Surcharging

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Types of Surcharging in Benji Pays
2. Configuration and Settings
3. Which type of cards will have a surcharge added
4. Benji Pays managed surcharging
5. Gateway managed surcharging(Elavon Converge) 
6. What accounting transactions are created
7. Setting up Benji Pays managed surcharging

Types of Surcharging in Benji Pays

Benji Pays, offers two distinct types of surcharging options: Benji Pays managed surcharging and Gateway managed surcharging.

Benji Pays Managed Surcharging

In this type of surcharging, Benji Pays takes full control of enabling and managing the surcharges. The surcharge amount is automatically added to each charge processed through Benji Pays, simplifying the process for merchants and ensuring accurate surcharge calculation.

Gateway Managed Surcharging

Gateway managed surcharging is facilitated by your payment gateway. With this approach, Benji Pays sends the transaction amount to the gateway, and your gateway then determines whether a surcharge should be applied. The gateway calculates the surcharge, adds it to the total charge amount, and sends the final amount back to Benji Pays.  

Elavon Converge and Clover both support Gateway Managed Surcharging.

REFUNDING: Note that when surcharging is managed by Elavon or Clover, the surcharge will be automatically refunded to your customer by those systems.  Benji Pays will record this reversal for you.

Benji Pays managed surcharging

When Benji Pays manages the surcharging, you have fine grained control over your surcharging settings.  Benji Pays calculates the surcharge and adds it to the total transaction amount.

Configuration and Settings

With Benji Pays managed surcharging, merchants have more control over surcharges compared to Gateway managed surcharging.

• 1. Each Customer Can Have Surcharging Disabled: Merchants have the option to disable surcharging for individual customers, affecting all their invoices and payment profiles.

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• 2. Payment Profiles Can Have Surcharging Disabled: Disabling surcharging for a payment profile affects only the charges associated with that specific profile. Other payment profiles for the same customer will still be subject to surcharges if enabled.

By default, surcharging is activated for all customers within your system. However, you have the flexibility to control the surcharging status on a customer and payment profile level.

Disabling Surcharging for a Customer:

1. Navigate to the Customers section.
2. Locate the specific customer for whom you want to disable surcharging and click their name.
3. Click on the gear icon associated with the customer.
4. In the window that opens, find the option to disable surcharging.
5. Toggle off the surcharging option and remember to save your changes.

Disabling Surcharging for a Payment Profile:

1. Identify the payment profile that needs surcharging to be disabled.
2. Click the edit (pencil) icon linked to that payment profile.
3. Within the profile editing window, you'll find the surcharging option.
4. Turn off the surcharging setting at the bottom of the profile.
5. Be sure to save the changes to update the payment profile.

This approach grants you precise control over which customers and payment profiles have surcharging enabled or disabled according to your specific business requirements.

You can also do this in bulk on the Customers and Profiles pages (access from the left menu) by selecting multiple entries and then using the options under the Batch Actions button on those pages

3. Which type of cards will have a surcharge added

Benji Pays prioritizes adding surcharges to credit cards to align regulations. However, this strategy is only possible if the gateway can identify card types prior to charge processing. Not all supported gateways offer this feature.

Here's a breakdown of how different gateways handle surcharges:

By default, Credit cards will always have a surcharge added.

Visa / MasterCard Debit cards can not be identified, and will have a surcharge added with these gateways:

• Bambora
• Global Payments
• Helcim

What accounting transactions are created

For accounting purposes, the following transactions are generated:

QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop: A journal entry is created that debits the customer's accounts receivable account and credits either an income account (Benji Pays managed surcharging) or a liability account (gateway managed surcharging). A payment is then generated for the full transaction amount, linked to the journal entry and the invoice paid. 

Journal Entry numbers:

For QuickBooks Online, Benji Pays let's QuickBooks generate a journal entry number unless the "Warn if duplicate journal entry number is used" setting is turned on.  If this setting is ON, QuickBooks requires us to provide a journal entry number.  

You can find this setting in QuickBooks Online under the gear icon >> Account and Settings >> Advanced >> Other Preferences

Xero: The original charge amount is applied as a payment to the invoice. A separate receive money transaction is generated for the surcharge, posted to an income account (Benji Pays managed surcharging) or a liability account (gateway managed surcharging).

Setting up Benji Pays managed surcharging

To enable surcharging on your gateway connection:

1. Go to "Settings >> Payment Gateway Settings".           

2. Add a new gateway or edit an existing one.

3. In the gateway settings scroll until you see Benji Pays Surcharging and toggle the switch to enable surcharging.

4. Choose an income account.

5. Set your surcharge rate.

6. Save your gateway.

Your surcharging is now enabled for all payments.

If your customers pay with a payment link, they will get a confirmation message outlining the surcharge amount, it will also be included on their emailed transaction receipt. 

Here is a flowchart that provides a visual representation of how surcharging works in Benji Pays.