Like business entities and locations, product codes and mode codes are part of your main data. Product codes and mode codes define and normalize the rates used for calculation.

Product codes identify the product being transported; mode codes identify the mode of transportation being used to transport fuel products. ATE stores the data for each of these as tables.

Using product codes

During onboarding, AvaTax provides you with a product table in ATE. This table contains all the product codes that are valid for each jurisdiction along with alternate product codes. Alternate product codes are useful because some jurisdictions follow the Fuel Tax Administrators (FTA) naming standards and others assign their own codes. For example, gasoline is FTA product code 065; however, several states use 65. Product codes in transactions must match either a product code or an alternate product code in the ATE product code table.

A screenshot showing the AvaTax Excise product codes page.

The following fields are available for each product in a product table:

Master Company: This refers to the company where the data originated from. "Master Company 0" is AvaTax's version of the rates for the product provided out of the box.

Country: The country this product code is available in.

Jurisdiction: The state or region where this product code is available. "TD" represents AvaTax Excise.

Product code: The product code that the state recognizes.

Product description: Indicates the way that a state categorizes or describes a product.

Effective and obsolete dates: These govern the time periods in which those records are effective. For example, a state may occasionally change their laws and obsolete a product code.

Product category description: A concatenated field that gives the AvaTax internal product category number and description.

Product code matching and priority

Matching product codes is a simple process. Matching is based strictly off of the product code field. As a result, the notion of priority doesn’t exist for product codes.

Simply, when matching based off of what you provide in the product code field, your value becomes our alternate value, and then those values roll up to the acceptable state product code.

Alternatively, if you send us a new product code that doesn’t match an existing code, and it hasn't been used before, if an alternate for that code isn’t set up in the product table, then ATE won’t make a match for that product.

Using transportation mode codes

As with product codes, AvaTax provides you with a transportation mode table in ATE during onboarding. The transportation mode table contains all of the transportation modes that are valid for each jurisdiction. The values in these tables are provided by AvaTax out of the box and offer a high level of adherence to the Fuel Tax Administration (FTA).

A screenshot showing the AvaTax Excise transportation modes page.

The following fields are available for each mode code in a transportation mode table:

Country: The country this transportation mode code is available in.

Jurisdiction: The state or region where this mode code is available.

Mode code: The transportation mode code. These codes match the FTA mode codes.

Description: Indicates the mode for the fuel movement.

Mode code matching and priority

Matching mode codes is similar to product code matching. Matching is based solely off of the transportation mode code. As a result, the notion of priority doesn’t exist for mode codes.

Simply, when matching based off of what you provide in the mode code field, your value becomes our alternate value, and then those values roll up to the acceptable FTA mode code.

Alternatively, if you send us a new mode code that doesn’t match an FTA code, and it hasn’t been used before, if an alternate for that code isn’t set up in the product table, then ATE won't make a match for that transportation mode.

Product and mode codes