Acquiring in retail: connection, requirements for sole proprietors and accounting

Acquiring is a service that allows a business to accept payments by bank cards and other cashless methods (via a POS terminal, smartphone, or online).

In simple terms: when a customer pays by card and the money is credited to the entrepreneur’s account, that is acquiring. A bank or payment company ensures the terminal operation, communication with the customer’s bank, and funds settlement, and the business pays a commission for this.

Below is detailed information about acquiring, its specifics for a Sole Proprietorship, and how to account for it in the Torgsoft software suite.

1. Acquiring: what it is, how it works, and why you need it

The main advantage of integrated acquiring is the automatic transfer of the exact amount due from the POS software to the bank terminal. This eliminates manual entry errors.

How it works together with an accounting system:

1. The cashier creates a receipt in the program and selects the payment method «Cashless».

2. The amount is automatically sent to the POS terminal.

3. The customer taps a card or gadget.

4. The bank authorizes the payment, and the terminal sends a successful transaction signal back to the program.

5. The program records the sale, closes the receipt, and prints a fiscal receipt with payment details.

6. Funds are credited to the entrepreneur’s settlement account (usually on the next banking day) minus the acquiring fee.

Why acquiring is needed:

• Sales growth. Customers buy more often when they are not limited by the amount of cash in their wallet.

• Security and less cash handling. Reducing cash turnover lowers the risks of cashier errors (incorrect change), accepting counterfeit banknotes, and theft.

• Transparent refunds. A refund is processed back to the customer’s card via the terminal using a unique transaction number (RRN), which is recorded in the system.

• Mobility. There are solutions such as «Terminal in a smartphone» (for example, integration with PrivatBank’s «Terminal» app or Tap to Pay) that allow you to accept payments without a physical POS terminal, using only an NFC-enabled smartphone.

2.  Acquiring for Sole Proprietorship: legal requirements

For Sole Proprietorships, the use of acquiring is regulated by law and has certain specifics.

Mandatory implementation deadlines:

• From January 1, 2025: POS terminals are mandatory for retail in settlements with a population of less than 5,000 people.

• From January 1, 2026: all Sole Proprietorships that use ECR/e-ECR must provide the option of cashless payment, regardless of population size.

• Exception: Sole Proprietorships in group 1 (not required to use ECR) and merchants operating in active combat zones (during martial law + 3 months after it ends).

Liability (Fines under Article 163-15 of the Code of Ukraine on Administrative Offenses): refusing a customer the option to pay by card or the absence of a terminal entails an administrative fine:

• From UAH 1,700 to UAH 3,400 — for the first violation.

• From UAH 8,500 to UAH 17,000 — for a repeated violation within a year.

Multi-merchant (working with multiple Sole Proprietorships). The multi-merchant function allows one physical terminal to serve multiple Sole Proprietorships. Torgsoft automatically switches the terminal to the required merchant account depending on whose goods are in the receipt, or allows the cashier to choose the funds recipient manually.

3. Acquiring accounting in Torgsoft

To automate this process in Torgsoft, the additional option «Connecting a bank payment terminal» is used. Please note that this option is often purchased as a one-year subscription.

Accounting setup:

1. Protocols: Torgsoft supports terminals using the following protocols: BPOS, PosApi, WebSocket/JSON, SSI, InpasEcrCom. Check with your bank whether your terminal supports one of these protocols.

2. Financial accounting of the fee. In the settlement account settings, set the acquiring fee percentage. For each sale, the program automatically calculates the amount the bank withholds as a fee and posts it to the expense item «Acquiring». This helps you see the actual net profit.

3. Bank fee. In the settlement account settings (Settings - Retail chain - Settlement account), you can specify the acquiring percentage and the acquiring amount. This allows the program to automatically calculate the bank service cost for each transaction.

4. Bank statements. When importing statements (for example, via integration with Privat24 or Monobank), the program can automatically create a financial document for the acquiring fee amount if the setting «Account for acquiring when creating a payment» is enabled.

Display on the receipt (e-ECR). If you use an software ECR (e-ECR) together with a terminal and the additional option Connecting a bank payment terminal, Torgsoft automatically transmits terminal data (device identifier, payment system, authorization code, RRN) to the fiscal receipt. This is a mandatory legal requirement for payment identification. To do this, enable the option «Transmit information about payment by the bank operator» in the e-ECR settings.

How it looks in reports: funds received via the terminal are posted not to «Cash» (cash), but to a virtual «Settlement account» in the program. In reports (for example, «Trade report» or «Period analysis»), you will see cash sales totals and cashless receipts totals separately.