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Note: This article is intended for practices using Stripe as their payment vendor. For those using Worldpay, please refer to the Credit Card Surcharging with Worldpay.

Overview

The surcharge feature allows practices to pass on credit card processing fees to pet owners. When this option is enabled, a calculated payment processing fee is added to the total invoice cost.

Pet owners can review the surcharge amount and decline the fee from payment devices. The practice can waive the surcharge fee during checkout by clearing the Include surcharge option. 

Note: Credit card surcharges may be restricted or prohibited in some states. Before enabling this feature, please review the relevant laws in your state to ensure compliance. Merchants are required to notify Mastercard 30 days prior to the start of surcharging. To notify Mastercard, visit https://www.mastercard.us/en-us/surcharge-disclosure-webform.html and complete the form.

Enabling the Surcharge Feature

• Go to Settings > Billing > Payments > Stripe Payments Settings.
• Ensure the option for Enable Surcharge is checked.
  
• A message will appear, alerting the user to check relevant local laws before proceeding.
• Click Proceed, to enable the surcharge.
  
• A new field will appear after enabling the surcharge, where the Surcharge Percentage Fee is entered as a whole number.
  

Note: The maximum surcharge rate is 3%. The system will disregard additional surcharge value above 3%.

• When complete, save the changes.

Processing a Card with a Surcharge

To process a credit card with a surcharge, within the Payments section choose the correct terminal,
payment type and enter the payment amount.

• Ensure the Include Surcharge button is selected.
• Then click Process Payment.

• A Payment Amount Confirmation dialog will display the amount of the payment, the surcharge, and
  the total amount to be processed.
  
• If you’d like to waive the surcharge for a client, click No to return to the payments section where you can select to not include the surcharge. To proceed click Yes.
• The Stripe reader will prompt the customer to tap or swipe their card and display surcharge notification at the bottom of the card reader.

• If the client does not wish to accept the charges, they will simply click on the X in the upper left corner of the Stripe device screen. 

Note: When proceeding with the payment, the client acknowledges that they are accepting the
surcharge, and the total amount will be processed.

• After the payment is approved the device will display the surcharge amount added to the total price of the invoice.
• The surcharge will be included on the receipt printed from within Pulse along with the payment type, the last 4 digits of the credit card, and the transaction ID.

Refund with Surcharge

Voiding a Payment with a Refund

Voided payments will return the total invoice amount including the surcharge.

Partial Surcharge Refund with Returned Items

The prorated surcharge amount is included in the refund amount. For example, with a 3% surcharge, a $30 surcharge was applied to a $1000 invoice for a total payment of $1030. A $100 item was returned, the
total refund amount is $103 which includes $3 surcharge. If the returned item(s) amount is less than the invoice’s balance, the refund amount will not include surcharge.

• This is done by using the Return Items option which allows Pulse to calculate the pro-rated surcharge amount accordingly.
  
• To do this, enter the return quantity and return notes then click Calculate Refund Amount. 
  
• The amount to return will display in red below the charges including the calculated surcharge fee.
• When ready click Process Return and click Yes on the confirmation message.
  
• The return transaction will then be displayed within the client’s payment history.
• The refund amount will be applied as credit to customer’s account.

End-of-Day Payment Reconciliation with Surcharge

Credit card payment reconciliation can be done by comparing the total payments from Pulse and Stripe Payment List.

Exporting report from Stripe Payment List

• Navigate to the Payment list by selecting the Finance icon from the left navigation bar.
• From Payment List, select Export.
  
• Select Today for the date range if reconciling at the end of the day or choose Custom for a specific day or date range.
  
• Click Export.

Computing Summary Totals

• Open the exported file from the download folder in the Excel worksheet or a comparable application.
• Add the following fields to the Excel worksheet:
  a. Count payments - count of records from the Converted Amount column =COUNT(G2:G10)
  b. Count refunds – count of records from Converted Amount refunded column that’s greater than 0 =COUNTIF(H2:H10,”>0”)
  c. Total Pulse payments expected - a-b
  d. Total payment amount – total amount from Converted Amount column G =SUM(G:G)
  e. Total refund amount – total amount from Converted amount refunded, column H =SUM(H:H)
  f. Total Surcharge amount – total amount from Surcharge (last column), column AB = SUM (AB:AB)
  g. Total Pulse payment amount expected = d - e - f
  
  
• Run the Pulse Sales report for the current day with filters to include Cash Summary, Transaction List, and Transaction Breakdown.
• Compare totals from the Pulse Sales report Cash Summary and the Stripe payment list report.
  • Pulse Total Credit Card Transactions amount should equal to Total Pulse payments amount expected from the Stripe report (from the example, the matched value is 5820.30).
  • Pulse Total Credit Card Transactions count should equal to Total Pulse payments expected from the Stripe report. (from the example, the matched value is 9).

• If these totals do not match, review each transaction from Pulse and Stripe to identify the missing transaction or discrepancy.

Related Articles

• Stripe Payments User Guide
• Stripe Payments Setup Guide