Tutorial: Automatic Surcharges

Tutorial: Automatic Surcharges

An automatic surcharge is a single line item (represented as a percentage) that is added on to a sale or Created From Return.  This can represent things such as Public Improvement Fees (PIF), COVID PPE Fees or any other fee you want to add.  

Example Receipt Showing a Surcharge:

In this example, a PIF if 1.8% is levied on all taxable sales at a particular store. The PIF itself is subject to sales tax.

STEP 1: Enable Surcharges in POS Settings

NetSuite POS Settings:

Salesforce POS Settiings:


In POS settings you need to fill out the following fields:

Enable Surcharge
The default is blank (disabled) and can be set to "Disabled", "All Items" and Taxable Items Only". This field determines what items are included in the surcharge calculations.  For example, a PIF generally includes only taxable items and a COVID PPE Charge may include all items.

Surcharge Item
This is the item that gets automatically added to the cart on submit of a sale or return. It is normally a non-inventory or service item and the base price MUST BE SET to 0.00

Surcharge %
This is the % that is used in the calculation of surcharge.

General Dynamics

If Surcharge is enabled, once you click on submit on the sale/return screen the surcharge is calculated and added in as the last item in the cart (but before any whole order discount). It is then displayed on the Payment Screen. 

If the payment is cancelled or there is an error on the submit screen, the surcharge is removed and then re-added on the next submit.

Example Surcharge with Discount:

Surcharge Calculation and Sales Taxes

During the calculation of surcharges, discounts and taxable versus non taxable proration applies. In other words, the surcharge is adjusted based on the proportion of items (based on amount) the surcharge applies to (net of discount).

Sales Taxes are calculated as normal and will include the surcharge item if its flagged as taxable.

LIMITATIONS

  1. Multiple surcharges cannot be automatically assessed.
  2. Only a % rate is automatically calculated.
  3. Cross-location returns (Created From) do not calculate surcharges. This means that if you sell an item at a location without a surcharge and return it to a location with a surcharge; surcharge will not be calculated. It will have to be manually added in based off the receipt.
  4. Standalone Returns never calculate surcharges. This is because returns within the location should typically use Created From Returns with receipt present. 

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