You can track Container Deposit Scheme (CDS) schemes in Breww, such as a bottle return scheme. These schemes can be set up and managed by going to Containers → Actions & tools → Deposit schemes. In the future, internal keg deposit schemes will be possible too.
Setting up a scheme
When you create a CDS, you can choose which container types (e.g. bottles & cans) the scheme applies to, as well as the rules that the order must fit into for the scheme to apply. This allows you, for example, to only apply a scheme to customers in some countries or only to some types of customers (e.g. only to trade customers).
The cost to you
If the scheme has been mandated by a government, local authority, or similar, then there will typically be a cost to you for each container. In this case, you should make sure you enter this into the “Cost per container” box. Breww will keep track of this cost for you and will account for it within your margin reports, much like it does for beer duty and ensure your profits are not over-inflated.
The charge you make to your customers
Regardless of whether the scheme has a cost to you, you can choose to pass a charge onto your customers (or not to). There is an input box labelled as “Charge per customer”, which is used to enter the charge that you want to pass onto your customers.
There are two ways to pass this charge on to your customers. You can either bundle the charge into your product’s selling price or get Breww to automatically calculate it and add it on the order/invoice for you. If you get Breww to add it on the invoice, it will be shown below the products a bit like how a delivery charge is shown.
You may choose to pass on the charge by including it in your product’s pricing, and also want to highlight its value on the invoice. To do this, please enter the charge into the “Charge per container” box and tick the “Charge is already bundled into product pricing” box - this will show the value on its own line on the invoice, but it won’t increase the value of the order.
If the “Charge is already bundled into product pricing” box isn’t ticked, then the charge will increase the value of the order - in which case you need to enter the applicable VAT/tax rate and the accountancy account to link the value with (if you’ve integrated your accounting package).
Excluding some customers from charges, but including them in reporting
It’s possible to exclude customers/invoices from the scheme entirely using rules, but sometimes, you need to include them in the scheme, but don’t want to pass on a charge (even if you do to most customers). A good example of this is when you “sell” stock to your own taproom/bar and need to track the number of deposits taken but still want to have a zero-value invoice (for the invoice to yourself).
To solve this, once you have created a scheme, you can add customers to a section labelled as “Customers to exclude from charge but include in reporting”. Doing so will effectively switch the “Charge per container” from the usual value to zero for just these customers.
Returning container deposits to your customers
At the moment, you cannot return a deposit to a customer or track this within Breww. We have plans to add support for this functionality in the future. This will allow for returning both government-mandated schemes, as well as running your own keg deposit scheme (for example) to ensure that your customers return kegs to you once they’re empty.
Breww Trade Store orders
The Breww Trade Store will automatically pick up on applicable deposit schemes and show any charges during the online checkout process. This will show as per your settings (such as itemising out a charge bundled into a product price or adding an additional charge).
Ecommerce/POS integration orders
In the options for a CDS, you can choose if you’d like Breww to apply the scheme to orders imported from your webshop, POS, etc. If this is enabled, this will never increase the value of the order as the total price for an order is dictated by the external platform, and so regardless of your other settings, for these orders, it will operate as if you have ticked the “Charge is already bundled into product pricing” box. This is ideal as it will ensure that the charge is itemised out on the invoice (as is a legal requirement for some countries) and will ensure these sales are included in the reporting for the scheme.
Reporting
When a scheme has been enabled, it will automatically be applied to matching orders. You can run a report to view the deposits that you have taken, even if you didn’t pass a charge onto your customers.
You can view this report at Containers → Actions & tools → Deposit schemes → Reports.