Purchasing Setup

This section covers discounts, sales tax, and your credit card processing method, along with the payment types you accept. Be certain to go through all the steps on this page.

For US Sales Tax instructions, click here

1. If you're not at the Store Setup screen, click Store Setup in the black menu.
2. Scroll to the bottom of the Purchasing Setup section and click "Edit Purchasing Setup".
3. If you would like to offer a percentage discount based on the amount spent, enter the percentage in the 1st field, and the minimum purchase in the 2nd. For example if you enter 10 and 200, shoppers will receive a 10% discount if their order is $200.00 or more.

   Note! You may also use these fields to set up "Web Bucks". Web Bucks are "banked" and not applied to the immediate order. Your customers will be able to allow their Web Bucks to accrue, or cash them in at any future order. Web Bucks are activated by entering any value in the attributes.webbucks variable in the Main Application.cfm. You may do this now or later. Enter a value such as "Bonus Bucks" or "Discount Dollars", or something that is branded to your store/company name. If you then enter, say, 2 and 15 in these fields, the customer will receive 2 Web Bucks for every $15.00 spent. If they spend $14.99 they won't receive any Web Bucks. If they spend between $15.00 and $29.99, they will receive 2 Web Bucks, 4 Web Bucks will be earned if they spend between $30.00 and $44.99, etc. Hopefully this will have 2 effects. One, maybe they'll put "one more item" in their cart to receive their additional Web Bucks. And two, they'll have to come shop again to cash them in.

4. Sales Tax: We have several scenarios for charging sales tax. If you are not charging tax, you may skip this section. If you are charging tax and are in the US, go back to the Store Setup page and click on your state under Purchasing Setup. If you are in Canada, click here. If you're anywhere else, click here.

   Canadian Tax Method

   This has never been used on a "Live" Canadian store (to our knowledge). We believe the method we use is correct. The rates may have changed since support for Canadian taxes was added. Please open the following file in an editior and set the GST/HST Rate for each province and the PST Rate for each province where applicable. Feel free to contact us if you need assistance or have questions.

   ezcart/includes/taxmodules/CA.cfm

   Other Countries Tax Method

   You will have 2 choices if your Home Country is not US or Canada. "Line", or "Invoice".

   1. Line: Sales tax will be calculated based on taxable items purchased only.
   2. Invoice: Sales Tax will be calculated based taxable items in purchased PLUS shipping charges.
5. Live Credit Card Approval:
   • Choose your Processor from the menu, or choose None if not using real time processing.
   • Leave cart in Test Mode.
   • Check the Credit Cards you are allowed to accept.
   • Check any alternate Payment Methods you wish to accept.
   • Click the Edit Purchasing Setup button.
   If not using real time processing, you are done with Purchasing Setup for now. If you ARE using real time processing, follow the instructions for entering your login and password if required. Some processors will have an AVS option, allowing you to decline orders based on whether the customer's billing address entered at checkout matches their credit card billing address. Other processors allow you to set this in their console/administration area. There will also be an option for Normal Authorization or Authorization Only. The customer's funds will be captured immediately if you use Normal Auth. This the best choice if your items will be shipping within 24 hours of the order being placed. If there is a delay of greater than a day before shipping, most, if not all merchant account providers' agreements state that you may not charge the customer's card until the item is ready to ship. In this case, you should select Auth Only. This will make the funds unavailable for the customer to use elsewhere for approximately 15 days (check with your merchant company). When ready to ship, you may go into your real time processor's console/administration area and "Force" the charge, capturing the funds.
6. When done with all that, click the Edit Purchasing Setup button.
7. When finished, click Store Setup in the black menu.