An Illustration Of A Rate Factor And Its Characteristics

The following picture illustrates how a rate factor and its characteristics are used to retrieve the relevant city tax at billing time:

Rate Factor and its Characteristics

The following points describe the above:

Note:

Deriving characteristic values. Rather than have the system extract the characteristic value from an entity, you can setup the system to derive the characteristic value when the rate is calculated. For example, if all of your taxpayers are located in a single city, you may not want to maintain the taxing city on every location. To do this, you could setup the rate to "hard code" a taxing city of say Sterling. This is an advanced topic, but it may prove useful for your implementation. Refer to Deriving / Passing In Characteristic Values for the details.

Note:

Some rate factors don't need a characteristic. There are rate factors whose value does not differ based on a characteristic. For example, a rate factor that does not need a characteristic is a fee assessed for returned checks. These are typically flat fees that do not vary when applied. However, because of the relational design of the system, every rate factor value must reference both a rate factor and a characteristic value. Therefore, if you have rate factors whose value is not related to a characteristic, you must specify a characteristic type on the rate factor with a characteristic value that is exactly the same as the characteristic type.

Fastpath:

For more information about setting up characteristics, see Setting Up Characteristic Types & Their Values.