It is common for suppliers, both retail and wholesale, to charge customers a fee, usually a percentage of the total payment when paying for goods or services by credit card. This is done to recover some or all of the merchant fees charged by the credit provider. Typically, this surcharge is levied on the total amount being paid irrespective of whether or not GST is included in the total. If you are unsure about GST requirements, consult your accountant or professional advisor.
To set up Attaché to apply a credit card surcharge to customer invoices, you need to:
Create a new Service Masterfile which represents the credit card surcharge and make the appropriate General Ledger allocations.
Modify your customer invoice screen(s).
Modify your customer invoice and statement forms (print layouts).
Setting up a credit card surcharge
To set up a new service Masterfile(s) for the credit card surcharge:
Choose Masterfiles, General Ledger, Accounts, Maintain and create a General Ledger Control Posting Code, indicating where the credit card surcharge account is to appear in the Profit & Loss.
Choose Masterfiles, General Ledger, General Ledger Sets, Maintain and create a General Ledger Set with an appropriate Code e.g.: CCS and Description e.g.: Credit Card Surcharge. Against Sales, enter the General Ledger Code created in step 1 above.
Complete the remaining fields, including Tax Collected, Rounding, Receivables and Bank and choose Accept (F9) to save.
Choose Masterfiles, Products, Services, Maintain and create a new service with the Code of CC and a Description such as 1% Credit Card Surcharge.
In the General Ledger Set field, select the General Ledger Set Code created in step 2 above.
Select the appropriate Tax Code.
In the Options tab, in all Selling Price fields enter the surcharge rate, such as 0.01 (for 1%) or 0.015 (for 1.5%). (You need to establish the rate in all fields because customers can have different price categories.)
📌Note: If your selling prices are set up to allow only two decimal points and your surcharge has three decimals, such as 0.015 (for 1.5%), you need to change the Decimals in Price field in Setups, Products, Options, Product Options. When you have entered the price fields for the credit card surcharge, you can then return to Product Options and reset the Decimals in Price field to 2.
Modifying your customer invoice screens
Using Screen Designer for invoices, select the service line to modify the number of decimal places allowed in the Quantity Invoice field to match the number required for your surcharge rate. (You use the Quantity Invoice field when adding the surcharge during invoice entry, as described below.)
Modifying your customer invoice and statement forms (print layout)
It is important that your invoice and statement forms (print layouts) clearly advise customers that credit card payments incur a surcharge. Therefore:
Use Forms Designer to add a text box to the forms, typically in the Method of Payment area, with wording such as “Payment by credit card will incur a 1% surcharge”.
Also in Forms Designer, modify the number of decimal places to 2 or 3, as appropriate, in the Quantity Invoice field on your invoice form(s).
Applying a surcharge to account sale where the invoice is already issued
Typically, a customer telephones to pay an issued invoice by credit card. You now need to apply the surcharge to the invoice. To do this:
Calculate the surcharge amount and add it to the invoice total to determine the total amount payable by the customer.
Create a new invoice for the surcharge amount only, using the service for the surcharge such as code CC that you set up in step 4 of Setting up the credit card surcharge above.
Process the payment in the usual way. Ensure you allocate the payment to both the original invoice and the additional surcharge-only invoice.