Billing Adjustments

A surcharge is an adjustment to the total of an invoice, whether positive (add-on cost) or negative (discount). Examples of surcharges include:

• sales taxes
• shipping & handling fees
• sales/promotions
• quantity discounts
• conditional discounts (buy X, get a discount on Y)

• Surcharge
  The surcharge name is how it will appear on the invoice.
  
  
• Status
  Set the status to "inactive" to archive it or otherwise prevent it from being applied to invoices.
  
  
• Coupon Code
  If you define a coupon code, the buyer will only receive the benefit of the surcharge if they type in a matching code at the time they check out.
  
  
• Minimum Quantity
  The surcharge will only apply to an item if the quantity purchased is at least this number.
  
  
• Treat as
  The surcharge appears as its own line item on the invoice. This line item can be categorized for financial reports using this option. Discounts to certain purchase categories should be categorized the same as the original purchase category, to allow the correct recalculation of sales taxes.
  
  
• Website
  The surcharge will only be applied to purchases originating from this website. If no website is set, it will apply to all websites on this system.

The cost fields are used to calculate the actual amount of the surcharge.

A percent value is multiplied by the line-item subtotal. For exmaple, if a line item has a subtotal of $20.00, and a 5% tax surcharge applies to that item, then a surcharge of 20.00 * 0.05 = $1.00 will be added to the invoice.

A per item value is a dollar amount that is multiplied by the line-item quantity. For example, if a product has a shipping charge of $2 per item, and 5 items are purchased, a surcharge of 5 * 2.00 = $10.00 will be added to the invoice.

A per unit size value is a dollar amount that is multiplied by the line-item size (which might be a weight, length, or other quantity that indicates the size of the item). For example, if a user buys 4 of an item that weighs 1.5 kgs each, and the shipping cost is $5 per kg, a surcharge of 4 * 1.5 * 5.00 = $30.00 will be added to the invoice.

A per product value is a dollar amount that is only applied once for a given product (technically, once per line item), no matter what quantity is purchased.

A per order value is a dollar amount that is only applied once for a given invoice, no matter how many items on that order qualify for the surcharge.

You can specify more than one of these, and the costs will be added together to get the surcharge subtotal.

When configuring discounts, enter negative values in the cost adjustment fields. For example:

• "-50" in the percent fields means "50% off"
• "-50" in the "per item" field means a $50 off on each item purchased
•  "-50" in the "per order" field means $50 off the invoice total

Surcharges can be region-specific. This is commonly used for handling different sales tax jurisdictions, and for calculating shipping charges based on region being shipped to. The region is compared to the region of the buyer (as entered on the checkout screen).

Specify states and provinces using their standard 2-letter codes. You can combine multiple province/states into one region by separating them with a bar character, like this:

BC|AB|SK

Countries can be specified and combined the same way. For example, to apply a surcharge to North American buyers, you can set the country to:

Canada|Mexico|United States

To specify an everywhere-except condition, put an exclamation point in front of the state/province or country. For example, to add a surchage for everywhere outside of Canada or the USA, use:

!Canada|United States

Surcharges can be set up to be valid only during certain dates and times. Set the start and end dates and times using the date selectors. If the start time is unset, then the surcharge is valid at any time up to the end time. If the end date is unset, then it is valid at any time after the start time. If both are unset, then it is always valid.

Surcharges can be configured to apply TO certain items only, and also to apply only IF certain other items exist on the invoice.

• Apply to
  The surcharge only applies to line items of this account code. If the surcharge applies to multiple account codes, a different surcharge should be set up for each.
  
  
• Apply to object type, ID
  If the surcharge only applies to a very specific line item, the type and ID of that line item can be specified here. This is used for tying discounts or special surcharges to specific products, for instance.
  
  
• Apply if they bought
  The surcharge only applies if the buyer also bought something of this account code.
  
  
• Apply if they bought object type, ID
  The surcharge only applies if the buyer also bought a specific item, as given by the type and ID.

Sales Tax

Sales Tax Example

Shipping & Handling

There are many different ways to use the surcharge system to automatically compute shipping costs. Here are some examples:

For example, charge $1 per book when ordering books from an online bookstore:

Surcharge	Shipping & handlingÂ
Treat asÂ	ShippingÂ
Per itemÂ	1.00Â
Apply toÂ	MerchandiseÂ

For example, charge $5 per kg:

Surcharge	Shipping & handlingÂ
Treat asÂ	ShippingÂ
Per unit sizeÂ	5.00Â
Apply toÂ	MerchandiseÂ

You must ensure that every shippable item has an accurate size associated with it, and that the sizes are in consistent units (eg. kg for this example).

For example, charge $5 plus $2 per kg

Surcharge	Shipping & handlingÂ
Treat asÂ	ShippingÂ
Per orderÂ	5.00
Per unit sizeÂ	2.00Â
Apply toÂ	MerchandiseÂ

For example, charge $5 per kg to Canada, $10 per kg to USA, and $15 per kg worldwide:

Surcharge	Shipping & handlingÂ
Treat asÂ	ShippingÂ
Per unit sizeÂ	5.00Â
Apply toÂ	MerchandiseÂ
CountryÂ	CanadaÂ

Surcharge	Shipping & handlingÂ
Treat asÂ	ShippingÂ
Per unit sizeÂ	10.00Â
Apply toÂ	MerchandiseÂ
CountryÂ	United StatesÂ

Surcharge	Shipping & handlingÂ
Treat asÂ	ShippingÂ
Per unit sizeÂ	15.00Â
Apply toÂ	MerchandiseÂ
CountryÂ	!Canada|United States

Special Sale

Clearance Item

Quantity Discount

Conditional Discount

Promo Code Discount