Symptoms

Starting from 01.01.2015 Customers from Europe are liable to pay VAT with rates specific to the country of their residence. The hotfix includes the following key improvements to adopt these changes to the Online Store:

  1. Taxes are now recalculated automatically in the order, on changing the account type, country, or tax registration number.
  2. Name and rate of the applied tax are displayed in the shopping cart.

Resolution

The following features have been implemented in this hotfix:

  1. Displaying tax name and rate in shopping cart.

    The existing laws in some European countries require that a detailed information about applied taxes be shown before the order placement .  The ability to show tax name and tax rate in the shopping cart is now regulated with the Online Store parameter _SHOW_TAXES _(in Online Store settings > tab More > Advanced Settings). The following value can be set for it:

    • No  - hide Sales Tax field from the shopping cart.
    • Total - show total value of Sales Tax.
    • Detailed - show full list of all applied Sales Taxes with names, rates and amounts.

    Detailed is set by default for new installations. For upgraded installations, the behavior remains unchanged.

  2. Re-calculation of shopping cart on country/VAT change.

    Starting from 2015, end customer in Europe is liable to pay the VAT tax calculated with rate that is bound to the customer's location. Now the prices shown for shopping cart in Online Store are automatically recalculated depending on the account type, country and Tax registration Number provided by the Customer. To allow/disable automatic recalculation of prices in the shopping, use the CHECK_TAXES parameter of the CHECKOUT screen. The automatic recalculation is disabled by default.  

  3. Two evidences of correctness of assigned tax zone.

    In European countries sellers must collect the evidences of assigning the proper tax zone to a Customer for at least 10 years. In compliance with these rule, Business Automation will start collecting and storing Сustomer's country code (for example, 'UK') and telephone number as the evidences of proper tax zone assignment. These data are attached to every invoice at the Notes tab (only available from Provider / Reseller CP),  and cannot be modified or deleted.

    Warning: Business Automation does not add any notes to already existing Invoices but only for those created after hotfix installation.   Additionally, in the Online Store a Customer can be forced to provide the telephone number according to the predefined (read-only) country code; this code is set automatically depending on the country that the customer selected at registration. For that, use the parameter AUTOFILL_COUNTRY_PHONE_CODE of the CHECKOUT screen. Possible values: true / false. Disabled by default.  

Installation instructions

Linux

  1. Log in to Business Automation Application server.

  2. Download the patch link.

  3. Run the patch for Business Automation Application (Business Automation Application server will be restarted during the hotfix installation):

    # sh pba-5.5.8-077-hf123977.sh
    
  4. Log in to Business Automation Online Store server.

  5. Download the patch link.

  6. Run the patch for Business Automation Online Store:

    # rpm -U --force bm-templatestore-5.5.8.hotfix_all-004.x86_64.rpm
    

Windows

  1. Log in to Business Automation Application server.

  2. Navigate to $PBA_ROOT\pba_hotfixes folder.

  3. Download the patch for Business Automation Application server link.

  4. Download the patch for Business Automation Online Store link.

  5. Open command prompt and execute the following commands (Business Automation Application server will be restarted during the hotfix installation):

    c:\>cd "$PBA_ROOT"
    c:\>perl\bin\perl.exe pba_hotfixes\pba-5.5.8-077-hf123977.pl
    
  6. Run the downloaded patch bm-templatestore-5.5.8.hotfix\_all-004.x86\_64.msi.

    If Business Automation was installed to non-default directory:

    Open command prompt from folder with the msi file and run the following command:

    c:\>msiexec.exe TARGETDIR="C:\PBA" /i bm-templatestore-5.5.8.hotfix_all-004.x86_64.msi
    

    where TARGETDIR is the Business Automation directory.

Additional information

  1. The hotfix requires Business Automation 5.5.8 Linux or Windows installed.
  2. Business Automation Application server will be restarted during the hotfix installation.
  3. Check if the package is installed in Online Store:

    [root@store]# rpm -qa | grep bm-templatestore-5.5.8.hotfix_all-004.x86_64
    bm-templatestore-5.5.8.hotfix_all-004.x86_64
    
  4. Changes described in the KB article may not apply if you have any of the following Online Store templates customized:

    • phone.tpl
    • country.tpl
    • organization.tpl
    • checkout.tpl
    • neworder.tpl

    You can check it in your Provider or Reseller CP in Business Automation: Online Store > Layout Templates. If you see the above templates, you have to apply the changes to them manually accorindg to the diff attached. After applying changes, the Online Store needs to be synchronized.

  5. If you intend to customize one of those templates after the hotfix installation, copy them first from the Online Store server /usr/local/bm/templatestore/templates/ folder to the Application server /usr/local/bm/share/templates/ folder.

Internal content