Enter Merchant Discount Fees in Sage 50

How Do I...

When you receive a statement from your merchant account service provider listing what credit card discount fees and processing fees were charged, you need to record the expenses in Sage 50. Typically, this is done on a monthly basis. Check with your accountant about when you should record credit card payment discount fees.

Tip: If you use Sage Exchange to process credit cards through Sage 50 and have set up an online merchant account, you can view your transaction history from the Transaction Management menu in Virtual Terminal.

  1. From the Tasks menu, select Payments.
  2. Sage 50 displays the Payments window.

  3. Enter or select the vendor ID that represents your merchant account provider. To display a list of existing vendors, type ? in this field, or select the Lookup button.
  4. In the Check Number field, enter the transaction reference number used by the merchant account provider when it deducted its fees from your business's bank account (for example, the transfer draft number). Do not leave the Check Number field blank.
  5. In the Cash Account list, enter or select the bank account that the merchant service provider uses to debit its fees.

    Note: If you have the Hide General Ledger Accounts global option activated, the Cash Account lookup list displays only names of cash accounts currently set up in the chart of accounts.

  6. On the Apply to Expenses tab, enter or select the expense account for each discount fee and service processing fees (for example, CC Processing Fee Expense).
  7. Tip: Depending on the detail you want to track, you may want to set up two merchant expense accounts: CC Discount Fee (fees charged for each transaction that is processed) and CC Service Charge (monthly service charges and setup fees). If discount rates are different depending on the credit card type (for example, American Express, VISA/MasterCard, and Discover), you may want to enter and track separate discount expenses (for example, AMEX Discount Fee, VISA-MC Discount Fee, and Discover Discount Fee).

    Note: If you have the Hide General Ledger Accounts global option activated, Sage 50 will not display the account ID field in this window. To modify the expense account ID used for this transaction, you must select the Journal button.

  8. Enter the amount of the fee(s) that were charged.
  9. After you finish, select the Save button to record the payment.

After merchant discount and payment processing fees are entered in Payments, they can be easily reconciled in the Account Reconciliation window when you receive your bank statement.

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