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 Everyone!

We’re excited to announce some new updates to the Automatic Surcharges feature that will make managing your Weekend and Public Holiday Surcharges easier than ever! 

What's New?

Weekly Surcharges with Custom Day and Time Selection

You can now choose the exact days and times when a surcharge should be applied, such as weekends or late nights.

1. From your Square Dashboard, navigate to Account & Settings > Business information.
2. Click Service charges > Create service charge.
3. Enter service charge details such as a Name, Amount type (% or $), and Amount.
4. Choose which locations the service charge will be applied to.
5. Toggle on Apply automatically.
6. Click Weekly schedule and select the day of the week and time period for automatic application.
7. Click Save once all changes have been made.
   

Public Holiday Service Charges

National, state, and local public holidays are pre-populated – simply pick the ones that apply to your business.

1. From your Square Dashboard, navigate to Account & Settings > Business information.
2. Click Service charges > Create service charge.
3. Enter service charge details such as a Name, Amount type (% or $), and Amount.
4. Choose which locations the service charge will be applied to.
5. Toggle on Apply automatically.
6. Click Public holiday schedule and select the holidays for automatic application.
7. Click Save once all changes have been made.

Custom Date Service Charges

Easily create surcharges with a custom date to suit your business needs.

1. From your Square Dashboard, navigate to Account & Settings > Business information.
2. Click Service charges > Create service charge.
3. Enter service charge details such as a Name, Amount type (% or $), and Amount.
4. Choose which locations the service charge will be applied to.
5. Toggle on Apply automatically.
6. Click Public holiday schedule > Create a custom holiday > Create holiday.
7. Add a Holiday name and Date, then click Create.
8. Click Save once all changes have been made.

Once set up, these surcharges will be automatically applied to card payments on Square Point of Sale, Square for Restaurants, and Square for Retail based on their specified dates/times.

Check out the Product Launch here. For more information on setting up service charges, visit our Support Centre.


As always, we’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences with these new updates, so please feel free to send through your feedback on this thread!

[#3]

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!

[#4]

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.

[BPN081]

There is a work around for this. Keep in mind though when charging Public Holiday Surcharges you actually need a public holiday menu which displays the surcharged rate. You cant just say 15% Public Holiday Surcharge.

Your menu should be IE Standard Price Coffee $4. On a public holiday menu $4.60. 

Surcharges
You may choose to add a fee or charge on prices such as a public holiday or credit card payment surcharge. If you do, the price you display must include any surcharge. If you're running a restaurant, café or bistro, the menu must state that a surcharge applies and on which days.

To find out more about setting and displaying prices, visit the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) website.

https://www.service.nsw.gov.au/transaction/meet-requirements-displaying-or-advertising-prices

The work around is to create a new tax rule.

Account & Settings/Business/Sales Tax
Create Tax

Name: Public Holiday Surcharge

Tax Rate: 15% (in your case)
Items: All (or relevant items)
Save

Under actions you can Enable or Disable this tax rule on the day you use it.

Restart register or tablet for it to apply.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/nq22pqmujdy8nfy/Screen%20Shot%202022-04-14%20at%2012.16.41%20pm.png?dl=0

[CCIptyltd]

Hi all,

Is there an option available which allows for passing the transaction fee to the customer - when an order is placed online?  therefore the customer pays the total amount for the products ordered and transaction fee charged by Square.  thanks

[Seamus]

Hey @CCIptyltd,

Not at the moment. I've moved your post to our feature request thread, where as you can see it's been a popular request for a long time. Once I'm able to share further news on this feature I'll be updating this thread - I'm hopeful we'll get there eventually! 

[OliverBrown]

Your best bet would be to set up new pricing for online store which was inclusive of the charge. You can change pricing in items on the online page which doesn’t effect the in store price

[SurchargeForAus]

I note that this thread has now been ongoing for 2+ years. When will this change???? We're sold Square as a flat fee solution - but it isn't! Because *we* have to add 1.6% to each transaction ourselves and then Square adds on 1.6% of that total! Pretty unhappy - curious to know how many people are switching to Zeller to do away with this frustration?

[TheAlderman]

We've now sold our Square register and moved away from Square, and this is a major reason after all the public holidays over the Easter period, Anzac day, and Labour Day recently.

[Kbomb-13_]

I'd love to be able to add a surcharge for customer using card in store. At the moment I either ask for cash payment or a minimum spend. 

[Laurie_]

Hi @Kbomb-13_ thanks for reaching out!

You can set this up on your account by creating a new sales tax from your Checkout Settings, using our calculations provided in the Best Answer in this thread. 

Keep in mind, that we cannot create a tax based on payment type at this time. So the workaround for this would be to apply tax to all items and remove the tax from cash transactions during checkout. This will look like the following on your point of sale app:

1. From the Square app, tap Review Sale and tap an item.

2. Under Taxes, toggle applicable tax rates on or off.

Give this a try and let us know if you have any further questions.

[TheAlderman]

A totally unacceptable workaround that makes receipts non-compliant with Australia's legally required Tax Invoice design requirements, according to the "A New Tax System (Goods and Services Tax) Act 1999". You should stop advising people to do this as it is basically illegal to do in Australia.

In addition to this, the idea doesn't even work correctly. As we have all told Square for years now, this surcharge can only legally be charged to people using their cards, and this "tax" applies to any transaction unless you toggle it on-and-off between transactions.

[icedteaco]

How is such a basic feature not available yet in Australia? We are losing millions of dollars altogether because this feature is not available. Please make it happen soon