Can I upload certificates I already have on file, or do I have to request new ones?

Either. Upload existing certificates one at a time or in bulk, or send a request when you need a new one from a customer. Just be certain any certificate you upload was valid at the time of the sale it’s meant to cover.

What happens if a customer’s certificate expires?

Kintsugi tracks validity and expiry separately and can automatically notify the customer as their certificate approaches its expiration date, so a replacement is usually in hand before the old one lapses. If one does expire anyway, it’s flagged rather than silently treated as current.

How does Kintsugi know which customer a certificate belongs to?

Certificates are automatically matched to the right customer record, with a confidence check: a clear match applies immediately, and an uncertain one gets a quick human confirmation.

What exemption types does Kintsugi support?

Resale, non-profit, and other B2B exemptions, validated against each jurisdiction’s own form requirements.

What does Kintsugi actually produce if we get audited?

As your sales tax system of record, Kintsugi stores the specific certificate, its validation result, and the exemption record and customer/jurisdiction it applies to, plus a field-level history of any edits, ready to produce rather than reconstruct.

Platform · Exemption Certificates

An unsupported exemption becomes your problem at audit

When a customer claims resale, non-profit, or another exemption, that sale only stays tax-free if the certificate behind it holds up under review.

Kintsugi collects, validates, and stores every certificate, then keeps the exemption record current so it’s ready the moment a jurisdiction or an auditor asks. Once a certificate is approved, it’s what Tax Calculation checks before applying tax to a sale.

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Exemption certificates panel with Upload, Request and Close the gap options, and a coverage gap row showing a Texas customer that needs a certificate

Collecting certificates

Request it, upload them,
close the gap

There are three ways a certificate reaches Kintsugi.

Upload it: one at a time or in bulk (PDF, PNG, JPG, or a zip of them), and Kintsugi reads and extracts the fields automatically rather than requiring manual data entry.
Request it: send a certificate request scoped to a specific customer and one or more jurisdictions; the customer gets an email with a secure, request-specific link where they upload the certificate themselves.
Close the gap: Kintsugi surfaces active exemptions that don’t yet have an approved certificate attached, so you can close your coverage gap by uploading one yourself, sending a request, or marking the exemption inactive if a certificate genuinely isn’t coming.

Validating and storing

Checked against the jurisdiction’s own rules, not eyeballed

Every certificate is checked against the specific rules for its jurisdiction and form type, not a generic template: the seller’s name, a signature, a tax ID, and the effective dates a jurisdiction’s own form actually requires (not every form requires every field, and Kintsugi knows the difference). Certificates are automatically matched to the right customer record, with a confidence check on the match so a clear match applies immediately and an uncertain one gets a quick human confirmation instead of silently applying to the wrong account.

Duplicate uploads are caught automatically. Validity and expiry are tracked separately: a certificate can be filled out correctly and still be expired, and Kintsugi tracks both so an expired-but-valid certificate doesn’t get treated as current.

Diagram: with no approved certificate, tax applies; with an approved certificate, the sale is exempt automatically

Applying exemptions at calculation time

Exempt once,
stays exempt automatically

Once a certificate is approved, future sales to that customer in that jurisdiction stay exempt automatically, with no manual override needed at checkout. Behind that, the approval creates an exemption record scoped to the customer and jurisdiction, and it’s that record, not the certificate file, that Tax Calculation checks at the moment of sale. Let Kintsugi follow up with your customers when their certificates are about to expire so you always have the correct versions on file.

Resale, non-profit & other exempt sales

Built for the exemption
reasons that come up most

Whether it’s resale, non-profit, or another B2B exemption, Kintsugi stores, tracks, and validates the certificate behind it.

Resale
Non-profit
Other B2B exemptions

Audit trail: an uploaded and validated certificate, its field-by-field pass or fail result, and the customer and jurisdiction exemption record it produced

At audit

Ready on demand, not reconstructed under pressure

Every certificate carries a record of why it was approved or, if it wasn’t, exactly which field failed and why, plus a field-level history of any edits made after upload. Combined with the exemption record it produced, that’s the evidence a jurisdiction or auditor is actually asking for: not just “we believe this sale was exempt,” but the specific certificate, its validation result, the time of the transactions and certificate, and the customer and jurisdiction it applies to, ready to produce rather than reconstruct.

Common questions on getting current

Ready to stop guessing on exemptions?