Canadian and US Penny Rounding

In 2012, the Canadian government announced it would phase out the penny (also known as the cent) from Canada’s monetary system. The Royal Canadian Mint stopped distributing pennies in February 2013.

In the US, the US Treasury department has confirmed production of the penny (cent) will cease after 2026. Canadian and US governments have issued advice to round cash transactions to the nearest nickel.

This article is for users in Canada and the US who process cash transactions and need to round payments to account for pennies no longer in use.

This article will guide you through rounding cash payments using Custom Payment and Refund Types. We’ll guide you through making these Custom Payment and Refund Types, completing the transaction and reporting.

TIP: Rounding is only recommended for cash transactions. All other payment methods, including card payments, remain unaffected and should not use this method.

Before you read this article, you should be familiar with:

• How to Sell a Ticket
• Custom Payment Types

Why should I round payments?

When selling in Spektrix, all items should be sold at the correct price. These prices appear in Reports used for financial reconciliation, settlements, and sales analysis. When the total value of purchased items does not end in an interval of 5 and the customer is paying with cash, a Custom Payment Type is needed to offset the difference. Orders may be rounded up or down, depending on their totals, and generally equal a net $0 at the end of the fiscal year.

When to round payments

When taking cash payments, the Order total (including any fees, commissions or levy) should be rounded up or down to the nearest nickel.

Take a look at the table below for examples of rounding:

Setting up Rounding Custom Payment Types

To round an Order total to the nearest nickel, you’ll need to create two Custom Payment Types:

• Penny Round Down
• Penny Round Up (set as a custom refund type)

TIP: We recommend setting these Custom Payment Types as cancellable with no authorization required.

To learn how to set up Custom Payment types, take a look at our Custom Payment Types article.

Rounding up Cash Payments

When performing a Sale and the Order total ends in 3, 4, 8 or 9 cents, round up the total to the nearest nickel:

To do this you’ll add a Custom Payment to the Cart. Using a Custom Payment means you can round up the Order total without overriding the ticket price.

Follow these steps:

1. In the Cart, click Payments:

   

   
   

2. Click the Refunds tab:

   

   
   

3. Select Penny Round Up:

   

   
   

4. Add the round up amount in the Amount to Refund box and click Ok:

   

   
   

5. This will round up the total to pay to the nearest nickel:

   

   
   

6. Click on the Payments tab:

   

   
   

7. Select Cash and complete the Sale:

   

   
   

Rounding down Cash Payments

When performing a Sale and the Order total ends in 1, 2, 6 or 7 cents, round down the total to the nearest nickel:

To do this you’ll add a Custom Payment (set as a refund) to the Cart. Using a Custom Payment means you can round down the Order total without overriding the ticket price.

Follow these steps:

1. In the Cart, click Payments:

   

   
   

2. In the Payments tab, select Penny Round Down:

   

   
   

3. Add the round down amount in the Amount to Pay box and click Ok:

   

   
   

4. This will round down the total to pay to the nearest nickel:

   

   
   

5. Select Cash and complete the Sale:

   

   
   

Penny Rounding in Reporting

When submitting tax or completing royalty reports, the values should be based on the final ticket price rather than including/excluding the round ups or round downs. Reports, for example, Payments & Activities (Detailed) will display the original ticket price before rounding:

Rounded up/down pennies will be allocated separately from the purchased items in Custom Payment and Refund Types in the Payments section:

From a GL perspective, the Custom Payment Types should be allocated to the same GL account. When it comes to the fiscal year end, the combination of rounded up and down pennies should be close to balancing each other out.

TIP: As more than one payment type is used in these transactions, you’ll see Mixed Payments in your Reports. To learn more, take a look at our Mixed Payments article.

Key Takeaways

• If the Order total ends in 3, 4, 8 or 9 cents, round up to the nearest nickel
• If the Order total ends in 1, 2, 6 or 7 cents, round down to the nearest nickel
• Use Custom Payment Types to round the Order total up or down
• Add the Custom Payment Type before adding the Cash payment

Further Reading

You might find the following articles helpful:

• Performing a Sale
• Custom Payment Types