Book ticket sales
In this article, we explain how you can book tickets.
VAT is payable at the time of sale. Turnover is booked on the day of the event. In this guide you will find the details and possible procedures.
In this article
We recommend that you check the booking of tickets with your accounting department and record the most important steps in a document.
Online ticket sales
Preparing your bookkeeping
Enter the accounts below in your accounting software.
Pass-through account for tickets
Create an account called Tickets. This is a vendor account with VAT. If the events or your company is not liable for VAT, you do not need to consider VAT.
Debtor account for each means of payment online
Debtor account for each means of payment. Below is a list of possible accounts:
- Online credit cards (VISA and MasterCard)
- Online AMEX
- E-Payment by PostFinance
- PayPal
- etc.
If you work with the e-guma voucher system, we recommend that you use the same accounts for online payment methods.
Booking sold tickets
In the e-guma ticket system, for example, you can create a daily or monthly sales report. Book the online ticket sales for each payment method on the tickets account.
Depending on the configuration of your e-guma backend, the names of the payment methods may differ slightly.
In this example, you would make the following bookings:
| DEBIT | CREDIT | AMOUNT | BOOKING TEXT | REMARK |
| Online credit cards (VISA and MasterCard) | Tickets | 100.- | Ticket sales with VISA | As Visa and MasterCard payments are processed by the same acquirer, you can book the payments to the same account. |
| Voucher | Tickets | 100.- | Ticket sales with voucher | Redemption of vouchers issued via the e-guma voucher system. The account Voucher is the same as the one you use when booking a voucher sale. |
| Online credit cards (VISA and MasterCard) | Tickets | 200.- | Ticket sales with MasterCard | Same account as for VISA |
| E-Payment by PostFinance | Tickets | 100.- | Ticket sales with Postcard |
If the tickets you sell are subject to VAT and you have stored the account Ticket with a tax code, your accounting software should have made an additional entry to the VAT account for each booking.
Booking the cash flow of online ticket sales
Once you receive the money from the various payment processors, you can book the cash flow. The duration and interval of the payout varies depending on the means of payment.
An example of the payout of credit card payments:
| DEBIT | CREDIT | AMOUNT | BOOKING TEXT | REMARK |
| Bank | Online credit cards (VISA and MasterCard) | 98.50 | Crediting credit card payments | The credit card acquirer deducts the fees at the time of the transfer. In this example we assume that a fee of 1.5% is charged for credit card payments. In the contract with the acquirer you can specify to which bank account the credit should be transferred. |
| Fees | Online credit cards (VISA and MasterCard) | 1.50 | Fees for credit card payments |
An example of the payment of Online PostFinance payments:
| DEBIT | CREDIT | AMOUNT | BOOKING TEXT | REMARK |
| Post | E-Payment by PostFinance | 100.- | Credited E-Payment | PostFinance credits the full amount The fees are debited separately. |
| Fees | Post | 1.90 | Fees for payment with PostFinance E-Payment |
On the day of the event
The actual turnover is booked on the day of the event. The booking procedure varies according to the type of event. It is important that VAT is not charged a second time.
Here are two examples.
Example “Candlelight Dinner”
Very important! Services (e.g. candlelight dinner) that have already been paid for using a ticket must under no circumstances be visible on the receipt, as otherwise the input tax could be deducted a second time (1st time on the ticket sale).
- The item Candlelight Dinner (incl. VAT) is tapped on a separate invoice at the checkout. Alternatively, the Candlelight Dinner can be marked on the same invoice as the additional consumptions (e.g. drinks) and split off before payment. The Candlelight Dinner is settled with a new payment method called Ticket.
- When transferring the restaurant turnover to the accounting system (for example on a monthly basis), the VAT incurred when typing in the cash register is cancelled when posting the payment type Ticket to the accounts payable account Tickets.
Reservation - payment at the venue
If you issue tickets with the payment method Reservation - Payment at the venue, you can tap the Candlelight Dinner as you normally would on the guest's bill. The Ticket payment method must not be used.
No-Shows
If guests who fail to show up do not receive a refund, you can type all no-show tickets of the evening on one invoice and use the payment method Ticket.
Example “Concert”
For an event like this, you can make the booking directly in your accounting software. To do this, post the Tickets account to a revenue account. It is important that no VAT is charged, as this has already been settled at the time of sale.