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Surcharging lets you pass a fee to customers who pay with a credit card. The fee is calculated and applied by your payment processor at the card terminal, and the POS records it on the transaction, the receipt, and your reports.

Getting Surcharging Enabled

Surcharging isn't something you turn on yourself — we set it up for you for your Payments processor.

Interested in surcharging? Contact us at (385) 404-6200 or support@rainpos.com and we'll walk you through your options and get it configured.

The surcharge percentage and how tax is handled are worked out with your payment processor. Card-network and state rules — including which states allow surcharging and which card types are eligible — are enforced by the processor automatically. There is nothing to configure in the POS.

How Tax Works with Surcharging

Sales tax rules around surcharging vary by state — some states treat a credit card surcharge as a taxable part of the sale, and others don't. When the surcharge is taxed on your sales, this is how that tax is charged and shown:

• It's taxed at the same rates as the items on the sale. The surcharge is spread across the taxable items in the transaction, and each portion is taxed at that item's own tax rate. A sale with items at different tax rates is handled correctly — no single flat rate is assumed.

• It's folded into the existing Tax total. Surcharge tax is never shown as its own separate line. If your receipts break tax out by jurisdiction, each jurisdiction's share is added into its existing row, so the breakdown still adds up.

Discounts are always applied before the surcharge is calculated, so a customer is never surcharged on an amount they didn't pay. If this doesn't match what your state requires, contact us before you start surcharging so we can confirm what's possible for your location.

Taking a Surcharged Payment

Ring up the sale and take payment as you normally would. When the customer presents a credit card:

• The terminal detects the card type.

• If the card is eligible, the terminal calculates the surcharge and displays a notice showing the fee.

• The customer approves the surcharge on the terminal.

• The payment is captured for the sale total plus the surcharge.

The cashier does not add the surcharge manually and cannot change it. The surcharge appears in the POS after the payment completes.

When a Surcharge Is Not Applied

A credit card payment won't always carry a surcharge. Common reasons:

• Debit Card — Debit transactions are never surcharged, even when run as credit.

• Split Tender — If the sale is paid with more than one payment method, no surcharge is applied to any part of it.

• Card Not Present — Manually keyed cards, saved cards, and online payments are not eligible.

• Not Applied by Processor — The processor determined the card or transaction wasn't eligible.

Viewing Surcharge on a Transaction

Open the transaction (you can do this from the End of Day report, the Customer's History, or anywhere that links the Transaction ID) and look at the Totals panel. A Surcharge line appears below Discount, if any, when the transaction carried a surcharge.

Editing Is Disabled on Surcharged Transactions

The Edit button is unavailable on any transaction that has a surcharge. Because the surcharge was authorized by the customer at the terminal for a specific amount, changing the transaction afterward would put the recorded total out of sync with what the processor actually charged.

If a surcharged transaction needs to change, process a return instead and re-ring the sale.

Receipts

Transaction receipts — both thermal and single-page — show a Surcharge line that includes the percentage that was applied, for example `Surcharge (2.75%)`. The line appears directly below Subtotal and is included in the receipt's grand total.

The surcharge line prints on transaction receipts only. It does not appear on other printouts such as special order printouts, work order printouts, layaway paperwork, claim tickets, gift receipts, or account statements.

The surcharge line only prints when a surcharge was actually collected. Non-surcharged transactions print exactly as they always have.
Reprinted receipts show the surcharge from the saved transaction record, so a reprint always matches the original.

Returns and Refunds

When you return a surcharged sale, the surcharge is refunded along with it.

• Full Return — The entire surcharge is refunded.
• Partial Return — The surcharge is refunded proportionally to the items being returned.

In the Register's refund summary, a Surcharge line shows the surcharge being refunded, and the refund total includes it. In the transaction's receipt options, refunded surcharge appears as Surcharge Refunded.

Surcharge on Reports

Surcharge totals appear on these reports:

• End of Day — A Credit Card Surcharge row in the Other section of the summary (pictured below), plus a Surcharge column on the transaction table and in the CSV export. The Receipts section is unchanged, because the Credit total already includes surcharge as part of what was collected.

• Sales Summary — A Surcharge total in the report summary and a sortable Surcharge column on each transaction row, included in the CSV export.

• Voided Transactions — A Surcharge column.

• End of Day Reconciliation — A Surcharge column and daily total.

• Shift Summary — Surcharge is included in total receipts.

• Payouts — A Surcharge column on both the payout list and the transaction list, included in the printed version. The Transaction Fees & Refunds summary panel shows surcharge as a credit that reduces the total, since surcharge collected offsets what you pay in processing fees.

QuickBooks Online

If you export to QuickBooks Online, surcharge is posted to its own income account named Surcharge Income so it stays separate from product and service revenue.