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How to Set up a Surcharge on a Payment

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The following article explains how to create and attach a Payment Surcharge (such as a credit card processing fee) to a payment transaction code. This article will also include how to create and attach a Payment Surcharge for Cancellations to a payment transaction code in the PMS.

Click below for more information:

STEP #1 Create a Payment Surcharge Code
  1. Follow the steps in the How to Add a Transaction Code article to create a new transaction code in the Other Charge section of the Transaction Codes module.
  2. Enter a unique Code and Description for this transaction code
  3. Follow the remaining steps in the How to Add a Transaction Code article to attach a GL Account to this new transaction code and make it active.
STEP #2 Create a Payment Surcharge Code for Cancellations
  1. Follow the steps in the How to Add a Transaction Code article to create a new transaction code in the Other Charge section of the Transaction Codes module.
  2. Enter a unique Code and Description for this transaction code
  3. In the Tran Subgroup field, select Cancellation Fee
  4. Follow the remaining steps in the How to Add a Transaction Code article to attach a GL Account to this new transaction code and make it active.
STEP #3 Attach the Payment Surcharge Codes to the Payment Code

Follow the steps in the How to Add a Transaction Code article to create a unique Payment transaction code for each payment with surcharge as needed.

  1. In the Transaction Codes module, navigate to the Payment transaction codes and locate the applicable code
  2. Select the Charge on Payments tab
  3. Select the Add button
  4. Enter the following information:
    • Transaction Code: Use the drop-down menu to select the Payment Surcharge Code (created in STEP #1 above)
    • Amount: Enter the percentage amount for this surcharge fee
      • If the surcharge amount is a flat-fee amount instead of a percentage, select the Is Amount? checkbox
    • To be used on cancelled reservations (must be setup as a Cancel Fee) Transaction Code: Use the drop-down menu to select the Payment Surcharge Code for Cancellations (created in STEP #2 above)
  5. Select the Post button

Important things to note when using a Payment Transaction Code with Charge on Payments setup:

  • If using "Cancel & Charge" to cancel a guest reservation please note the Cancellation Credit Card Surcharge will NOT automatically apply.  It must be manually applied by using "Post Charge" after the reservation has been cancelled.  Another option would be, before cancelling the reservation, to manually post the Cancellation Fee & the corresponding Cancellation Credit Card Surcharge to bring the account balance to 0 and then proceed to cancel the reservation.
  • If you use "Post Payment" to post a refund amount to a Credit Card with a Credit Card Surcharge attached, the Surcharge amount WILL be applied to the refund.  If you do not wish for this to happen then thes best way to refund is to either use a Credit Card without a Credit Card Surcharge attached or to right click on the transaction and select to "Reverse"
  • If you reverse a deposit on a reservation it does NOT remove the attached Credit Card Surcharge Guest Service as well.  Therefore, if the reservation is not being cancelled you must right click on the reservation, select "Update Guest Services" and remove the Credit Card Surcharge Guest Service from the reservation manually.
  • For In House Reservations, if you have a folio with a Balance, when you select "Post Payment", if using a Payment Transaction Code with a Surcharge Amount attached, the amount that calculates will display the Balance owing on the account PLUS the Surcharge.  So below we see the Balance is $115 and the "Amount" on the Payments screen is $116.50 as this includes my $1.50 Surcharge.  When I select Post Payment, the Folio will display the Room Charge of $115 (DEBIT) the Credit Card Surcharge of $1.50 (DEBIT) and the Payment of $116.50 (CREDIT)
  • HOWEVER, if I were to manually change the Amount to something different (for example, if this is a 2 night stay and therefore I want to manually post a payment of $230.00 to cover both nights), I would update the Amount to the Payment I wish to Post and then RoomKeyPMS will take care of calculating the Surcharge after OK/EXIT has been selected.  Do NOT include the Surcharge in the Amount when manually entering it into the Post Payments box.

FINAL NOTE:  This change will have an affect on your Unbalanced Folio Report (Reports -> Audits) and you may see some folios appear on the report that are actually in balance.  Please note that we are in the process of finding a fix for this issue and will be sending you a list of these Unbalanced Folios so that your staff will know they can ignore them when running this report.  Rest assured that these Unbalanced Folios will have no affect on your Accounting within RoomKeyPMS.

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