Item Charges - Simplified

We have updated & simplified Item Charges, with defined default charges for Clients, Consignments & Auctions. Bringing management of Charges in bulk or individually. Look & Feel has been improved, with colour coding & organising Item Charges. As well as compact listings on Client documents.

SETTINGS > System Settings > Item Charges

Item Charges

How-To Add Item Charges

At its most basic, you go to Item Charges within System Settings, click the + Add Item Charge button, & fill out the form. But the forms fields need some knowledge & thought, to make good use of. So here is your guide (take a deep breath).

Item Charges Form Fields

Form Fields Explanations

Form Field	Explanation
Name*	This is the name the Charge shows as, on all areas of the Snoofa system, as well as Client facing documents & webpages. It is a required field.
Symbol	This field can be up to 3 characters long, & is useful for referring to a Charge where the full name takes up too much space. Symbols, e.g., Greek letters Omega Ω & Delta Δ as well as special characters like ‡ or ♦ can be used. If specified the Symbol will be used to make Charge Labels, Consignment Agreements & Presale PDFs more compact. As well as referenced in Terms & Conditions.
Target*	Buyer or Vendor are your options. E.g. Buyer for Buyer's Commission. i.e., will the charge be covered by a Vendor (seller) & appear in Settlements or by a Buyer & appear in Invoices. This is a required field.
System Type	Charges can be anything, like bespoke Charges for photography. This can be left blank (-). However some Charges imply specific rules, e.g. choosing Buyer or Vendor Commission ensures only one such Charge can be applied to a lot.
Value*	A required field, it relates to the Value of a Charge. E.g., Constant: always Charge X pounds. Hammer Bound Rate: always Charge X percentage of the Hammer, & lastly Hammer Bound Table: define what to Charge, according to a sliding scale or Threshold. Table Behaviour (Hammer Bound Table Types) Thresholds, allows you to specify the Rate Charges, dependent on the final Hammer amount. E.g., if Hammer is between £0 & £100, Charge 15%. If the Hammer is between £101 & £500, Charge 10%. Therefore If Hammer was £150, Charge would be £15. Sliding Scale, allows the ability to Charge different Rates on different parts of the Hammer, according to what you specify. It then combines into a single Charge. E.g., Charge 15% on the Hammer amount between £0 & £100. But only 10% on the Hammer amount between £101 & £500. Then combine those 2 different amounts into a single Charge. Therefore if the Hammer for the above example was £150, the total single combined Charge would be £20. Due to 15% Charged on the first £100 of the Hammer (£15) & then 10% on the remaining £50 of the Hammer (£5). Waive Threshold, allows you to choose an amount that if the Hammer is below, the Charge is then waived. Known as the Waive Threshold. It also allows what it calls a Max Value, which you can set to say you want an amount capped at. This is very useful for things like Artist Resale Rights, where there is a cap on the royalties an artist can get, represented by the Max Value. More detail on this further down.
Accounting Code	These are important for External Accounting Software, e.g. XERO or QuickBooks. They are similar to tags & the information is transferred to the External Accounting Software. By default, the Snoofa System default Accounting Code is used & is suitable in most cases, but you can select another.
VAT Rate*	Used to calculate Tax Charges on Invoices, etc. They can be 0% for things such as books & Artist Resale Rights. These are managed within VAT Rates Section of System Settings.
Eligible for Margin Scheme	This determines if an Item is considered eligible to be sold under the Auctioneers Margin Scheme. If set to Yes, VAT may be displayed differently (inclusive) on documents, such as a final Invoice or Settlement. Typically Buyer & Vendor Commission is eligible for the scheme, which would mean VAT would only be applied to the Margin, so only on the Commission Charged to the Bidder or Vendor.
Is Revenue	When set to Yes, it means Revenue will be included in post auction reports. E.g. A Buyer's Premium is part of your business Revenue, but Artist Resale Rights are not, as the money is passed on to someone else.
Colour	Pick a colour for the background of your chosen Item Charge Label. This makes it easier to recognise them, by colour coding as you choose.
Text	Pick a colour for the text of your chosen Item Charge Label, to fit in with the background colour.

NOTE: Charges can only be deleted if no lots are using it. You can Archive, which will hide* it, if no longer used. But all existing Lots & documents remain unchanged.

*For archived charges to be hidden, the Item Charges filter needs set to No, for Archived.

Item Charges From Items

Item Charges can now also be managed from the Edit Item page itself. You access these via Items, within the Main Navigation menu. You can find out more about the Items page, on the Knowledge Base, Items article.

Item Charges Edit Item

Artist Resale Rights (ARR)

These were briefly mentioned above, along with Hammer Bound Tables. So here is a little more detail to expand your knowledge & enable you to do what you need. 

You have clicked + Add Item Charge & it is now time to fill in the form. In this case Artist Resale Rights (ARR) is chosen for the name of the charge. The name will be visible on Invoices.

Then add who the Charge will apply to, in this case choose Buyer.

Now for the fun & complicated part. For Artist Resale Rights, because ARR requires specific logic to work. We need to use the Hammer Bound Table Value, along with Sliding Scale Table Behaviour. This is because Thresholds, would mean a single rate applied to the Hammer Price.

INFO: In April 2024 within the UK, amounts changed from Euros to Pounds. This simplified things, no longer needing to continually update for exchange rate changes.

But in the case of ARR, the royalty is calculated based on the % of the resale value falling into tiers. E.g. ARR Charges 4% up to £50,000 & 3% for over & up to £200,000, etc. In a similar way Income Tax also uses a Sliding Scale system, to take your hard earned money.

As well as the need to Charge different Rates for different amounts, payments are (at time of writing) capped at £12,500 for a single sale of a work. Also royalties for ARR only kick in on works selling for £1,000 or more. At time of writing.

With the Snoofa, Add Item Charge Hammer Bound Table filled in. Below is how it would look.

As the image shows, the From & To lines should contain the current required amounts, with matching Rate %. Then the Waive Threshold & Max Value fields should contain the current required amounts for how much royalties kick in from (£1,000) & what royalties are capped at (£12,500). At time of writing.

NOTE: VAT Rate zero 0 as ARR exempt. Default Accounting Code should suffice. Choose No on Eligible for Margin Scheme - as VAT does not apply to royalties. Although Items can be eligible.

Once saved the new Item Charge will appear within Item Charges main page.

You will also be able to add your newly created Charge to specific Items via an Edit Item page.

And lastly for this tutorial. The newly created ARR Charge would display on Invoices similarly to the image below.

Snoofa Help Videos

You can find many helpful videos within our Knowledge Base, including this one which includes setting up the charge for Artist Resale Rights.

More How-To Guides

Item Categories - A Framework

Item Categories are like a Framework on which Items sit upon. All Items must be part of a category to exist. The Categories you create can be very broad, e.g., Furniture. Or very narrow, e.g., Pembroke Table. See more here: Item Categories - A Framework