Does MERGEPORT transmit tax information?
Why tax data is not transmitted through the integration and how POS systems should handle taxation
MERGEPORT
Last Update a month ago
Short answer
Why is that?
What does this mean for POS systems?
Best practices for handling taxes
A) Automatic matching by name or fallback article:
The POS can try to match incoming items to existing items based on their name.
If no match is found, the order can be booked to a predefined fallback item with a default tax rate.
This ensures the workflow continues smoothly, even if the applied rate is temporarily inaccurate.
B) Manual matching:
When unknown items are received, the user can manually assign them to an existing item or create a new one.
C) Automatic creation in the POS product catalog:
If the item is unknown, it can be automatically created in the POS item list with the incoming name and price.
In this case, the highest applicable tax rate should be applied by default.
At the end of the day, the POS should show a summary of newly created items so users can review and correct tax rates if necessary.
Technical background
Each order item includes an internalId, orderItemId, and posItemId.
The posItemId is the external item ID sent by the ordering platform (typically the PLU used in the POS).
Some platforms (especially self-ordering systems) support item synchronization and can load items directly from MERGEPORT.
Others, such as Lieferando, do not. In these cases, items must be maintained manually on the platform.
For more technical details, see:
Recommendation
POS systems should ensure that:
incoming items can either be matched automatically or created with standard tax rates, and
new items are reviewed regularly so that tax rates can be corrected if necessary.
This approach ensures proper taxation and compliance, even though no tax data is transmitted through the ordering platforms.