Feature request - surcharges

[mikesee]

When will it be possible to configure surcharges in Square?

I see some old discussion topics (2 years) saying it is on the roadmap.

There are several reasons why we need surcharges but the two big ones for me:

1. Apply a credit card surcharge to all card transactions

2. Apply a Sunday or public holiday surcharge. This is pretty essential in Australia due to the higher wage costs.

Needs to be automated and rules-based.

[#2]

Hi Sellers! 👋

Just jumping in here to share some exciting news about automatic surcharging!

We're thrilled to announce that Square’s Automatic Card Surcharges Beta Program is now open to all eligible Australian Sellers! This much-anticipated feature allows you to seamlessly pass on processing fees for card payments directly to your customers.

Getting started is easy. Eligible Sellers can now activate and manage one automatic surcharge directly from their online Square Dashboard. Once set up, the surcharge will be automatically applied when a customer pays with a card from:

- Square Point of Sale

- Square Restaurants POS or Square Retail POS apps on compatible iOS devices, Android devices, Square Terminal, and Square Register

To learn how to set up your automatic surcharge, visit Get Started with Service Charges Beta. 

For questions or feedback on this new experience, please join the Card Surcharges Group in the Beta Seller Community.

We're eager to hear your thoughts and experiences with this new feature. Feel free to drop your comments below!

[#3]

EDIT (July 2022): We've started to roll out Service Charges (AKA Surcharges) in Australia, which you can read more about here. The first iteration supports:

• The Square Point of Sale app
• Manually applied fixed ($) or variable (%) surcharges
  
  

In future iterations of Service Charges we hope to support:

• More Square products (eg Square for Restaurants, Square for Retail, Invoices etc)
• Automated service charges, so you won't need to manually add it

---------------

Hey @mikesee,

I'm sorry to say that I don't have an update on surcharges right now.

We're still tracking feedback on this and it's a popular request from Australian sellers. For now we recommend building surcharging into the overall price of your goods as you might other operating expenses, or you can manually calculate a surcharge into the overall cost of a given transaction.

If you would like to pass on credit card processing charges to your customers, you can use the following to calculate what you would charge.

For transactions put through a Square Reader at 1.9%:

Transaction amount divided by 0.981

e.g. $100 / 0.981 = $101.94 - you'd add $1.94 as a 1.9% surcharge.

For “Card not Present” transactions at 2.2%:

Transaction amount divided by 0.978

E.g. $100 / 0.978 = $102.25 - you'd add $2.25 as a 2.2% surcharge.

For transactions put through Square Terminal at 1.6%:

Transaction amount divided by 0.984

e.g. $100 / 0.984 = $101.63 - you'd add $1.63 as a 1.6% surcharge.

Why Wouldn’t I Just Add 1.9% or 2.2%?

Square’s card processing fees are based on the overall transaction amount, so if you’re adding $1.90 to a $100 transaction, the transaction becomes $101.90, not $100. Using the above formulas accounts for this small change to the overall fee on transactions if you’re adding a surcharge

Should you decide to apply a surcharge, it is your responsibility adhere to Australian regulations as set out by the ACCC.

[DebThreeBirdies]

This might be the solution - does it show up separately on the bill?

nm, I’ll go test it - thanks 😊 

[Pablo3]

Oh that's great that would work. I am a bit confused about you last note. I just received the square terminal and that is what I will be using to take card payments. Are you saying that the service charge feature won't work if I use that terminal?

Cheers, Pablo

[YVTruffles]

So... add an ability for a /.0981 surcharge. There's a discount system already implemented, it's just a +- sign for the code...., there's no valid excuse!
I'm tired of this thread showing up in my email notifications.

