Stop applying dollar discounts proportionally to all items on transaction

[Farmbookeeper]

I need to stop applying variable discounts to each item in the transaction.  Please bare with me as I elaborate.  I did a sale that included our widgets and delivery.  Each widget has an assigned  price in "items" for $24.  We sold them 294 widgets for a total of $7056.00, that were then "variable $" discounted $3.01 each for a total discount of $884.94.  So basically I pressed the "variable $ discount" button for the $884.94.  Then a $367 delivery fee was added to the total.  All of that is well and good and accounted for.  However, when I was looking at the sales week in the Reports > item sales section I noticed that that delivery was discounted $43.75 and then the widgets were discounted $814.19, for this sale.  Granted the money is all there but we track widgets sales revenue separate from delivery revenue.  How can I avoid applying the variable discount proportionally to each "item"?  This really screws up my actual numbers for revenue.  

[TheRealChipA · Accepted solution]

Hi @Farmbookeeper.  So, all Square POS apps pro-rate check-level discounts among all of the eligible items that are on the transaction.  I might have a work-around.  I’m assuming that you are using Square Standard POS (not Restaurants or Retail).  Also I’m assuming that you currently have delivery charge set up as a variable priced item (or service) that you add to each transaction.  If all of that is true, you can:

1. Delete the item called Delivery Charge.
2. Replace it with a variable service charge.  You can add these from your online dashboard at Account & Settings > Business Information > Service Charges.

When you enter transactions, you can add the widgets you need, add the discount, then add the service charge to the transaction.  I ran a quick test to be sure, and confirmed that service charges are NOT discounted like items and services are.  This should give you the result you are looking for.  Let me know if it won’t work for some reason.

[Farmbookeeper]

Thanks for the response.  I'm currently using "Retail"  POS.  When I run it the way you mentioned it shows up correctly on the receipt but when i go in through Reports > item sales it is still prorating the delivery.  

[TheRealChipA]

@Farmbookeeper.  I’m confused.  If you switch to using service charges for the delivery charge, service charges do NOT show up on the Reports > Item Sales report.  Also, I used the Retail POS to enter a transaction with an item, a service charge and a discount.  Only the item was discounted, not the service charge.  Can you show me some screen shots?  Because I simply can not recreate what you seem to be seeing.

[Farmbookeeper]

Sorry that is my fault. I thought that the delivery was set up as a service fee.  After getting your message I double checked and I had not switched it.  Having said that as I read your reply you are correct the service charges do not show up in Reports > item sales which in my case may be counterproductive as I need to be able to track my delivery revenue.  Your suggestion would solve the initial issue but may cause problems downstream with total revenue calculations.  Thoughts?

[TheRealChipA]

It’s all good.  Now, to your next question.  There is a standard Square Report on your Dashboard > Reports > Service Charges.  It has a CSV download, too, if you need that.  But you can run that report for the same period that you run your item sales report and it will give you the information that you need, I believe.

[TheRealChipA]

Also, if you don’t have any other service charges, then you could just use the Transactions CSV which has a column for “Service Charges” applied per transaction.  Either of those should work for your needs.

[Farmbookeeper]

Thanks so much for your help, I think both solutions will fix the problem and address my issues.  It just stinks that I have to use a work around rather than square addressing the issue.  Thanks again!