Payments Feature Update

The 1.3.8 release comes with amazing improvements to the payments feature. We've dubbed this update internally "international payments" because of all the added support for payments in different countries, currencies and sales taxes.

Not only will you start seeing currency codes (such as USD, AUD, CAD, etc.) in more places, but we've also made a few other enhancements. Let's take a look!

Updates to Checkout & Receipts

First up, the checkout process and receipts have been improved to enhance the shopping experience. As part of these updates, taxes are now clearly displayed on the receipts, giving customers a more detailed breakdown of their purchases.

Old checkout:

New Checkout:

There has been a change in the layout of the checkout, with two main highlights being:

1. Subtotal, tax breakdown and total due — Purchasers now get a breakdown of their payment at the checkout rather than just a single amount.

   A single or multi-line tax breakdown will appear depending on your tax configuration.

2. Billing information — We now support billing details on the checkout. This is only available when the purchaser's billing information is used to determine and calculate tax.

   Just so you know – billing address fields will only be displayed during checkout based on your tax configuration.

Old Receipt:

New Receipt:

We've jazzed up the receipt and it's looking awesome! It's now easier to read and provides a clear tax breakdown 

Payments dashboard

As an administrator, you can now access and manage your payment features through a new dashboard. You'll notice that the payment admin has changed, and now Payments, Payment Methods, Discounts, and Refunds are all located under this dashboard.

The new dashboard will be the home to managing your payments and a few widgets for recent transactions and refunds. This is where you'll find your familiar features for payments and a few new ones. 

• Tax Settings NEW — Determine how tax is calculated for your payments. See changes to tax
• Payment Methods — Set up your payment integrations with services like Stripe, Commbank, NAB, and Worldline.
• Configure Payments — Set up your prices and view what content the payments are applied to.
• Discounts — Setup discount settings, codes, and amounts for your payments.
• Refunds  — View, approve and deny refund requests.
• Additional Settings NEW — Optional settings for payments. For now, there are only settings to configure your default currency and payment tax method. 

Also, for first-time setup of payments, you'll now get assistance with the four main steps to make it easier to start selling your content! 

Changes to tax

Our tax system is being updated to support taxes outside of Australia. New tax methods will let you choose how tax is calculated. Here, we have two ways to set up tax methods:

• Auto-Tax will automatically handle tax calculations based on the user's billing information.
• Manual Tax allows you to set tax rates and options for your tax manually. This is a static tax rate that can be applied to your payments. 

Auto-Tax

We have partnered with Avalara for our auto tax solution. Avalara AvaTax is a sales tax software that automates tax calculations and the tax filing process, enabling you to fine-tune your tax requirements for different jurisdictions.

• You will need to connect your existing Avalara account or create a new Avalara account. 
• When using Auto-Tax, billing information fields will be displayed to learners and are required to fill out at the checkout.

Learn how to configure Avalara AvaTax

Manual Tax

Say your business operations are in countries or jurisdictions with more straightforward tax requirements, then Manual Tax Rates could be a great fit for you. Manual Tax allows you to create Tax Rates manually.

Here, you can configure your manual tax rates with the following details: 

Name — Friendly name of the manual tax. This is only visible to Administrators.

Tax Type —The sales tax type should be specified as VAT, GST, or Other (customisable by administrators). Learners will see the tax type on the checkout page and their receipts.

Tax Rate — The tax rate charged to the learners. 

Price Includes Tax — Able to set whether the payment amount will be inclusive or exclusive of tax. See the example table on how this setting will affect your payments.

Additional Notes — Any additional notes or comments about the tax. This is only visible to Administrators.

Reporting updates

If you're selling content in multiple currencies, we have some minor additions that will be welcome. We've added a couple of columns for transactions and transactions export. 

• Added a Currency column - This will show the currency used to charge the transaction. (e.g., USD, CAD, AUD)
• Added a Tax column - This will display the total tax the user has paid. If you are using an auto-tax like Avalara, we recommend running any tax reports there to get an itemised breakdown of the tax paid within Avalara. 

Additional Questions?

I already use payments, so will I have to set anything up?

Your current payment methods, payments, discounts and refunds will remain the same. However, This would be a good time to visit the tax settings. 

•  Australian customers will already have an Australian GST Manual Tax configured. It is configured with pricing included in the tax (you are welcome to change this)
• Other countries will now have the opportunity to configure their Tax methods. I recommend Auto-Tax for North American customers.

You can also configure your default currency and tax method In the Admin menu → Payments Dashboard → Additional Settings. This means whenever you create a new payment, it will automatically be preconfigured with these preferences. 

How does the payment whitelist cohort feature work with multiple currencies?

Cohort members with the payment whitelist feature can enrol or register into content in any currency without payment.

I had a cohort with an Exclude GST setting; where did that go?

This cohort setting has been renamed "Sales Tax Exempt", as it will exempt cohort members from any sales taxes (not just GST).