A client emailed, concerned about the extra Merchant Charges they pay when clients pay by credit cards. There are a number of ways to deal with it depending on the type of layout you use.
- First, are there only specific customers who pay by credit card? If so, you could create a second invoice template and add the CC charge into it, then use the correct template to each customer.
- Or, you could add the surcharge into your standard template (say after a subtotal) but then you’d have to credit back the surcharge if the customer paid using another method. Or have a message at the bottom to ignore the charge if not paying by credit card.
- Another option is to create a large, bold text message box stating there is a surcharge for credit card payments and then show an example calculation after the text which would work out a set percentage of their invoice and actually show the amount that is extra.
Your bookkeeper can make changes like these to your software templates, or call us to help!
What do you do?
Bookkeepers & Business Owners 
are the surcharges taxable or non taxable?
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Thanks for a good question Jonathan – Depends on the laws in your country – where are you from? In Australia for eg, any supply that is not food and bank fees (and a few other items) have NO tax, so ALL other supplies that give or add value, have tax. Check with your tax professional!
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Charge the fee to an “other income” account?
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Yes you can allocate to “other income”. Some also have a “late fees collected” income account.
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Hi,
Been searching for a while for a solution to this.
We have a few specific customers who pay by credit card.
Could you please provide a bit more detail on how to
“create a second invoice template and add the CC charge into it, then use the correct template to each customer.”
Do you mean create a custom sales layout (service, professional, etc) or do you mean create a new customized invoice? If the latter, how to you add a cc surcharge onto this? I cannot see how to do this with the fields available.
Thanks
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Hi Andrew
What I mean is if you need the regular invoice already being used /customised as you need, you can create another for when credit card charges are required for certain customers.
To charge for Credit card charges, it is easiest to decide an average price based on past charges (say last 2 month average per sale, from the Merchant Statement)
Then the Credit Card charge will be either – another item that you ADD to the invoice, or if using service invoice layout, another line which says Credit Card Charge, and save the template as a Credit Card Invoice
There is no special field or mechanism in MYOB or Reckon/QuickBooks in the popular versions unfortunately
Regards, paul
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Hi Team
i am currently using reckon enterprise 2015 and process customer credit payments – (virtual terminal) via paypal with payment direct into our bank. I am looking at oncharging CBA’s merchant fees for this facility as they are quite high and am unsure how to do this. If i add a surchage to the original invoice; this higher amount is what CBA will charge us on (ending up with higher fees).
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
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HI Liz!
Thank you for reading and your query – You can add the CBA fees – but they are based on % – and you may need to work out a set average fee, as I don’t believe PayPal can calculate it and add to the invoice. And YES CBA will charge fees on the extra as well!! There is no easy solution – except as suggested – work out on lowest cost of fee, see what the extra Merchant Fee from CBA will be on that (get % from last Merchant Statement) and see if you still need to add another few % – it’s not precise.
BUT****BE AWARE of recent changes to on-charging Merchant Fees – you now CANNOT charge more than you will be / were charged – so it is now even more risky to on-charge Bank fees above the true cost to the business. See detail by ACCC at – https://www.accc.gov.au/consumers/prices-surcharges-receipts/credit-debit-prepaid-card-surcharges – and also see – http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-08-31/eftpos-credit-card-excessive-surcharges-banned-across-australia/8859100
Another way – see last year what the Merchant Fees are in proportion to all your sales – and add that % on your full the selling price so it “Covers” the fees in the current retail price, all inclusive.
Hope that helps!
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