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About
To manage surcharges for credit cards and holidays, go to Sales > Surcharge.
IMPORTANT: It is your responsibility to ensure that your surcharges abide the law of your country. All Australian businesses must ensure that their payment surcharges ("bank" surcharges) adhere to the ACCC.
e.g. "A business [...] is only allowed to pass on to the customer the costs that the business was charged for accepting payment of that payment type. / The ban applies to all businesses, regardless of their size."
Please note that although certain payment devices support their own surcharges (e.g. Tyro, Westpac), we recommend you set your surcharges within Abacus if you wish to see the surcharges reported within Abacus. If you set up a surcharge on your own payment terminal and within Abacus, you risk double-surcharging your customer.
Credit Card Surcharges
Any credit card surcharges you set on your POS will also apply on your online ordering and your self-ordering kiosk.
If you want the POS card surcharge and the online ordering card surcharge to differ, check out this article.
There are two different kinds of card surcharges:
All Cards: 1 common surcharge, regardless of the kind of card the customer presents
By Types: different surcharges depending on Card Type (e.g. Visa, American Express)
All Cards surcharge | By Types Surcharge | |
POS | ✅ Supported | ✅ Supported |
Online Ordering | ✅ Supported | ✅ Supported |
Self-Ordering Kiosk | ✅ Supported | ❌ Not supported |
How to set a surcharge for all cards
If you set a bank surcharge for "all cards", the same surcharge will be applied regardless of the credit card type.
Go to the Bank tab
Click New Item
Enter the:
* Credit card / other payment* Rate type (percentage, flat value, or amount per person)
* Surcharge rate
* OPTIONAL: Minimum and maximum amounts for which this surcharge applies* OPTIONAL: Source (POS, Online Ordering, Self-ordering Kiosk)
Click All Cards.
5. On the POS, go to Settings > Sync > Sync Payment Info.
Note that bank surcharges are applied on top of any existing extra fees, e.g. holiday surcharge or delivery fees.
How to set a surcharge by card type
Go to the Bank tab
Click New Item
Enter the:
Card type
Rate type (percentage, flat value, or amount per person)
Surcharge rate
(OPTIONAL) Minimum and maximum amounts for which this surcharge applies
(OPTIONAL) Source (POS, Online Ordering, Self-ordering Kiosk)
4. Click By Card Types.
5. On Abacus POS, go to Settings > Sync > Sync Payment Info
6. Turn on Setting A18. Require selection of card type upon credit card transaction
7. Now, when you print out a bill, the different surcharges will appear at the bottom of the bill, depending on whether the surcharges are by card or for all cards.
General surcharges
Go to the General tab.
Click New Item
3. All the surcharge information will be set in the new listing that appears in the table. Enter the:
Surcharge name (eg. New Year's Day)
Rate type (percentage, flat value for order, or amount per person)
Surcharge rate
If you are an Australian business, make the surcharge taxable
4. Set the "conditions" that need to be met for the surcharge to apply:
If you want it to apply for only a certain day, select a Day of the Week
If you want it to only apply for a range of dates, select a Start Date and End Date
If you want it to only apply to certain transaction sizes, set an Amount Minimum and/or Amount Maximum, e.g. If you make the minimum $10, then the surcharge will only apply for orders of $10 or more
If you want it to only apply when you have a certain number of guests seated at a table, set a Guest Minimum and Guest Maximum, e.g. If you make the minimum 2 guests, then the surcharge will only apply when you have 2 or more guests
Select an Order Type if you want the surcharge to only apply to eat-in, takeaway or delivery orders.
Select an Order Source if you want the surcharge to only apply for Online Ordering.
5. If you are intending to create compound surcharges, you will need to make sure that you are creating your surcharges in the same order that you want them to be applied. Then, under "Compound", select "Yes". Surcharges will be applied in the same order as they are shown. (See: How can I make a compound surcharge?)
6. Click Enable General Surcharge.
7. On Abacus POS, go to Settings > Sync > Sync Payment Info.
If you have created a surcharge for your Self-Ordering Kiosk or Table Ordering app, you will also need to sync these devices. Online Ordering surcharges will apply automatically whether or not the "Enable General Surcharge" button is turned on, and will need to be deleted if you wish to no longer apply these.
8. Now, when the surcharge "conditions" are met, the surcharge will apply automatically.
Surcharge Report
Go to Reports > Sales > Surcharge to see each surcharge generated for each invoice.
These can be filtered by Surcharge Type (General/Holiday or Bank), and by the surcharge name/description.
Bypass Surcharges
You can bypass a surcharge on specific transactions on the Payment screen by going to SURCHARGE OPTIONS and toggling the buttons:
Remove standard surcharge (a.k.a. "General" surcharge or "Holiday" surcharge)
Remove credit card surcharge (or "Bank" surcharge)
You can also remove a credit card surcharge by pressing and holding the Credit Card button.