Automated Sales Tax Calculation & Reconciliation Tool
Excel-based tool automating multi-county sales tax calculations with exemption logic for high-volume automotive sales
A car dealership processing high-volume transactions across multiple Florida counties needed accurate monthly sales tax reporting. Each county had different tax rates, and certain transactions qualified for exemptions based on specific conditions. Manual calculation was time-intensive, error-prone, and required significant resources each month to reconcile against bills of sale and payment records.
The Problem
I built an Excel-based sales tax calculator with automated lookup logic and conditional exemption handling.
The tool included:
Dynamic county lookup table: VLOOKUP function automatically populated the correct tax rate when a county was selected from a dropdown
Exemption logic: Conditional formulas identified qualifying transactions and adjusted calculations accordingly
Automated reconciliation: Built-in validation against bills of sale and check stubs to ensure accuracy
Error detection: Conditional formatting flagged discrepancies or missing data for review
Monthly reporting: Automated summary calculations for total tax liability by county and transaction type
The Solution
Reduced processing time by ~25% by eliminating manual tax rate lookups and calculations
Decreased errors through automated validation and formula-based calculations
Simplified reconciliation by integrating tax calculations with bookkeeping review processes
Reduced resource requirements for monthly sales tax reporting and compliance
The Impact
Tools & Skills
Tools: Excel (VLOOKUP, conditional formulas, data validation, conditional formatting)
Skills: Financial process automation, data validation, error reduction, reporting optimization, reconciliation workflows