This isn't going to happen, give up on it guys. Build it in, and discount for your few remaining cash customers,

Simpler solution in my opinion, put a large banner in the window, 10% holiday surcharge, it should stop the extra customers flooding your venues and solve half your problem of crowding. I've watched it happen to a number of businesses over past 20years, they think they are covering the extra costs, but they fold within 18months.
We paid once, for a venue we'd supported since opening for several years, our last visit. They started the surcharge bull**bleep** with a 12 point piece of paper (2mm lettering) taped on the door about a 10% surcharge on holidays, =questionable legality. If it was simply a Sunday or public holiday menu with higher prices or different descriptions, we wouldn't have blinked, but it was only added unexpectedly at the register.  Make 10% for one day, lose a longstanding 1/month customer permanently? Be up front with explicit menu prices rather than bull**bleep** surcharges. If it's not worth printing an extra $50 of paper menu, then is it worth it?
I am biased though, following that event, once my income became dependent on hospitality trade customers supporting me as a gourmet grower... I can no longer afford to eat out more than 2-4 times/year, and never on surcharge days.
I understand the issue, but if the extra trade doesn't compensate fully, and you can't run a separate menu rather than bait and switch on your customers with a surcharge, then maybe close for those days instead? This is what I originally posted to this thread as a solution, no customer deception or penalities, you can copy a base menu, then modify it and use it on whatever days you wish. =First Solution

Somehow this thread extended from the original adding a credit card surcharge to a transaction issue. Square is ignoring the issue as maybe sometime in future..., and very few people pay with cash. But Square does support a % discount function. It should work, maybe approach it from that angle instead as one solution.
 Since Square won't support surcharges, promote a discount to your customers for paying cash. Even if you are still using the platform to sum the bill, and issue a receipt... you still save the minute of present the card, oh that one's maxed out/it's not scanning, enter your pin, do you want a receipt.
AND, square issues the receipt, with no profit, = their motivation for solving this simple issue.

=Second solution

I've a simple system at farm gate with readily, mentally calculated sales. 23.5grams $3/g = $70.50, Cash or card? Cash?= $65 thanks, completed in ten secs rather than 2minutes. [But, a year's income in two half days/week, over 10 weeks, multiplies hourly cost rapidly to some really nasty numbers]
ie. pay for the stuff around of a card transaction and/or receipt, there are people standing in queue over there!

Maybe forget the surcharge add a service fee for processing time/effort that covers the surcharge.
Card? +$10 The Australian legal actual cost legislated refers to actual costs incurred, it's not just processing fees. So time of processing is also valid, average card processing time 1-2 minutes...

Simpler drop the lot, $10 cover charge on public holidays.  I wanted a $5 coffee =bye, and now there's a spare seat for a $50 + sandwich with sparkling water +$10 service fee/tip/whatever.

Like any modern company, Square will address this issue when it costs them money. In the meanwhile, there's three solutions above.

... now i'm off to remove myself from notifications about this thread, it's going nowhere for past 12mths.

[TheAlderman]

This is yet another feature that any normal person would just expect to be built in. We've spent in excess of $2k buying Square Register. Now we can't pass through credit card surcharges, which is just standard practice in the Australian Market. Nor can we add a public holiday surcharge, which again is standard practice in the Australian Market. We'll be the only business not charging these two things in our area. Square, please inform me on how to request a refund for our system that we have unboxed a week ago and not yet installed; as we can't use it in this current format - it is not fit for purpose and as such, in Australia, we are entitled to a full refund.

[Seamus]

Hey @TheAlderman,

Thanks for your feedback.

Surcharges are definitely something Australian businesses and consumers are passionate about, and surcharging is certainly more common here than it is in other markets Square services - EG the UK banned all card fee surcharges a couple of years back and it's the same case in some US states.

I acknowledge that card surcharges are commonly used in Australia, though there are diffing opinions on their use.  Many businesses choose to build card processing fees into the overall price of their goods and services, as they may do with other operational costs - eg electricity, gas, rent, staffing etc.

There's also a growing movement in Australia to go cash-free altogether, with many businesses going cash-free during COVID lockdowns and also prior to this due to some of the hidden costs of cash.

Ultimately it's up to you to do what's best for your business and you'll know what this is better than anyone else! If the present lack of a surcharge feature is a non-negotiable for your business, please contact our support team on 1800 760 137 for more info on returning your order. Lines are open Mon-Fri, 9am-5pm Melbourne time.

