House Charge

A house charge puts all or part of a sale on the customer's house account (their A/R account). The customer pays it later, usually from a statement. This page covers how to ring a house charge, the Only Use Credit? prompt that appears when the customer has a credit on their account, and the messages you see when a charge would go over the customer's credit limit.

How to ring a house charge at the register

To charge a sale to a customer's house account:

Add the customer to the sale. The house charge tender needs a customer; without one the register shows NO CUSTOMER SELECTED.
Ring up the items.
To charge the whole balance due, leave the register search bar empty. To charge only part of it, type that amount in the search bar first (for example 2500 or 25.00 for $25.00).
Click the $ - House Charge button on the right-hand button panel. Some stores have renamed this button, for example to $ - On Account.
If the charge covers the whole balance due, the sale completes and prints a receipt with a line for the customer to sign and print their name (keep this copy) plus a copy for the customer. If it does not, tender the rest with another payment type.

To charge new purchases, the customer needs a Credit Limit above zero and a Credit Status of Active on their customer page. (A customer with a credit on their account can always use that credit, even with no credit limit.) VMX also needs the customer's full address before it allows a charge (see "House charge messages and what to do" below).

"Only Use Credit?" prompt: the customer has a credit on their house account

When you click $ - House Charge for a customer whose house account has a credit balance (the store owes them money, for example from an overpayment or a return credited to the account), the register may ask:

Only Use Credit? Customer has $[amount] A/R credit, but has a credit limit allowing them to charge portions of the remaining balance due.

The prompt has three buttons: Use Credit, Charge Balance, and Cancel.

The register shows this prompt only when all of these are true:

Nothing was typed in the register search bar before clicking $ - House Charge.
The sale's balance due is more than the customer's A/R credit.
The customer's credit limit lets them charge more than the credit alone.

If you typed an amount first, there is no prompt: the register charges the amount you typed. Some stores have this prompt turned off by VMX; there, the register always charges the full balance, within the credit limit.

Which button to pick on the "Only Use Credit?" prompt

The Only Use Credit? prompt asks one question: should this sale use up only the customer's existing credit, or should it also put new charges on their account?

Use Credit charges only the amount of the credit. The balance due drops by that amount, and the customer pays the rest another way (cash, card, check). The customer's account ends up at about zero: their credit is used and they owe nothing new. Pick Use Credit when:

The customer wants to use their credit and pay the rest today.
You are not sure the customer wants to add to their account balance.

Charge Balance charges the full balance due to the house account. The credit covers the first part, and the rest becomes a new amount the customer owes, to be paid from their statement. Pick Charge Balance when:

The customer normally charges purchases to their account and wants this whole sale on it.
The customer asks to "put it all on the account."

Cancel closes the prompt without charging anything. The sale stays open with the same balance due, so you can pick a different payment type or ask the customer first.

If you are unsure, ask the customer: "You have a $[amount] credit on your account. Do you want to use just the credit and pay the rest now, or charge the whole thing to your account?" Either answer is correct, as long as it is what the customer wants.

What happens to the account balance after Use Credit or Charge Balance

Both choices record a house charge on the customer's account. The difference is only the amount.

Example: the customer has a $40.00 credit on their house account and a $100.00 sale.

Use Credit charges $40.00 to the account. The customer pays the other $60.00 at the register. Their account balance goes from a $40.00 credit to $0.00.
Charge Balance charges $100.00 to the account. The customer pays nothing at the register. Their account balance goes from a $40.00 credit to $60.00 owed.

A house charge creates an invoice on the customer's A/R tab. The existing credit stays on the account as open credit until someone applies it to the invoice. The customer's account balance already nets the two, so the amount the customer owes is correct either way. To match the credit to the new invoice, see Fixing A/R Mistakes ("A refund went to the account and now an invoice looks unpaid") or use Reports → Accounts → Open Credits.

A house-account credit is different from Store Credit. Store credit is issued and redeemed with the Store Credit button (see Store Credit); the Only Use Credit? prompt is about credit on the customer's house (A/R) account only.

House charge over the credit limit: "The customer only has $ … available credit"

Before VMX accepts a house charge, it checks how much the customer can still charge: their Credit Limit minus what they currently owe (including deposits and charges already on this sale). The customer page shows this amount as Can Charge. When a customer with account history is on the sale and the balance due is more than they can charge, the register totals area shows a red line: Customer can only charge $[amount].

If you click $ - House Charge for more than the customer can charge, and the customer's Credit Limit Override is No, the register shows one of these messages:

The customer only has $ [amount] available credit. Using $ [amount] instead.

The register charges only the available amount. Tender the rest of the sale with another payment type.

The customer does not have any available credit and cannot charge.

The customer has no room left on their account. Take another payment type, or have a manager raise the credit limit or turn on the override (see the next section).

A few stores have a different rule set up by VMX, such as a prompt that asks whether to continue past the limit. If your register shows a different credit-limit message, contact help@vmxllc.com.

Let a customer charge past the credit limit once: Credit Limit Override

To let a customer charge more than their credit limit for one sale:

Open the customer's page (Customers tab, search, click the customer).
In the billing fields, set Credit Limit Override to Yes.
Save the customer, then ring the house charge at the register.

With Credit Limit Override set to Yes, the register accepts the full charge even if it goes over the credit limit, and the red Customer can only charge line does not show. When the house charge posts, VMX sets Credit Limit Override back to No automatically, so the override covers one sale only. To allow a higher balance long term, raise the Credit Limit instead.

Permissions and settings that affect house charges

These settings on the customer page control whether and how much a customer can charge:

Credit Limit: the most the customer may owe on their account. A customer with a credit limit of zero has no room to charge, except to use a credit already on their account.
Credit Status: Active allows charges. Hold, Charge Off, and Closed block them (see the next section).
Credit Limit Override: Yes allows one charge past the credit limit, then resets to No.
PO# Required: when Yes, the register asks for a PO number before it accepts a house charge.

These employee permissions (set on Admin → Permissions, see Permissions) control who can change those settings:

Change Credit Limit: needed to change Credit Limit, Credit Status, Credit Limit Override, and Reactivate When Current on a customer page.
Open A/R Account: needed to set up credit on a customer who has no credit limit yet.

Without the permission, those fields are grayed out on the customer page.

House charge messages and what to do

These messages can appear when you click $ - House Charge:

NO CUSTOMER SELECTED: add the customer to the sale first.
Customer is on credit hold.: the customer's Credit Status is Hold. Take another payment type, or have someone with the Change Credit Limit permission set the status back to Active.
Customer account closed. or Customer account is closed.: the Credit Status is Closed or Charge Off. The account cannot take new charges.
Need to get customer address before they can charge. Press OK to enter, then tender again.: the customer's address, city, state, or ZIP is missing. Click OK, fill in the address on the customer page, return to the register, and click $ - House Charge again.
PO # required:: this customer requires a PO number on every charge. Type the customer's PO number. Leaving it blank stops the charge with PO# REQUIRED.
Only Use Credit?: the customer has a credit on their account. See "Which button to pick on the 'Only Use Credit?' prompt" above.
The customer only has $ … available credit. Using $ … instead.: the charge was more than the customer's credit limit allows. See "House charge over the credit limit" above.