Brickowl Commission Invoice

Snoopy1975

It's a new month so it's time to pay the commission invoice. I've al ready paid, but i'm missing a decend invoice for my administration.

I don't need a full list with every order and how many commission for each order wat i have to pay. I only need something with the amount to pay and how many tax. I can't use a copy of my PayPal payment.

Is it possible to auto generate something like that ?

Lawrence

Do you know why the paypal receipt is insufficient?

justbrix

Same here.
To have a complete administration you needan invoice from every banktransfer.
Only a paypal receipt is not enough...

Snoopy1975

Dutch Taxes, doesn't accept a paypal receipt, you need a desent bill/invoice

Lawrence

Do you know specifically which information it is missing that is required? Usually for non-vat purposes a receipt of payment I thought would be sufficient

Snoopy1975

A receipt of payment isn't enough. I need a receipt with name, adress, logo, the amount of the commission and the amount of tax, with a clear discription. If the office is within the europen unie, a vat number is also required. If the office is without the european union thd receipt should say "vat free"

Hoddie

Not every business in the EU pays VAT so that requirement is a bit silly

Snoopy1975

It's not silly, in the netherlands every business has to pay vat. so it's not silly to ask

Hoddie

If it's a requirement that every invoice from an EU supplier needs a VAT number then that's not a requirement you can meet; 100,000s of businesses in the EU don't have a VAT number. I assume you mean that the VAT number should be recorded in the supplier has one.

LegoTechnicLV

I am from Latvia and I totally understand you Snoopy1975. We also have the same requirements. If you operate as a company in EU than all orders should have to include VAT of your operation country. But VAT number is NOT mandatory. You can provide goods/services to other entity without VAT number, but than you will have to cover VAT cost yourself.
If your client have EU VAT number than you can provide him with the VAT of his (receiving) country.
There is also third option. If customer is from third country (outside EU territory) and customer signs official document that this product in any way wont be sold/sent back to EU than you can use thsi to give him 0% VAT.
Hope I made myself clear. At least this is how it works in Latvia.

LegoTechnicLV

Plus all the details like address, name, logo, precise amounts etc. Like Snoopy1975 said.

robernat

@Snoopy1975 @JustBrix @LegoTechnicLV
I've been giving this a bit of thought...
And I came up with the ultimate solution for you guys.
Spend a couple of hours per month uploading data in the BO catalog, things like pictures, sizes, weights, tags, you know, 'contributions'...
You rank up some points:
http://www.brickowl.com/points
and then you have the option to redeem these points for '30 Days of Free Brick Owl Commision'.

No fees, no bill needed= problem solved ;-)

I can sell here for the next 40 months (3.5 years) without spending a cent on fees :O and without making a single contribution in the mean while (won't happen, so the points will keep growing and therefor 'extending' the timeframe).

Wonderfull system :-)

Steineflut

I was searching in the forum for some insight on this as it's time to do some book keeping again. Has there been any change?
The other site's invoices are crap, but at least there is something I can print out to put into my folder. But here I didn't find anything. Or did I miss it?
All we need is at least something that says "Invoice" "Please pay xx.xx" with BO's company name and address.

Thanks for any help in case I missed it :-)

robernat

@Steineflut
I assume you accept Paypal, how do you book those costs?

@Hoddie
Even if VAT doesn't apply (like Bpost shipping for instance) one still needs a 'bill' or 'ticket' to prove the amount was 'spend' to be able to consider it a normal cost (aka invoiced/billed cost)
The same applies for BL fees, the amount is 'net', there is no VAT deduction, but I'm still 'invoiced' (in USD) and can print it, and together with a printout from my PP transaction (showing the € amount), I can book it as a bill. The same thing should/could apply to the BO fee, but there are other options to book it, reason I'm asking the specific questions to steineflut...

@Lawrence: No, a payment receipt is not sufficient, bills(invoices) are required to be able to book them in a normal way, even if VAT doesn't apply (=Zero), or is 'Reverse charged'.
I'm not really sure how BO operates right now, I do know you're a registered business, but there are many ways to operate as a business, so maybe your current 'operation' doesn't require you to issue bills, but I can understand the many VAT registered sellers around here expect an invoice/bill, maybe you do need to look into that, even if it's just a 'pro forma' bill.
I know I can work around it should I need to (now that I'm VAT registered), but that workaround might not be possible in other countries...


