Groupon Redemption

[BW]

Does anyone have suggestions for accounting for groupons in the register?  Does Groupon take care of the sales tax or do I need to:

1) Add a square item for the groupon's value

2) Add a discount item to bring this gross sale to the amount of the groupon used by the customer or if used in full, the total paid for the groupon by the customer on Groupon's site.

3) Use Other Payment for the remainder to bring the transaction to $0

I've been told I need to collect and remit sales tax on the amount paid to Groupon by the customer.  How do I do this?

[Sean]

Thanks for the post! While I can't speak to the reporting part on Groupon's half, I can say that other sellers that I've spoken with will definitely use the "Other Payment" feature to record non-Square gift cards. I'll see if I can get some other Square sellers to share their experiences too. 😀

For the taxes question, to make sure your bases are covered, you might want to reach out to Groupon directly! 

[HRB]

We have just begun using the Square POS after using Square as a credit card as our credit card processing company for the last 5 years. We have a GROUPON deal running and in our old POS, which was developed specifically for restaurants and bars, there was a specific payment button just for Groupon deals which allowed us to record the voucher number and amount and on our end of day sales reports it showed exactly how many Groupons were accepted and the total amount accepted. When we put in a Groupon in Square POS in the payment section labeled Other, it's lumped in with any other payments that are similar so it's impossible to separate those out, which is necessary for sales tax purposes when we pay our sales tax to the state of CA. Also, having to manually Split the payments and then return to the payment screen once the "Other" payment is recorded seems like an unessesary extra step that Square could re-program to make more streamlined for users. I think that Square on the whole is amazing but there are a number of things that need to be worked out in the POS that will make it easier for bars/restaurants to use.

[Sean]

@HRB - Thanks for taking the time to share! If you do export your transactions to a .CSV, you could sort based on the Other Tender column. If you filter out "Groupon," it should make getting the right number easier. I'll also be sure to pass along the feedback to our product liaison team. 

[sciabica1936]

We participate in a similar program locally called "DealSaver".  We created a DealSaver discount which is easier for us.  You can set a specific dollar amount or leave it blank to allow your staff to enter the amount.  We only do $25 DealSavers, so it's nice that my staff only has one button to click and can not make a mistake on the amount and in turn under or overcharging the customer.

FEATURE REQUEST:  Add the ability to add a note to a discount, just like an item.

[TMBEAUTY]

How do i use Groupon or non square gift cards for checking out customers.

[nika]

Hi @TMBEAUTY- Although this is an older post, the same practices are used to accept Groupons or other forms of "discounts". Sellers typically use the "other tender" option when accepting those types of payments.