Value-Added Tax (VAT)

Overview

For better transaction organization purposes, account admins, card admins, and bookkeepers can enable the separate tracking of Value-Added Tax (VAT) on transactions and have that information exported to your ERP or via Custom Accounting. Please reach out to Brex Support to get started.

How VAT tracking works

Once you’ve enabled and configured VAT tracking in Brex, users can capture the tax portion of an expense separate from the total tax inclusive amount, where applicable. The tax amount for transactions can then be recorded separately in your ERP. Proper tracking of VAT can help with tax compliance and streamline your accounting and reclamation processes.

Add VAT information to a card expense

Step 1: Click on the expense you want to edit. Step 2: Go to Details.

Step 3: Upload a valid tax reclamation document (typically an invoice) the same way you typically upload a receipt. Step 4: Select a tax rate from the Tax rate dropdown. You can choose Custom if you need to manually enter the tax amount—which can be useful if your transaction has multiple items with different tax rates applied. Note: The options available in the tax rate drop down are configured by your Brex admin.

Submit a reimbursement with VAT information

Step 1: Go to Expenses and click Request reimbursement.

Step 2: Upload a valid tax reclamation document (typically an invoice) the same way you typically upload a receipt. Step 3: Submit the required information for the reimbursement and update the Tax code field.

Step 4: Complete your reimbursement and click Submit.

Configure VAT tracking

Set up VAT tracking

After Brex Support enables VAT tracking for your account, you can set up VAT tracking for each relevant entity.

For NetSuite users

Step 1: In your dashboard, go to Accounting, click Manage accounting fields > Entity settings. Step 2: Click on the entity you want to set up VAT tracking on and click Tax codes. Step 3: Toggle on Enable tax codes for this entity and select which tax codes you want your employees to see. If you don’t see this option, make sure you’ve mapped this entity to the appropriate entity in Netsuite and refresh your connection. Step 4: Select the VAT general ledger account where Brex will post VAT to in your NetSuite instance. Step 5: Select which tax codes you want your employees to see.

Custom role settings in NetSuite

If you are connecting to Brex using a custom role in NetSuite, ensure the following settings are correctly configured to ensure a successful integration between NetSuite and Brex:

Step 1: Go to Permissions > Lists and set the following to View access:

• Projects
• Tax Records

Step 2: Go to Forms > Entity and enable Projects.

Step 3: Go to Forms > Other Records and enable the following types:

• Region
• Sales Tax Item
• Tax Type

Prepare tax codes in NetSuite

Brex imports your tax codes from Netsuite. Please follow these steps to ensure your tax codes are prepared to sync correctly between NetSuite and Brex: Step 1: Navigate to your NetSuite. Step 2: Go to Setup > Accounting > Tax Codes.

Step 3: Click Edit.

Step 4: Unselect INCLUDE CHILDREN.

Step 5: Hold the "Control" or "Command" key and select all entities.

Step 6: Click Save.

Step 7: Click View to confirm changes were made.

Step 8: Your subsidiary permissions should now list all subs instead of including children:

Tracking taxes in Canada

Due to the nature of Canadian taxes, the set up for tracking taxes in Canada is slightly different. Instead of importing tax codes from Netsuite for your Canadian entity, we’ll prepopulate the relevant taxes (GST, PST, HST, QST) as available options in Brex. You can also assign a separate GL account for each tax. Similar to tax codes we import, you can toggle each of these on/off as needed.

For Canadian expenses that require VAT, users can input the relevant tax amounts for each type of tax applicable to their expense.

Require VAT information for expenses

Required VAT documentation typically consists of an invoice and a tax rate. Once you’ve set up VAT tracking, your employees will have a new tax rate field on relevant expenses. Admins can improve compliance by requiring VAT documentation for employees at the policy level under Additional documentation controls > Require VAT documentation.

Troubleshooting

Follow the instructions below to resolve some of the most common issues. If the errors persist after following the steps, contact Brex for assistance.