Eric

unbrickable

Just asked my accountant and you need something with the amount a description of what you bought/used (service) and the amount and type of tax. At least that are the Dutch regulations

robernat

@pwpeter How do you book Paypal costs on transactions?

unbrickable

@RobErNat for me this is also very new At this moment I just book them as a cost (uitgave).
but I will ask my accountant about this Will let you know as soon as i know it.

Graham

... and I thought US tax laws were complex :-q

bricksinbins

... and I thought US tax laws were complex :-q

On one hand they are but at the same time far far easier to deal with compared to EU bureaucracy and nit pickiness.

But yeah, I'm interested in this subject too since I will also need a proper invoice, maybe not this time but next year for sure. Still a lot of questions to get sorted out with all this.

Lawrence

I will take another look at if we can provide some sort of receipt/invoice. At the moment if you pay by PayPal you will get a receipt with date/amount but not if you pay via Stripe.

robernat

@lawrence Thanks in advance

@pwpeter your accountant probably books Paypal (and/or Stripe) costs as a 'financial' cost (mine will), in the same way you can book bank related costs (charges for cards, the use of I-net banking, etc -if any offcourse-) and if you receive interests on your bankaccount (probably close to zero these days) you can also book them as a financial 'gain'. If your accountant is doing so for you, then technicly you can also book the BO fees as a financial cost, as there is no VAT involved, so you wouldn't be able to recoup it or have it Reverse charged (Dutch= BTW verlegd) anyway. Obviously an official bill/invoice is better, as it allows to book it as a 'provider' expense (=purchase) like any other.

@Graham I don't think US tax laws or bookkeepings differ much from other countries, are probably not easier or harder, but there are plenty of ways to run a business and each business form has other requirements, but also allow certain costs to be booked in a different way, in most cases you don't even know what is allowed, what can be done, what can be deducted and 'how' it needs to be done. That's why it is advisable to have an accountant (a good one), as they know what to do and know how to optimise certain things depending on the business form ;-)

Graham

@Graham I don't think US tax laws or bookkeepings differ much from other countries, are probably not easier or harder, but there are plenty of ways to run a business and each business form has other requirements, but also allow certain costs to be booked in a different way, in most cases you don't even know what is allowed, what can be done, what can be deducted and 'how' it needs to be done. That's why it is advisable to have an accountant (a good one), as they know what to do and know how to optimise certain things depending on the business form ;-)

I wasn't VAT registered as a seller in the UK, when we moved back to the US - I decided to take the leap and "do it right" - things are different state to state, but sales tax is so easy in Tennessee. Just get a reseller certificate, and **some** retailers will sell tax free - I just have to collect tax on my sales in home state.
I definitely get a net gain! Only 2 sales in TN to report this quarter and also, now I have finally got an accountant who knows how to handle what we do - that side is sorted.

Maybe when the EU falls apart things will go back to being a little more simple!

Steineflut

@RobErNat
My accountant does that ;-) But he gets an overview of all my PP transactions to he knows WHY I paid paypal fees (as in, 3% of 5€, 3.9% of 13.34€ etc, cause they all have corresponding payments). With BO it's a different story cause it's one big payment that has no explanation where it came from.

@Lawrence What I am getting from PP is not a receipt. There is no address & no information on what I just paid. The message says "Brick Owl Invoice 127186" which is even worse cause there is no invoice 127186 (or is there?)

Would be great if that could get fixed

robernat

Maybe when the EU falls apart things will go back to being a little more simple!

