The Exemption Workup for Shopify Wholesale

The problem

If you sell wholesale on Shopify, you know the routine: a customer emails a resale certificate, someone saves it somewhere, someone flips their account to tax-exempt, and everyone moves on. It works — until a state auditor asks you to produce the certificate behind every exempt sale from the last four years.

Certificates scattered across inboxes, Drive folders, and old order notes
No record of which document justified which exempt customer
Expired certificates still driving tax-exempt checkouts
No process for multi-state customers
One person who 'handles it' — and no system if they leave

What you get

Workflow deep-dive (60 min, recorded): We walk your actual process end to end — how a wholesale customer gets exempt status, where documents land, who approves, what happens at renewal.
Certificate file review: A sample of your stored certificates reviewed against a completeness checklist — missing fields, expired dates, mismatched entity names, single-state certs on multi-state customers.
Exempt-customer reconciliation: Your Shopify tax-exempt customer list cross-checked against your certificate files. Every exempt customer with no document on file, flagged. This number is usually the wake-up call.
Exposure snapshot: Which states your exempt sales ship to, mapped against where you hold certificates — structured so your CPA can act on it directly.
The Workup Report: Audit-readiness score, every gap ranked by severity, and a step-by-step remediation roadmap with the cheapest viable fix for each gap — including free tools and manual processes where they're genuinely sufficient.
Readout call (45 min): We walk the report together.

Price: $950 flat
Your time: ~2 hours of your time
Turnaround: 10 business days

How it works

Day 1
Workflow deep-dive
60-minute recorded call — we walk your process end to end.
Days 2–8
Review & reconciliation
Certificate files, exempt-customer list, state exposure map.
Day 9
Report delivered
Score, ranked gaps, remediation roadmap.
Day 10
Readout call
45 minutes — we walk the report together.

The guarantee

If the workup doesn't surface at least three specific, actionable gaps in your process, it's free.

The full $950 credits against the first year of the software I'm building to automate these fixes, with founder pricing locked for life.

Scope

Included

One Shopify store, one exemption workflow, reviewed end to end
U.S. state sales-tax exemption certificates only
Two calls total — the 60-minute deep-dive and the 45-minute readout, both recorded
Read-only access — nothing in your store is changed
$950 flat — no hourly overage, no upsell during the engagement

Not included

Tax advice
Legal advice
Nexus determination
Taxability determinations
Opinions on the legal validity of any certificate

Tax questions belong with a qualified CPA or SALT attorney — I'm glad to refer one.

Full disclosure

Full transparency: I'm building software in this space, and these workups are partly how I learn what to build. That cuts in your favor twice — the diagnostic is priced to learn, not to profit, and the report will always name the cheapest fix for each gap, including free tools and manual processes that make me nothing.

Common questions

Is this tax advice?

No — it's a process and documentation review. I'll show you what's on file, what's missing, and how to fix the workflow. What you owe, and where, is a question for your CPA.

What do you need access to?

An export of your tax-exempt customer list and a sample of your certificate files, wherever they live. Most owners pull both together in under half an hour, and read-only is all I need.

What if we're actually in good shape?

Some stores are. Then the workup is free — that's the guarantee — and you keep a report confirming you're audit-ready, which is worth having before an auditor asks for it.

Why is it so cheap?

Compare it to what a compliance consultant bills for the same review and it's under-priced on purpose. The disclosure above is the honest reason: I'm paying for learning with margin.

What happens after the workup?

You execute the roadmap — yourself, with your team, or with your CPA. Most fixes don't require buying anything. If you later want the software I'm building, your $950 credits toward it; if not, we're done and you're better off.

Your wholesale customers are tax-exempt. Could you prove it in an audit?