Sales Tax Analytics

Group, Analyze, and Track Any Set of Taxpayers

Cohorts give you the power to create custom groupings of sales taxpayers for detailed analysis. Track incentive programs, monitor struggling businesses, or combine related permits, all with real-time aggregated statistics.

Sales Tax Data Is Messy. Organizing It Shouldn't Be.

When a franchise changes ownership, the permit number changes, but the revenue stream doesn't. When you offer incentives to a group of businesses, tracking their collective performance requires manual spreadsheet work. Cohorts solve these problems automatically.

Sound Familiar?

These challenges cost finance teams hours every month and lead to incomplete analysis.

Fragmented Business Data

A business changes ownership or restructures, and suddenly their history is split across multiple permit numbers. You lose continuity in your analysis.

Manual Incentive Tracking

You promised the council a report on how the downtown incentive program is performing. Now you're manually pulling data for 47 different businesses.

No Way to Slice Data Your Way

Industries and geographic regions are useful, but sometimes you need to answer questions that don't fit neatly into predefined categories.

The Solution

Cohorts: Your Data, Your Way

Create custom groupings in seconds. Get aggregated statistics instantly. Answer questions that used to take hours of spreadsheet work.

Ad Hoc Groupings

Select any combination of taxpayers and group them together. Perfect for one-off analysis or ongoing tracking.

Aggregated Statistics

See total revenue, growth trends, and payment patterns for your entire cohort just like you can for industries and regions.

Dynamic Updates

Create cohorts based on criteria like "top 50 taxpayers" or "struggling businesses" and watch them update automatically each month.

By the Numbers

The Impact of Better Data Organization

Cities using Cohorts report significant improvements in their analytical capabilities.

Time Saved

10+ hrs /month

on incentive tracking

Cohorts Created

300+

across all cities

Query Time

<2 sec

for any grouping

Adoption Rate

94%

of clients

How It Works

Create a Cohort in Four Simple Steps

From question to answer in under a minute.

1

Define Your Goal

Decide what you want to track: an incentive program, a business group, a permit history, or a custom query.

2

Select Taxpayers

Search by name, permit number, industry, or use our query builder to find taxpayers matching your criteria.

3

Create the Cohort

Give it a name and save. Your cohort is now available throughout ZacTax with full statistics.

4

Analyze and Track

View aggregated data, monitor trends over time, and include cohort performance in your reports.

Dynamic Cohorts

Set It and Forget It

Dynamic Cohorts automatically update based on criteria you define. Track your top 50 taxpayers, and the list refreshes each month when new data arrives. Monitor struggling businesses, and watch the cohort adjust as situations change.

  • Top taxpayers by revenue
  • Online retailers (maintained by ZacTax)
  • Businesses with payment struggles
  • Tag-based groupings
  • Custom query-based cohorts

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Dynamic Cohort configuration screen

What You Get

Full Analytics for Every Cohort

Cohorts are fully-featured analytical units with the same capabilities as industries and geographic regions.

Revenue Analytics

See total collections, month-over-month changes, and year-over-year trends for your entire cohort.

  • Total monthly revenue
  • Growth rate calculations
  • Seasonal pattern detection
  • Anomaly flagging

Reporting Integration

Include cohort data in any ZacTax report. Export to Excel, include in council presentations, or share via dashboard.

  • Export to Excel/CSV
  • Dashboard widgets
  • Scheduled reports
  • API access

Use Cases

How Cities Use Cohorts

Real examples from finance departments across the country.

Incentive Program Tracking

Group all businesses receiving tax incentives and track their collective performance against program goals.

Permit History Consolidation

When a business changes ownership or restructures, combine all related permits to maintain historical continuity.

Economic Development Zones

Create cohorts for businesses in development zones that don't align with standard geographic boundaries.

Struggling Business Monitoring

Track businesses with declining revenue or payment issues to identify intervention opportunities early.

Major Employer Analysis

Group your city's largest employers and monitor their collective economic health.

Industry Deep Dives

Create sub-cohorts within industries for more granular analysis than standard industry classifications allow.

Before & After

The Difference Cohorts Make

See how Cohorts transform common analytical tasks.

Capability Without Cohorts With Cohorts
Track incentive program Manual One-click cohort creation
Combine permit histories No Automatic aggregation
Custom taxpayer groupings Manual Query builder + saved cohorts
Dynamic "top N" lists No Auto-updating cohorts
Aggregated statistics Manual Real-time calculations

"We have 23 businesses in our downtown incentive program. Before Cohorts, reporting on their collective performance took half a day. Now I create the report in two minutes and spend the rest of my time actually analyzing the data."

Finance Director, Mid-sized Texas City

This city reduced their quarterly incentive reporting time from 4 hours to 15 minutes using Cohorts combined with ZacTax's scheduled reports feature.

121
Cities using Cohorts
$2.9B
Revenue tracked in cohorts
47%
Faster incentive reporting

Under the Hood

Technical Details

For the data-curious among you.

Query Builder
Build complex cohort criteria using our visual query builder. Filter by industry, revenue range, payment history, geographic location, tags, and more. Combine conditions with AND/OR logic.
Performance
Cohort statistics are calculated on-demand but cached intelligently. Even cohorts with hundreds of members return results in milliseconds.
Data Freshness
Dynamic cohorts refresh automatically when new monthly data is imported. Static cohorts maintain their membership but statistics update with each import.

FAQ

Common Questions About Cohorts

Is there a limit to how many cohorts I can create?
No. Create as many cohorts as you need. They're lightweight and don't impact system performance.
Can I put the same taxpayer in multiple cohorts?
Yes. Taxpayers can belong to any number of cohorts simultaneously. This is useful for overlapping categories like "downtown businesses" and "incentive recipients."
What happens if a business in my cohort closes?
The business remains in the cohort with its historical data intact. You can choose to remove it manually or let it stay for historical continuity.
Can I share cohorts with other users?
Yes. Cohorts can be private (only you see them) or shared with everyone in your organization.
How do Dynamic Cohorts differ from regular cohorts?
Regular cohorts have a fixed membership list. Dynamic Cohorts automatically add or remove members based on criteria you define, updating each time new data is imported.

See Cohorts in Action

Schedule a demo and we'll show you how Cohorts can transform your sales tax analysis. Bring your toughest data organization challenge—we'll solve it live.

Or call us at 817-725-7241 | Email hey@zactax.com