Doubtfull the EU will fall apart, it's not because 1 (or 2) countries decide to walk out that's it's going to, and as a matter of fact, it's 'stronger' then a decade ago, as the countries who had it difficult back then are doing a lot better now ;-)
And it would certainly not simplify things, as one of the main reasons to create the EU was not only to have a 'market' union, but also to have a 'monetary' union one day, that has been the case for over 1.5 decades now, with the exception of a few countries (like the UK). Countries who have the Euro won't easely walk out, for the simple reason they would need to change back to their monetary value and find themself with a 'problem' as that money would be fairly 'weak' compared to the Euro and they might isolate themselves from an open market. For Great Britian, walking out is a smaller problem as they still have their monetary value, that was still stronger then the Euro. Time will tell whether UK made the right choice...
Interesting sidenote: in the mean while, Canada and the EU signed an 'open market' deal with eachother, so some of the potential the EU lost with the Brexit has already found compensation ;-)
So have no doubt, the EU is not falling apart, it is getting stronger, not overnight, that's for sure, but that's only because a lot of things are being done from deep down at the bottom, so with a long term vision, short term visions usually don't work very well :P

Hoddie

I don't wish to dwell on the EU argument, but meeting the requirements of a 28-nation block is infinitely easier than meeting the requirements of 28 different nations, so arguments about 'EU red tape' are absolute nonsense for retailers who sell cross-border. Sure, EU rules can result in additional responsibilities also, but this helps create a level playing field for those who want to access the market.

By way of example, if you sell to a French consumer, even if you as the retailer are based abroad, any contract entered into is unenforceable in France if the contract language is not in French - even if the consumer understands the language of the contract. EU rules now over-ride this as retailers are also afforded some protections, but it still technically remains law in France (it would require a ruling at EU level if a French consumer tried to enforce against an EU retailer).

This is just a small example of how doing business across borders can be incredibly difficult, particularly for small businesses who can lose everything. The EU facilitates cross-border trade like never before, which for BO sellers, is fantastic.

bricksinbins

The EU facilitates cross-border trade like never before, which for BO sellers, is fantastic.

Agree 100%. Selling and buying within EU is basically like selling and buying across states in the US. Much easier compared to selling/buying to/from outside EU.

Steineflut

@Lawrence What I am getting from PP is not a receipt. There is no address & no information on what I just paid. The message says "Brick Owl Invoice 127186" which is even worse cause there is no invoice 127186 (or is there?)

Just want to push this one again. Seeing there is an invoice number, is there an invoice? How can we access it?

robernat

@all, @Snoopy1975, @Steineflut, @pwpeter: see site updates

@Lawrence
Thank you for implementing this!
2 minor remarks:
a) The Brickowl logo should be present on it (I'm sure it's fairly easy to add it)
b) For accounting purpose it should say 'invoice' somewhere, not just 'payment receipt'.

Point b) is just a technicality, but I know my accountant will make a remark on it as I have the same problem with Bposts (one of my shipping services) online tickets.

Besides that it's awesome you made this happen, I'm quite sure many professional sellers will be quite happy with it 'as is' :-)

Snoopy1975

Thx.

unbrickable

@RobErNat where can i find these invoices ?

robernat

@pwpeter just open the 'account' tab which gives the overview of your fees due, the line which shows you paid your fees has a 'receipt' button.

https://www.brickowl.com/mystore/orders/account

As stated in previous message @Lawrence it should be better to have the Brickowl logo on it and the term 'invoice' in stead of 'payment receipt'.

unbrickable

@robernat Thank you very much. haha that i couldn't find it :O yeah would be better but this is better than nothing. Would you want to share how you book these costs, is it possible to substract 21% btw of it ?

robernat

@pwpeter Brickowl is registered as micro company without VAT (as far as I know) therefor you cannot recoup VAT (same as if you buy from a private person - or from a registered seller without VAT aka small business without VAT).
I book it as a regular invoice (BO receipt+copy PP receipt with actual amount in € as there can be small discrepancies).
But I dunno whether that would work in NL > check with your accountant.
I do the same with BL (no VAT) and Stripe(with VAT in reverse charged) invoices.
My only exception are Paypal costs which I book as a financial cost (couldn't find an actual invoice so far).

Cheers, Eric

unbrickable

Oke, thx for tour answer i do it more or less the same method. But i will check with my accountant whether there are other options. If there is i will give an update :)