Taxes
What this is for
Tax touches every bill you produce. There are three decisions to make and then it runs itself — but all three have to be right, because getting one wrong is wrong on every order until you notice.
This page explains what the settings do. It cannot tell you what's correct where you trade. Confirm your rates and rules with an accountant before you take a single order.
Settings live under Settings › Taxes.
Decision 1 — order-level or item-level
| Mode | How it works |
|---|---|
| Order-Level Tax | One rate applied to the whole order. |
| Item-Level Tax | Each item carries its own rate. |
Item-level is right wherever different things are taxed differently — hot food against cold, food against alcohol, eat-in against takeaway. That's most jurisdictions.
Order-level is simpler and correct only when everything you sell carries the same rate.
Choose before you build your menu. Switching later means revisiting every item.
Decision 2 — inclusive or exclusive
The same dish, priced $10.00 on your menu, at a 10% rate.
Inclusive Tax
The menu price already contains the tax.
Markets where the menu price is the final price.
Exclusive Tax
Tax is added at checkout, on top of the menu price.
Markets where tax is added at the till.
This is about what customers expect where you are, not about accounting.
- Markets where menu prices are the final price — use inclusive.
- Markets where tax is added at the till — use exclusive.
Getting this backwards makes every price on your menu wrong by the tax rate, in a way that's easy to miss for weeks. Check it against a real receipt on day one.
Decision 3 — what tax is calculated on
Tax Calculation Base decides whether service charges are taxed:
| Option | Tax is calculated on |
|---|---|
| Include service charges | (subtotal − discount) + service charges |
| Exclude service charges | (subtotal − discount) only |
Which is correct depends entirely on local law. Ask once, set it, leave it.
Adding a tax
Under All Taxes, add each rate you need with its name and percentage. The name prints on receipts, so use the one your customers and your tax authority recognise — VAT, GST, Sales Tax.
For item-level tax, assign rates to items on the menu item itself.
Where tax sits in the bill
The order matters: a discount comes off before tax goes on, so a 10% discount reduces the tax as well as the subtotal.
Tax applies after discounts. A 10% discount reduces the tax as well as the food cost, which is the correct behaviour and occasionally surprises people.
See Discounts, taxes and charges.
On receipts
Under Settings › Receipt you can show:
- The tax breakdown — each rate and what it came to.
- Your restaurant tax details.
- CR number and VAT number.
Turn on whatever your jurisdiction requires. Check locally; the requirements vary a great deal, and a receipt missing a registration number can be a compliance problem rather than a cosmetic one.
Checking it works
Before you open, run a test order through with a mixed basket — food, drink, a discount, a service charge — and check the receipt line by line against what you expect.
Then look at the per-item tax breakdown on the order, which shows each item's rate. It's the fastest way to catch a rate assigned to the wrong item.
When rates change
A rate change is a real event, not a settings tweak.
- Update the rate on the day it takes effect, not before.
- Orders already open keep the rate they were built with. Only new orders pick up the change.
- Check inclusive pricing. If your prices include tax, a rate change means either your prices go up or your margin goes down. Decide which, deliberately.
- Reprint anything you display showing tax-inclusive prices.
Good to know
- Taxes are set at restaurant level and apply across branches unless configured otherwise.
- Manage Settings is the permission. It's broad — it reaches tax and charges, which change every bill. See What each role can do.
- Your tax report totals tax collected over a period — that's the one your accountant wants.
- Refunds reverse tax along with the sale.