How can I change the way Square rounds when calculating sales tax?

[lipstickconnie]

Apparently Square uses the bankers method for calculating sales tax but my accounting software does not.  The amounts are always a penny or two off.  

Is there a way I can change the setting to calculate the same?

[beleafers]

We are having the same problem with the round up, which we cannot balance our account with bank. May I ask how you guys solve the problem if square did not provide solution? Any tricks can share? Thanks

[sugarloaf]

I have to enter each sale item separately. A verrrrry big pain.

[aadams]

When I make the deposit for the days sales, I put in a +/- line with the amount it is off and put it towards misc. income.  That way it matches the bank deposit. It is a pain.  Are we sure Square is a "tech" company?

[JoeR]

Whenever I go in to make a receipt for an invoice that isn't paid through Square, the amount paid always shows as being rounded to the nearest nickel.  Even when you put the proper amount in at the top, if you change any payment option below that in the receipt screen, it defaults back to calculating to the nearest nickel.  How do I turn this off?  This is aggravating!

[AdamB]

Hi @JoeR - welcome to Seller Community!

I've merged your post into another thread about rounding more generally so you can find more information about how Square rounds. There isn't a way to disable or change that at this time, though.

[SBD]

Hello Square, I've read al of the message in this thread about tax rounding formulas in Square versus let's say QuickBooks. Square is using the Bankers Method of rounding which in today's financial world is quite uncommon. This rounding "feature" in Square is causing what appears to be significant additional work for many business owners including myself when reconciling bookkeeping software against Square processing software. It appears for the last three years or so your standard answer to your clients has been "that's just the way it is" which represents a "deaf" ear to customer concerns and suggested changes. How about in this day and age of multiple card processing companies and stiff competition in this market space you actually consider changing the tax rounding formula in your software so your "customers" don't have to make up for your archaic tax processing rules? I believe that may be a better approach rather than telling us all to pound sand over this issue for the last three years. Thanks for listening, I hope.

[aadams]

They are not listening.  Perhaps going to social media to show how much they don't understand businesses and taxes?  

[lbduxbury]

@aadams agreed! I was just thinking that yesterday. A social media campaign about this is definitely in order. 

[littlestore]

Has there been any advancement on this rounding issue? I do not collect sales tax but I do purchase inventory in bulk which requires more than two decimal places for accurate unit cost. Because of the way Square seems to round, virtually none of my purchase order totals match my bills from vendors. I'm not sure how to account for this in QuickBooks when paying bills. If the rounding issue has not been resolved, does anyone know of a work-around to either more accurately enter inventory into the system or how to handle "paying" the bill in QB? 

I am also searching for topics regarding this issue on the QB Support page. 

Thank you.

[aadams]

Nothing from Square.  Researching new point of sale companies.

[MyWorldBetter]

my deposits are typically a few cents short.. anyone else have this problem?

[JustinC]

What other report are you comparing your transfer report against that shows the discrepancy? @MyWorldBetter

[aadams]

Your deposits will be short a few cents as square does not round the way the state sales tax rounds.  So for every deposit, you will have to put in a line less the off amount.  I put it to misc. income.  Square is ridiculous in this issue.  No response, nothing.  

[MyWorldBetter]

I am calculating my total sales with tax (square and I have the exact same number) minus fees (again we have the exact same number yet the deposit a few cents less. Seems sketchy to me. A few cents x millions of people?

[aadams]

Are you calculating the sales tax the way your state calculates the tax?  When I run an invoice of the days sales in my accounting program, the sales tax is off a few cents every day from what square collects.  Square is calculating it wrong, and my accounting program is calculating it correctly.  The business has to make up the difference to pay the correct sales tax.  

[MyWorldBetter]

I am using the amounts that square used. I inputted all the data into a spreadsheet separately and then added it up. As you can see for this instance it is off by 2 cents (the highlighted numbers match square - so I’m trying to figure out how 2 cents disappeared)

 

because I find the square system and reports to be confusing and I wanted to make sure everything added up correctly. 

[aadams]

Split out the Sale with Tax to just Sale.  Then calculate your tax the way your state calculates the tax.    I bet that is where it is off.  It is a rounding issue.  Square uses bankers rounding.  States round up.  So  you will be off almost every deposit because of this.

[MyWorldBetter]

I understand but how is it off when square an I get the same dollar amounts for sales with tax and fees? Also if I separated the sales and the tax and round the way they do - it’s still 2 cents short. 

[Laurenduxbury]

Two things: 

1. You need to spilt out the sales from the tax. Otherwise ou cannot do your bookkeeping and reports properly. 

2. To answer the original question of this thread. You have to file and pay your own sales tax therefore, because of Square's terrible bankers rounding system you will inevitably always collect less sales tax from your customer than you have to pay to your tax authority based off sales figures.

Square doesn't care about this issues. They have made that very clear to everyone in this forum. 

[MyWorldBetter]

I do split the tax and the sales I just didn’t show a picture of that part of the excel sheet. I include sales tax in most of my items on square because of this reason, ie. So I don’t add tax. So what I’m saying is that it’s not a rounding issue with the tax. Square it just is shorting me a few cents on deposits. I was wondering if anybody else had this issue.

[avlgoods]

Yes, I do have this issue as well. I assumed it is because of the way Square rounds. My bank deposits are always a bit short. It makes it difficult and confusing to reconcile. I'm considering dropping Square because of this. I use PayPay with WooCommerce for online sales and it's not a problem.