Charge, Discount and Credit Transactions

Charges and Discounts are essentially the same thing, except that a discount is treated as a negative charge, and must have a "Discount Used" associated with it.  The typical use for Discount transactions would be for discounted rates or items, for which you would enter the normal price as a Charge and then add the Discount as a separate transaction.  This is helpful both for reporting and tracking discounts given and also for indicating the amount of discount on the customer's receipt.

Credit transactions are similar to Discounts in that they are basically negative Charges, but there are a couple important differences -- Credit transactions cannot be automatically taxed, and they don't have a "Discount Used" associated with them.  Credit transactions are typically used for things like coupons (which don't usually reduce the sales tax, for instance), or for other special credits to a customer like that have nothing to do with using a discount club.  Also, Credit transactions will appear on the receipt in a separate section below the sub-total for charges, discounts, and taxes.

Enter Charge Information

When this dialog opens, focus will be in the Transaction Category list.  You must select an appropriate category for the charge (using the up/down arrow keys or the mouse), then you can press Enter or Tab to move to the description field.

Note that the description will automatically default to the name of the category you selected.  You can leave it at this or change it to whatever you like. It's recommended to keep descriptions fairly short so that they fit on the receipts, since there is a limited amount of room. The text size on the receipt will be shrunk to make it fit, but it can only shrink to a certain size, and it doesn't appear professional when one long entry is in smaller text than all of the others. About the size of the normal "Item Description" header is a good rule of thumb.

Also note that if you change the description then you should eliminate the existing text because the category may still appear on the receipt (depending on an option set in File / Printing Options).  For instance, if you change the description of a Gift Shop charge, don't leave "Gift Shop" in the description.  Make it something like "Flower Basket", and the receipt will show either "Flower Basket" or "Gift Shop: Flower Basket", depending on the printing option.

Next you will enter the Quantity and the Each dollar amount. When entering dollar values, you don't need to enter the dollar sign ($) -- it will be added for you.  Also note that the Quantity can be any number, including decimal numbers like 1.75.  You can also choose to leave the Quantity blank, and a single quantity will be assumed.

Finally, you need to select the taxes that apply.  Any taxes selected here will result in automatic Tax transaction entries, so you don't have to enter taxes manually.  If default taxes have already been set up in the Taxes Setup, then the default taxes will already be checked according to the Category selected.  Make any changes needed, then click Save (or you can use Ctrl-Enter, or just press Enter repeatedly until it gets to the Save button and then it will save the charge.)

When completed, you will see the Charge transaction and possibly one or more Tax transactions appear in the Transaction dialog.  If the reservation had an unapplied Deposit transaction, you will also see a "Deposit Applied" transaction inserted, which simply indicates that the deposit has now been applied to charges.

If you made a mistake and need to make changes, you can either Delete the new transactions and do the Charge again, or just click on the field in the grid that needs to be corrected and enter the new value.  be careful about making changes, since the Tax will not be re-calculated!  If an amount needs to be changed, it's best to Delete the Charge and all associated Tax transactions, and then re-enter the Charge so it recalculates the tax.

Don't worry about having multiple tax transactions when you're entering more than one charge or discount -- they will be combined on the receipt so only won tax transaction appears, provided the "Combine taxes" option (File / Printing Options) is selected.

Enter Discount Information / Select Discount Used

The main difference when entering a Discount transaction is that when you click the Discount button, if you haven't already selected a "Discount used" on the Transaction dialog then a list of discounts will be shown to choose from.  (If the reservation or customer used a discount previously, it will already be selected so you don't have to select it again).  Just select the appropriate discount (with the arrow keys or mouse) and click OK or press Enter.  You can also double-click the discount to do it in a single step.  

Then the same dialog will appear as for Charge transactions, described above.  Note that you can select a category just like Charges, or you can select the generic "Discount" category.  This is up to you, and only affects reporting.  We recommend selecting the same category as you did for the charge corresponding to this discount, so you can have more detailed reporting.

The Description will default to the Discount Used, rather than the category.  This can also be changed if desired, but it looks best on receipts to show the type of discount used.

Make sure you enter the "Each" amount for the discount as a positive value -- it will be subtracted from charges, but the entry must be made as a positive amount.  For instance, just enter "5" to give a $5.00 discount.

Alternatively, you can enter a discount percentage (e.g. enter "10" for a 10% discount) and the amount to be discounted.  The program will calculate the amount of the discount for you.  The "of" amount to be discounted will default to the amount of new charges added this session, but you can change it if needed.  You can also select any Charges already added and those will be used as the "of" amount to be discounted.

Corresponding Discount and Tax transactions will be generated as they are for charges.  

Note that Discount transactions will be shown on receipts with a "Discount : " prefix in the description, unless the description already contains the word "Discount".

Enter Credit Information

Entering a credit is just like entering a Charge or Discount.  However you won't be prompted for a Discount Used, and there will be no tax selections.  Just select a category (which defaults to a generic "Credit" category, but you can change it), change the description if desired, and enter the Quantity (if > 1) and Each amount.  Again, the amount should be entered as a positive value even though it will be subtracted from the charges.

Note that Credit transaction descriptions will always be prefixed by "Credit : " on the receipts, and they will appear in a separate section below charges and discounts.