Availability and use may vary by jurisdiction. You are responsible for confirming that cash discounting is permitted for your business and location and for complying with applicable laws, card-network rules, notice, disclosure, signage, receipt, and pricing-display requirements. Provided information is for general informational purposes only and should not be considered legal advice. You should consult with your own legal counsel for requirements governing your specific circumstances.

When cash discounting (service fee at checkout) with Lightspeed Payments is enabled, customers who pay with cash will automatically receive a discount at the register. As service fees will be included in the retail price for customers who pay by card, you may decide to adjust your product prices to maintain your profit margins on cash purchases.

Eligible merchants must enable the new cash discounting feature in Retail POS. You can manage settings in Finance > Settings.

Understanding cash discounting calculations

When cash discounting is enabled and a customer pays in cash, Retail POS applies the discount at checkout and then applies cash rounding to the final amount.

For example, if cash discounting is set at 4% and a product is priced at $26.00, the cash discounted price will be $25.00 (depending on cash rounding settings):

$26.00 x (1-0.04) = $24.96 rounded to $25.00

When cash rounding is applied, there may be small discrepancies in your Sales and payments report.

Cash discounting is only applied if the entire purchase is paid for in cash. It can also be removed from a sale as needed. If a customer use a split payment that includes cash, card purchase prices will apply.

• With cash discounting, you set the card-inclusive price upfront and offer a discount to cash-paying customers.

  With surcharging, you set a base price and an additional fee is applied to credit card transactions. The fee is visible and applied at checkout.

  Surcharging may not be available or permissible in all jurisdictions and, where available, is subject to applicable laws, card-network rules, notice and disclosure obligations, and Lightspeed’s then-current product configuration, eligibility, and operational requirements.

Adjusting your product prices for cash discounting

If your current prices do not include a buffer for card processing costs and you want to maintain your profit margins on cash purchases, you’ll need to update your product prices before enabling cash discounting. Otherwise, you can enable cash discounting without making any changes to your product prices and customers who pay in cash will automatically receive a discount at checkout.

To adjust product pricing for cash discounting:

1. Calculate your price adjustments using the formula Current Price ÷ (1 - Discount Rate) = New Price.

   • Current Price: The current retail price of the product, for example $10.00.
   • Discount Rate: The cash discounting rate you will set up, for example 4% (0.04).
   • New Price: The adjusted retail price of the product that preserves cash sale margins, for example $10.42 (rounded up).

   If you're editing your product prices in bulk using a spreadsheet, you can use a formula to help calculate the adjusted retail price values. Formula formats vary depending on the software used.

2. Navigate to Catalog > Products.
3. Follow steps to edit product retail prices in bulk using a spreadsheet or on the Products page.

If you adjusted your prices, you may need to update your physical price displays, like barcode labels.

Enabling cash discounting

1. Navigate to Finance > Settings.

2. At the top right of the page, click the dropdown and select the location where you want to enable cash discounting.

   Cash discounting must be enabled per location.

3. Click Payments.

4. Toggle on Cash discount.

   

   Cash discounting and surcharging cannot be enabled at the same time.

5. Enter a Cash discount percentage rate.
6. Click Save.
7. Repeat as needed for other locations, if applicable.

On the Sell screen, the Cash option will display the cash payment price in parentheses on the button. All other payment types will be charged the amount shown in the Pay field.

Using cash discounting at the register

Available on Retail POS for web. This feature is not currently available on iPad.

After setting up cash discounting:

• Cash transactions will receive an automatic discount at the register.
• Other payment types will not receive the discount. The payment type for a non-card based transaction must be set up as a Cash payment type for cash discounting to apply.
• If a customer use a split payment that includes cash, card purchase prices will apply.
• Promotions and discounts apply before the cash discount.

To process a sale with cash discounting:

1. Navigate to Sell > Sell.
2. Add a customer and products to the sale, then click Pay.

3. Select Cash as the payment type and enter the amount of cash received.

   

   If you want to remove cash discounting on gift card purchases or other sales, click the trash (Delete) icon on the cash discounting banner under Amount to pay.

4. Once the payment has been processed, click Complete sale or Next sale. If the payment was completed in cash, the cash discount will appear on the sale summary page and on the customer's receipt.

   

Cash discounting is not currently available in reporting.

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