Receipt - “This is not a tax invoice”.

[AVO_Australia]

When I sell something, either by Virtual Terminal over the phone, or by a card reader, the receipt states “this not a Tax Invoice”.  I have GST turned on, and if I issue an Invoice, all is good, its just the Receipt. 

For those who need a Tax Invoice, I have to then issue an invoice - that is emailed, and shows unpaid - then confirm its payment.  It’s annoying to the client.   

Is there some way to fix this?

[Seamus]

Hey @AVO_Australia,

Thanks for getting in touch!

Virtual Terminal does work a little differently to running a transaction through the POS app or sending the customer an Invoice for them to pay. I would suggest that if you wish to send a tax invoice (aka receipt) through Square, do not use Virtual Terminal. Instead, manually key the transaction through the POS app if you're taking a remote payment or payment over the phone.

So why does Virtual Terminal say "This is not intended to be a tax invoice"? It's because the function here is intended to replicate that of a physical terminal printing that little payment slip out as a record of how the transaction took place - without specifically issuing a tax invoice. This was a requested feature at the time it was released, for merchants who specifically wanted this existing functionality of a traditional EFTPOS terminal. You can read a little more about the differences between this sort of payment receipt vs a tax invoice here.

I know this can get a little confusing though, and isn't immediately obvious! I'll pass your feedback onto our team.

[mariaFRIGG]

Hi SQUARE. Just want to add to this thread. It's actually annoying that there is NO OPTION for individual businesses to choose whether we can select TAX INVOICE for our business. I have used SQUARE for online and phone purchases for corporate clients to only then have them contact me saying the RECEIPT supplied by square is not valid. I think you need to seriously upgrade the system to give the business a choice. As ALL of my square payments do not go through a POS system as it's phone calls or online ordering, this is a REAL ISSUE and I am now shopping around for a better system that suits my needs. 

[Seamus]

Hey @mariaFRIGG,

Thanks for getting in touch and sorry to hear you're having trouble with your receipts / tax invoices!

Per the best answer above in this thread, if you're taking manually keyed payments and wish to issue a Tax Invoice, you can do so by processing the payment via the Square Point of Sale App, rather than the Virtual Terminal on your Square Dashboard. There won't be any difference in the processing fee, but it will allow you to issue a tax invoice as a receipt!

If you'd like to tell us more about why it may not be convenient to process the payment on the app rather than the website, let me know and I'd be happy to pass this feedback on. I'll update this thread if I hear of any changes to how this works in the future 🙂

[Ethro]

I have off shore sales (using a link to a product) that require a tax receipt. POS app is not an option. Is there no way to generate a tax receipt via the virtual online option? If not, it is a hole in your system.

[Seamus]

Hey @Ethro,

Unfortunately there is no way to generate a tax invoice for transactions done via Virtual Terminal - I'll update this thread if that changes, I understand this would be a very handy feature to have available!

[HOPandSNC]

Hi Seamus.

I am with mariaFRIGG. There are so many holes in the way Square issues invoices, receipts, and tax invoices. 

WHY have so many different variations that do not allow the client (us) to simply choose what we want or need to issue?

I cannot use Virtual Terminal as it doesn't allow to issue a tax invoice. Those that need a receipt it doesn't matter if its a tax invoice, but those that need a tax invoice cannot do with just the receipt so just let us choose. It cannot be that hard. 

But like mariaFRIGG said I am now shopping around because Square is just so behind and restrictive in functionality to be a fully operable POS, appointments, and invoices program.

[Seamus]

Hey @HOPandSNC,

The reason Virtual Terminal doesn't issue a tax invoice is highlighted in my above post - the intended use case of this feature is to print a payment slip without a tax invoice to replicate the same function available on other EFTPOS terminals. Though I will pass on your feedback and agree it would be handy to change the way this functions or give a toggle switch for sellers who wish to issue tax receipts via Virtual Terminal transactions.

If you need to enter a manually keyed payment and issue a tax invoice this can currently be done via a manually keyed payment on the Square app!

[pastimeparadise]

just to be clear, to issue a proper tax invoice via the app you have to create a new INVOICE, email it to them, then you can take a payment for that invoice. paying the higher rate of 2.2%.

If you take a payment normally through the app by selecting items and checking out, they do not get a proper invoice. They get a receipt to their phone or email that says tax invoice. But for many businesses this is not enough and they need a pdf so they can add it to xero.

[HOPandSNC]

Thanks Seamus.

At present I do not manually enter payments due to the higher fees charged by Square.

On this note, I do not see why Square policy is that on all payments using tap and go 1.9% is charged, but if I manually enter a credit card or issue a tax invoice I am charged 2.2%.

Therefore, I don't use any other method than the tap and go, or I encourage people to use cash or direct deposit to avoid the fees.

Regards

[Seamus]

@pastimeparadise Any payment made via Square's Point of Sale app will result in a receipt/tax invoice (these are the same things in Square's ecosystem) - this can be done via a card reader, manually entering a card number, or for cash and other transactions made via Square Point of Sale.

Any payment made via a Square Invoice will also result in a receipt/tax invoice - though note that initiating an Invoice on Square is an alternative payment method to simply running a transaction through Square Point of Sale.

On Square, sending an Invoice will email your customer a payment link to make the payment, so it's not the same thing as a receipt/tax invoice. At the moment receipts/tax invoices are unfortunately not available as PDF files.