IBIS Technology

There are several scenarios where booking fees and/or surcharges can be used to recover some of the costs involved in administering transactions for your customers: 

• Over the counter when you are processing transactions through Point of sale.
• On your E-Commerce website, surcharges can apply per payment type via Windcave
• On your E-Commerce website, you can charge a booking fee for reservation products only

Options available for IBIS users at Point of Sale

1. Enable a payment surcharge at point of sale
   IBIS has a built-in surcharge feature which can be enabled on payment types and charged easily at POS. Learn more about how to configure a surcharge for your frontline transactions.
   
   

   Pros	Cons
   Trackable: Allows you to monitor and report on surcharge values within IBIS, offering transparency and insight.	Customer Interaction: Staff must inquire about the customer's payment method before selecting the appropriate payment type which adds additional time to the checkout process.
   Clear Receipts: Surcharges are prominently displayed on sales receipts, informing customers of the additional costs.	Training: Requires staff training and monitoring to ensure they correctly handle surcharges.
   Adjustable: Staff can add, remove, or modify surcharge values at their discretion, offering flexibility in managing payments.

   
   

2. Enable a payment surchage via your EFTPOS software

   Talk to your EFTPOS provider about what options are available. Although the surcharge will not appear on the receipt printed from IBIS, it will show on the EFTPOS receipt. You will not be able to report on surcharges from IBIS, so you will need to report via your EFTPOS system, but it does elimintate the need to ask customers each time how they wish to pay, and guarantees staff are charging the surcharges.
   
   Options available for E-Commerce customers

   • Enable a payment surcharge through Windcave for all transactions
     Windcave can configure a percentage or fixed amount surcharge for different payment types. A description of the surcharge would appear on the Windcave PxPay page for your E-Commerce customers. If you use the Windcave online payment type at POS, surcharges would also be applied here.
     
     This is a good option for customers who want to apply a surcharge to cover fees for all item types in the ibis E-Commerce site (retail, reservations, gift vouchers, admission, events and memberships).
     
     Because the surcharge is configured in Windcave, they will not show on the IBIS receipt or in the POS transaction when viewed in the IBIS application. The customer will be charged in a separate but simultaneous transaction when they complete their payment on your E-Commerce site.
     
     

   • Charge a booking fee for online reservation sales only
     This article explains how booking fees work in IBIS. This option only charges a fee on reservation sales. Any retail, admission, events or gift vouchers sold online would be excluded from this charge.
     

Communicating fees to customers

Nobody likes to get sticker shock before they pull out their wallet to pay. It's important to think about how you communicate surcharges or booking fees to customers before they pay.

We recommend clear signage at your front desk advising of surcharge fees. To keep things less confusing, sometimes charging a consistent fee across all payment types is easier than have a different charge for each.

For online sales, we recommend you advise customers as early as possible in the sales process by including information in your online description for your reservation products, and customising wording on your E-Commerce site by specifying these charges in the price caption on the cart page.