"Eat Out to Help Out" discounts

[petersmith]

I can't figure out how to implement the August incentives that the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer has just announced to stimulate eating out.

He has made it clear that discounts will apply to food and non-alcoholic drinks purchased on a Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday in August. So far, so good. I can see how to implement conditional automatic discounts on qualifying items for these days. Where I am falling down is that the discount is 50% up to a total bill of GBP20 (and therefore a fixed GBP10 on higher value bills). I don't see a way of capping the 50% to a fixed monetary amount.

Anyone know if there is a way to do this? If not, is there any workaround that Square could cobble together by August 3rd when the scheme goes live?

Thanks

[#2]

You just need to set up several discounts

1 Cover - £10

2 Covers -£20

3 Covers -£30

etc

and then apply which ever discount is appropriate for the party - The total bill needs to be more than £20 per head - ie a party of 3 the total bill would need to be more than £60 to apply the discount this way.

If the total bill is less than £20 per cover - just apply the 50% discount

[Helen]

Update: We've put together detailed information about the Eat Out to Help Out scheme and how to set up discounts on menu items in this Square Support article: 2020 UK Government Initiatives. This article also has information about the temporary reductions in VAT which now apply to certain business types.

Thank you for your post @petersmith! We are aware of these new incentives and we'll share any workarounds that will help you cap the discounts as soon as we can.

In the meantime, for anyone else reading this thread. here are the steps to manage discounts and edit your tax settings:

• Create and Manage Discounts
• Use Conditional Sales Tax Rules with the Square App
• Create and Manage Your Tax Settings

Thanks again for your patience.

To subscribe to updates to this thread: Sign In > then click Thread Options > Subscribe.

[namastewatford]

Any update to this?

or if anyone found out some workaround?

[tranguyen]

Thank you for reaching out @namastewatford, we are still working on this feature right now so I don't have a concrete update for you just yet. When I have more information, I'll be sure to follow-up on this thread.

[petersmith]

It's just occurred to me that the discount is conditional on the dining option. It's not valid for takeaway or pickup - just for sit-in. We do mostly sit-in but some takeaways for which we cannot offer the discount.  This may be obvious to those in Square who are looking at the problem but it's only just occurred that the conditional discount I've set up takes no notice of dining option.

[thecafeguy]

Do you know how it works with restaurants/takeaways, do the government give us 50% of the total bill back or are they telling us all to do it so people come out anyway. Won't we lose out in someway?

[petersmith]

Hi, @thecafeguy . First of all, it doesn't work with takeaways; the discount is only for eat-in meals although if the customer starts off intending to eat in and then takes away 'left-overs', the discount is still granted.

Yes, the Government gives you back the discount you have given to the customer (50% up to £10 per person). The site to claim on is not yet live but when it is you will need your "Eat Out to Help Out" registration number and you will need to give just three parameters:

1. The number of customers served under the scheme

2. The total value of the transactions

3. Amount of discounts given (not necessarily 50% of item 2 because of the £10 cap per cover)

You can claim back the discounts weekly (for sales on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday) and HMRC will put the money in your bank account within 5 working days.

I've not listed all the other qualifying stuff but i's available on https://www.gov.uk/guidance/register-your-establishment-for-the-eat-out-to-help-out-scheme

The database of registered establishments has been delayed until 30th July but then customers will be able to enter their postcode and it will return details of participating restaurants within 2 miles.

I can't see a way in which we can lose out. Customers get a half price meal and we hopefully get more customers. Revenue is the same to us; we don't have to fund the discount.

Hope this helps!

[thecafeguy]

Beautifully put, thank you very much you legend!

[namastewatford]

But original question remains the same.. 

How to implement this in square POS system?

I can see and can setup conditional 50% automatically off option and only from Mon-Fri in August..

Is there an option to put a max discount based on the cover count?

Also, is there a way to disable the same for online orders?

[Sam_400º]

OK, back to the original question then. 

I can’t see Square being able to implement anything for it. It’s for a very limited time and has requirements that have never been part of square (no. of covers etc.). 

It’s gonna have to be done manually. 

[petersmith]

@Sam_400º I'd settle just for a monetary cap on percentage discounts. The rest of it, such as takeaways, we can cope with manually by removing the automatic discount at checkout. I don't see any prospect of Square Point of Sale coping with cover numbers. Would need Square for Restaurants for that, I guess

[Sam_400º]

@petersmith for that to work you'd still need to know the covers, as it wouldn't be capped at a tenner if there was more than one person on the bill. 


In theory it's a nice simple discount but overly complicated to effectively implement at a POS level for the amount of time it would be used. 

There are things the team could be working on that would be more use to more people for longer IMO.

[petersmith]

Good point @Sam_400º . I think I have to agree. We'll muddle through.

[Jools · Accepted solution]

I think you could......

set a 50% discount - and apply this to any orders that are less than £20 per cover.

and

Set up a number of fixed £ discounts - and apply these for the number of covers, where the total bill is over £20 per head eg...

1 Cover - £10 discount

2 Covers - £20 discount

etc...

You would then need to apply whichever discount is applicable, either the 50% discount or the fixed cover discount.

Jools

ps - I dont run a restaurant business - but I think that would work!

[namastewatford]

Idea is good.. 

only question is how you find add the discount based on cover?

[Jools]

You just need to set up several discounts

1 Cover - £10

2 Covers -£20

3 Covers -£30

etc

and then apply which ever discount is appropriate for the party - The total bill needs to be more than £20 per head - ie a party of 3 the total bill would need to be more than £60 to apply the discount this way.

If the total bill is less than £20 per cover - just apply the 50% discount

[namastewatford]

Problem comes if total bill have Alcohol as well.. 

so it will be a nightmare to findout per table if total non-alcohol bill if less than certain amount to chose it.. 

Anyways.. EOTHO scheme is over now.. 

I guess there are a lot of maturity needed in discount/loyalty system in Square app yet.. 

e.g. No way to apply on-demand category specific discount yet.. 

[petersmith]

I guess in theory the discount limit is not transferable between members of a party, @Jools . For instance, on a table of two covers, if one customer runs up a bill of £30 and the other is not hungry and has food worth only £10, the total table bill would be £40. But allowable discount would be £10 plus £5, I.e. £15 off the £40 bill, not £20 off. Keeping track of all that for large parties with multiple courses and (non alcoholic) drinks would be a nightmare and certainly not possible with Square point of sale.

[Jools]

The Gov guidance is here :-

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/get-more-information-about-the-eat-out-to-help-out-scheme...

It says

"Applying the £10 per person cap to a single bill

Where there is more than one diner on a single bill, the cap does not need to be calculated for each individual diner based on their specific orders. Instead, the discount that is applied to the overall bill should be capped at the number of diners multiplied by £10."

So yes - if you have 2 covers, one gets a steak and desert for £35, and the other just gets a coffee and cake for £5 - Total £40 - you can apply a £20 discount

The only issue is that alcoholic drinks are not included in the offer - so you may need to ring those up as a separate transaction (soft drinks are included)

[petersmith]

Oh, I'd missed that @Jools . That's good to know. Thanks