Step-by-Step Guide: Preparing Your Firm for B.C. PST

Starting October 1, 2026, British Columbia is expanding its provincial sales tax (PST) to apply a 7% tax rate on the full price of accounting and bookkeeping services.  In preparation for this change – we have compiled the steps you will need to take to update your TPS Cloud Axis to charge the necessary Tax 3 PST 7%.

You will want to complete these steps after you’ve finished your September 2026 billings, but prior to doing any October 2026 billings.  These steps are easy and shouldn’t take long, however, please read through to ensure you have a good understanding of the process, and reach out to our Support Team if you have any questions about the steps or timing for completing the steps.

Step 1:  Go to Tools – Firm Properties – Invoicing Tab

In the Tax 3 field enter PST and 7% and click Apply at the bottom of the screen.  If you have more than one Office – repeat the steps for additional offices.  DO NOT USE CMPD AS THAT IS A COMPOUNDING TAX THAT CALCULATES TAX ON TOP OF TAX 1.

This sets Tax 1-GST 5% and Tax 3-PST 7% as the default setting for any NEW client you enter from this point forward. However – it does not update CURRENT existing clients.  To update the client properties of your current clients – proceed to Step 2.

Step 2: Go to Tools – Client Utility

Increase the number of clients per page to either get all clients on a single page – or minimize the number of pages (see the bottom left of the screen). The maximum is 1000 but if you find that takes too long to load, choose 500 per page.

Select All your clients and click Add Selected Clients.  If you have more than one page of clients, repeat steps for Page 2, Page 3, etc. until all your clients are added to the right side of the screen.  Once all your clients have been added – click the Continue to Next Step button.

Click on the Billing Tab and scroll down to Tax3. DO NOT UPDATE TAX1 OR CMPD!! Enter the name PST and the value 7.00 (leave the Number field empty). Click Update for XXX Clients button – this will update Tax 3 in the client properties for ALL selected clients.  

If you know that there are any clients that are NOT taxable – then you would simply need to edit those specific Clients’ properties by removing the Tax 3 values and click Save.

Step 3: Update WorkCode Properties 

For Tax 3 to be calculated on your invoices, not only does the Client need to be set up to have Tax 3, your WorkCodes do too.  

• Chargeable WorkCodes will need to have Tax 3 checked in their properties.  
• Non-Chargeable WorkCodes do NOT need to have Tax 3 checked – however, if you did set them to have Tax 3 – nothing would be calculated as Non-Chargeable WorkCodes are $0 anyway.  
• Expense WorkCodes – that would be your choice if you want Tax 3 to calculate on them. Some firm’s have an expense WorkCode that represents a flat fee for a service (like e-filing) and that would likely need to have Tax 3 calculated. Other Expenses may not need to have Tax 3 calculated.

There are two options to set Tax 3 on your WorkCodes.  Depending on how many WorkCodes you have will determine which option is the most efficient choice:

Option 1 – Go to the WorkCode Section of the program. Open each WorkCode, one at a time, put a check mark in the Tax 3 box and click Save.  Repeat for each Chargeable (and possibly Expense) WorkCode.

Option 2 – Go to Tools - Firm Properties – Invoicing Tab.  

Put a check mark in Tax 1 and Tax 3. Click the Apply to all Workcodes button.  

This will apply the Tax 1 and Tax 3 setting to all your WorkCodes – Chargeable, Nonchargeable and Expense.

If there are any Expense WorkCodes that should NOT have Tax 1 and/or Tax 3 – go back to the WorkCode section and edit those individually.

To easily confirm that your WorkCodes have the correct Tax 1 and Tax 3 settings – Run the Report – WorkCode List – Detail Report.  Check that each taxable WorkCode has YES in the Tax 1 and Tax 3 columns.

Step 4: Updating your Invoice Template(s) – Go to Tools- Templates

Currently your invoice templates likely only have Tax 1 on them – therefore they will need to be edited to add a row for Tax 3 – PST. Go to Tools – Templates and click the 3 dots next to your Custom template – choose Download.  This should put the template in your Download folder.  Navigate to the Download folder and open up your template in MS Word.

Depending on the design of your template – you will likely need to insert a new row under the Tax 1/GST/HST row.  

You’ll then need to either hand-type PST or enter the variable to merge the Tax 3 Name onto the invoice: @%Client.Tax3Name%@

You’ll also need to enter the variable for the Invoice’s Tax 3 amount: @%Invoice.Tax3%@ NOTE: check the formatting of Tax 1 – if there is a [C] in the Tax 1 variable – that will bring in a $ for the tax amount.  Make sure Tax 3 formatting matches Tax 1.

Once you’re done editing – Save your changes and go back to Tools – Templates. Click the 3 dots next to your template and choose Edit.  There you’ll be able to browse and find your Updated Template – then click Save to upload the updated template to the cloud.

Repeat these steps if you have multiple invoice templates.

Each firm’s invoice templates are quite unique and may be designed differently than our example.   Feel free to reach out to our Support Team as we’ll happily help you make the appropriate updates to your invoice template.

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