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Lightning Online Point of Sale has various ways of setting up a bag fee, if required by your state or local municipality. Below is a basic and fast way to set this up to ensure you are following all applicable regulations.


Legislative Actions
State legislatures have passed or are considering several measures to reduce the prevalence of plastic bags at retail businesses and beyond.  Reducing bag use can mitigate harmful impact to oceans, rivers, lakes, forests and the wildlife that inhabit them. These legislative actions are also designed to relieve pressure on landfills and waste management.
For your Consideration
Is the bag fee taxable in your municipality? 
Please ensure you check the option ‘Non-Discountable’ to ensure this line item is never discountable.
The bag fee will display as a line item on each paper and emailed receipt so ensure it is clear.
I.E. State Required Bag Fee @ 0.05.
Assuming the fee is $ 0.05, then what is your cost?  Some municipalities are letting the retailer retain the entire amount, as others want a piece of the pie, such as $ 0.02, per bag.  This affects the setup of the item within Lightning as a ‘non-inventory’ item, specifically within the Cost & Last Cost fields.
​If your business model accepts EBT/SNAP/WIC, please note that some jurisdictions are exempting these transactions. 
​Then,  same for religious organizations, are they exempt? 
To ensure proper compliance please check with your tax advisor or local elected officials.

Lightning Set Up
Go into ‘Inventory’ Add/Edit/More, then select ‘Add.’  When adding the ‘Bag Fee’ to your inventory please select ‘Non-Inventory’ as displayed in the column below:                                                                                              

Lightning Set Up (contd.)

Create an SKU, such as 5, 05, etc., something simple which makes sense.
Enter your description, such as ‘State Required Bag Fee @ 0.05’  etc. 
The Cost/Last Cost’ should be entered, based on your level of thinking.
Examples:
- I
f your municipality charges you a fee, such as $ 0.02 per bag and allows you to charge $ 0.05, then that’s easy.  The Cost/Last Cost = $ 0.02, then the Price = $ 0.05.


- If you are allowed to keep the full fee, then how do you want this to reflect on your daily sales profitability.


  a) If you want to make this a profit center item, then the Cost/Last cost can be entered as $ 0.00 with the Price = $ 0.05.


  b) If you want the bag fee to have no reflection on your stores profitability, then the Cost/Last Cost should be $ 0.05 with the Price obviously being $ 0.05.


NOTE: 
The ‘Sales Tax’ setting as noted above is based on your state’s sales tax regulations. Please ensure the ‘Discount/Coupon’ option is un-checked. 


To apply this to the sale:


A) Key in the SKU, such as 5 <hit enter> at the Ring Sales screen.
If you are supplying three bags then use the shortcut of 3*5 <hit enter>


B) If you have a bar-code label printer, then you can print out a barcode which the clerk can quickly scan to apply the fee as displayed below: