Introduction
Every price in the app is kept without value-added tax (VAT). The app adds the VAT when it works out a booking's total, using two company-wide rates you set once. It can also round each price to a fixed number of decimals before it does the sums. The rates and the rounding sit on the screen headed Financial settings. VAT high percentage and VAT low percentage are at the top. Enable rounding is near the bottom, above Save and Cancel. The boxes in between (payment terms, credit limits and so on) are covered in Set a customer's payment and invoicing terms.
You will use this when:
- your company starts using the app and the VAT rate has to match your tax rate
- the government changes the VAT rate and bookings made from now on need the new rate
- a booking's total is a few cents off the price the customer was quoted
- you give a customer money off and want to know how much VAT comes off with it
- an add-on shows VAT on one booking and none on another
Words used on this screen
| The screen says | It means |
|---|---|
| VAT high percentage | Your normal VAT rate, as a whole number — 21 means 21% |
| VAT low percentage | Your second rate, for items that do not carry the normal rate. It starts at 0 |
| is vat | A Yes/No switch on each add-on, insurance and mileage package: Yes charges the high rate on it |
| Enable rounding | Round every price to a fixed number of decimals before the totals are added up |
| Decimal rounding scale | How many decimals to round to: 2 means whole cents |
| Rounding start date | Bookings made from this date on are rounded; older ones never are |
Use this page for the rates and the rounding themselves. For customers who must be invoiced without VAT (the reverse charge, or a company in your own tax group), see Invoice a long rental or a group company without VAT.
How to use
Configuration
From the main menu open Admin, then Settings, then click the Financial tile. The screen is headed Financial settings.
- Type your normal rate in VAT high percentage, for example 21.
- Type your second rate in VAT low percentage, for example 9, or leave it on 0 if everything you rent out carries the normal rate.
- To turn on rounding, set Enable rounding to Yes. Two boxes appear under it: Decimal rounding scale and Rounding start date. They are not there until the switch is on.
- Type 2 in Decimal rounding scale to round to whole cents.
- Pick a Rounding start date. It must be tomorrow or later.
- Press Save. Nothing is stored until you do; Cancel throws your changes away.
| Setting | Starts at | What it does | Accepts |
|---|---|---|---|
| VAT high percentage | 21 | The rate on rental days, mileage, fuel and every add-on with is vat on Yes | Whole numbers only, no % sign |
| VAT low percentage | 0 | The rate on a general discount set to Low, and on online bookings' add-ons with is vat on No | Whole numbers only |
| Enable rounding | No | Switches rounding on from the start date | Yes or No |
| Decimal rounding scale | 2 | The number of decimals every price is rounded to | A whole number above 0 |
| Rounding start date | empty | The day rounding begins | A date after today |
The rounding switch only goes one way. Until the start date you can change the scale, move the date or set Enable rounding back to No. Saving with No empties the scale and the date again. Once the start date has passed, the next booking whose price is worked out switches rounding on for good. From then on Enable rounding, Decimal rounding scale and Rounding start date are greyed out and cannot be changed on this screen. Only RentVisie support can undo it. Pick the date with care.
Before you start: the Financial tile opens this screen only for a company administrator. Ask whoever handles VAT for your company which rates apply before you change them. A new rate affects the price of every booking that has not been invoiced yet — see Key details below.
Using the VAT rates and rounding
Day to day you set VAT in two places: on each add-on, and on a general discount.
On an add-on. Each add-on, insurance and mileage package has its own is vat switch. You set it on the item's setup screen under Admin, then Product design. See Set up add-ons and decide what they cost, Set up the insurance a customer can choose and Sell extra kilometres to a customer. Leave it on Yes unless the item really carries no VAT, or a lower rate.
On a general discount. Open the booking, click Discount at the top, then Add General Discount — the full steps are in Adjust the price on a booking.
- Fill in the discount. The amount you type is excluding VAT.
- Under VAT, leave High selected. This takes the VAT off together with the discount. Choose Low only if the discount is on items taxed at your low rate.
- Click Save. The booking's total is worked out again straight away.
To check the result, look at the booking's total including VAT and compare it with the worked examples below.
Key details
Which rate each line gets. Skim this table once; come back to it when a line looks wrong.
| Line on the booking or invoice | Rate |
|---|---|
| Rental days, mileage and fuel | Always the high rate |
| An add-on, insurance or mileage package, is vat on Yes | The high rate |
| The same, is vat on No, booking made in the app | No VAT (0%), whatever the low rate is |
| The same, is vat on No, booking made online | The low rate |
| A discount on one line (rental, an add-on, fuel) | The same rate as the line it reduces |
| A general discount | High or Low, as you chose |
When a new rate takes effect. Rental days, mileage, fuel and the general discount pick up a changed rate the next time a booking's price is worked out — for example when you change the dates or the vehicle. An add-on keeps the rate it had on the day it was added to the booking. To give it the new rate, remove it and add it again. An invoice never changes after it is made.
What rounding changes. Without rounding the app works with the full price, however many decimals it has, and only rounds the booking total to whole cents at the end. With rounding, each price is first cut to the Decimal rounding scale, then multiplied.
A worked example: a van's rate was entered as 82.6446 a day, so that three days come to €300 including 21% VAT (see Set rates and mileage prices for a vehicle class).
| Without rounding | With rounding, scale 2 | |
|---|---|---|
| Rate used | 82.6446 | 82.64 |
| Three days, excl. VAT | 247.9338 | €247.92 |
| VAT at 21% | 52.0661 | €52.06 |
| Customer pays | €300.00 | €299.98 |
The two cents are the price of rounding. With a scale of 1 the rate becomes 82.6 and the customer pays €299.80.
VAT on a discount line. A five-day van at €350.00 excluding VAT costs €423.50 with 21% VAT. You give a general discount of €50.00, Per Rent:
| VAT on the discount | Excl. VAT | VAT | Customer pays |
|---|---|---|---|
| High (21%) | €300.00 | €63.00 | €363.00 |
| Low, low rate 0 | €300.00 | €73.50 | €373.50 |
With Low the customer still pays VAT on the full €350.00.
What to do next: open a booking that has not been invoiced yet and check its total. When it is right, invoice it — see Invoice a booking.
Q&A
Why does an invoice still show the old VAT rate after I changed it? An invoice keeps the amounts it was made with. If it was wrong, credit it and invoice the booking again — see Credit an invoice.
Why does a booking made after the rate change still have the old rate on an add-on? The add-on was put on the booking before you pressed Save on Financial settings. Remove the add-on from the booking and add it again — see Offer an add-on and add it to a booking.
Why did a €50 discount take only €50 off the total, not €60.50? The general discount's VAT is set to Low and your low rate is 0. Click the edit icon on the general discount, choose High and click Save.
Why is the booking total two cents below the price the customer was quoted? Rounding is on, and the rate was entered with more than two decimals, as in the worked example. Accept the difference, or set the price on the booking yourself — see Adjust the price on a booking.
Why are older bookings not rounded, even after rounding was switched on? Only bookings created on or after the Rounding start date are rounded. Bookings made before it keep their full prices, even when you change them later. This does not change.
Why can I no longer switch rounding off? The start date has passed, so rounding is now on for good and the three rounding boxes are greyed out. Ask RentVisie support if it really has to be undone.
Why did the rounding boxes empty themselves? Enable rounding was on No when you pressed Save, and saving with No clears them. Set it to Yes and fill both in again.
Why does Save refuse with "This date should be in the future"? The Rounding start date is today or earlier. Pick tomorrow or later. If the date has already passed and you did not plan to change it, set Enable rounding to No and press Save, then turn it on again with a new date.
Why does Save refuse with "Value must be greater than 0"? Decimal rounding scale is empty or 0. Type 2 for whole cents.
Why is an add-on without VAT charged VAT on an online booking? Online bookings give an add-on with is vat on No your low rate, while bookings made in the app give it 0%. Set VAT low percentage to 0 if those add-ons should never carry VAT.
Why does the day-rate calculator on a price list still take 21% off after I changed the rate? The calculator behind is vat on the rate screen always divides by 1.21. Work the rate out yourself with your new rate and type it in Base price.
Why does a customer's booking have no VAT at all? The customer is set up for the reverse charge or as part of your tax group — see Invoice a long rental or a group company without VAT.
Related pages: Find out how a price was worked out for the other steps in a booking's price, and Set a customer's payment and invoicing terms for the rest of Financial settings.