Tax Mast
Flags location-level sales-tax rate drift and tracks every step needed to resolve it.
- Node.js
- SQLite
- Runs scheduled, address-level rate checks for every imported location and compares each result with its previous verified baseline.
- Turns detected drift into a reviewable finding with evidence and a clear follow-through checklist.
- Tracks verification, POS updates, accounting notifications, and spreadsheet-of-record updates in one place.
- Keeps failed checks, stale locations, provider problems, and incomplete coverage visible instead of showing false reassurance.
- Stores the database and audit history locally with Node.js, SQLite, and a localhost interface.
Tax Mast is a lightweight sales-tax monitoring and follow-through tool for small multi-location operators and accounting firms.
It grew from a real failure: a location’s rate changed, the POS stayed wrong for roughly a month, and the problem surfaced only when accounting noticed. Preventing that manually means maintaining calendars, government subscriptions, address lists, recurring lookups, evidence, and follow-up tasks across every location. Enterprise tax platforms can solve more of the problem, but their price and complexity are often hard to justify for a smaller operation.
Tax Mast starts with the practical middle layer.
The first version is a local proof of concept built with Node.js, SQLite, and a localhost interface. It imports the operator’s locations, performs scheduled address-level rate checks, compares each result with the previous verified baseline, and makes any drift visible on a review board. Each finding carries its evidence and the work needed to resolve it: verify against the official source, update the POS, notify accounting, and update any spreadsheet of record.
Nothing auto-applies. Tax Mast detects and organizes; the operator verifies and decides. Failed checks, stale locations, provider problems, and incomplete coverage remain visible instead of producing a falsely reassuring empty screen.
The local edition is intended to be sold like traditional desktop software: a one-time fee for a defined, static version. It does not include continuing updates or managed support. A project patron or sponsor would receive a separately agreed update path, help shape the working product, and receive the finished local application at the agreed cost basis.
Local operation keeps the database and audit history on the customer’s computer, avoids mandatory hosting fees, and reduces centralized data exposure. The trade-off is equally direct: the application is not always on when the designated computer is unavailable, offers no remote or multi-user access, and depends on that machine’s scheduled task. Address information required for a rate lookup must still be sent to the selected rate provider.
Once the local product proves the workflow, the next phase is a hosted cloud version for non-technical customers, accounting firms, remote teams, and operators who want the service managed for them. The cloud product adds always-on scheduling, multi-user access, managed backups, updates, and monitoring—at an aggressive price intended to sit well below heavyweight enterprise alternatives.
Development begins as a solo effort. Purpose-built AI agents will handle repeatable system processes under human oversight to keep operating costs low. If the hosted product reaches meaningful scale, dedicated maintenance development and targeted security or technical advice become sensible investments—not expenses loaded onto the proof of concept before they are needed.
Tax Mast is currently in the forge: designed, reviewed, and waiting for the right operating partner to validate the assumptions and shape the first working version.