Turning off the 'Discount' column in Square Invoices

[jgc1457]

Hi all, 

I've noticed that Square Invoices has started automatically breaking down a discount given on an invoice across all of the line items. It didn't used to do this and I'm trying to find out a way of disabling it, as it doesn't suit the way I invoice my customers.

How it used to be (and how I want it still to be!):

• I invoice my customer for a Product at £50 plus Training for that product at £100
• I give a discount of £30 on the invoice which I call "Training Discount"
• The invoice total shows as £120.

How it is now:

• I invoice my customer for a Product at £50 plus Training for that product at £100
• I give a discount of £30 on the invoice which I call "Training Discount"
• The invoice shows the Product with a discount amount of £10 and the Training with a discount amount of £20 -- in other words, it has split the £30 discount proportionally across both line items.

This is no good for me, as it implies that the Product was discounted on this invoice, and no doubt customers will ask why future purchases of that Product do not have a discount applied.

How can I either (a) turn off the discount column altogether, so that the discount is just applied to the invoice total as used to be the case, or (b) apply discounts to individual line items and not others?

Thank you very much for any advice or suggestions I can try!

[Breffni]

Hi @jgc1457, thanks for raising this on this Seller Community. 

I appreciate the detail on this post so we can fully understand the query here. 

I can confirm that recently some changes were made with regards to the format of PDF invoices (the invoice email or the invoice pay page have not changed). 

When applying a £ amount discount it will apply to all items, only on the PDF version of the invoice. This is due to a UK VAT requirement, where we need to clearly spell out base price before discount and VAT and then VAT applied. 

For a £ amount discount, distributing the discount to items is how base price without VAT and VAT is calculated. It is important to note that when we apply a £ amount discount, it will display as normal on the invoice email and the invoice pay page.

The invoice PDF your customer can download includes:

Customer VAT number.

At line item level, the unit price excluding VAT, discount, VAT rate (if applicable based on your determination) and total invoice amount.

A VAT table at the bottom that summarises the invoice by VAT rate and features the total amount excluding VAT, total VAT amount (if applicable based on your determination) and total amount including VAT.

I understand that this could be confusing for customers and I will share your feedback with the appropriate team but given that this is necessary legal requirement for Square to have in place, it not be something we have the bandwidth to modify soon. 

[jgc1457]

Hi Alegra,

Thank you for the quick reply, and for explaining so clearly and simply why this change has had to happen. It neatly leads to my next question: as a non-VAT-registered business under the VAT threshold, can I turn off all mention of VAT on my invoices?

If this was a possibility for non-VAT-registered individuals like myself, it would remove the need for the discount column, and we could go back to showing a single discount amount (or series of amounts) under the invoice Total.

Thanks again Alegra!

Jodi.

[Breffni]

Glad to hear this helped clear the matter up a bit Jodi. 

I had a look on my own account and applying tax to a discount is an optional field. 

When you add the item to your Invoice, by pressing Customise - you can manually toggle off VAT for that particular item. 

I had a look at PDF copy of the invoice and the VAT column still appears but it is blank (naturally) 😅.  

I hope this helps @jgc1457 

[jgc1457]

Hi Alegra,

Thanks for your continued help! I did read somewhere that there was the option to customise VAT for individual line items, but I don't see the same options as you when I click Customise:

(This forum says I don't have permission to upload images, so my screengrab is here): https://imgur.com/a/vVwYwGu

Is there a global setting somewhere that I need to change to see the same settings as yours? 

Thanks again!

Jodi.

[Breffni]

Happy to help @jgc1457.  

Thank you for the screenshot, that is curious. It seems like VAT isn't set up for your items. 

You can check this from your Square Dashboard >  Account & Settings > Business > VAT. 

If you set up a VAT rate, you'd have the same on/off option that I have. 

Even if you don't have VAT set up, the VAT column would still appear on the PDF copy of the invoice. 

[jgc1457]

Hi Alegra,

Thanks for the steps to help me replicate your set-up -- I created a VAT rate of 0% in Square Dashboard > Account & Settings > Business > VAT and I do indeed have the option now under Customise to apply that zero rate of VAT. The VAT column appears on the invoice, but with no figures in it (which is good) but the Discount column is still showing a breakdown of the discount I have applied to the whole invoice, thereby implying each item has been discounted (which is bad).

Is there anything else I can try? I really hope so as this is a huge backward step for non-VAT-registered businesses like mine.

Thanks again,

Jodi.