COMMITTEES | Marketplace 

STEP 6: PAYMENT OPTIONS AND TAX LETTER 

THREE PAYMENT OPTIONS

(Important Note: All vendors donate 20% of gross sale proceeds to the Charity. Vendor MUST bring a check with them on event day to pay the charity at the end of the event.) 

Option 1: Individual Cashiering (This is most typical.)

Process for Option 1

1) Vendors each bring their own credit card processing machines and manage their own money collecting.
 
2) If they do this vendors MUST run a credit card report on their hand held credit card device at the end of the event, and provide this receipt to the Charity, along with the check for 20% of gross sales

Pros of vendors doing their own cashiering:

It's sooo much easier.

They have to deal with sales tax reporting and filing.

Cons of vendors doing their own cashiering:

The honor system isn't fool proof, but there are work arounds for this and ways to verify, such as putting a volunteer in each booth to help ring people up and/or asking for the credit card report at the end of the event.

Guests have to pull out their credit card each time they buy something.

Option 2:  Centralized Cashiering: (A “nice to have" not a "must have") 

Process for Option 2

1) Guests register credit cards at event check-in. One of our charities suggests using Square (https://squareup.com/). They send you free card swipers, which plug into iPads, iPhones, or Androids. They keep a transaction fee just like any other service, but this allows you to equip many volunteers with the ability to take payments.   

2) Purchasing items from vendors

Vendor fills out carbon receipt: one copy to vendor, one to guest, one to charity
Vendor volunteer bring item purchased and charity receipt to cashier
Cashier enters sale and prints receipt
Sales volunteers sort bag and receipt
Bags are organized by bidder # for checkout

3) Purchasing a Silent and Live Auction item

Silent and Live Auction captains brings winning bid sheets to cashier to process
Cashier prints receipts and volunteer organizes bag with new item and new receipts (includes previous sales if applicable)

4) Checking out as guest

Cashier pulls up guest’s record while volunteer pulls guest’s bag
Cashier processes express pay or credit card
Guest signs receipt saying they received purchases and charges are correct

Pros of Centralized Cashiering:

Easy for the guests because they just pull out their credit card once, at the beginning of the event.
You don't have to chase down the 20% back from the vendors. 
It’s very easy to track sales.  It keeps everyone honest and vendors can't fudge their sales. 
Capture everyone's contact info because most of them shop, while not all guests bid on auction items.

Cons of Centralized Cashiering:

A lot of logistic work!
Needs to operate smoothly, otherwise people get upset
How to deal with sales tax - need to ask your accountant about that
Charity, not the vendor, pays the credit card service charges (usally 1-3%)

Option 3:  Combination of Individual and Centralized Cashiering: 

You may, for example, choose to take a credit card# for the Live Auction, raffle, and wine pull, but have each of your vendors responsible for their own transactions.

Sales Tax: Contact your State’s Department of Revenue Regarding Sales Tax 

If you are inviting out-of-state vendors to be at your Marketplace, you may need to file specific forms with your state’s Dept of Revenue for the collection of sales tax. Because it's a small amount and the policy varies from state, the most efficient way to approach this is by talking to your local sales tax authority and getting a blanket form or policy and collecting the money from the vendor at the end of the event, then issuing the check to the state on the vendor’s behalf. You'll need to do this a few months in advance, so be sure to give yourself plenty of lead time to get your ducks in a row. 

For a Sample Tax Agreement with Vendors, click here. It will vary from state to state.

Vendor Tax Donation Letter: This letter serves two purposes: it thanks vendors and gives them their tax deductible document. For the Vendor Tax Agreement Letter, click here.