliations and schedules your tax professional needs to file; we do not file returns. That means filing-ready schedules on each state’s schedule, reconciled remittance amounts, economic-nexus threshold monitoring, marketplace-facilitator reconciliation, QuickBooks and e-commerce platform integration, state-notice response, basic exemption-certificate management, rate-update monitoring, a monthly compliance summary, a senior bookkeeper, and an annual nexus review. Nexus analysis, registrations, VDAs, and audit support are layered on as scope requires.
What if I should have been collecting sales tax but haven’t been?
A common situation. For limited exposure: register and start complying going forward. For larger exposure: Voluntary Disclosure Agreement (VDA) programs with each affected state typically reduce penalties and limit lookback in exchange for proactive registration and back-tax payment. We coordinate with state-specific sales-tax counsel when VDAs or back-tax negotiation are required.
Do you handle sales tax audits?
We provide operational audit support — documentation, transaction records, reconciliations, and exemption-certificate files. For audits with significant exposure or tax-position disputes, we coordinate with state-specific sales-tax counsel or CPAs. TechBrot’s role is operational compliance and documentation; legal representation and tax-position defense run through licensed professionals.
§ 15 · Talk to a client advisor
One call tells you exactly where your books stand.
Tell us where you sell and where you file. We’ll tell you what records the returns need; your tax preparer files them.
What happens when you call