my accountant can't save the invoice after editing without selecting something in this field for all items, but she wants either the field to be removed or for it to default to "non-taxable" every time

What you want is the SETUP TAXES page...you can set defaults there...usually this is already set to default to Not Taxable...more questions to be asked to get you setup properly but thats the start

i see in SETUP TAXES the default tax code is -Not Taxable-

so the default should set when a nexus isnt used for the address in question...you may want to review which nexus you have setup on your account

so it looks like someone set a nexus for NY state. is it possible to delete a nexus?

is your company address in NY? usually you have at least one Nexus which would be appropriate

yeah my branch is in NY. i noticed today that the 'tax code' field on sales order transactions DOES default to 'non-taxable' so now i'm double stumped

The ship to address is the determination of Nexus..if those orders did not have a NY address that should use your default tax code under Setup Taxes

the one order my accountant showed in particular had an NJ state address ship-to on the invoice

Sounds like this needs more work on your part...think of these tax codes as Vertical look ups at the time the transaction is created. Updating Taxes today will not affect the existing transactions. If you have a sandbox you can test this otherwise try to stick to sales orders you can filter since they do not post...you may also like to use estimates as they also do not post to GL and the accounting team wont panic

so i unchecked something on the "set up taxes" page and now the 'tax code' column is not on the invoice transaction anymore

maybe you should let me know what that was...if you screw things up for accounting someone could lose their job

it was this one: PER-LINE TAXES ON TRANSACTIONS

so per line taxes just means that tax code is now on the header of the transaction body

it's okay with me (and her) if the field is tracked in the header vs each line. we were able to open the invoice and make changes without having to manually select "non-taxable" on each line- which is the change that she requested originally.

that works..and now the Taxable Checkbox is on the header..another shortcut you can use is mark the customer not taxable...uncheck the Taxable box OR select a tax item (code) as Not Taxable..it will default to that for transactions