All the best!

[mikesee]

While it may well be possible to build CC fees into our prices - some do and some don't.

Some businesses are mostly CC, some are mostly cash, and yes some are cashless.

BUT

The requirement to AUTOMATICALLY add a percentage surchage on Sundays or public holidays is necessary and is something that cannot be done any other way.

Wages for retail/hospitality staff more than double on public holidays - for most this simply cannot be absorbed.

Some of the workarounds proposed in this thread are prohibitively cumbersome, time-consuming and/or prone to error.

A manual surcharge that needs to be applied by the operator to every sale simply will not work, as it will not happen in a busy service environment.

[Seamus]

Fair points @mikesee,

I'll continue to pass feedback from this thread on to the appropriate product teams to ensure your use cases are getting heard internally and providing updates in this thread when I'm able to.

Your closest way to account for a public holiday surcharge at the moment is still via adding a surcharge as a tax (that you will need to remember to turn off on non-public holidays/weekends) - though this will be a little off due to additional taxes being applied on a pre-GST amount. 

[mikesee]

If it was setup as a tax will GST be applied on top of the "tax"?

It would need to be, as GST needs to be charged on the final price.

e.g.

If the price of a sandwich is normally $11 inc 10% GST. So $10 + $1 GST.

If we apply a 15% public holiday surcharge, it would need to be:

$10 + $1.50 surcharge + $1.15 GST. Total $12.65.

Both the surcharge and the GST would need to be displayed on the receipt.

[TheAlderman]

Hi @Seamus

Thanks for your comprehensive post. The Australian Government only a few years ago made it legal to pass through these charges; and then encouraged business to do so. This is the exact opposite to what you say the UK Government have done. And in my opinion, the Australian approach is the logical thing to do as a business operator; pass through the direct costs to those who incur them. It's very common in Australia to do this, precisely due to the Government encouraging businesses to do so and for consumers to accept and expect it.

Accordingly most Australian banks' EFT terminals have the ability to have these charges applied automatically, and only applied automatically on those transactions that incur them. For example, Paywave via a Visa card would attract the 1.6% surcharge, but EFTPOS would not have the surcharge applied (because all Australian banks I've used don't charge a surcharge for EFTPOS transactions unlike Square). 

Pass-through charges for card transactions is only a small cost compared to public holiday surcharges though. Labour costs on Saturday and Sunday are 50% higher than on a weekday, but fortunately these are covered off by most businesses (ours included) having younger staff work those shifts. Because school aged workers have a lower base pay than adult workers, labour costs are similar on weekdays and weekends.

But labour costs on a Public Holiday are 150% higher than on a weekday for all age brackets and those costs are covered by at least 95% of hospitality venues via either a 10% or 15% surcharge on the GST inclusive price of all items charged on those days. This is also accepted well by consumers who all expect public holiday surcharges.

As others have said, this is a non-negotiable and we simply must be able to do this to be viable on those days. Without a public holiday surcharge there's no point opening the doors.

We can't ask staff to remember to apply a surcharge manually to every transaction - this simply wouldn't happen especially when it's busy.

We can't add it as a tax, because there's no way to have it not say it's a tax on both the register and on the Tax Invoice, which is a legal document that must be accurate.

If a discount can be applied automatically, which Square can do, there's no reason a surcharge can't be applied automatically as well - it's basically a negative discount. For this feature to be left out of the product before Square launched in the Australian market shows how out of touch Square's offering is with the businesses it is attempting to attract.

And this is why I have said the feature is a non-negotiable and the product needs to be refunded. Thank you for providing the contact details to facilitate this.

[Seamus]

Fair enough @TheAlderman! Ultimately it's your call and at the moment I can't give you any guarantees on if the features you're looking for might come to Square in the future.

As usual I'll pass on your feedback to ensure we're considering what our sellers consider to be deal breakers, and hopefully we're able to take this into account when prioritising new feature development in the future.