Exemption Certificate Review: Each Certificate Checked Against the Full Rule Set

Certificates that pass one rule and fail the next

A customer who buys tax-exempt has an exemption certificate on file, and the tax manager's rules say what makes one usable. The account is active. The form is on the accepted list for that state. It is signed and has not expired. Multi-state coverage is matched to the certificate itself, and it does not duplicate another certificate on file. The rules are checked in that order, and a certificate is valid only when it clears all of them.

The certificates are PDFs in Box. Customer accounts and the exposure figure for each live in Salesforce, the rules and the accepted form list sit in Google Drive, and requests to customers go out from Outlook. Most of the mistakes are small and specific. A reason is typed slightly differently on the outreach list than on the record, or a certificate whose form was just accepted gets marked valid before anyone looks at the signature.

Who works in the room

Myco is the default agent here, so a question about any certificate goes to it. For the first pass it splits the thirty certificates across parallel helpers that each read a share of the Box files, gets one set of results back and proposes them in the thread. Outreach questions route to Nova, which owns the plan. Ada takes the draft list when sales operations posts it and hands each mismatch back to Nova to fix in the plan.

Thirty certificates, first pass to state closeout

Every stage reads the current records and stops at a person before Salesforce changes or a customer hears from the team.

Reruns that start from the first rule

Mid-cycle changes come in three kinds: an account is reactivated, a customer sends a renewal, or the tax manager adds a form version to the accepted list. Each one reopens specific certificates, and each reopened certificate goes through the whole rule order again. A certificate that newly clears the form rule is not valid yet. It still has to pass the signature, expiry, multi-state and duplicate checks, and one that fails a later rule takes that rule's reason code.

The revised list of dispositions includes every certificate whose record changed, not only those whose reason changed. If new orders raise a customer's exposure while the reason stays the same, the certificate still goes on the revised list, because the tax manager approves the exposure figure along with the reason.

What the checks catch

• A certificate marked valid as soon as its form was accepted, before the signature, expiry, multi-state and duplicate checks ran
• A reason on the draft outreach list that reads almost like the recorded code, with a different word or spacing
• A certificate whose exposure changed while its reason did not, left off the revised list
• A multi-state certificate matched by customer and state instead of its own certificate ID, which can borrow coverage from another certificate

What stays with people

• Deciding which form versions go on the accepted list, which belongs to the tax manager
• Approving every disposition, reason code and exposure figure before Salesforce changes
• Setting outreach caps, and sending every customer request Nova drafts in Outlook
• Signing each state closeout

Integrations in this workflow

Kylon is not a sales tax engine or a certificate management tool, and it does not take the place of one. It sits across the certificate files, customer accounts and mail the team already uses, and holds the coordination between them.

• Box
• Google Drive
• Outlook
• Salesforce
• Slack

• Box holds the certificate files and renewals, which agents read and never edit
• Salesforce holds customer accounts, account status, exposure and the disposition and reason code on each certificate
• Google Drive keeps the rules, the accepted form list, the draft outreach list and the state closeouts
• Outlook carries customer requests from each account manager's mailbox, as drafts the account manager sends
• Slack is where account managers post customer replies and ask quick questions outside the room

Where to start

Choose one state's certificates for one quarter. Connect Salesforce through the sales operations lead's account and point Myco at the Box folder that holds the certificates. Then write one rule into the room guidelines: a certificate is marked valid only after every rule has been checked in order and the tax manager approves it.

“The form was the easy part. The signature line was blank.”

Set it up with your agent

Open a new Room, add your agent and paste this prompt. It connects the tools, builds the App with you and asks for your rules one step at a time, and nothing goes out until a person approves it.